English is the most widely-spoken language in the world.

It is currently spoken either as a L1 or as an official L2 in

approximately 75* territories (1/3 of tot. pop.).

It therefore follows that it has many different versions

and standards.

*Jenkins, Jennifer (2009) World Englishes: a resource book for students, 2nd edition, London, UK, Routledge, p. 3

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/print_2098.html

Kachru’s “Three circle model of World Englishes” (1985/1988)

Phase One: Foundation and Consolidation (c.1340-1600). Arrival ofthe printing press and spread of organized education.

Phase Two: the Adventurers (c. 1600-1800). English-speaking nativesof the British Isles explore, settle in or are deported to remote parts ofthe world, where they establish colonies.

Phase Three: The Indipendent Colonies (c.1780-1914).

Phase Four: The Colonial Subjects (c.1900-1950). English isdeliberately taught to colonial peoples through English-mediumeducation systems in Africa, South Asia, East Asia, the Pacific andelsewhere, adding millions of people who use English as a ‘second’language.

What is standard English? , Peter Strevens, SEAMEO Regional Language Centre, Singapore, 1982

English Today / Volume 1 / Issue 02 / April 1985, pp 8-8

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1280164

Cultural Indipendence (c.1950). Econocultural spread of English for practical

necessity. Large-scale learning as a foreign language all around the world. (cf.

e.g. Görlach 1995b:15). Speaker migration and imperial domination are not

the driving force any longer.

English only became a

serious choice as foreign

language in Continental

European schools towards the

end of the 19th century.

Until the Second World War, it

remained little taught.

Truchot 2002:7

Language driven by market

forces

English is widely used as a lingua franca (or second language)in Scandinavia and the Netherlands, while in southern andeastern Europe it is still mainly a foreign language.

But as it gains ground all over Europe, it becomes adapted(‘nativised’) in very different ways. This adaption depends onthe functions it has to perform in various contexts.

These trends will continue, especially as schools tend tointroduce foreign-language teaching earlier on.

The English Language in Europe R. R. K. Hartman, p.2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_Europe#mediaviewer/File:Knowledge_of_English_EU_map.svg

2005

http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_sum_en.pdf

The European Economic Community founded in 1957 consisted of 6 Member States with

a combined total of 4 official languages.

By 2004 this organization had evolved into a European Union of 25 Member States with

more than 20 official languages among them.

This increase has presented numerous challenges to the EU’s internal linguistic regime,

where formal policy has, with some notable exceptions, been to treat all of these languages

equally.

Some of these languages – English in particular – have been more equal than others.

The European Court of Justice has developed a jurisprudence in cases involving such

infringements in which concern for the free movement of goods and workers has failed to

allow for an appropriate regard for the humanistic principles that also, and to a growing

extent, form part of Europe’s legal culture.

http://www.europalawpublishing.com/EN/webshop/human-rights-law/0/1/8649

Multilingualism management

http://euc.illinois.edu/_includes/docs/managing_multilingualism_in_the_EU.pdf

English as a tool for empowerment

Europe has become a single multilingual area, rather like India, where languages are

hierarchically related in status. As in India, there may be many who are monolingual in a

regional language, but those who speak one of the ‘big’ languages will have better access to

material success.

Graddol (1997:14)

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/publications/magazines/languagestranslation/documents/issue_01_en.pdf

95% of Commission drafters write mainly in English,

although only 13% of them is of English mother tongue.

54% of them, that is more than half of the entire

Commission population drafting documents, rarely or never have their documents checked by a native speaker

Struan Stevenson,

British MEP: "Because

it is deemed a

fundamental right to be

able to communicate

with your electors in

[your] own tongue, the

parliament now has to

work in 20* different

languages. This exercise

currently consumes tens

of thousands of tons of

paper a year, as every

word spoken has to be

typed up and filed in

mountainous archives."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/02/0222_050222_translation.html

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2013/09/polyglot-europe

The various solutions to Europe’s Babel all have

their drawbacks. Reducing the number of official

EU languages to three or so is a political non-

starter. The spread of English as an informal

official language is convenient, but annoys

(formerly privileged) Francophones, and not only

them.

Fight the Fog campaign, 1998 exclusive focus on

English

Clear Writing campaign, 2010 set to encompass 23

of the Commission’s working languages (prov.: was it

mainly a political move, since the majority of the text

of the Commission is written in English before being

translated?)

The English used within the

European institutions? A

difficult register? i.e.

subsidiarity

A shared though variable

means of communication?

A set of intelligible

neologisms/semantic shifts?

Wrong English?

Euro-Englishes?

A new language?

Pidginized

Language

Jargon

Something

…

Nothing!

New Variety

Improper

English

“…a novel variety of ‘Euro-English’ –a term which has been used for over a decade

with reference to the distinctive vocabulary of the Union […], but which must now be extended to include the various hybrid

accents, grammatical constructions and discourse patterns encountered there”

Crystal D., 1999 The Future of Englishes, in English Today, 15/2

Görlach (1999, 2002) No endonormative standard evolving: dominance of the native standard and not sufficient use

of English between Europeans to arrive at a negotiated common variety (≠ Jenkins)

Ferguson (1982:x) English in Europe: emerging continental norm

Preisler (1995:356) Euro-English: learner language, pidginized English

Modiano 2001a:13 It would be naive to assume that legitimization, codification, and standardization processes

will not take place

Barbara SeidlhoferWe are at the beginning of a process heading towards formation and acceptance of a newconcept of English as a lingua franca in its own right, with its own description andcodification. We are witnessing the emergence of an endonormative model of lingua francaEnglish which will increasingly derive its norms of correctness and appropriacy from its ownusage rather that that of the UK or the US, or any other ‘native speaker country’.

Décsy’s predictions (1974) ‘Eurish’, by the year 2000: Europeans’ common New English Mutually intelligible with British and American English

Different in a large number of features (i.e. pronunciation and grammar)

Carstensen (1986:832)First use of the term ‘Euro-English’

The English these people use is also a kind of “Euro-English”, and it is obvious that it will be rather different from the real present day English usage that was the original model

McArthur (2003:57)The term ‘Euro-English’ has often been used to mean ‘bad

English perpetrated in Brussels’ (the Eurospeak)

‘The major EU enlargement was a

fantastic achievement for democracy and

for Europe, but it brought two problems

for drafting in the Commission: the

continued rise of bad English as the

Commission’s lingua franca, and the

massive influx of new staff who naturally

adopted the prevailing in-house style,

rather than trying to reform it.’

Emma Wagner,

Director-General for

Translation (DGT)

2013: EU’s Court of Auditors developed a style guide to correct the many misused English words that have developed out of interference from other European languages.i.e. using “control” for “monitor” and being perfectly understood

(contrôler in French and kontrollieren in German)

Complete list available at: http://ec.europa.eu/translation/english/guidelines/documents/misused_english_terminology_e

u_publications_en.pdf

Defining the speech community, difficult job.

Do Europeans regard themselves to be part of a

European community?

Berns (1995°:26)

De-anglicized and de-Americanized English

aimed at maintaining Europeans’ supra-national

cultural and linguistic identity to

Express identity to one another

Express identity to the world

“Two foreign girls - nannies? tourists? - one German, one Belgian (?), talking in English beside me on the next table, unconcerned by my drinking and my proximity. […] These

girls are the new internationalists, roving the world, speaking good but accented English to each other, a kind of flawless Euro-English: "I am very bad with separation," the German girl says as she stands up to leave. No true English speaker would express the idea in this way, but it

is perfectly comprehensible.”

William Boyd, "Notebook No. 9." The Guardian, July 17, 2004

Based on Mollin’s (2006) catalogue of criteria (expansion of function, nativization of form, andinstitutionalization of norms) the present study tried to detect whether Continental Europe is developing itsown endonormative variety of English and what role Erasmus students might play in that process.

EU statistical data show that the English spoken in Europe is characterized by a widespread distribution ofdomains, and is spoken by more than half of the European population. This naturally suggests that anendogenous European variety of English might be developing; many of the features suggested to becharacteristic of Euro-English, however, could be identified as learners’ mistakes, in correlation with thevarying competences of the speakers. Although there do seem to be some contingent nativizationtendencies, the questioned Erasmus students seemed to adhere to standardized norms – at least in caseswhere they were paying conscious attention to their language use.

There is a “substantial intergenerational shift in the use of English” and thus the hypothesis that a youngergeneration acts as an ‘engine’ in the potential emergence of Euro-English. Even though the Erasmusstudents appreciate the value of English as a universal lingua franca – half of them agree with the statementthat “English doesn’t belong to the native speakers any more, but to anybody who uses it” – a third howeverperceive it as a threat to other languages. This may be the reason why 18.6 percent of the respondents rejectthe notion that everyone in Europe should learn English in order to facilitate communication. Moreover,74.6 percent of the respondents regard their respective native languages as more important than English. Forthis reason one can agree with Mollin (2006: 177–178) that English in Europe is only a “lingua franca thatcomplements the language repertoire, but it is not perceived by Continental Europeans as a substitute fortheir own languages.” English does not seem be a language these young Europeans identify with, but ratherone that they use for pragmatic reasons only”

Christian R. Forche: On the emergence of Euro-English as a potential European variety of English – attitudes and interpretations

file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/Jezikoslovlje_13_447_Forche%20(8).pdf

Study on a group of Erasmus Students

Euro-English shaped by two forces

• ‘Top-down force’

Rules and regulations

of the EU

• ‘Bottom-up force’

Ordinary Europeans

who have to use

English to each other

every day

accomodation*.

*Theory of communication developed by Howard Giles. It argues that “when people interact they

adjust their speech, their vocal patterns and their gestures, to accommodate to others.”

Turner, Lynn H.; West, Richard (2010). "Communication Accommodation Theory". Introducing Communication Theory:

Analysis and Application (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

February 2004: Eurojargon a 350-page dictionary published

by The European Information Association: a dictionary of

abbreviations, acronyms, sobriquets and terminology used in

the European Union’s agencies, institutions, schemes, projects

and programmes. There are more than 5,200 entries.

Ex. Erasmus, Leonardo, Socrates

Actor/s – According to the list, EU publications use this word to mean ‘people ororganisations used in doing something’. This word is rarely used in this sense in theUK/ Ireland, where it is mostly only used to mean actual actors (e.g. in a play or afilm).

The situation of general violence in Mogadishu was sufficiently intense to enable the ECtHR to conclude that any returnee would be at a real risk of ill-treatment contraryto Article 3 solely on account of his or her presence in the country, unless it could bedemonstrated that he or she was sufficiently well connected to powerful actors in the

city to enable him or her to obtain protection.

Handbook on European law relating to asylum, borders and immigration, (2013) p.6

Mission – According to EU usage, being on “mission” is when an employee isworking away from their place of residence for the purpose of an assignment. Thisword in UK/ Irish usage means either a secret mission (think Mission Impossible,

secret agents) or a trip which a missionary takes to spread the message of the Bible. Missions, as used in the sentence below, indicates that these interns are sent to spy

or gather information from another institution:

In exceptional cases only, justified by the requirements of the internship project, the Director may grant authorisation for the intern to be sent on mission, on the

condition that the mission is of a technical nature and not of a representative one.

(CEPOL – Decision of the Director on Internships).

In order to find evidence of the formal independence of Euro-

English Mollin (2006: 88–157) compiled a 400,000-word EE-

CORPUS which comprises 240,000 words transcribed from

spoken language and 160,000 from written text.

However the spoken language is taken from public discussions

and briefings in official EU contexts (from the European

Commission’s online audio archive, press conferences and

briefings). These sources can hardly be regarded as prototypical

for the general European citizen, as EU officials are likely to speak

more formally, avoiding language which others may find non-

standard.

Euro-English: Assessing Variety Status, Sandra Mollin

file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/Jezikoslovlje_13_447_Forche%20(6).pdf

“Terms which are peculiar to the European experience andwhich are not generally understood by users of Englishliving in other parts of the world”

(Modiano 2001:13-14)

Euro, Euro zone, Euro area

Member States (instead of state, country, nation),internal market (instead of domestic market)

Berlaymont (referring to bureaucratisation and redtape) (Modiano 2001:13-14)

To hop over ‘refrain from doing sth.’ < schwed.hoppa over (Modiano 2001: 14)

To be blue eyed ‘to be naïve and easily fooled’ <schwed. Blåögd (Modiano 2003: 39)

To salt ‘overcharge’ <schwed. at salta (Modiano2003: 39)

Cucumber time meaning off-season <Ger.Sauregurkenzeit

The word «actual» meaning «current»(Ferguson 1992: xvii, Berns 1995: 6)

i.e. Dutch actueel, French actuel, Portuguese actual, Italian attuale

The word «eventual» in the sense of «possible»; (Mollin 2006: 110–114)i.e. Italian eventuale, French éventuelle, German eventuell, Danish eventuel

Conflation between possibility and opportunity(Mollin 2006: 110–114)

The word transmit in the sense of «to pass on, to forward» ie. French transmettre

The word foresee in the sense of provide i.e. French prévoir(Seymour 2003:22-30)

Fixed phrasesi.e. I’m coming from Sweden (instead of «I come

from»), we were five people present (instead of «there

were»), on the other side instead of on the other hand

(Modiano 2001:14) (Mollin 2006:120)

Abbreviations and blendingsi.e. EURATOM, EIB, EMU, eurocrat (Symigné

2003:62)

Plural marker-s with non-countable nouns(Crystal 2003: 155)i.e. informations, advices, datas, evidences, equipments

Increase of redundancy by adding prepositionsi.e. We have to study about… and We can discuss about…?

Increase of explicitnessi.e. black colour vs. black; how long time? vs. how long?

Omission of definite or indefinite articles before nounsi.e. Our countries have signed agreement about this

One identical form for all present tense verbsi.e. the loss of the third person mark –s

i.e. She lookØ very sad(Seidlhofer 2001: 16)

Morphosyntax

The interchangeability of the relative pronouns who and whichi.e. the picture who, a person which

Use of «isn’t it?» as universal question tagi.e. You’re very busy today, isn’t it?

Use of infintive form instead of gerundi.e. I look forward to see you tomorrow(Seidlhofer 2001:16)

Use of simplified sentence constructionsi.e. Parataxis vs. hypotaxis(Crystal 1999:15)

Overuse of high semantic generality verbsi.e. do, have, make, put, take

Use of that-clauses instead of infinitive constructionsi.e. I want that we discuss about my dissertation

Morphosyntax, cont.

Given that ‘Euro-English’ is in its infancy, it is not yet

possible to describe its accents with confidence.

Nevertheless, there are certain indications as to the

direction in which ‘Euro-English’ accents are evolving.

(Jenkins 2001:16)

When English is spoken among its L2 speakers, mutual intelligibility is the primary factor in determining pronunciation

Influence of the first language can be

Segmental:

Substitution of the phonemes /θ/ or /ð/ phoneme either by /d/ and /t/ or /s/ and /z/

Loss of vowel length contrasts i.e. ‘live’ pronounced as ‘leave’ and vice versa (Jenkins 2001: 17–18)

http://www.slideshare.net/Beinhoff/english-in-europe-and-euroenglish

Suprasegmental E.g. intonation, stress

Slower rate of speech

Avoidance of features of connected speech such as assimilation (Crystal

1999:15)

Lexical gaps in the vocabulary of the speaker, lack of

paraphrasing strategy

‘Unilateral idiomaticity’: this occurs when one

speaker uses a native speaker idiomatic expression

such as an idiom, phrasal verb or metaphor, that the

interlocutor does not know (e.g. ‘this drink is on the

house’ instead of ‘this drink is a present from us’)

‘Particularization procedures’ (in direction of the speakers’ L1

or native English)

"I don't think Euro-English exists yet, as a variety comparable to American English Indian English or Singlish. But the seeds are there. It

will take time. The new Europe is still an infant, linguistically.”

(David Crystal, By Hook or by Crook: A Journey in Search of English. Overlook, 2008)

Thank you!

Any questions?

Euro-English: Assessing Variety Status Sandra Mollin

Euro- English Jennifer Jenkins, Marko modiano and barbara seidhofer perspectives on

an emerging variety on the mainland of Europe, from commentators in Sweden,

Austria and England

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/apr/19/languages.highereducation

Michele Gazzola, Managing Multilingualism in the European Union: Language policy

evaluation for the European Parliament

http://www.slideshare.net/Beinhoff/english-in-europe-and-euroenglish

http://slideplayer.it/slide/581641/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/8041916/English-becomes-

Europes-second-language.html

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/publications/magazines/languagestranslation/docum

ents/issue_01_en.pdf

http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/09/euro-english

http://ec.europa.eu/translation/english/guidelines/documents/misused_english_termino

logy_eu_publications_en.pdf

http://grammar.about.com/od/e/g/EuroEnglishterm.htm

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/eu/fight_the_fog_en.pdf

http://www.europalawpublishing.com/EN/webshop/human-rights-law/0/1/8649

http://euc.illinois.edu/_includes/docs/managing_multilingualism_in_the_EU.pdf

Turner, Lynn H.; West, Richard (2010). "Communication AccommodationTheory". Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application (4thed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=1330380&fileOId=1330381

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1280164

file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/EUROSPEAK%20and%20ELF.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKAeFi1IT54

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/print_2098.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/02/0222_050222_translation.html