Why is this English A. de Swaan, Maastricht 2000
Notes
1. The French-German, bilingual tv-station Arte is exceptional in
every respect, BBC World Service and France International,
Voice of America and (Dutch) Wereldomroep are explicitly
aimed at international audiences.
2. Cf. Irene Bellier, ‘Moralité, Langue et Pouvoirs dans les
Institutions Européennes’, Social Anthropology 3.3 1995,
pp. 235-50, esp. p. 245; Ulrich Ammon, ‘The European Union’, p.
262. Nevertheless, since at lest 1991, Chancellor Kohl has regularly insisted
on the adoption of German as the third language of the European Commission’s
bureaucracy (International Herald Tribune, January 3, 1992).
3. C f. Michael Schlossmacher, 'Die Arbeitssprachen in den Organen der Europäischen
Gemeinschaft. Methoden und Ergebnisse einer empirischen Untersuchung' in:
Ulrich Ammon, Klaus J. Mattheier and Peter H. Nelde (eds.), Sociolingistica,
International Yearbook of European Sociolinguistics vol. 8. English
only? in Europe. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1994, pp. 101-122;
see also Virginie Mamadouh, De talen in het Europese parlement. [Amsterdamse
sociaal-geografische studies, 52] Amsterdam: Instituut voor sociale geografie,
Unversiteit van Amsterdam, 1995.
4. Cf. Jean-Pierre van Deth, L'enseignement scolaire des langues vivantes
dan les pays membres de la communauté européenne; bilan, réflexions
et propositions. Bruxelles: Didier, 1979
5. Key Data on Education in the European Union. Luxembourg: Office
for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1996, pp. 54-5.
6. Les Jeunes Européens [Eurobaromètre, 47.2],
European Commission, 1997. pp. 39 sqq.
7. This has not changed at all: ‘There was much talk of milk pools and
butter mountains, of a unitary currency, of liberalizing movements for EC
citizens and restricting access for oustiders, but the language in which these
issues were dealt with remained itself a non-issue.’ See my ‘The
evolving European Language System: A Theory of Communication Potential and
Language Competition’ International Political Science Review
14.3, July 1993, pp. 241-256, p. 244.
See also my Words of the world; The global language system. Cambridge:
Polity Press, 2001.
8. A recent example is the 'Oegstgeest declaration: Moving away from a monolingual
habitus' Approved 30 January 2000 at the International conference on regional,
minority and immigrant languages in multicultural Europe, convened by the
European Cultural Foundation.
9. There can be no doubt, that Germany as the most populous nation and a founding
member of the Union is entitled to have its language treated on an equal footing
with English and French. However this would compel Spain to insist on equal
treatment for Spanish, which among the languages of the EU is second only
to English, as a world language. This would force Italy as a founding member
of the Union to demand the same position for its language and then, unavoidably,
the turn would come for another founding member, the Netherlands, and so on
until all members would have formally secured the position of their language
in the EU and everything would be exactly where it is now: all official languages
are also formally working languages but only two are actually used on a day
to day basis. See also the 'voting cycle' in Table I.
10. Cf. David D. Laitin, Language repertoires and State Construction in
Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1992, pp. 152-3.
11. Cf. Jannes Hartkamp, unpubl. M.A. thesis on perceptions of language spread
and preferences for foreign languages to learn.
12. ‘What is lost when a language is lost?,’ Joshua Fishman asks
and he himself answeers: ‘…the sociocultural integration of the
generations, the cohesiveness, naturalness and quiet creativity, the secure
sense of identity, even without politicized consciousness of identity, the
sense of collective worth of a community and of a people…’ cf
Joshua Fishman, ‘On the limits of ethnolinguistic democracy’ in:
Skuttnabb-Kangas, Tove and Robert Phillipson (eds.), Linguistic human
rights; Overcoming linguistic discrimination. Berlin/New York: Mouton
De Gruyter, 1994, pp. 49-62, p. 60.
13. Cf. my ‘A political Sociology of the World Language System (1):
The Dynamics of Language Spread’ Language Problems and Language
Planning, 22.1 Spring 1998, pp. 63-75 and (2) ‘The unequal exchange
of texts’ idem, 22.2 Summer 1998, pp. 109-128.
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