Elgin, Suzette Haden. "Hush My Mouth"
Divergence: 1863 CE
What if: The North refused to enlist black soldiers during the Civil War, and blacks ejected whites from the South after devastating epidemics.
Summary: Blacks have found that their only common language is the oppressor's English. Some refuse to speak until a better tongue is found.
Published: In Alternative Histories: Eleven Stories of the World as It Might Have Been (eds. Charles G. Waugh and Martin H. Greenberg), q.v.; and The Mammoth Book of Alternate Histories (eds. Ian Watson and Ian Whates), q.v.
Original in: English.
Translation: German by Sylvia Brecht-Pukallus as "Schweig stille, Mund!", in Schöne verkehrte Welt: Phantastische Geschichten zur Geschichte (ed. René Oth), q.v.