Jones wrote: > It is amazing that we don't speak the mother-tongue here in the > States - since if you were to count the Scots and Irish separately > from the English (and you damn well better) then the largest ethic > population in the USA is German - not English. Almost as many here > as over there, but the 'Schmidt's are often 'Smiths' and the > 'Steins' are 'Stones,' etc. thanks to Ellis Island and old > prejudices !
Not so amazing. WWI engendered so much anti-German feeling in both the U.S. and Britain that people in both countries anglicized their names and stopped speaking German even at home. For example, the British royal family changed their name from Saxe-Coburg to Windsor. In my case, the Schulzes became the Fosters. Kind of strange, if you think about it, since Ben Franklin suggested that German become the official language of the United States and the U.S. and the rest of the world would have been much better off with no American participation in WWI. Just some irrelevant historical musings. M. _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!
