French call to replace English with Latin as Europe's official language

[Michie]

Met with scorn for now, the sentiment against English language is moving from the fringes to mainstream politics.

An anti-English movement is brewing in France. Clement Beaune, French Minister for European Affairs led a campaign for “European linguistic diversity” last month, where he emphasized the lack of need for English after Brexit.

“Let’s get used to speaking our languages again,” he said.

Faced with fierce critics, even domestically, Frexit advocate Francois Asselineau criticized the minister for failing to understand France’s position within the EU.

“To believe that French would once again become the first language in Europe after Brexit is not to understand that the EU is a geopolitical unit under the domination of the USA and NATO for 75 years,” writes Asselineau.

But many were on the sidelines of this debate, or found the idea even a little enticing, Asselineau one of them.

“To give the French language its full place in the world, France must regain an independent diplomacy from the USA, redirect its cooperation of all kinds towards Africa, Russia, Asia, and Latin America, and strengthen its industry, research, defence, and education,” he adds.

Continued below.
French call to replace English with Latin as Europe's official language

 

[chevyontheriver]

Met with scorn for now, the sentiment against English language is moving from the fringes to mainstream politics.

An anti-English movement is brewing in France. Clement Beaune, French Minister for European Affairs led a campaign for “European linguistic diversity” last month, where he emphasized the lack of need for English after Brexit.

“Let’s get used to speaking our languages again,” he said.

Faced with fierce critics, even domestically, Frexit advocate Francois Asselineau criticized the minister for failing to understand France’s position within the EU.

“To believe that French would once again become the first language in Europe after Brexit is not to understand that the EU is a geopolitical unit under the domination of the USA and NATO for 75 years,” writes Asselineau.

But many were on the sidelines of this debate, or found the idea even a little enticing, Asselineau one of them.

“To give the French language its full place in the world, France must regain an independent diplomacy from the USA, redirect its cooperation of all kinds towards Africa, Russia, Asia, and Latin America, and strengthen its industry, research, defence, and education,” he adds.

Continued below.
French call to replace English with Latin as Europe's official language

Probo.

But Google Translate will have to up it's game for that not to be a disaster. It includes Latin but translates it poorly. And I would rather skip Google altogether.

 

[Anthony2019]

When I lived over in France on exchange back in the late 1990s, I was at university where most students were able to speak English or were at least studying it.
In my hall of residence, I had a portable radio set where nearly every song I heard played was in the English language.
Cinemas throughout the town were showing films, which although subtitled, the majority were in English.
French is a very beautiful language and that is the main reason I wanted to learn it. But the most popular second language understood and studied by French people is English. And it is pretty much the same throughout the rest of western Europe.
I think that Clement Beaune should take a little more pride in his own country, its people and its achievements. In terms of technology, science, education and medicine, France has always been streets ahead of most developed countries. From chip and pin banking, from telecommunications, from advanced and fast transportation networks,and digital technology and media, France has absolutely no rival. Technologically France is very probably one of the most advanced nations on earth.
Why is it necessary to speak English or learn it? Because apart from their mother tongue, English is the language that most people in the world can speak and understand.

 

[Gnarwhal]

DEUS VULT

 

[Michie]

DEUS VULT

@Fenwick? Tapping my fingers....

 

[Padres1969]

Yeah not likely. English has become THE second language, for better or worse, worldwide. The EU would do itself a disservice by stepping back from that now when it's fait accompli and of all things adopting a language that hasn't been a living language outside of Catholic Churches in close to 1400 years and that almost no one speaks today. Honestly coming from that kind of politician I doubt he really means Latin, so much as he means French becoming the lingua franca of Europe again.

 

[Jay Sea]

Met with scorn for now, the sentiment against English language is moving from the fringes to mainstream politics.

An anti-English movement is brewing in France. Clement Beaune, French Minister for European Affairs led a campaign for “European linguistic diversity” last month, where he emphasized the lack of need for English after Brexit.

“Let’s get used to speaking our languages again,” he said.

Faced with fierce critics, even domestically, Frexit advocate Francois Asselineau criticized the minister for failing to understand France’s position within the EU.

“To believe that French would once again become the first language in Europe after Brexit is not to understand that the EU is a geopolitical unit under the domination of the USA and NATO for 75 years,” writes Asselineau.

But many were on the sidelines of this debate, or found the idea even a little enticing, Asselineau one of them.

“To give the French language its full place in the world, France must regain an independent diplomacy from the USA, redirect its cooperation of all kinds towards Africa, Russia, Asia, and Latin America, and strengthen its industry, research, defence, and education,” he adds.

Continued below.
French call to replace English with Latin as Europe's official language

It is interesting that the do not propose Esperanto as it is already neutral and would put everyone on the same footing. It seems the French only wish to dominate the EU.
In Love
Jay Sea

 

[chevyontheriver]

Yeah not likely. English has become THE second language, for better or worse, worldwide. The EU would do itself a disservice by stepping back from that now when it's fait accompli and of all things adopting a language that hasn't been a living language outside of Catholic Churches in close to 1400 years and that almost no one speaks today. Honestly coming from that kind of politician I doubt he really means Latin, so much as he means French becoming the lingua franca of Europe again.

Latin was the language of the educated up until about 100 years ago. It was the lingua franca. It allowed people from all over to communicate with each other. Yes, that language is now English, and going back to Latin would be difficult. But it's not crazy.

 

[chevyontheriver]

It is interesting that the do not propose Esperanto as it is already neutral and would put everyone on the same footing. It seems the French only wish to dominate the EU.
In Love
Jay Sea

Esperanto had it's chance. You could say Latin had it's chance too.

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

France has never gotten over the fact that French is no longer the Lingua Franca.

 

[Jay Sea]

Esperanto had it's chance. You could say Latin had it's chance too.

Esperanto is a language for all and I think that that goes against it's adoption and the proposal for Latin while possible is elitist.
In Love
Jay Sea

 

[chevyontheriver]

Esperanto is a language for all and I think that that goes against it's adoption and the proposal for Latin while possible is elitist.
In Love
Jay Sea

I doubt the French were totally serious in wanting to do away with English. But I do think it's a bit of sour grapes because French is not the world language. That's gotta hurt them.

 

[Stabat Mater dolorosa]

Latin is a beautiful language, but it's heyday is definitely behind it. I'm my opinion it ended as far back as with the fall of the roman empire. Ever since that, it has been reserved for a tiny privileged elite consisting of clergy and academics. One has to keep in mind that the vast majority of the people living in the medieval times were illiterate and only learned key parts of the mass by heart out of necessity. They understood little to nothing about it beyond that.

Much of the same goes for french in my opinion. It's still a vivid and living language of course, but it reached its prime during french colonialism. Ever since that it has been in decline. What makes this proposal a utopia is both the dominant position of the English language at the crucial moment when the internet came to life, as well as the reluctance of most people (at least europeans) to change from English to french as a second language. I've learned german and some french, but still I prefer English. If anything it's more likely that we'll see a gradual shift from linguistic pluralism to a more uniform use of English throughout the European continent. It's already happening in Norway. We adopt more and more words and expressions from English. If it keeps up, we'll see a brand new version of norwegian (or simply standard english) within the end of this century.

It seems difficult to change this tendency. The internet has in combination with mass media contributed to a very well grounded hegemony of the english language (for better or worse).

 

[chevyontheriver]

Latin is a beautiful language, but it's heyday is definitely behind it. I'm my opinion it ended as far back as with the fall of the roman empire. Ever since that, it has been reserved for a tiny privileged elite consisting of clergy and academics. One has to keep in mind that the vast majority of the people living in the medieval times were illiterate and only learned key parts of the mass by heart out of necessity. They understood little to nothing about it beyond that.

I think Latin was viable as an international language up to the time the 'spirit of Vatican II' killed it off. It actually was the language of educated people, not the elitists but most high school educated people in 1800's America. I went to a secular high school and ended up with three years of Latin in the 1970s. Only one year was actually required. Now it isn't even offered. And why would anyone now? It was a useful language and now it's dead. Sorry Reggie Foster. You tried.

If I were advising someone on which modern languages to learn I'd say English, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, and maybe Urdu.

I still think Latin has a use, but not to talk with other people.