GLOBALISATION: English to marginalize European Languages

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'Europe's language problem is well on its way to solving itself.' writes Abram de Swaan in an article published in the Daily Times. De Swaan is a distinguished research professor at the University of Amsterdam, chairman of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, director of the Academia Europea de Yuste, and author of Words of the World; the Global Language System - and he knows what he's talking about.

Despite the formal equality of official languages in the EU, to which recently minority language Irish ascended, English makes progress to overcome the continent's linguistic diversity. The 'stampede towards English that is underway', as de Swaan metaphorically puts it, is also affecting EU institutions and organisations - the protectionists of Europe's polyglot policies. 'Fewer languages are used in the EU's smokeless backrooms when meetings are less formal and the participants not all that prestigious. When EU officials meet together or draft internal documents, they use only the "working languages": French and, more often, English. German, the EU's most widely spoken native language, hardly makes a dent.'

English clearly is making it into professional languages throughout Europe - and has been doing so for years. Companies are offering jobs for "key account managers" or "sales managers" in national news paper instead of their national language equivalents. The German weekly "Wirtschaftwoche" recently published an article indicating that the German Research Foundation is considering switching to English as their official language for the application process.

According to the Daily Times article, nine out of ten school children learn English today - indicating a step towards a common language of communication among the EU's citizens. Yet, English economists complain about British student's reluctance to learn modern languages. 'English will not so easily marginalize European languages, even after a large majority of the population has learnt it,' de Swan concludes. 'But English and national languages can co-exist only if the state protects the indigenous language and citizens do not allow English to take over all prestigious domains.'

Sources: Daily Times, Wirtschaftswoche

Related: Britain's pupils turning backs on languages, Economy worried