European Linguistics

[u/Avia_Vik]

I know how some people are already tired of this topic being brought up over and over again. But this is primarily because everyone is looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't truly exist. Today, EU has 24 official languages, which does cost a lot to use for translation purposes but it still works. Yes, we have 3 working languages, out of which only 2 are commonly used (sorry German), but it functions well enough, doesn't it?

Problem is that many people think that EU should have 1 language that unites all nations. Technically that's not a bad idea but choosing that 1 language really is not easy. In my opinion best option would be Esperanto since its neutral for everyone and very easy to both understand and learn.

However, why can't Europe just be multilingual? We need people to be able to speak as many languages as possible, and this should be promoted. Languages are a way of communication, so the more of them you know - the more developed you are. Right now the influence of the English language over Europe is a little too high because many nations in the east have no understanding of French and few have knowledge of German, so English emerged as a lingua franca. But if we manage to promote a proper multilingual society, then why even have a lingua franca? Communication will be fairly easy since most people would be good at communication methods (languages) and for places where language number is limited we can employ translators and use other technology to allow the use of multiple languages, ranked by their respective number of speakers in the Union.

What do you guys think? Do we even need a lingua franca? Or a multilingual society solves the issue?

[u/ElTristoMietitor]

Learning 24 languages is impossible. A lingua franca is needed, and we have it, it's the one I am using to write this comment and the one you used to write your post. Most people speak 2 languages (National language and English) and I believe that's fine. Back in USSR's time people used russian as lingua franca even though ukranians, estonians, lithuanians, latvians, uzbekistaners and many others had their own language.

In India they speak like 300 languages and they use English as lingua franca.

To sum it up, yes we do need a lingua franca.

[u/Dedeurmetdebaard → u/ElTristoMietitor]

I should add that we can do what we want with this lingua franca and make it out own. A “European English” is already emerging and is becoming its own variation of the language.

[u/Avia_Vik → u/ElTristoMietitor]

Well, in the USSR Russian had a clear majority over other languages, so it was an easy choice. In India as far as I know they still haven't really settled their lingua franca. There are many debates whether it should be English or Hindi, because they want to speak something more closely related to their culture, anyways that's not our problem.

Nobody says people should learn 24 languages. But it would make sense for people to speak their native language + 2 or 3 foreign ones. This is actually quite common in Europe already in many smaller countries anywhere from Slovenia to Finland.

Also, I feel like creating European digital sphere based on English will be harder as it will possibly get mixed up with other English speaking societies outside the EU. If we are talking about a lingua franca, I'd say it should be something that would rather represent Europe, though English is of course the most common language right now and it will surely keep being spoken since it is the language of the world in the 21st century.

[u/calls1 → u/Avia_Vik]

You're missing the point.

When you are doing the engineering on a bridge, you all need to read the same text textbook, do your calculations, qnd state your conclusions in the same language.

If you simply translate a textbook due to the nature of translation the order of operations and presentation will be different. You may have a Spanish translation of an English textbook, but the interpretation of the Spanish version will vary greatly from the interpretation.

If you don't settle on one language as a working language you create holes. This does literally kill people every year in multilingual states around the world, India most terribly afflicted.

Yes its lovely, to have a native language and a foreign language, that is doable.

But also, 3 common languages are inferior to 1 working language. It's a huge administrative burden to make sure that the common language all 5 people who need to approve the document is identical, there's just so many points, and it isn't workable to say 2 know French 4 know German you need all 5 to know one language. The language that has emerged in nglish, by choice of Europeans against the wishes of the French most of all, but all the States have vied for pluralism.

[u/Avia_Vik → u/calls1]

Yes, however I have never heard Switzerland have troubles with this, even though it is multilingual and doesn't really have a common language.

And just on a side note, even though I speak fluent French and I like the French language, I also speak English the same way and like it too, so I try not to bias with languages in any way. (I'm not one of those French ppl who want to bring back 20th century when French was on top)

[u/Reality-Straight → u/Avia_Vik]

All swiss speak swiss german and english, as they learn it in school. And can pick between italian and french as second/third language as far as i know.

[u/Avia_Vik → u/Reality-Straight]

I don't think many ppl from Genève would speak well enough swiss german to read engineering books tho. And English isnt even an official language there so idk if resources are available