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EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

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Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#21

Post by s_dev »

Jonnax wrote: post #3

This doesn't really make sense. American English which they propose adopting is removes more of the European roots of words. For example removing the 'U' from words like Colour. Ireland is also an English speaking country in the EU. And I don't know how much of the sentiment of "Let's Americanise!" Would be popular.

I'd be in favor of Hiberno English being adopted. It's not much different to other forms of English and wouldn't allude to the EU being "Americanized" or further flatter a country leaving the EU on acrimoious terms.

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#23

Post by lifthrasiir »

bitL wrote: post #13
Jonnax wrote: post #3

This doesn't really make sense. American English which they propose adopting is removes more of the European roots of words. For example removing the 'U' from words like Colour. Ireland is also an English speaking country in the EU. And I don't know how much of the sentiment of "Let's Americanise!" Would be popular.

You probably don't know that 'u' in colour is a more recent British development than the standard US English is based on. US English is more original than the current British one.

Is it? Color was already spelled "colour" in the typical Middle English [1]. AFAIK the US development happened later to make all color-related words consistent (since it was spelled "color" in Latin, and English has lots of Latin-derived words).

[1] https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dicti...

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#24

Post by xavieralexandre »

pulse7 wrote: post #11
oauea wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it'd be the French.

Lingua franca: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca

The 'franca' of Lingua Franca do indeed refer to the same 'Francs' who gave their name to France and the French language. But as stated in the Wikipedia Article the Lingua Franca language used in the Ottoman Empire didn't had much relation to French itself. It was a creole language heavily influenced by Italian who dominated trade at that time. 'Francs' designated western people in general, not specifically French people. Lingua Franca then become 'more french' in some regions of Ottoman Empire were France was more dominant like Lebanon.

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#25

Post by scrollaway »

Zrdr wrote: post #10

If we want to use only one official working language, it should be Esperanto. This would be neutral for any country (including Ireland and Malta). This would not be a threat to other languages and cultures. Esperanto is easier to learn than any naturally evolved language. Its benefits are clear, it only needs a political support to thrive.

Even if we apply your logic, Esperanto is still a bad choice. Interlingua would be a better one in a European context.

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#26

Post by samueloph »

Zrdr wrote: post #10

If we want to use only one official working language, it should be Esperanto. This would be neutral for any country (including Ireland and Malta). This would not be a threat to other languages and cultures. Esperanto is easier to learn than any naturally evolved language. Its benefits are clear, it only needs a political support to thrive.

> Esperanto is easier to learn than any naturally evolved language. Its benefits are clear...

Both of these statements are not true, arguable at minimum.

Sorry for not explaining properly but if you do say something like this, is very likely that you are aware of the discussions around it and knows that this is very far from consensus in the linguistics field.

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#27

Post by thefounder »

It should develop its own language, easier to spell and write perhaps taking advantage of machine learning etc during development. Something like Esperanto that is not owned by anyone but is easier to learn by everyone(within EU).

English gives an unfair advantage to native english speakers not to mention that it has a lot of legacy stuff that makes it hard to learn. Non-native speakers will always be seen as outsiders/2nd class.

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#28

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

>> More specifically, Brexit’s silver lining for Europe might have to do with unleashing the deepening of European integration in a whole bunch of areas where the Brits have been reluctant to go. After Brexit, they won’t have to, and the rest of the EU will be freed of the British veto and able to get as integrated as it wishes.

Nice- a little controversial barb hidden in a larger, already controversial (but less so) article. Who is this Ivan Dikov? He sounds like a man who likes to stir the pot just to watch it boil over.

(Not that I don't fully agree with him, mind- but it's still a controversial and rather mean opinion).

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#29

Post by rofo1 »

The language of our time is English. There's just no disputing that. You can argue that it's because US won the cold war, and then indoctrinated the world via music and movies, and so on, and so on, but it doesn't change that fact.

We should adopt English and move on; majority of people know it and study it. Why regress?

The point of using a language in the first place is to understand each other.

Everyone learning a new language that will just substitute English would be an immense waste of time.

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#30

Post by foldr »

bitL wrote: post #13
Jonnax wrote: post #3

This doesn't really make sense. American English which they propose adopting is removes more of the European roots of words. For example removing the 'U' from words like Colour. Ireland is also an English speaking country in the EU. And I don't know how much of the sentiment of "Let's Americanise!" Would be popular.

You probably don't know that 'u' in colour is a more recent British development than the standard US English is based on. US English is more original than the current British one.

No, getting rid of the ’u' was Webster's idea. But standardized spelling is such a recent phenomenon that there's probably no definitive fact of the matter as to which spelling is 'original'.
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