26 April - 2 May 2001
Issue No.531
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 26 April - 2 May 2001 Issue No.531 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Plain Talk
Language, it seems, will remain a perennial problem. In April 2000 the UNESCO courier carried a "Dossier" with the intriguing title "Languages: strife or coexistence," which provided some interesting information. There are 6000 languages in the world, ten of which disappear every year. In fact some specialists predict that in the current century between 50 to 90 per cent of the languages people speak will have become extinct.
Very few languages have survived for more than 2000 years: Arabic, Chinese, Persian and Sanskrit are among them. According to Ranka Babic in one of the Dossier's articles, the disappearance of languages is due in part to European colonialism, which resulted in the death of 15 per cent of the languages spoken prior to the colonialist era.
The writer goes on to say that globalisation necessitated some form of linguistic unification to facilitate communication. English is, of course, the foremost candidate for that job. It would be a pity if people ended up speaking only one language, though. The diversity of languages reflects a diversity of cultures, and the destruction of the former means the eradication of the latter. This will make the world much the poorer.
That UNESCO Dossier is still under discussion. On 17 April, the Herald Tribune carried a front page article with the title "Use of English as Global Tongue is Booming, and So is Concern," and the subtitle "In Europe, Many Try to Protect Local Languages." The story discusses Thalwil in Switzerland, where even the youngest students "are learning multiplication or discussing the weather in English." The young ones no longer sing German leider, but "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and "How are you this morning?" Even the parents believe that this is "something you need today."
It seems that throughout Europe English is taking up territory. In many universities courses in science, philosophy and business are taught in English. In one European Union Survey 70 per cent of those asked whether everyone should speak English said yes.
But, of course, there are those who take issue with this tendency, claiming that languages should be protected. They believe that the use of English threatens national identities. Many Egyptians share this belief, which explains the current preoccupation of educators and media people with the protection of the Arabic language, English having become a must for many job seekers. Advertisements for posts, especially in the private sector, insist that knowledge of English is essential.
To go back to Switzerland. The Thalwil programme was vehemently attacked by politicians and the press, who asked why, in a country whose languages are German, French, Italian and Romansch, children are learning English as their first foreign language?
Of course, the fiercest defenders of their language are the French. Many laws have been issued with the intention of protecting the French language.
I remember reading many years ago of a book with the title "Parlez Vous Franglais" by Professor Etienble who, at one time, taught at Alexandria University. It was about the influence of English on the French language. There is a special Government Commission whose job it is to produce French alternatives to current English terms. France is not alone in this. There are movements in Germany, Poland and Romania to create some sort of legal framework for the protection of national languages and to prevent the seemingly endless inclusion of English loan words.
This is understandable in the case of Germany, but I cannot for the life of me think why Poland and Romania should seek such restrictions. I don't know about Romania, but I was cultural counsellor in Poland for three years, where I could have learned Polish. Its difficulty aside, I did not have to. Almost every other Pole I met spoke perfect English.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page