A Common Language for the European Union?

After reading an article talking about the common language question within the European Union, I decided to do some research about the history of this issue. The European Union is expanding everyday, and already has 27 member countries which, most of them, speak quite different languages.

The discussion about the problem is interesting. The EU does not have one official language. Instead, it has an official language for each of its members. This means that important documents of any sort within the EU are being translated to all those 23 official languages. The translation expenses add up to more than 1 million euros annually. And this is one of the main reasons why people have been voicing their ideas about an implementation of a common language.

There are many different ideas regarding this issue. Some people want a common language both within the European Union and Europe. Those people then fall into two different categories regarding which language should be the common language. Some favor English, but they are against the usage of American English within the EU. These people want to use a new version of English that they refer to as "Euro-English." Others, on the other hand, support the creation of a totally new language that is unique to Europe. However, there are also people who do not want a common language at all. They believe that every country should preserve its own language and thus culture.

I can understand why some people find a common language for Europe necessary. Most European countries are together under the umbrella of the European Union, and they are looking for a way to further strengthen this bond. While the Europeans will be able to understand each other better, the EU can also spend its time and money on other things instead of translating between 23 languages.

In my opinion, however, I think preserving languages within Europe, or anywhere in the world, has great importance to the wealth of human culture and understanding. I believe that time and money invested in translation is worth it. The European Union was born out of the economic incentives of Europe, and one of its main objectives is, or should be, to preserve the rich cultural heritage of and diversity within Europe - which is, undoubtedly, linked with the many different European languages.

Such an attempt to implement a common language in the EU would also, in my opinion, exacerbate the problem of language death in the long run. As one common language takes over the European Union, and gradually Europe, it will replace many languages and cause them, especially languages that are already endangered, disappear sooner.

The European Union recently announced that it is against the implementation of a common language. The EU is not adopting a common language, mainly because "it would cut off most people in the EU from an understanding of what the EU was doing." Despite the time and money investment, the EU is still fostering the multilingual nature of the union, which I believe is the right thing to do.



Link to the article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/25/europe-languages-jonny-dymond

Link to the map: http://www.eurominority.eu/documents/cartes/europe-languages-continant.gif

Additional source: http://europa.eu/languages/en/document/59