Multilingualism, as specified in the Treaties on the functioning of the EU institutions, is in danger of disappearing in favour of a de facto single-language regime based on English, warns Abdou Diouf, secretary-general of the 'Francophonie', the international French-language organisation, in an interview with EurActiv.
Are you surprised? No, I am afraid not. This is perhaps one of the logical end results of languages which become more popular and after some time, other languages die out. See here on world's languages dying off.
Plus given the fact that the EU has now ended up with 20-25 official languages, do you know how much it costs the EU in translation costs?
- ONE
- BILLION
- DOLLARS
Here are some interesting stats
2 comments:
Given my recent experience and complete frustration at the French populace's complete stubbornness (arrogance?) in insisting on speaking to a non-french native in ONLY french, I can only wonder what Abou Diof really means when he says ..."I am fighting to defend the principle of plurilingualism and the representation of the different languages of the European Union." In my sceptical mind, I read that as "We are French. We will never speak anything but French. Vive le France!"
Abdou Diouf is right. The Hegemony of English is a threat to European languages and cultures. 1 billion dollars for multilingualism is nothing compare to the benefits accruing to the UK and to the USA as a consequence of the hegemonic role of THEIR language
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