Europe Battles English Invasion

[Menydh]

Europe Battles English Invasion

DW-World.de,
December 1, 2004

Fast becoming Europe's lingua franca, English has invaded other national languages. The trend has some on the continent worried that languages might in the future take second place even within their countries of origin.

English has already invaded the languages of Moliere, Cervantes and Goethe, dominating the fields of technology and business and even taking some native tongues hostage.

But purists are fighting back as hybrids such as "surfen" and "downloaden" on the Internet, "emailear" and style terms "looke" or "gestyled" show the creeping advance of English.

Spanglish, Franglais or even Denglish, a mix of Deutsch (German) and English, are prompting a backlash, with a call to arms in some European countries for protective measures or new policies.

But linguistic expert David Crystal said the trend was no bad thing as the introduction of such words enriched a language and aided communication.

"The world needs a lingua franca the more international communication gets and English is the frontrunner at the moment," Crystal, an honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales in Bangor, told AFP news service.

Why not German?

But others countered that -- at least as far as the European Union is concerned -- English should not necessarily be given the status of the bloc's foremost language.

"Why should it be English," said Tobias Mindner, the spokesman for the Verein Deutscher Sprache (VDS), an organization that aims to cleanse German of Denglish. After all, a third of the EU's population speaks German, making it the union's most widely spoken language, he added.

German leaders were partially to blame for their language's subordinate role within the EU as they had not done enough to promote it as a commonly used language within EU institutions, Mindner said.

"Politicians have to do a better job at lobbying" for German, he told DW-WORLD.

A first step in that direction has already been taken: This year, the German parliament passed a resolution calling on the government to push for German as a third EU working language alongside English and French, said Karin Eichhoff-Cyrus, the executive director of the Society for German Language, a government-sponsored organization charged with researching, promoting and protecting German.

A clear-cut program to promote German within the EU, however, does not exist so far, she said, adding that she sees the growing prevalence of English as a greater danger to the survival of other national languages than the adoption of English words.

No danger from Denglish?

Germans, for whom English is unrivalled as their second language, like to show off their English skills, sprinkling sentences with adopted expressions like "last-minute" offers, "happy birthday" and "just for fun."

They have also looked to English for certain concepts -- brainstorming, feeling groggy, midlife crisis and sex appeal. A person exposed as gay has been "geoutet."

"Now it's English, before it was Latin or French," Eichhoff-Cyrus told DW-WORLD, adding that still only about 3 to 4 percent of German words were derived from English.

Continental concerns

Elsewhere in Europe, the invasion of English and its possible replacement of national languages has raised concerns as well.

"Nothing would be worse for humanity than to move towards a situation where we speak only one language," French President Jacques Chirac has been quoted as saying.

Although words such as "le week-end" have slipped into daily French usage, outside of the classroom virtually the only exposure to the language of Shakespeare comes from pop culture.

"The irony is that an awful lot of the words that the French people complain about coming into French from English like 'le computer' came from French in the first place," Crystal said, noting the word originated from Latin.

Outside the EU, the onslaught of English has raised eyebrows as well.

Russia's first lady, Lyudmilla Putin, the wife of President Vladimir Putin, is a leading opponent of change in the Russian language.

English has widely entered the Russian language since the fall of communism, especially in emerging capitalist sectors. Business language such as "distributor" and "consulting" are transliterated into Cyrillic and advertising executives refer to "slogans."

In tiny but multilingual Switzerland, the "Defense of French" foundation put up an impassioned plea recently arguing the Swiss had no need for a fifth official language.

Swiss French-speakers, who make up a fifth of the population, are up in arms as schools in the majority German-speaking areas can now teach English from about the age of nine and start French or Italian lessons two years later.

English's openness key to success

But Crystal said English has in fact "borrowed" words from 350 other languages over the last 1,000 years, including up to 60,000 words from French during the Middle Ages, as well as from Latin and Greek, Italian and Spanish.

This openness is one of the reasons for the success of English, Crystal said.

"The range and depth of Shakespeare's vocabulary comes from the way in which he employs Germanic words, French words and Latin words to characterize the different people that he has in his plays," he added.

Crystal said about 800 million people now speak English either as their first language or as a second language in countries where English has an official status such as India and Ghana.

But he pointed out the backlash against English was not a new trend.

The influx of Latin stoked huge controversy in the 16th century and even protest marches, he said, adding people always reacted to any internationally dominant language whatever it was.

"It just happens to be English's turn at the moment to influence these other languages."



[See also thread Spain and Germany Against an English-Speaking Only Europe]

[Ederico]

Maltese is suffering such a thing, which I, as a Nationalist oppose. Unfortunately Malta also suffered British Colonialism and their machinations in the Language Question in Malta (policies of De-Italianisation and Anglicisation). Anglo-American Globalisation does not do much good either.

[Cristoforo]

I agree with Ederico of course. In Maltese we have words such as "errejd" which is basically how the word "air raid" sounds. This word is used even though we have the Maltese word "attakk mill-ajru" for that.

Not only that, but in Malta it's considered up-class to speak in English even if in the Maltese pidgin English flavour.

Of course, we should not bash english that much because without it, we would not be communicating much on this forum

We need a lingua franca and although we would have preferred it to be Italian or Spanish to English, we have to accept the fact that English is the lingua franca of our time.

[henerte]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

"Why should it be English," said Tobias Mindner, the spokesman for the Verein Deutscher Sprache (VDS), an organization that aims to cleanse German of Denglish.

They should start with jobben, ich habe gejobbt etc. It sounds simply awful.
I also noticed killen, er wurde gekillt. Komisch

[Gil]

I habe nicht problem mit the englische language. Damn ze Tschermans

[Nerthus]

killen, er wurde gekillt. Komisch

As if there weren't enough words in German for 'kill'.

How about those advertisments for cell phones on Prosieben or RTL, where they call them 'handy'. People in Germany also used to get their phone bills saying "German calls" and "City calls". Was "Deutschlandverbindungen" too long of a term? Even in the German version they had "Cityverbindungen".

Some German websites display "Sorry - nicht erreichbar". I've seen somewhere rather hilarious phrases like "Spammer werden gekickt" or "Fun für Dich". Terms like "downloadieren", "chatten", "managen", "updaten", "mailen", have polluted the vocabulary of some folks. I've even heard Denglish being called "Neudeutsch".

[henerte]

Handy sounds quite ok to me. I don't know, maybe I've heard it so many times that I'm used it. Actually, the english cell phone is already crazy. Whenever I hear it I think of my biology classes in highschool. It also reminds my telephones used in prison for communication between convicts and their visitors.

What would it be in German? Zellentelephon? or maybe Zellenfernsprecher, Kammertelephon?

I see that this bloody sorry is also attacking german?! It's been used in polish for a quite long time, even by some adults right now. Many foreigners find it not only hilarious but also pathethic. Unfortunately German, just like Polish, seems to lack on a appropriate native counterpart that would be short, neutral and easy. You can always try to create a new word that would replace english 'sorry' but I'm afraid nobody will buy it.

Spammen, mailen, downloadieren look fine to me. They describe new ideas, activities etc. In such cases, borrowings are usually the best way of extending vocabulary. Although, ich habe es downloadiert still sounds awkward, I believe, german equivalents are no better. Unless you want to torture foreigner with ich habe es heruntergeladen.

I know I'm getting crabby right now but this schrecklich jobben drives me crazy! I mean, what's wrong with arbeiten? And this consonant i.e. "j" doesn't fit german, at all.

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

Since 500 AD or so the English have lived on an island. They and other Britains were the least likely to learn another language in school. Now multiply that likelyhood about 1000 times for English colonies (American, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, English South Africa). Most English speakers speak one language. Now, the internet comes along. It was invented in California of all places. Terms of the internet stated in English. These became loan-words in German, for instance, without any problems, apparently, for Germans.

Not all English internet words are used even in German. They have some of their own. Try ordering a book on the internet from a German publisher. English skills alone are not going to cut it.

[Sigel]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

But purists are fighting back as hybrids such as "surfen" and "downloaden" on the Internet, "emailear" and style terms "looke" or "gestyled" show the creeping advance of English.

I agree. Unnecessary English (bastardized) loan words are polluting the German language. It annoys me every time I encounter a new one.
The use of English as a second language helps people all over the globe communicate with one another. A Japanese may talk to an Estonian in English, a Nigerian with an Eskimo and the English language is no longer, in any sense, the exclusive property of English native speakers, it belongs to all who use it.
It’s obvious benefits are seen on boards like this but it should not be used to pollute ANY other language. Linguistic purity and diversity are one of the most important aspects of our identity. It is a treasure that should not be squandered.

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

Originally Posted by Sigel

I agree. Unnecessary English (bastardized) loan words are polluting the German language. It annoys me every time I encounter a new one.
The use of English as a second language helps people all over the globe communicate with one another. A Japanese may talk to an Estonian in English, a Nigerian with an Eskimo and the English language is no longer, in any sense, the exclusive property of English native speakers, it belongs to all who use it.
It’s obvious benefits are seen on boards like this but it should not be used to pollute ANY other language. Linguistic purity and diversity are one of the most important aspects of our identity. It is a treasure that should not be squandered.

Wasn't this true for Latin in the Roman Empire? To some extent the spread of English into other languages is a result of recent history and the Second World War. If Germany had won the war, I would be posting in German now.

[Menydh]

Actually, Latin (or, rather, local variants of Low Latin known as Romances) is what a large part of Europe spoke at the time. And from these early languages derived the modern Romance languages.

[Sigel]

The recent bastardisation of German is an entirely different phenomena. The adoption of English loan words comes not as a result of any military conquest, like the Roman one, nor of any requirement for missing vocabulary (excepting perhaps a few I.T. terms).
It is entirely media driven. The advertisers, press, music industry and other influential sources are introducing entirely superfluous 'lifestyle' words into German just because they think it's cool.
The irony is that most of these words are not used in the same way English speakers use them. A 'Handy' is a mobile phone in England, 'mobbing' (ie in the workplace) is known as bullying in England.
Perfectly good German vocabulary exists for the majority of these words and I would argue that, where non exists, a German word should be created. German core vocabulary contains many compound nouns. It's a wonderfully flexible system and more than adequate to plug any gaps.

[Menydh]

Many of the words from English in Spanish come from I.T. terminology too. Thus, people say often "email" instead of "correo electrónico". Admittedly, a short word seems handier for people these days, but I'm afraid that that is not how Castilian (Spanish) language works. Something similar happens in the German language, which also has a flair for having long complex words.

In Spain also exists an institution, the Royal Academy of the Language, which regularizes the language. In fact it does not. That Royal Academy does not rule which words should be used, but it merely accepts and defines words which have been used by ordinary people for a given period of time, and that are therefore considered as established enough in the language to be accepted.

The problem with this is that, in the end, the language loses in beauty and harmony, and that people get lazy to research and do a proper use of it.

One measure that I would impose would be to sanction the media for using words which are not considered as established (and "stabilized") in the language.

[Sigel]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

The problem with this is that, in the end, the language loses in beauty and harmony, and that people get lazy to research and do a proper use of it.

Absolutely. It's a loss.

[Milesian]

Despite the practical and useful nature of using English as a lingua franca, the danger it poses to other languages, particularly minority languages, cannot be overstated. It would be a great loss if other languages suffered and died out as a result of becoming under-used and obsolete.
People should take great care to preserve their own languages as much as possible in the interests of cultural preservation and national pride.

The Irish language has suffered near extinction due to English replacing it due to many circumstances, not least because it was forcefully discouraged in order that English be used in it's place. I have no time for cultural imperialism.


There is an Irish saying on this matter - "Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste, ná Béarla cliste"

[ÅnÐReS]

Originally Posted by Dr. Solar Wolff

Since 500 AD or so the English have lived on an island. They and other Britains were the least likely to learn another language in school. Now multiply that likelyhood about 1000 times for English colonies (American, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, English South Africa). Most English speakers speak one language.

Right. So maybe if they shouldn't have gotten out of their island the world would be a better place for the rest of us all.

[KleineFreiheit]

Hello everybody,

this is my first posting.

I don´t think we should fight English, but instead take care of our own native languages.

It makes me sick to see how ignorant German nativespeakers use to mix up low level German with low level English.

The biggest enemy of our own languages (and therefore cultural identities) arent´t America or Britain ( I never met one from the USA or the UK who told me that I have from one to use english words instead of germans).

The current problem is home-made, nothing more.

If we aren´t aware of our own linguistic backgrounds nobody will be.

I never use english expressions when I speak German, or better, if there is a word in German I can use for an english I simply say it.

For example. I don´t say bodyguard, cause in German we have got an one word, it´s Leibwächter. I never say cover, cause in German it´s Einband. I could name loads of examples.

It´s up to us how we treat our languages. The trouble is that in the German speaking nations (not only Germany) English has something to do with political correctness. The manipulation through the medias, the advertisment and politicans suggest that English means "good", "open minded", "cool", "better"and last but not least "global".

The German nativespeakers are still traumatised by WW2. Many believe (it´s like a pseudoreligion) th