Latin as lingua franca for the European Union?

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Is adopting Latin as lingua franca for the EU a good idea?

Yes
9
47%
No
8
42%
Undecided
2
10%
 
Total votes : 19

Postby Gnaeus Dionysius Draco on Sun May 30, 2004 2:24 pm

Salvete!

I tend to agree with Mencius on constructed languages. The reasons why people learn other languages often has to do with their cultural prestige or the curiosity value of their culture. Conlangs may wish to avoid nationalism and remain neutral, but it also makes them less interesting to many people. And even so, many conlangs do resemble one language more than another.

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Postby Primus Aurelius Timavus on Sun May 30, 2004 8:19 pm

I think that the rule for plurals in Latino sine flexione is to use the accusative plural in all cases. That explains the terminal "s". Actually, the use of the plural is optional in the language. "Tres puella" would be correct.

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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Mon May 31, 2004 1:00 pm

Salvete
I agree with Mencius and think that in the end it will come to this, a natural evolution towards a common language in Europe. Attempts by some French to keep English out of their language is not going to work any more than all those classes in school on "proper" English has lent any of us Americans to speak it. In Germany I heard that there's a form spoken today with a mixture of English and German, and probably some other things too, that is being found spoken in news casts and among politicians. And why not if that is the language people in Germany are beginning to speak and understand. It is simply an evolution of German rather than an attempt at constructed language. Here in parts of the US if you do not speak Spanish you nonetheless include a few words and phrases, while on the Spanish station you will hear a phrase or two of English breaking in. Often it is easier to understand that mixture of Mexican Spanish and American English than is to understand English English. Just last night we were watching an English film and my wife couldn't understand what they were talking about because of the English way of pronouncing "oregano". The blend of languages is what sometimes distinguishes regional differences in the US, and while we have a form of common American English used on national networks, even there some other influences slip in. It is a process of natural evolution of a language. In the end that will be what happens in a united Europe, without any need to adopt or construct a single language, because the people will create their own language anyway.
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Postby Cleopatra Aelia on Tue Jan 11, 2005 5:46 pm

Salve Piscine,

Horatius Piscinus wrote:In Germany I heard that there's a form spoken today with a mixture of English and German, and probably some other things too, that is being found spoken in news casts and among politicians. And why not if that is the language people in Germany are beginning to speak and understand. It is simply an evolution of German rather than an attempt at constructed language.


It's true, there are so many anglizisms mixing into German but the critics are there too. Sometimes it seems constructed that especially young people who think they are trendy using words sounding like English in a Germanized form. Or they even use English words instead of the German one, e.g. "weekend" instead of "Wochenende". I personally think for the computer language it's OK to use many English words but when talking about normal topics I rather stick to the German words or those who are used for a long time being well aware that not all of them have a Germanic origin though. I still say "Wochenende" instead of "weekend" when talking to another German, and I got to the "Büro" instead of to the "office". But actually this discussion about modern languages should be under a different thread.
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Postby Cleopatra Aelia on Tue Jan 11, 2005 5:57 pm

Salvete Omnes,

Now I want to answer the question of Latin as a lingua franca for the EU. I voted for no since I think most people who are not native speaker of English learn it at school. Compared to the other European languages it's easy (except for Spanish and Italian maybe) to learn and spoken world wide. The EU should have a language also with which they could communicate with other countries, organizations (like UN) etc. And aren't English, French and German the official languages of the EU today? If the EU would use Latin as a lingua franca than it would be the only one in the world to do so except for the Vatican (one of the dwarf states who is not even in the EU but uses our currency). We should be open to the world and part of it, so we should use a language known to the majority in this world and that is nowadays English.
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Postby Q Valerius on Wed Jan 12, 2005 10:36 am

Yes! I vote for yes. I would even sacrifice my current job and lifestyle to travel to Europe to teach it at the schools. :)

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Postby Q Valerius on Wed Jan 12, 2005 10:58 am

Not only did I vote yes, but this has got me inspired. Those seven people and myself, we should get together to work on a formal proposition to the European Union. We're going to need statistics, support, and many contacts. I'm willing to dedicate lots of time and even bandwidth to draw support for this. Even though I do not live in the EU, think of the possibilities of the language that united most of Europe for 1000 years and then continued to be the international language for the next 1200 years as the modern unifier. The Vatican, of course, would be in support, and they already have a dictionary out (though it is displeasing to me). There's a huge corpus of literature already written in the language (unlike Esperanto which would easily mutate and evolve within a relatively short amount of time). Every alphabet in the EU is based off of the Latin alphabet (excepting Greek) and if Turkey joins in 20 years, they already have the Latin alphabet also. There's massive schooling for Latin already in place (and Turkey would be able to adopt this also). All we need to do is allocate support and rally the troops. Who's with me!?
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Postby Primus Aurelius Timavus on Wed Jan 12, 2005 1:51 pm

Salve Sceri,

You might be interested in a front page Wall Street Journal article last week (I forget the exact day) on the multiplying language pairs needing translation and interpretation in the EU. Just check your local library's stacks. The article briefly mentions that the possibility of adopting Latin as a universal European language was considered (and rejected).

Vale et bona tibi fortuna,

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Postby Q Valerius on Wed Jan 12, 2005 3:14 pm

Salve Tergeste,

Many things are considered and rejected. Emancipating slaves was considered and rejected when forming the United States of America. It takes time and effort (and research and statistics!) to get these things across. But thanks for the luck, I'm sure I will need it.

Vale,

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