Magazine / Society / Multilingualism / From the press | 16/04/2008

Linguistic diversity and a crazy translation policy

Is the amount of money the EU institutions spend on translation justified? What is the value of European linguistic diversity, how can it be preserved?

Multilingualism in Europe

El País - Spain | Tuesday, 4. March 2008

How to encourage multilinguism in the EU?

The European Commission asked a group of intellectuals to think about how to preserve the languages of Europe. Their recently published report recommends the introduction ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Thursday, 31. January 2008

Amin Maalouf defends Europe's linguistic diversity

Requested by the European Commission to ponder the concept of multilingualism, a group of intellectuals delivered its report on January 31st. The Franco-Lebanese writer, Amin ... » more

Vasabladet - Finland | Friday, 23. February 2007

Peter Ehrström on minorities as pioneers of multilingualism

Peter Ehrström asserts that the traditional European nation state is beating a retreat. He points out that with the exception of Iceland, all European states ... » more

La Vanguardia - Spain | Thursday, 10. August 2006

The EU's wealth of languages

Germany linguist Tilbert D. Stegmann is one of the creators of the online centre of European intercomprehension, the EuroCom Center, which aims to safeguard Europe's ... » more

Frankfurter Rundschau - Germany | Tuesday, 4. July 2006

Jutta Limbach on Europe's linguistic diversity

The newspaper publishes a text written by Jutta Limbach, president of the Goethe Institute, in which she reflects on Europe's multilingualism. "Although some regard the ... » more

Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland | Monday, 23. January 2006

Europe's languages

Europe is no longer identical with the European Union," writes Otfried Höffe, professor of philosophy at the University of Tübingen, in an essay on Europe's ... » more

Languages in EU institutions

Irish Examiner - Ireland | Monday, 21. January 2008

Irish is a luxury for EU institutions

Journalist Mary Regan informs us that "less than 30 minutes of Irish was spoken in the European Parliament in the first full year as an ... » more

Cinco Días - Spain | Monday, 8. October 2007

A difficult matter to plead before European courts

British lawyer Ian Forrester describes Europe's procedurally mind-blowing Court of First Instance, which judges cases relating to European law. "The president of the Court, Bo ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Tuesday, 2. October 2007

How to choose between 23 EU languages

Ministers of Justice and of Foreign Affairs in EU countries recently gathered in Lisbon for an informal summit. The editorialist Andrea Bonanni noted that Italian ... » more

Dnevnik - Slovenia | Friday, 3. August 2007

The false multilinguality of the EU

An Esperanto congress that recently took place in Slovenia prompts Vinko Oslak to reflect on the languages of the EU: "Today there are around 6,000 ... » more

Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland | Friday, 16. March 2007

The problems of Austrian German in Europe

Paul Jandl expresses his concern about the survival of Austrian German in Europe. "The world of Europe is multi-centred, but so is the German language. ... » more

Diário de Notícias - Portugal | Sunday, 10. December 2006

Multilingualism, a conundrum for the EU

In the columns of the Portuguese daily, Edite Estrela, the European Member of Parliament, welcomes the appearance on the European agenda of the debate on ... » more

Népszabadság - Hungary | Monday, 20. November 2006

Europe's Babel

Brussels correspondent László Szőcs notes that English, French and German are increasingly becoming the lingua franca among Europe's citizens, yet the EU institutions continue to ... » more

Hospodářské noviny - Czech Republic | Wednesday, 1. November 2006

A European Commissioner for multilingualism

Brussels correspondent Radek Honzak wonders why the Romanian Leonard Orban has been nominated as Romania's official candidate for a post on the European Commission in ... » more

Libération - France | Thursday, 28. September 2006

Bernard Cerquiglini on the decline of French

As the International Organisation for French Speaking Communities (OIF) opens its summit conference in Bucharest this Thursday, September 28th, the linguist Bernard Cerquiglini notes that ... » more

Gazet van Antwerpen - Belgium | Wednesday, 6. September 2006

The cost of translation in Brussels

The European member of parliament Alexander Stubb presented a report this week on the "expense of interpretation in the European Parliament". For Paul Geudens, this ... » more

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany | Tuesday, 25. April 2006

Diversity of languages in the EU

Alexandra Kemmerer reports on a conference on the "Challenges of linguistic diversity within the European Union" held in the German city of Regensburg. At the ... » more

Danish

Dagbladet Information - Denmark | Monday, 4. February 2008

Will Danish special characters be abolished?

Denmark is discussing the suggestion to abolish the three characters æ, å and ø from the Danish alphabet so that Danes can surf the internet ... » more

German

Libération - France | Tuesday, 25. December 2007

Laurent Dispot defends the German language

Laurent Dispot, chief editor of the Philosophical magazine 'La Règle du Jeu', criticises the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bernard Kouchner, for recently saying that ... » more

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany | Friday, 6. July 2007

Stefan Klein on the lack of a democratic scientific language

Biophysicist and author Stefan Klein thinks it's a mistake for German academics to speak only English - and rather poor English at that - even ... » more

English

Télérama - France | Friday, 27. October 2006

The ungoing mode of simplified English language

Thomas Bécart is amused by the discovery on the internet of a version of the on-line encyclopaedia Wikipedia "in 'simplified English', a language that is ... » more

New Statesman - United Kingdom | Tuesday, 12. September 2006

Histories of the English language

"The very idea of a history of English is problematic, and its politics are thorny. Two new histories cover the usual ground convincingly, yet both ... » more

Flemish

La Libre Belgique - Belgium | Monday, 17. December 2007

Miss Belgium is not as bilingual as she could be

Alizée Poulicek, the new Miss Belgium, was elected on Saturday, December 15th, with more than a spot of bother, explains Myriam Leroy. The candidate was ... » more

Gaelic/Irish

The Irish Times - Ireland | Friday, 5. January 2007

How much Irish do the Irish actually speak?

Irish became an official language of the EU on January 1st, but writer and travel documentary maker Manchán Magan was taken aback by reactions as ... » more

The Irish Times - Ireland | Friday, 1. December 2006

The difficulties of the Irish language

"Human agencies, usually governmental, certainly institutional, are always central to the health of languages", writes Alan Titley, professor of Irish in University College Cork (UCC). ... » more

Catalan

Libération - France | Thursday, 6. December 2007

Catalan is a great European language

In an interview conducted by Nathalie Levisalles, the writer Sergi Pamies, who writes novels in Catalan and articles in Spanish, explains that "you can be ... » more

Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland | Monday, 24. September 2007

Javier Cercas on Catalan and Spanish nationalism

The Catalan writer Javier Cercas won't be representing the autonomous community of Catalonia at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair because - like other well-known authors ... » more

La Vanguardia - Spain | Thursday, 1. February 2007

There is no need for a war between Castilian and Catalan languages

The Catalan daily regrets the "political upheaval" that has been created in Catalonia by the Spanish Ministry of Education's decree imposing three hours of Castilian ... » more

Latin

The Guardian - United Kingdom | Monday, 30. October 2006

The resurfacing of Latin

The daily observes the use of Latin in Europe, pointing out "Google's little-known Latin search engine to not only get a translation but also to ... » more

Maltese

Times of Malta - Malta | Monday, 5. February 2007

The dilemma of bilingual culture in Malta

"Being a bilingual nation one must differentiate between works written in Maltese and those written in English", considers the Maltese daily in its editorial. "If ... » more

Swedish

Sydsvenska Dagbladet - Sweden | Wednesday, 19. March 2008

The Swedes' fear of English

Sweden has no official language to date. The government now wants to change this and introduce a new law stipulating Swedish as the main language. ... » more

Dagens Nyheter - Sweden | Monday, 15. May 2006

Preserving your own language

Over the past few weeks there has been much public discussion in Sweden about the Swedish language. Many see immigration and the country's numerous subcultures ... » more

Slovak

Sme - Slovakia | Thursday, 16. February 2006

Slovakia's Language Law

The Slovakian broadcasting council has fined Slovakian television for broadcasting a film with the Czech puppets Speijbl and Hurvinek in the Czech language. The official ... » more

Spanish

ABC - Spain | Thursday, 13. July 2006

Defending Spanish against Catalan

The conservative daily, a staunch defender of Spain's unity, thinks it is deplorable that Catalonia has requested a separate space from that of Spain to ... » more

Hungarian

Heti Világgazdaság - Hungary | Thursday, 18. May 2006

Hungarian is easy

Hungarian is said to be one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world. Linguists now claim the contrary, insisting that Hungarian is ... » more

Multilingualism in Switzerland

Le Temps - Switzerland | Thursday, 25. January 2007

Not all Swiss people see the same films

On the occasion of the Swiss film season in Soleure, Christine Salvadé considers one of the obstacles that Swiss film distribution is up against: multi-lingualism. ... » more

Tribune de Genève - Switzerland | Wednesday, 11. January 2006

Swiss-german dialect is latest vogue

The daily reacts to the growing popularity in the country of schwyzerdütsch (the local german dialect), a phenomenon that is the subject of a new ... » more

Regional languages, minority languages and dialects

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany | Monday, 17. March 2008

The Cimbrians and the Bavarians

Stefan Ulrich reports on today's "least used language," spoken by only approximately 1,000 people worldwide: Cimbrian, a mixture of Bavarian, Italian and Middle High German. ... » more

Libération - France | Wednesday, 13. December 2006

Pierre Encrevé on the 'other languages of France'

The linguist Pierre Encrevé, professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), considers that minority and regional languages are not sufficiently defended ... » more

Hufvudstadsbladet - Finland | Friday, 28. April 2006

Promoting languages as a political instrument

Finland promotes the Finnish culture and language in Sweden. Now Sweden is focusing more on promoting the Swedish language in Finland. This is essentially a ... » more

Learning languages

ABC - Spain | Friday, 8. February 2008

The Spanish have difficulty learning foreign languages

A study carried out in 2007 by the Centre for Sociological Studies (CIS), in Madrid, shows that the Spanish have very little knowledge of foreign ... » more

Lidové noviny - Czech Republic | Wednesday, 26. September 2007

Czech pupils no longer learn German

"Young Czechs are no longer interested in learning German," Jana Machalkova notes. "The kids at schools mostly want to learn English. They choose either Spanish ... » more

Le Vif/L'Express - Belgium | Wednesday, 25. October 2006

Wallonia in linguistic isolation

The weekly denounces a "linguistic disaster" that characterises the French-speaking community in Belgium. "How can people talk about redressing Wallonia, about technopoles and state of ... » more

The Daily Telegraph - United Kingdom | Friday, 25. August 2006

Britain suffers drop in foreign-language students

The daily reacts after the National Union of Teachers described as a 'complete disaster' new figures showing a decline in the number of UK secondary ... » more

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