[lg policy] As the E.U.’s Language Roster Swells, So Does the Burden

[Harold Schiffman]

As the E.U.’s Language Roster Swells, So Does the Burden

What in the World <http://www.nytimes.com/column/what-in-the-world>

By JAMES KANTER <http://www.nytimes.com/by/james-kanter> JAN. 4, 2017

Photo
Credit Moonsick Gang

It’s not easy to speak with one voice in 24 languages.

When what is now the European Union
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/european_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
first took root in the 1950s, it included just six nations, and in three of
them many people spoke French. It could sidestep national jealousies
without trouble by designating most of the member nations’ main languages
as official languages.

But that set a precedent, and as the union has grown much larger, so has
the official language roster — not to mention the bill for translation and
interpretation, which now runs to about 1 billion euros, or more than $1
billion, a year.

Defenders of the policy say it preserves diversity and promotes language
learning. They contend that it is not to blame for the bloc’s repeated
failure to speak as one over issues like migration, the economy and Russia.

Still, the polyglottery can be a bit of a strain, especially when it comes
to tongues like Irish, which only a few Irish citizens use frequently
outside the education system. Though Irish has been an official language of
the union for a decade, member nations keep postponing the deadline for
providing full Irish translation and interpretation services.

Liadh Ni Riada, an Irish member of the European Parliament, went on what
she called a two-week language strike
<http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/33425> in 2015, speaking only Irish at
work, to demonstrate her annoyance at the delays. She has threatened to do
it again.

There is also a push to recognize Luxembourgish, the only national language
of a member state that the union has not made official. Yet Luxembourgers
also use German and French, and even their laws are all written in French.
So the authorities are looking for a way to enhance the language’s status
that would not entail a lot of translation and interpretation expense.

The European Union may add Turkish as its 25th official language, even if
Turkey never becomes a member. The reason is Cyprus.

The island has been divided for decades between the mainly Greek-speaking
Republic of Cyprus and a breakaway Turkish-speaking region in the north.
The two sides have been in painstaking talks to reunite the island, and the
republic, which belongs to the European Union, has requested official
status for Turkish as a gesture to the north.

There is no assurance that the unity talks will succeed, so no vote has
been held yet by member governments on the language request.

As you might expect, some official languages are more official than others.
To save time and money, officials and staff members at the European
Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, usually write internally in only
three — English, French and German — and often speak in English, to the
annoyance of the French.

Now that Britain
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/unitedkingdom/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>
has voted to leave the union, some French politicians
<https://twitter.com/JLMelenchon/status/746300956577505280> want to demote
English <https://twitter.com/RobertMenardFR/status/746265987410989056>, and
a prominent Polish lawmaker, Danuta Hubner, warned
<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-language-idUSKCN0ZD2AC> that
“if we don’t have the U.K., we don’t have English.”

But when lawyers looked into it, they concluded that it would take a
unanimous vote, and there is almost no chance of that. Ireland and Malta
rely on English, and it is extremely popular in Central and Eastern Europe.
Somebody would be sure to veto the move.


NYTimes, 1/5/2017


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