Common European Language:

Practical Solution

by Al Vickers

al_vickers@yahoo.com

The concept of common European language is important from both a theoretical and a practical point of view.

Theoretically, common language is the key to answering many questions about effective communication in the European Union, but from a practical viewpoint, there is still no satisfactory solution of the problem.

It Was Already

There is nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it may be said,

"Look, this is new?"

It was already, in the ages which were before us.

Ecclesiastes

About 8,000 - 5,000 years ago, the Europeans spoke a common tongue named Proto-Indo-European.

Beginning around 3,000 BC the Indo-Europeans abandoned their homeland, the steppe zone north of the Black Sea, and migrated into a variety of directions. In the course of the ages their common tongue developed into the modern Indo-European language family.

Now, with establishing of the EU, the Europeans should gather together their tongue patrimony and speak again a common language alongside their national languages.

The most often proposed options for solving of the ever increasing language and communication problems in the European Union are:

1. All languages in the EU to be official - a nonworking idea. Now the member states are 25, in 2007 they will be 27, and in the near future - 30 plus.

2. Neutral language based on Latin or Esperanto, or on other planned or dead language to become common tongue. I find hard to believe that the EU institutions would seriously discuss such highly unrealistic idea.

3. One or two official languages of the EU to become common languages - a realistic, but very discriminative approach. The use of a national language as a common tongue would provoke political, cultural and language jealousy, and the native speakers would be at an unfair advantage. The main entrants are English, and French as some kind of balancer.

The attempts to make all languages working languages of the EU will result imposing the American English which is now the unofficial common tongue of the Europeans. Already some 70% of the communications between the European Institutions, and between the Institutions and the outside world now take place in English.

The advantages of English are many. The American English is the most spoken big language in the world. The lingua franca of the Internet is English too. In Europe over 90% of all schools and all universities teach English. 65% of young non-UK Europeans claim to speak English "reasonably well". The American English is the most important second language in the world.

But imposing English as a common European language is unacceptable for the most member states for many reasons; it would be the language of the minority imposed on the majority of the European citizens. German is the language spoken on a daily basis by more Europeans than any other.

A neutral language based on a few popular languages would be a good choice.

The vocabulary of Modern English is approximately half Germanic and half Romance (Italian, Old French, Brittonic and Latin) plus Old Norse and Classical Greek. Such vocabulary makes English a good candidate.

The relatively simple grammar of English is a plus too.

But the English spelling is notoriously difficult and illogical; it takes much longer to learn than more regular systems. Millions native speakers are functionally illiterate - around 7 million British adults and 40 million US adults.

This obviously contradicts important objectives of the member states: "making Europe the most competitive knowledge-based society in the world," "free movement of knowledge, researchers and technology," etc.

But common European language based of reformed English - simplified spelling and grammar - would be an excellent choice. There is NO OTHER common language which could be learned more easily and quickly by the Europeans. This is the shortest and the easiest way to solve the communication and tongue problem.

Here is one point to clarify: the intention of this proposal is not to reform English language for the native speakers in UK, USA, Australia, etc, but an effort to find the easiest and most effective way to create a common European language; a common Europe with common working language along with the official national languages. The native speakers of English will continue to use their traditional pronunciation, spelling and writing. That way English will be one of the national languages of Europe, just like French, German, Spanish, etc.

An ideal spelling system matches letters to speech sounds.

There are 26 letters in the Latin alphabet, but over 40 sounds (phonemes) in the English language. Strictly phonemic systems (only one symbol for each English sound) have a few alternatives: using an entirely new alphabet, adding diacritics, treating case as significant or adding symbols. These systems look very strange, and are hard to read.

The pragmatic spelling have to be simple and easy to read, using only the existing Latin alphabet, avoiding diacritics and additional symbols.

The spelling could be simplified by merging similar phonemes. That way the number of the phonemes could be reduced. An additional method is the slight change of the pronunciation of some of the words. That wouldn't be a problem because there is no one standard English pronunciation and the words are pronounced differently all over Britain, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The following examples demonstrate the development of the English language and the proposed spelling system.

Old English (c.1000) sample - New Testament, Matthew:

Fæder ure þuþe eart on heofonum

si þin nama gehalgod tobecume þin rice gewurþe þin willa

on eorðan swa swa on heofonum

urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dæg

and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum

and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele soþlice.

Modern English sample - New Testament, Matthew:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

May your kingdom come,

May your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil one,

for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

(number of characters with spaces - 337)

Sample of the proposed European language spelling - New Testament, Matthew:

Auwr fadwr in hevwn, haloud bi iuwr neim,

Mei iuwr kingdwm kam,

Mei iuwr uil bi dan, az in hevwn, sou on wrf.

Giv ws tudei auwr deili bred,

Ent forgive ws auwr debts, az ui olsou hav forgivwn auwr debtwrs.

Ent liid ws not intu tempteishwn, bwt delivwr ws from ivwl uwn,

for iuwrs iz dw kingdwm ent dw pauwr ent dw glori forevwr. Amen.

(number of characters with spaces - 328)

Creating Euro dictionary requires a lot of work, but much of it would be done by computers, significantly reducing expenses and time.

Simple software could convert texts from traditionl orthography to Euro, and vice versa. That way native English speakers could easily use Euro language, and Euro speakers could convert English texts into Euro language.

A spell checker will easily correct the initial mistakes by using the European language.

The massive usage of Euro as working language by over 500 million native speakers of the European national languages undoubtedly will change it. Words and phrases of the national languages will find their way into the Euro. Languages have always grown and adapted when coming into contact with diverse cultures.

Euro will develop its own vocabulary and grammar, and will become different language, but still related to UK and American English.

The Europeans could use three languages in education: first language - the mother tongue, second language - the proposed European, third - a foreign language of some of the member states, or Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Mandarin (called often Chinese), etc, or some of the great dead languages like Latin and Ancient Greek.

The terms "official language" and "working language" are often confused. The European national languages should remain official languages of EU, and the proposed European tongue could be the working language of the union.

The EU citizens should have the right to address their correspondence to an official body or service of the European Union in their national tongue and to receive answer in the same language.

All official decisions taken by the European Union (laws, regulations, directives, recommendations, court rules), important discussions, etc. should be published in the official languages and in the common tongue of the Union.

This proposal for common European language is the most practical and effective solution of the communication and language problem in the EU because it:

· guarantees linguistic, political and cultural diversity, all official national languages and citizens are treated in the same way;

· provides efficiency in communication and education;

· has strictly phonetic spelling and simple grammar;

· is the fastest, easiest and inexpensive way to solve the language and communication problem;

· makes the European language a serious candidate for global language;

· ensures easy and quick learning of English because they would be related;

· guarantees equality by communication and gives no advantages of native speakers;

· reduces the translation costs

· facilitates the political and cultural cohesion of the European Union.

Time For Everything

Der iz taim for evrifing,

w taim tu tiwr daun ent taim tu bild wp,

w taim tu sketwr stouns ent a taim tu gedwr dem.

Ekliziastiz

Now is time for creating and adopting a common European language. To be great, now big Europe needs its own big language.

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Published by Al Vickers © Copyright 2004

14.04.2004

http://eulanguage.tripod.com