English as a lingua franca for Europe, also known by the abbreviation ELFE, is a concept promoted by some linguistics experts, which aims to standardise the use of the English language in the European Union. English, in some form or another, is already widely used and understood by people in EU countries, despite it only being spoken natively by a small percentage of those people. However, regional differences in English, as well as peculiarities in spelling, vocabulary and grammar shared with few other European languages, have made learning it more difficult for many Europeans; ELFE attempts to make English easier to learn (for example by emphasising the elements of English which it shares with other European languages) and hence more suitable for use as a European lingua franca.
The motivation for ELFE
The member states of the European Union use a wide variety of languages, and although the EU attempts to respect all of them by providing translation services, this generally consumes large amounts of time and money, and the benefits of a lingua franca: a common language that can be used by everyone to communicate with everyone else, are obvious.
Despite controversy, English has already assumed the position of a European lingua franca to some extent. According to a Eurobarometer survey in 2001, 47% of EU citizens spoke English well enough to hold a casual conversation, a higher proportion than any other language in Europe. Note, though, that this survey did not include the peoples of the ten Eastern and Southern European countries that joined the union in 2004. English is also the most commonly taught second language to children in Europe, largely because of the enormous impact of the United States in politics, economics and culture around the world.
There are, however, problems with the idea of Europe simply adopting an already existing form of English (such as British English or American English) for use as its lingua franca, some of which are listed below.
If English were made to be the sole language for the workings of the EU institutions and organisations, a considerable saving could be made. According to the EU's English language website [1], the cost of maintaining the EU's policy of multilingualism is € 1,178 million, which is 1.05% of the annual general budget of the EU. Divided by the population of the EU, this comes to € 2.58 per person per year.
Current problems with English
Cultural difficulties
Although many native English speakers would rarely consider common speech to be offensive, at times, it would not be suited for an international lingua franca, which should be as culturally neutral as possible.
One of the goals of ELFE would be to remove phrases with inappropriate or culture-specific associations (for example, sport terminology). While this is derided by some as political correctness, proponents of ELFE argue that this is necessary for a lingua franca, because otherwise Europeans who adopt the English language as a means of everyday communication would also be forced into adopting the customs, traditions, and modes of thought specific to the major English-speaking countries, many of which are embodied in the language.
Pronunciation difficulties
The sounds indicated by the letters th, voiced interdental fricative and voiceless interdental fricative, are not found in other European languages with the exception of Spanish, Greek and Icelandic. The French replace it with the sounds 's' and 'z'; Scandinavians and Italians replace it with the sounds 't' (or 'f') and 'd'. ELFE would choose one of these sounds and standardise it.
In most of the other Germanic languages, like German and Dutch, consonants at the ends of words are never voiced, and so native speakers of those languages tend not to voice consonants at the ends of words in English, hence mug and muck, and bat and bad are pronounced alike to them. There is also confusion because they pronounce the present tense of build the same way as the past tense, built. This confusion also extends to their writing.
Phoneticists note that besides the difference in vowel quality, there is also a difference in length between the vowel sounds in the words bit and beat. Speakers of languages that don't have vowel pairs with this distinction, such as Italian and Spanish, often have difficulty with this distinction. The most obvious difficulty is the large number of vowel sounds in the English language, each one of which has to be learned by listening and training tongue placement.
Intonation difficulties
English is a language with stressed syllables, like other languages of Europe, both unmarked in writing and capable of changing the meaning of words and even sentences. However the manner of marking different types of information structure (relating to topic, comment, focus and presupposition) and when this is done differ between different languages. Although words without the usual stress can be understood by native speakers, changes in meaning of sentences spoken by them ("I thought she was supposed to wash the pan" vs. "I thought she was supposed to wash the pan" vs. "I thought she was supposed to wash the pan" vs. "I thought she was supposed to wash the pan.) are often entirely missed.
Punctuation differences
The British use their punctuation rather similarly to the French, but not entirely. Although people can learn another language fluently, they often slip back to the punctuation of their native one. German for instance has very distinctive rules for the placement of commas, which English lacks, that can be encountered in many English texts written by Germans. Several forms of quotation marks and number formats may be seen in non-native English texts.
Vocabulary difficulties
Non-English speakers, especially the Japanese, sometimes take English words and modify them for concepts that they think are appropriate, but which will not be comprehended by native speakers. There are also many false friends in English, such as the French and German words actuel (aktuell) and eventuel (eventuell), which in English don't mean actual and eventual but rather current and possible.
It is expected that a standardised ELFE would declare many of these neologisms normative, forcing native speakers to use them when communicating with other Europeans.
Spelling difficulties
English is known to have one of the most difficult spelling systems among European languages, and mistakes among its native speakers are quite common: there is a reasonably high proportion of dyslexic people who speak English as a native language compared to those who speak languages with a more regular orthography. Conversion of written text (most often what a foreign learner meets first) into spoken words is equally difficult and challenging.
The British spell many words as the French do; Americans instead spell a few words as the Germans do. But the French and Germans spell many similar words differently and will use these in their writing. (See also the recent experiences with German spelling reform).
An article published in The Guardian in 2001[2], regarding the use of the English language around the world, noted:
- The 13 spellings for a sound like sh - shoe, sugar, issue, mansion, mission, nation, suspicion, ocean, conscious, chaperon, schist, fuchsia and pshaw - are a source of weakness, not strength.
See also
