Newsgroups: uk.politics,alt.politics.ec,sci.lang,talk.politics.european-union
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!europa.chnt.gtegsc.com!howland.reston.ans.net!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!uknet!warwick!newsfeed.ed.ac.uk!dcs.ed.ac.uk!marble.epcc.ed.ac.uk!johnf
From: johnf@marble.epcc.ed.ac.uk (J Fisher)
Subject: Re: Single European Language
Message-ID: <DA43sn.Dtw@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
Followup-To: uk.politics,alt.politics.ec,sci.lang,talk.politics.european-union
Sender: cnews@dcs.ed.ac.uk (UseNet News Admin)
Organization: Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
References: <690061730wnr@afin.demon.co.uk> <802916119snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk> <3rgkru$7cn@cosmos.imag.fr> <3rgpuq$jua@news.ccit.arizona.edu> <3riv4a$a86@mercury.cair.du.edu>
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 1995 12:53:11 GMT
Lines: 38

Edwin Hanks (ehanks@du.edu) wrote:
: There is something to be said in favor of the complexity of English.

: Consider that any constructed language, which by design is very codified
: and modular, is bound to be very limited and boring.  English has the
: advantage of adaptability, as someone else noted.  English also has a
: different word for varied connotations of words, so that precision and
: elegant concision may be exercised.  English does not demand that these
: precise words be used.  I could just as easily have said that English
: is full of words which have slightly different meanings so that you can
: find the right word for the right meaning and so that you don't have
: to use so many words to get the point across.  English can be well
: understood from context, even if the exact word meaning is not plain
: to an inexperienced user.  But, aside from being acceptable and
: learnable (I think) to the general user, persons who wish to convey
: more than just a concrete definition, by the color of their phrasing,
: can do so.

I think that much of this is true of any language, when
spoken those who are native speakers.  However, we aren't
talking about that, but about a language to be spoken by
huge numbers of people as a second, non-native language.

In fact, English when spoken by Euro-functionaries mostly
doesn't have the flexibility and subtle shades of meaning
you describe.  On the contrary, there seems to be a distinct
variety of the language, a kind of Euro-English.  It's
spoken fairly quickly in an indeterminate mid-Atlantic
accent, with a flat, boring, intonation-free voice.  It uses
the Romance rather than the Germanic vocabulary and there
are strange shifts in the meaning of words - such as
`actual' to mean `current' or `present day' - and peculiar
set phrases, such as `so to say' instead of `so to speak'. 
There are few idioms or other deviations from strict
literalness.  It now seems to be so widespread that I guess
we shall just have to learn to put up with it... 

--John
