Multilingualism Policy in the EU

Mldj

On the EU's website, it says that the EU has a policy of Multilingualism. However, many of the things on their webpage about languages in contrary to this view. How can the EU maintain full linguistic diversity when they only provide certain content on their website in only "most widely spoken EU languages.". Furthermore, the EU is home to pver 60 minority languages. They do not have official status and the EU does not legally have to respond to you in there languages. How can languages such as Irish with about 80000 daily speakers have official status while languages such as Catalan don't? They are not doing enough to stop the decline of languages.
i'm personally pro-EU, but this is one issue I feel the EU have not handled well.
Thoughts and opinions? Open to discussion.
http://europa.eu/pol/mult/index_en.htm

Jim2007

Mldj wrote: »

They are not doing enough to stop the decline of languages.

It is not possible to stop the decline of languages. Languages live and die for their usefulness - if people find a need for a language they will uses, if not it will go out of fashion and die. You can't make a people use a language just because you say so and trying to do so is an exercise in futility!

The EU should and does provide support for the most commonly used languages, but that is as far as it's remit should go. If individual countries what to support some minor language in their own state that is up to them, but they should not expect the rest of the EU to go out of their way to accommodate them.

We have four national languages here in Switzerland, one is more or less dead at this stage - Romansh with about 60K daily speakers. And at this stage kids here prefer to use English when they meet up with kids from the other language areas rather than another national language simply because they find English more useful. And some right wing politicians actually think they can stop them from doing so - another exercise in futility!

An Ciarraioch

Mldj wrote: »

On the EU's website, it says that the EU has a policy of Multilingualism. However, many of the things on their webpage about languages in contrary to this view. How can the EU maintain full linguistic diversity when they only provide certain content on their website in only "most widely spoken EU languages.". Furthermore, the EU is home to pver 60 minority languages. They do not have official status and the EU does not legally have to respond to you in there languages. How can languages such as Irish with about 80000 daily speakers have official status while languages such as Catalan don't? They are not doing enough to stop the decline of languages.
i'm personally pro-EU, but this is one issue I feel the EU have not handled well.
Thoughts and opinions? Open to discussion.
http://europa.eu/pol/mult/index_en.htm

Basically, it comes down to the political demands of national governments - not just Irish, but also Maltese are official languages because Dublin and Valletta demanded that status, but Madrid think that seeking recognition for Catalan, Basque and Galician would merely encourage separatism, similar to France with Breton and Occitan.

Mldj

I feel that minority EU languages need to be preserved in order to maintain cultural diversity within EU states. One of the EUs many mottos is "United in diversity." Linguistic diversity is needed to uphold this view.

Language is part of our heritige. As a language dies, do does thr culture associated with it. Some would argue against this, but look at what happened to the culture of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. A more extreme example - would our culture still be the same if we all spoke German?

I acknowledge that the EU does, to some extent, aim to foster multilingualism, however they are neglecting some of the most vulnerable languages. Furthermore, the EU is nowhere near reaching its goal of each citizen achieving proficiency in 3 languages. EU languages are not even compulsory in Irish secondary schools!

http://m.independent.ie/irish-news/serious-lack-of-irish-translators-in-the-eu-parliament-29538383.html

There are practical problems promoting minority languages - simple things like finding translators is difficult.

There can't be that many Irish to Maltese interpreters available for live translations should an Irish representative seek to address a meeting in Irish.

Be the change you want to see in the world and get engaged with Irish.

glacial_pace71

The hub language system hasn't served too badly thus far but it's curious to see the ripple of reaction across the faces of those attending a meeting, as the relay from one language to another reaches the headsets. For example there are no Portuguese interpreters fluent in Finnish. However, there are Portuguese to French and Finnish to French interpreters. I'm unsure of the translation service but gather that it probably wouldn't be too far removed from the interpretation service in terms of how official documents are processed.
Unfortunately some subtleties are lost in this process.
The Bureau for the Lesser Used Languages used to spend a small but significant amount on promoting cultural diversity. (This was fine in an EU15 scenario but a massively enlarged EU, with a considerable number of Slavic languages, just can't promote languages as 'lesser used' when Catalan has more native speakers than Croatian).
However, it's ultimately a function of EU Member States to support their own linguistic heritage.

Mldj

Thanks for all the responses so far.

I apprecite that its difficult to provide this service. Sure, as it is the EU are the world's largest employer of interpreters and translators, if I'm not mistaken. I agree that the bulk of the work should be carried out by member states, however I feel that they will not do much if they are not ecouraged by the EU.

I believe that the Irish language would be even weaker than it is now if it was not given EU official status.

Lack of translators is a huge problem, however simple solutions, such as providing grants forpeople to study languages at University, can make a big difference. Futhermore, they should but pressure on states to make a language other than that state's national language compulsory at primary level.

This is all great in theory, but I do realise that this would be very expensive in reality.

oscarBravo

Mldj wrote: »

I believe that the Irish language would be even weaker than it is now if it was not given EU official status.

What practical difference did that make to the proliferation of the language?

Jim2007

Mldj wrote: »

Lack of translators is a huge problem....

Lack of users would appear to be an even bigger problem.

IrishTrajan

Mldj wrote: »

On the EU's website, it says that the EU has a policy of Multilingualism. However, many of the things on their webpage about languages in contrary to this view. How can the EU maintain full linguistic diversity when they only provide certain content on their website in only "most widely spoken EU languages.". Furthermore, the EU is home to pver 60 minority languages. They do not have official status and the EU does not legally have to respond to you in there languages. How can languages such as Irish with about 80000 daily speakers have official status while languages such as Catalan don't? They are not doing enough to stop the decline of languages.
i'm personally pro-EU, but this is one issue I feel the EU have not handled well.
Thoughts and opinions? Open to discussion.
http://europa.eu/pol/mult/index_en.htm

Although I agree with you, largely, I would question the validity of the Irish vs Catalan. Irish is Constitutionally-recognized here, but is Catalan an official language in Spain?

An Ciarraioch

IrishTrajan wrote: »

Although I agree with you, largely, I would question the validity of the Irish vs Catalan. Irish is Constitutionally-recognized here, but is Catalan an official language in Spain?

It appears that Castilian is the only language with official status nationwide, but Catalan, Basque and Galician have co-official status in the regions where they are spoken, though have no recognition in Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Spain

Still, it's more recognition than Catalan has across the border, where only French has any legal status.

The Corinthian

Mldj wrote: »

How can languages such as Irish with about 80000 daily speakers have official status while languages such as Catalan don't?

A language is a dialect with an army, or so goes the expression. And while it would be nice to keep them all alive and well, the reality is we can't and beyond academic interest we probably shouldn't.

There are reasons why languages die. Most don't even die, they just change, otherwise Shakespearean English would still be spoken in England and the Americans would spell colour with a letter 'u'. But the do die, for political, economic and other social reasons. Language is ultimately a tool for the people, not the other way around; when that tool is no longer adequate, we upgrade it or drop it.

And that's because, as much as we may want to preserve a culture, the reality is it's already too late; Irish culture in 1985 was quite different to what it is today - we actually took seriously what priests would preach on a Sunday, for example. And in another thirty years time it'll be different again.

Mldj wrote: »

I feel that minority EU languages need to be preserved in order to maintain cultural diversity within EU states. One of the EUs many mottos is "United in diversity." Linguistic diversity is needed to uphold this view.

It's not the EU's job. Maintianing national culture is the responsibility of each individual member. Some do it well (the UK in the case of Welsh) and some do it badly (like Ireland in the case of Irish). I can't imagine where you got the idea that "united in diversity" meant that it was the EU's job to maintain that diversity.

Language is part of our heritige. As a language dies, do does thr culture associated with it. Some would argue against this, but look at what happened to the culture of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece.

Latin became Italian, not to mention a number of other romance languages, and Ancient Greek became modern Greek. Or did you mean something else? I'm pretty sure that Roman culture did not vanish because Latin died out as a spoken language - it was still the common lingua franca well into the middle ages.

Now tell me what living languages have not changed over the last two thousand years? Indeed, modern Irish is not the same language as that which was spoken at the time of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece, is it?

A more extreme example - would our culture still be the same if we all spoke German?

No, but Dublin bus might be more punctual.

katydid

IrishTrajan wrote: »

Although I agree with you, largely, I would question the validity of the Irish vs Catalan. Irish is Constitutionally-recognized here, but is Catalan an official language in Spain?

Yes, and far more widely spoken than Irish. Having Irish interpreters and translators in Brussels is a joke when there is no MEP from Ireland who is incapable of working in English. Jobs for the boys and girls

micosoft

Mldj wrote: »

This is all great in theory, but I do realise that this would be very expensive in reality.

So basically you accept your OP is a fantasy that bears not relation with practicality or fiscal responsibility?

murphaph

The Corinthian wrote: »

Now tell me what living languages have not changed over the last two thousand years?

I believe Hebrew has remained unchanged, save for the addition of new vocabulary, but is almost unique in that respect. I was quite surprised to see in a documentary that the Torah can be read by a modern Hebrew speaker just like any modern text as the language has simply not changed much since it was written. Kind of crazy...and off topic of course!

The Corinthian wrote: »

Indeed, modern Irish is not the same language as that which was spoken at the time of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece, is it?

Sssshhh, don't be bringing rational debate into these things now. Irish, will some day die out as it has extremely limited usefulness. It will eventually become something only some scholars can speak, despite the recent resurgence of the language.

Why do I say this? Because much bigger, more widely spoken languages will also succumb to this as the world becomes more and more global and your "local language" will get you nowhere once you move beyond a very small geographical area or even want to simply communicate with someone from outside it. I suspect that in a few thousand years the number of languages in daily use on the planet will have significantly reduced, as the whole world marches towards a single language, probably a derivative of modern day English.

That will not be a bad day for humankind either by the way. We might understand each other a bit better without the barriers of language getting in the way, though it won't be a panacea for the world's ills.