What does the unification of Europe mean for linguistic and cultural diversity?

1
What does the unification of Europe mean for
linguistic and cultural diversity?

• Robert Phillipson
• Faculty of Languages, Communication,
• and Cultural Studies
• Copenhagen Business School

2
Paradox 1 the EUis not what it seems

• EU is at root a Franco-German project
• BUT
• French and German are being marginalised
  nationally and internationally
• Language policy is an explosive topic

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European unification

• European reconciliation and economic
  reconstruction
• subordination to US global aims

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Condoleezza Rice, 2000George W. Bush, 2000

• The rest of the world is best served by the USA
  pursuing its own interests because American
  values are universal.
• Our nation is chosen by God and commissioned by
  history to be a model to the world.

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Globalisation

• is a normative project a pseudo-concept that
  incarnates the most accomplished form of the
  imperialism of the universal, which consists of
  one society (USA) universalising its own
  particularity covertly as a universal model .
• Pierre Bourdieu, 2001

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New American Centurythe grand design

• www.newamericancentury.org
• www.truthout.org
• A.G. Frank ignore conspiracy theories, the
  conspiracy is real http//globalresearch.ca/articl
  es
• Language in the New Capitalism LNC email network

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Finland v. Germany 1999small and big
language rights

• Die europäische Integration scheint für
  Lipponens Finnland nur so weit von Interesse zu
  sein, wie sie zur internationalen
  Wettbewerbsstärkung beiträgt. Europäisering wird
  offenbar als Spielart der Globalisierung
  (miss)-verstanden. Und die Globalisierung kennt
  nur eine Sprache, das Englische. Sprachenvielfalt
  ist somit nur eine Barriere für die
  Geschäftsbeziehungen.
• Andreas F. Kelletat,
• DeutschlandFinnland 60 SaksaSuomi 60,
• Deutsche Studien Universität Tampere 4, 2001, 40

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One Europe? One language?

• Spanish Foreign Secretary, Ana Palacio, El
  País, 16 December 2002
• The motto One Europe, solely in English,
  requires a reflection. Even though Copenhagen did
  not face the question of languages, this is one
  of the pending subjects that sooner rather than
  later must be debated for the very survival and
  viability of this project of Europe with a world
  vocation. Within it, Spanish, one of the official
  UN languages, spoken by more than 400 million
  people in more than 20 countries, must take on
  the place it is entitled to.

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Paradox 2 diversity is subject to the unfree
market

• EU rhetoric supports cultural and linguuistic
  diversity
• BUT
• There is in practice laissez faire in the
  linguistic market, as is confirmed in the draft
  EU Constitution, which provides weak support for
  linguistic equality and diversity

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Language status

• parity of twenty languages
• French primus inter pares
• English the current linguistic cuckoo

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European linguistic apartheid?

• European citizenship, within the limits of the
  currently existing union, is not conceived as a
  recognition of the rights and contributions of
  all the communities present upon European soil,
  but as a postcolonial isolation of native and
  non-native populations a true European
  apartheid, advancing concurrently with the formal
  institutions of European citizenship and, in the
  long term, constituting an essential element of
  the blockage of European unification as a
  democratic construction. (Balibar 2004, 170)

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David Rothkopf, Foreign policy, 1997

• It is in the economic and political interest of
  the United States to ensure that if the world is
  moving toward a common language, it be English
  that if the world is moving toward common
  telecommunications, safety, and quality
  standards, they be American and that if common
  values are being developed, they be values with
  which Americans are comfortable. These are not
  idle aspirations. English is linking the world
  Americans should not deny the fact that of all
  the nations in the history of the world, theirs
  is the most just, the most tolerant, the most
  willing to constantly reassess and improve
  itself, and the best model for the future.

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Corporate English

• Farvel til dansk
• Børsens Nyhedsmagasin
• 19, 28 May 10 June, 2001
• Should everyone speak English?
• Business Week (European edition)
• 13 August 2001

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Fluidity in language policyin Europe

• unresolved tension between linguistic nationalism
  (monolingualism) and european institutional
  multilingualism
• competing agendas at the European, state
  (national), and sub-statal levels
• the under-class in Fortress Europe of
  non-citizens with marginalised languages
• increase of grassroots and elite bilingualism
• largely uncritical adoption of englishisation,
  lingua economica/americana
• rhetoric of language rights, and some national
  and supranational implementation

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Languages in EU institutions and services

• Separate services for the written word
  (translation) and speech (interpretation)
• Separate services for the Parliament, European
  Court of Justice, and the Commission Council of
  Ministers
• Rights enshrined in Regulation 1, 1958, with
  additional languages at each enlargement
• Terminological confusion (official / working /
  procedural languages) obscures inequalities
• Policy follows economic rationales

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Linguistic imperialism

• English should be the sole official language of
  the European Union.
• Director, British Council, Germany, cited in
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 26 February 2002
• Newsweek interviewer, 31 May 2004
• A unified Europe in which English, as it turns
  out, is the universal language?
• Romano Prodi It will be broken English, but it
  will be English.

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Factors accounting for paralysis in language
policy formation (1)

• different cosmologies in national linguistic
  cultures
• confusions of terminology (e.g. lingua franca,
  multilingualism, working language) in discourse
  (politics, media, business etc) and in distinct
  academic disciplines
• linguistic human rights a recent development in
  international law
• criteria for guiding equitable supranational
  language policy are under-explored

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Factors accounting for paralysis in language
policy formation (2)

• EU institutions are inconsistent in living up to
  ideals of multilingual equality (website,
  communications with member states)
• overall responsibility for language policy in the
  EU is fragmented (Council of Ministers, DGs for
  Education Culture,Translation, ), and
  ultimately (inter-) governmental
• alternatives to market forces (the comparative
  advantage of English in the European linguistic
  market) and linguistic nationalism (e.g.
  Esperanto) are unexplored
• power politics, linguistic nationalism, economics

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Concern at Englishisation1 (nation-state)

• LAlliance pour la Souveraineté de la France
• Legislation in France, Poland, Hungary
• Belgian government EU discriminates
• Vienna Manifesto The cost of monolingualism
• Nordic Council of Ministers surveys of domain
  loss in each Nordic language
• Swedish parliamentary committee national
  languages policy plan, Mål i mun

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Concern at English invasion2 (supranational/inte
rnational)

• European Council conclusions Linguistic
  diversity and multilingualism, 1995
• Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
  Recommendation on Linguistic diversity, 1998
• European Parliament Commission Year of
  Languages 2001, and the ensuing Resolution
• Resolution on Linguistic and Cultural Diversity
  , NGOs at Porto Alegre, 2002
• Esperanto association discrimination campaign

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Paradox 3 Panglossian faith in Danish in EU
institutions

• the most senior Danish translator Danish is
  thriving, expanding
• Head of interpretation services Danish risks
  marginalisation, need for policy formation,
  need for interpreter training

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DET DANSKE SPROG SKAL STYRKES

• at elevernes sproglige udvikling i folkeskolen
  styrkes gennem en forøget indsats i skolen og på
  pædagog- og læreruddannelserne at forskningen
  følger en parallelsproglig strategi, hvor dansk
  styrkes, uden at engelsk eller andre relevante
  fremmedsprog nedprioriteres som videnskabs- og
  forskningssprog, og at formidlingen af
  videnskabelige resultater på dansk styrkes

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Mangler i Sprog på spil

• strategier for andre fremmedsprog end engelsk (EU
  forpligtelser, 2003 Action Plan), helhed
• veje til flersprogethed for majoritets- og
  minoritetsbefolkningen, indvandrersprog
  (forpligtelser i konventioner)
• dansk i EU institutioner og i medlemslandene
• konkrete populariseringsstrategier.
• Udvalget anbefaler at man følger opmærksomt
• indvandrersprogsspørgsmålet og igangsætter
• udredning af dansk i EU-sammenhæng.

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EU Commission Promoting language learning and
linguistic diversity An Action Plan 2004-2006,
24 July 2003

• The range of languages for learning
• the smaller languages as well as the larger ones
• regional, minority and migrant languages as well
  as those with national status, and
• the languages of our major trading partners
  throughout the world.

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EU Commission Promoting language learning and
linguistic diversity An Action Plan 2004-2006,
24 July 2003

• The language friendly school a holistic
  approach appropriate connections between the
  teaching of mother tongue, foreign languages,
  the language of instruction, and the languages of
  migrant communities.

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Obstacles tosupranational language policy

• poor infrastructure nationally and
  supranationally
• weak infrastructure in research
• international coordination among national
  language bodies is in its infancy
• EU translation and interpretation services are
  impressive in many respects, but subject to an
  economic rationale, see themselves as a service
  function rather than policy-making, and are
  detached from international research