LL-L "Language varieties" 2005.08,25 (03) [E

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 25.AUG.2005 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Ian James Parsley <ian at ianjamesparsley.net>
Subject: Euro-English

Folks,

The main 'varieties' of (formal, written) English have
long been viewed as 'American English' and 'British
English', with other descriptions of other forms
usually based upon them. I am now firmly convinced,
however, that a third form of English is now a firm
rival. This is not 'Australian', or 'Canadian', or
'Ebonic' or any such, but rather what I shall call
'Euro-English', the variety adopted at all kinds of
social levels - by no means exclusively administrative
- by people from different linguistic backgrounds
whose competence in English is fluent, but not truly
native.

Firstly, I accept 'Euro-English' may be something of a
misnomer. A variety of 'trans-linguistic' English has
long existed in South Africa, and has been
strengthened in that country's democratic period. But
let's just call it that for now.

Secondly, I am a long way out of the loop. Perhaps
this has been discussed before? Indeed, perhaps, in
the last 5-10 years, there have been many studies on
it that I have missed?

But a few observations from a recent trip to a
gathering of 15-20 political Liberals (age range
19-30) from all over Europe, which took place in
Poland.
- Vocabulary: semantic differences that are nearly
exclusive to 'Standard' English are ignored (e.g.
'kitchen' used to mean 'cuisine');
- Grammar/Usage: again, exclusive usage exclusive to
'Standard' is ignored (e.g. 'the best team of the
world', 'to make photos');
- Syntax: word order defined merely by usage is
'corrected' (e.g. 'he always is here' [no emphasis]);
and
- Pronunciation: particularly on words borrowed into
English where the 'Standard' pronunciation has
changed, the 'original' is retained in Euro-English
(e.g. 'sauna'?).

Euro-English may well have started off as an
administrative tongue, used among EU officials and
certain traders. But the modern reality is that it has
expanded dramatically, used in just about every
conceivable social setting by young people from across
Europe meeting up for a variety of reasons going well
beyond the 'formal' realms of government, trade or
charity.

This will surely become the de facto official language
of Europe - which leads to an interesting question: is
that to the UK's and Ireland's (and even America's)
advantage, or not?

Best wishes,
Ian P.

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