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Interlingua - a common language for practical purposes Updated Mon, Mar 5, 2001 For Inter-EU.com, specially written by Allan Kiviaho, President of  AFIL - Association Finlandese pro Interlingua,  The aim of the European Union has been that all 11 languages maintain equal status. In the year 1999, the EU Commission translated 1,136,913 pages of text from one language into another. In reality, many documents have been published only in English and French. Consequently, if the number of members of the EU increases e.g. to 28 countries and 22 languages in the future, the linguistic situation in the administration of the Union would be unbearable. If at a meeting of 22 participants, everyone spoke her/his own language, that would have to be interpreted into all other languages by 231 interpreters. It is common tendency to limit the number of languages used at the meetings. One practice has been that ministerial meetings have been interpreted only into English, French and the language of the host country. The presidency of Finland 1999 began with turmoil with Germany and Austria boycotting some meetings in Finland, as the discussion was not interpreted into German. Yet, German is spoken by the largest group of people in the EU and German economy accounts for a third of the economy of the whole Union. For the same reason Germany has also protested against Sweden in the beginning of their presidency this year. A system of using three languages: German, French and English has been discussed. However, the main problem is not the difficulties in the administration of the Union, but the language barriers between the nations in the multilingual Europe. It is a considerable burden if all citizens of the EU have to learn three foreign languages. A major reason for the economic and technological superiority of the USA is their linguistic homogeneity. A free mobility of ideas, know-how and things in the EU is possible only if Europeans have a full command of one common language. This would make Europe a continent of super-communication instead of the current state of non-communication. English as lingua franca? English has been advocated as the single common language for practical purposes in the European Union. There are, however, several arguments against this: 1. English is not a native language of any country on the European continent. English is the language of an aggressive trans-oceanic superpower. One of the long-term objectives of the EU is to attain economic and technological parity with the USA. 2. English is not suitable as lingua franca in continental Europe. Its phonemes (pronunciation) and graphemes (writing) have no logical connection whatsoever. Its pronunciation is blurred when compared with most languages in continental Europe. 3. Still worse, many European proper names cannot be pronounced in English at all. Hence, the entire continent would have to be anglicised. Do we really want this? To sum up, for Europe to become a prosperous and powerful continent we need a European pride and identity. The source of this identity would be our common greco-roman heritage. Interlingua!  The carrier of our greco-roman heritage is Latin, the only real "lingua franca" in history. However, classical Latin, the language of Caesar and Cicero, is probably too difficult for contemporary man; most of us hardly have patience, time or talent to learn this noble but demanding language.   Alexander Gode-von Aesch, the father of Interlingua Alice V. Morris (Vanderbilt), the mother of Interlingua Edgar de Wahl, Estonian pioneer  of natural auxiliary languages However, over the period of 1924 to 1951 a modern and rationalized version of Latin was created as a result of great international effort. World-famous linguists participated in this project. This language is called Interlingua. The basic vocabulary of Interlingua is mainly based on Latin but it contains also other, mainly modern, words derived from the linguistic pool of European languages. The consistency of Interlingua is guaranteed by the following control languages: Italian, Spanish/Portuguese, French and English, German and Russian as possible substitutes. A word is accepted as international if it exists at least in three of these control languages. The grammar of Interlingua is a hybrid of the control languages, extensively simplified and rationalized, yet sufficiently expressive. Notably, Interlingua is a neutral language in that it is not a native language of any country. Thus, it would not threaten the languages of small countries. Interlingua would be a natural choice even in the Americas, where all major languages represent control languages of Interlingua. Hence, why not also on other continents, at least as a means of communication with Europe and North and South America. Further information: http://www.interlingua.com/historia/biographias/a-z.htm   The Inter-EU.com will assist all exporters, importers and investors in and outside Europe, to participate the European Union's growing economy and its expansion. This is a private initiative by the Finnish management consultancy Interdevelopment Oy and its associates. - See Copyright Notice and Disclaimer - Editor: Reino Routamo Design by Casse-Noisettes.com

Actualisate le 2009-11-24 Administrator de iste sito: -------------------------- Allan Kiviaho SILY - Suomen Interlinguayhdistys ry. FILF - Föreningen för Interlingua i Finland AFIL - Association Finlandese pro Interlingua