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 rich multilingual heritage. Interviewed by Lluis Amiguet, Stegmann, who speaks ten languages, explains that there are countless bridges between languages. "There is a groundless fear of losing one's linguistic identity because of diversity, whereas it is exactly the opposite which happens ... We have to conquer this ancestral resistance which has its roots in the fear of losing one's identity spread by the contempt for languages considered as minor ... In Germany, for example, we have managed to get students studying Romance languages like French and Spanish interested in Catalan."

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