Happy 4th of July

It’s the 4th of July, US Independence! So what can I write about that has to do with bilingualism? The US Constitution of course. Did you know that the Constitution was translated to Dutch in 1788? After the Declaration of Indepedence in 1776 and the end of the revolutionary war in 1781, the Constitution was written to establish the form of the US federal government. In order to adopt the Constitution, a majority of states had to approve– or ratify the document. There was a large Dutch population in the state of New York, so in order for the population to understand the language of the Constitution, it was translated to Dutch. This translation is credited for convincing the people of New York to join the US.

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