Sunday 3 December 2023

eurish

English is of course spoken across Europe:

English language in Europe - Wikipedia

And in the meantime, a language is emerging that is spoken across the continent but not in 'English speaking countries': 

It is mostly used among EU staff, expatriates and migrants from EU countries, young international travellers (such as exchange students in the EU's Erasmus programme) and European diplomats with a lower proficiency in the language.

Euro English - Wikipedia

This started about a decade ago:

Eurish has developed a grammar of its own

Do you speak Eurish? EU has its own language that's far too difficult | World | News | Express.co.uk

And now after Brexit:

One feature is the European uncountable noun — singular in native-speaker English but plural in Eurish: “he received feedbacks”, “we have a lot of informations” and “we are producing online contents”.

There are other Eurish differences. I have heard both Germans and Italians say “we discussed about” rather than “we discussed”. “I will answer to your question” is common in many European discussions. Writing in the World Englishes journal, Mr Modiano adds others: “I am coming from Spain” rather than “I come from Spain” and “We were five people at the party” rather than “There were five people at the party”.

Continental Europeans are increasingly unworried about what Brits think of their developing English.

The evolution of Eurish - Marginal REVOLUTION

Europe speaks its own post-Brexit English

Here's a look at the differences:

Preliminary observations on the differences between Eurish, Globish and “natural” English

With the full piece here:

ECA Subject Brief

The New European's Francis Beckett writes in the latest issue:

But at least, surely, English remains the language in which the European institutions work?

Well, in a sense. The language in which the commission does its business, in which meetings are held and all official documents are written, looks every year less and less like the language you and I speak.

The British staffers used to protect it, to point out gently that this or that construction might sound fine in French or Spanish but it wouldn’t do in the language of Shakespeare. But they are no longer there, and of the two remaining Anglophone nations, Ireland has chosen to nominate Gaelic as its official language, and Malta has nominated Maltese.

So a new language is developing, which may eventually be related to English only in the way that Yiddish is related to German, or Niçois to Italian. It is developing just as a new language always develops, by using English words in French, Spanish or Italian constructions, and by importing words from European languages. I’d be tempted to call it Eurish.

In Eurish, you do not attend a meeting; you assist a meeting, because the French word assister means attend. You don’t plan a project, you have a planification. A deposit is a caution (because it is in French.) Spanish has contributed “a planning” for a schedule, “formation” for education, and “actually” for currently.

More are added each year.

Replacing English as the commission’s working language would be difficult. But the French are taking the commission to court over certain examinations for commission posts being in English only; and increasingly it’s Eurish anyway.

Brexit has wiped Britain off the map - The New European

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