European Common Language - The Poll

What is your choice for a single European language?

  • English (top 10 world languages)

    Votes: 32 47.8%

  • Spanish (top 10 world languages)

    Votes: 1 1.5%

  • Portuguese (top 10 world languages)

    Votes: 1 1.5%

  • Latin

    Votes: 12 17.9%

  • Esperanto

    Votes: 4 6.0%

  • German

    Votes: 3 4.5%

  • French

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • A new hybrid

    Votes: 14 20.9%
  • Total voters
    67
To be english neologism, it must have english roots, and must be organic part of this language.
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To say more clear:

From the dying of words "tele" and "vision" together with latin/greek language, somewhere in the late ancient times....

UNTIL.....

Reviving of these words in the form of "television",,,

There are nearly 2 thousands years...

...it is not organic part of english, or another language.
 
The EU is a liberal farce

"The decision to accord Irish full status is likely to stoke fierce passions within an EU that already has 20 recognised languages, 380 language permutations and an annual interpreting and translation bill of €1bn."

see link below:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...ends-83641bn-on-language-services-407991.html

It is things like this that make the EU look like a bit of a joke, until the issues of a common langauge is agreed upon it will remain a farce. Everyone is being to liberal and inclusive, to open the door to every minor tongue in Europe is completely unpractical and unnecissary.

They should make it manditory to speak english in the parliament if you can't or wont speak it then you can keep your mouth shut, and we can spend the 1bn on making people lives better.
 
edao said:
"The decision to accord Irish full status is likely to stoke fierce passions within an EU that already has 20 recognised languages, 380 language permutations and an annual interpreting and translation bill of €1bn."

see link below:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...ends-83641bn-on-language-services-407991.html

It is things like this that make the EU look like a bit of a joke, until the issues of a common langauge is agreed upon it will remain a farce. Everyone is being to liberal and inclusive, to open the door to every minor tongue in Europe is completely unpractical and unnecissary.

They should make it manditory to speak english in the parliament if you can't or wont speak it then you can keep your mouth shut, and we can spend the 1bn on making people lives better.
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I don't see the problem. The article says that the EU is likely to reject Irish Gaelic as an official language. The 20 official languages are necessary. Even if only 10 million people speak Greek or Hungarian or Czech or Portuguese, many of these speakers do not have a sufficient level in another language to be able to understand all the legal texts. It is essential that all Europeans be able to understand their own legislations. Irish Gaelic will be rejected because about everybody can speak English well in Ireland. Those who speak Gaelic also speak English (but not vice versa).

Most of the daily business in the EU institutions is conducted in one of the three working languages : English, French or German. The other 17 official languages are not used in meetings, emails, and so on. Being official means that important documents and laws have to be translated in each of them. They are not working languages.

The EU is far from a farce. Everything is well thought of and well organised. It's probably more efficient than many national administrations.
 
Irish became an official working language of the EU on 1st January 2007, This followed a unanimous decision on 13th of June 2005 by EU foreign ministers that Irish would be made the 21st official language of the EU. However, a derogation stipulates that not all documents have to be translated into Irish as is the case with the other official languages.

This is one of the main strengths of the EU if you ask me, you give up some of your freedoms/independence but you are rewarded with greater influence in a larger forum.

Why do you feel so strongly that everyone should speak the one language "English" in parliament edao? If its that essential we all speak the same language why did you kick up quiet so big a fuss back in the forties, we could all be speaking German now:petrified:

So I say Viva le difference!

"Go n-eiri an bothar leat.
Go raibh coir na gaoithe i gconai leat.
Go dtaitni an ghrian go bog blath ar do chlar eadain,
go dtite an bhaisteach go bog min ar do ghoirt.
Agus go gcasfar le cheile sinn aris,
go gcoinni Dia i mbois a laimhe thu."
 
As a native English speaker, I would prefer Esperanto as the future global language :)
Communciation should be for everyone, not just for an educational or political elite; that is how English is used at the moment :annoyed:
 
Starship said:
Why do you feel so strongly that everyone should speak the one language "English" in parliament edao? If its that essential we all speak the same language why did you kick up quiet so big a fuss back in the forties, we could all be speaking German now
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In my opinion the benefits on a united Europe with all people able to freely communicate, work, travel and exchange all aspects of their culture far out weigh any romantic notions of the diversity of language.

Most peoples objections stem from insecurities about their own identity, who am I if I am born in France, live in France all my life and yet I dont speak French. Are they less French, or German if they adopt a unifying language? The Scots Irish and Welsh all speak English does it make us some kind of generic culture, not really.

I think people are still to tribal:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
Charles Darwin[/FONT]

I feel if Europe is to truly take the world by the horns and stop the Americans making an arse of it we need to put medieval ideas of nationalism behind us and unite as Europeans. Lets not fear change:petrified:!

Imagine a room full of people who all speak their own different language, you set them a task to work together. Then compare their results with a room full of people who all speak the same language, there is no doubt who will be more productive. (I mean that in a metaphorical sense, not literally :grin:)
 
Ok I take your point on the practicalities of one language for doing business, tower of Babel and all. But if you take the long view (and hope) this EU project is in for the long haul then I believe such practicalities will sort themselves out, maybe it will be English as a successful international language, maybe German as the economic power house of Europe but in the short term we should encourage multilingualism in our citizens.

I think Britain and Ireland have perhaps the worst track record in bringing up our kids with more than one language. In Ireland the most successful people speak Irish and English and learning a second language at an early age makes learning a third or fourth a lot easier.

http://[URL="http://www.csmonitor.com/world/europe/2010/0126/is-once-maligned-irish-language"]www.csmonitor.com/world/europe/2010/0126/is-once-maligned-irish-language[/URL]

Water will always find its own course and I think the language for doing business will in the end be decided by business men/women. But for the Union to continue forward I think it is essential we bring as many of the people with us as we go and if that means spending money on minority languages then so be it, its good for democracy and its good for the Union.
 
I think all that is utopia.

We had Roman Empire. It did'nt create united Europe, but it divided more than it was divided.

In Europe was only Celtic, Italic, and Balkanic cultures, then after fall of Empire, a lot of new languages were born Spanish, Portuguese, French, Provans, Galician, Italian, Sardinian, Crosican, Retoroman, Vlach, Romanian etc..

Diferentiation is a law of nature. We can not stop it. We are different we must be so.

And all nations have a culture, which is linked to their language. Then the assimilation will destroy all these cultures, and new bastard cultures will be created.
 
Toubon Law

"Broadcasted musical works are subject to quota rules under a related law whereby a minimum percentage of the songs on radio and television must be in the French language."

The Toubon Law (full name: law 94-665 of 4 August 1994 relating to usage of the French language), is a law of the French government mandating the use of the French language in official government publications, in all advertisements, in all workplaces, in commercial contracts, in some other commercial communication contexts, in all government-financed schools, and some other contexts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toubon_Law

It would be interesting to know if other countries in Europe have similar laws designed to protect their language? It seems pretty desperate to me to be making laws dictating what percentage of songs have to be in French. Surely this kind of approach goes agaisnt the diversity of language? How can language develop naturally when there are artificial laws governing its dominance.

Sounds like the French are scared :petrified: of change!
 
Why bother creating a new hybrid when we've gotten so far with English.
People need to stop seeing it as an attack on their own languages but a way for all humans to communicate with one another.
 
Neander said:
Latin language. It is fair for all, because no one nation is privileged in that case.
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I agree. It would be neutral and especially good for documentation.

The rivalry between speakers of English, French and Spanish would upset European unity.
 
Spanish or Castilian is an Iberian Romance language group. It is one of the six official UN languages ​​and, after Mandarin Chinese is the language most spoken in the world by the number of people who are native speakers. It is also an official language in several major international political and economic organizations (EU, AU, OAS, OEI, NAFTA, UNASUR, Caricom, and the Antarctic Treaty, among others). It is spoken as a first and second language more than 450 million and more than 500 million people if you count those who have learned as a foreign language can be the third most spoken language by total speakers. On the other hand, Spanish is the second most studied language in the world after English, with more than 20 million students, while other sources state that exceed the 46 million students in 90 countries, and the third language most used on the Internet (7.8% of total).

Choose the Spanish language, the second most spoken language in the world. Obviously nothing is forever and the U.S. Empire someday will end, that is so, I do not know how or in what form, but these things happen. Spanish is in emerging countries and of course the world will not speak Mandarin to be understood, however, Spanish is a language familiar to speakers of languages ​​of Latin origin, and easy to learn for the Germanic peoples who, like the Arabs they're good with languages. The Frenchman had its golden age, but now has lost many integers must be exhausting to speak that language and is like being in a black and white film of Edith Piaf. I think that Spanish is the future, and may have been installed in Europe if we had had more luck, The Netherlands, The Navy Imbencible, is the destination, and end up happening.
 
English, since it's the easiest to learn
 
That's right, plus it's already widely spread, most popular, and lingua franca in science, business, finance, songs, movies. It is spreading naturally by a need of communication in Global Village, without one organization controlling it and spending billions of taxpayers money. It is amazing how beautiful it works without even encouraging it, because it is needed.
Now, why would someone want to construct artificial language, devoid of cultural contexts and need for it, argue with different governments for decades to implement it, then spend billions of dollars to teach it around the world, to finally after 100 years be in position where english is right now?
This is nuts!

By all means, don't take my word for it. Look at esperanto,...it is dead, and it was always dead with no hops. It is only learned by people with great memory and a lot of time on their hands. Please, give me a brake!
 
After Prime Minister David Cameron's antics I don't see a mad continental rush to have English as the official EU language.
 
i'd like it to be the language of the vinca :p or the proto indo european maybe
 
Starship said:
Ok I take your point on the practicalities of one language for doing business, tower of Babel and all. But if you take the long view (and hope) this EU project is in for the long haul then I believe such practicalities will sort themselves out, maybe it will be English as a successful international language, maybe German as the economic power house of Europe but in the short term we should encourage multilingualism in our citizens.

I think Britain and Ireland have perhaps the worst track record in bringing up our kids with more than one language. In Ireland the most successful people speak Irish and English and learning a second language at an early age makes learning a third or fourth a lot easier.

http://[URL="http://www.csmonitor.com/world/europe/2010/0126/is-once-maligned-irish-language"]www.csmonitor.com/world/europe/2010/0126/is-once-maligned-irish-language[/URL]

Water will always find its own course and I think the language for doing business will in the end be decided by business men/women. But for the Union to continue forward I think it is essential we bring as many of the people with us as we go and if that means spending money on minority languages then so be it, its good for democracy and its good for the Union.
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I agree with you Starship, Britain and Ireland do not do enough to teach languages. When I was at school we had the choice to take French language (no other was offered..just French) but it was only at the expense of dropping another subject. I chose French and had to opt out of science to do so. Big mistake I now find as languages I can teach myself at home..science not so much so!!
 
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