English as a lingua franca for Europe
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English as a lingua franca for Europe, also known by the abbreviation ELFE, is a concept promoted by some linguistics experts[citation needed], which aims to standardise the use of the English language in the European Union. English, in some form or another, is already widely used and understood by people in EU countries, despite it only being spoken natively by a small percentage of those people. However, regional differences in English, as well as peculiarities in spelling, vocabulary and grammar shared with few other European languages, have made learning it more difficult for many Europeans; ELFE does not only aim at making English easier to learn (this is the main objective of other projects like for example "Simple English"): ELFE indicates the development of high level languages for a global society. English is evolving into a more international language - for example by emphasising those elements of English which it shares with other European languages. ELFE integrates much international expert terminology and uses mostly phrases that are self-explaining. It avoids English expressions that frequently create misundertanding in communication between people from different parts of Europe. ELFE does not necessarily indicate standardisation of English, it also could describe a style that is more suitable for use of English as a European lingua franca.
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[edit] The motivation for ELFE
The member states of the European Union use a wide variety of languages (there are currently 23 official EU languages, including Irish which became official on 1 January 2007), and although the EU attempts to respect all of them by providing translation services, this generally consumes large amounts of time and money, and the benefits of a lingua franca - a common language that can be used by everyone to communicate with everyone else - are obvious.
Despite controversy, English has already assumed the position of a European lingua franca to some extent. According to a Eurobarometer survey in 2001, 47% of EU citizens spoke English well enough to hold a casual conversation, a higher proportion than any other language in Europe. Note, though, that this survey did not include the peoples of the ten Eastern and Southern European countries that joined the union in 2004. English is also the most commonly taught second language to children in Europe, largely because of the enormous impact of the United States in politics, economics and culture around the world.
If English were made to be the sole language for the workings of the EU institutions and organisations, a considerable saving could be made. According to the EU's English language website [1], the cost of maintaining the EU's policy of multilingualism is € 1,178 million, which is 1.05% of the annual general budget of the EU. Divided by the population of the EU, this comes to € 2.58 per person per year.
[edit] Current problems with English
[edit] Cultural difficulties
Although many native English speakers would rarely consider common speech to be offensive, at times, it would not be suited for an international lingua franca, which should be as culturally neutral as possible.
One of the goals of ELFE would be to remove phrases with inappropriate or culture-specific associations (for example, sport terminology). While this is derided by some as political correctness, proponents of ELFE argue that this is necessary for a lingua franca, because otherwise Europeans who adopt the English language as a means of everyday communication would also be forced into adopting the customs, traditions, and modes of thought specific to the major English-speaking countries, many of which are embodied in the language.
One further problem is that elevating English to an official status of lingua franca will lead to an increase in English being used inappropriately. For instance, visitors to a non-English speaking country will be less inclined to learn the local language and see it as the duty of the locals to learn English. Also, locals who speak English may try to compel foreigners who do speak the local language to conduct conversations in English.
[edit] Pronunciation difficulties
The sounds indicated by the letters th, voiced interdental fricative and voiceless interdental fricative, are not found in other European languages with the exception of Spanish, Albanian, Greek and Icelandic. French learners may tend to replace it with the sounds 's' and 'z', while Scandinavian and Italian learners may use the sounds 't' (or 'f') and 'd'. ELFE would choose one of these sounds and standardise it.
In most of the other Germanic languages, like German and Dutch, certain consonants are pronounced similarly, hence mug and muck, and bat and bad are pronounced alike to them.
Phoneticians note that besides the difference in vowel quality, there is also a difference in length between the vowel sounds in the words bit and beat. Speakers of languages that do not have vowel pairs with this distinction, such as Italian and Spanish, often have difficulty with this distinction. The most obvious difficulty is the large number of vowel sounds in the English language, each one of which has to be learned by listening and training tongue placement.
[edit] Intonation difficulties
Like other languages of Europe, English is a language with stressed syllables. The stresses are both unmarked in writing and capable of changing the meaning of words and even sentences. Although this is a similarity in principle between many European languages, the manner of marking different types of information structure (relating to topic, comment, focus and presupposition) differs between different languages. Although words without the usual stress can be understood by native speakers, changes in meaning of sentences spoken by them ("I thought she was supposed to wash the pan" vs. "I thought she was supposed to wash the pan" vs. "I thought she was supposed to wash the pan" vs. "I thought she was supposed to wash the pan.) are sometimes entirely missed by non-native speakers.
[edit] Punctuation differences
The British use their punctuation rather similarly to the French, but not entirely. Although people can learn another language fluently, they often slip back to the punctuation of their native one. German or Czech, for instance, have very distinctive rules for the placement of commas that English lacks, and the influence of these rules can be encountered in many English texts written by Germans or Czechs. Several forms of quotation marks and number formats may be seen in non-native English texts.
[edit] Vocabulary difficulties
Non-English speakers sometimes take English words and modify them for concepts that they think are appropriate, but which will not be comprehended by native speakers. There are also many false friends in English, such as the French and German words actuel (aktuell) and eventuel (eventuell), which in English mean real and would come to be, but in French and German mean rather current and possible.
It is expected that a standardised ELFE would declare many of these neologisms normative, forcing native speakers to use them when communicating with other Europeans.
[edit] Spelling difficulties
English is known to have one of the most difficult spelling systems among European languages, and mistakes among its native speakers are quite common: there is a relatively high proportion of dyslexics among native English speakers compared to native speakers of languages with a more regular orthography.[citation needed] Conversion of written text (most often what a foreign learner meets first) into spoken words is equally difficult and challenging.
An article published in The Guardian in 2001[2], regarding the use of the English language around the world, noted:
- The 13 spellings for a sound like sh - shoe, sugar, issue, mansion, mission, nation, suspicion, ocean, conscious, chaperon, schist, fuchsia and pshaw - are a source of weakness, not strength.
