If EU has to adopt an official language in the futur, which?

Meesh   Tue Dec 26, 2006 1:43 am GMT
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.


As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".



In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.



The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.



There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.



In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.



Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.



Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.



By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".



During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.



Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.



Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.



If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.







Aktuallität, it ist possibel zu wreit Englisch wit ah mohr German weh of Spelling. Vor ekzämpel, as ju kann sie hier, mäny of the Worts are eider aktuel german Worts ohr wehrie zimmilär zu aktuel german Worts.




Meesh
European   Tue Dec 26, 2006 3:46 pm GMT
Amazing staf diud! I think it deservs a luk end trai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_a_lingua_franca_for_Europe
Adam   Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:08 pm GMT
As long as Britain is out of the EU soon, I don't care what language it has.
Adam   Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:12 pm GMT
"Finally, let's mention the fact that French was the lingua Franca of Europe until the XVIII century"

Why would French have been the lingua france of Europe until the 18th Century when Spain was the world's only superpower until the 17th Century and France was jusr some obsolete backwater, just as it is now?
Socrates   Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:28 pm GMT
UK is in EU,is out of € so are Sweden and Denmark

LATIN lingua franca of the Western world for over a thousand years. Latin was only replaced in this capacity by French in the 18th century, though Latin continued to be used in some intellectual and political circles.

18th century french why? 1700-1800 =1789!

and Spain was in decadence ...the struggle was between the powerful France and England and...
AppleKnowledge   Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:31 pm GMT
I don't think english can be THE official language of europe, maybe it can stay the EU lingua franca, it's just a british and american dream... the futur is indifinite...
Socrates   Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:46 pm GMT
We already speak english and it is a lingua franca.
Americanophile   Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:51 pm GMT
EU + NATO = UNITED!
guest   Tue Dec 26, 2006 10:21 pm GMT
Meesh,

That was HILARIOUS Dude!

I needed that laugh--TY!!
Guest   Wed Dec 27, 2006 5:52 pm GMT
<<EU + NATO = UNITED>>

The image of the United States changed a lot since the second world war, in particular since the new wars as that in Iraq,
listen this famous music:
Amerika:
http://www.xakep.ru/post/24462/-x-rammstein_-_america.mp3

if you don't undestand German you have the video (english version):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6unDcYBQSpQ

(I prefer German version)
Americanophile   Thu Dec 28, 2006 10:36 pm GMT
ENGLISH IS A EUROPEAN LANGUAGE
Guest   Fri Dec 29, 2006 11:06 am GMT
you mean a european-born? but english now is a minority language in Europe
Guest   Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:39 pm GMT
<<you mean a european-born? but english now is a minority language in Europe >>

minority or not, it's still a European Language.
Guest   Sun Dec 31, 2006 11:42 am GMT
<< <<you mean a european-born? but english now is a minority language in Europe >>

minority or not, it's still a European Language. >>

Ok, but historically, and culturally, the British always turned to their colonies and the colonisation of the world, and not to Europe (it is necessary to say they had a bad memory of The Hundred Years War), they always tried to avoid the European continent, focusing to their naval armies rather than their infantry (see the napoleonic wars)
The United Kingdom is one of the countries the most reluctant to the European Union, because it has a powerful alliance and the command of it, the Commonwealth, also NATO (who major part is commanded by the USA) and the relations with the United States are sharply more privileged than for the other european countries (Irak war)
Adam   Sun Dec 31, 2006 1:05 pm GMT
"but english now is a minority language in Europe "


I disagree -


Proportion of EU population speaking each language as a mother tongue -
German - 18%
English - 13%
Italian - 13%
French - 12%
Spanish - 9%
Polish - 9%
Dutch - 5%
Greek - 3%
Czech - 2%
Portuguese - 2%
Hungarian - 2%
Slovakian - 1%
Catalan - 1%
*************************

Proportion of EU population speaking each language as a second tongue -

English - 38%
German - 14%
French - 14%
Spanish - 6%
Russia - 6%
Italian - 3%
***********************

Total proportion of speakers in the EU -

English - 51%
German - 32%
French - 26%
Italian - 16%
Spanish - 15%
Polish - 10%
Russian - 7%
Swedish - 3%
Greek - 3%
Czech - 3%

http://www.answers.com/topic/languages-of-the-european-union

So not only is English NOT a minority language in the EU but it is also BY FAR the most spoken, the only language spoken by over half (50%) of the EU population.