Another of Maryland's English-speaking towns poised (from the French) to go English-only

[Ronald Kephart]

On 6/19/08 5:33 PM, "Dennis Baron" <debaron at illinois.edu> wrote:

> While it may seem premature of the mayor to equate America with the universe
> (the Klingons aren¹t about to give up their language, not without a fight),
> it¹s clear that Thurmont has always conducted its municipal affairs in English
> because almost nobody in town speaks anything else.

Well, actually, I grew up not too far from Thurmont. The interesting thing
is that many of us have German names (Kephart, etc.). Around two centuries
ago, German was an important if not the majority language in the area (you
can still see old tombstones with ³Hier lagt...² on them). And yet, somehow,
the place turned out OK without anything being declared the ³official²
language....

Ron


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