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Eurolinguistics is a neologistic term for the study of thelanguages of Europe.The termEurolinguistics was first used by Norbert Reiter in 1991 (German equivalent:Eurolinguistik). Apart from a series of works dealing with only a part of the European languages, the work ofHarald Haarmann pursues a "pan- or trans-European perspective". This goal is also pursued by Mario Wandruszka.
Typological questions have mainly been dealt with by theEurolinguistischer Arbeitskreis Mannheim (ELAMA; led by Per Sture Ureland) and theEUROTYP projects. Important sources of linguistic data for Eurolinguistic studies are theAtlas Linguarum Europae (for vocabulary studies) and theWorld Atlas of Linguistic Structures (Haspelmath et al. 2005, for grammar studies).
The internet platformEuroLinguistiX (ELiX) (edited byJoachim Grzega) offers a bibliography of Eurolinguistic publications as well as a wiki, a discussion forum, an academic internet journal in order to address also aspects of "linguistic and cultural history", "sociology of languages", "language politics" and "intercultural communication". In 2006, Joachim Grzega published a basic reader on common features of European languages.
Also joint with theELAMA, theEuroLSJ project by Erhard Steller tries to collect essential results of Eurolinguistics and make them usable for everyday life in Europe by transforming them into a representative standard language (LSJ European / Europé LSJ) which wants to serve as an optimized "acquisition and memory helper" (Giuseppe G. Castorina) for a quicker and easier access to all languages of Europe.
(Sources and further information for this section: Haarmann 1991, Grzega 2006)
Writing was introduced to Europe by the Greeks, and from there also brought to the Romans (6th century BC). There are four alphabets in regular use in the areas generally considered Europe. TheLatin alphabet was developed into several scripts. In the early years of Europe, theCarolingian minuscules were the most important variety of the Latin script. From this two branches developed, theGothic/Fracture/German tradition, which Germans used well into the 20th century, and the Italian/Italic/Antiqua/Latin tradition, still used. For some nations the integration into Europe meant giving up older scripts, e.g. the Germanic gave up the runes (Futhark) (3rd to 17th centuries), the Irish theOgham script (4th to 7th centuries). TheCyrillic script is the second most widespread alphabet in Europe, and was developed in the 9th century under the influence of theGreek,Latin andGlagolitic alphabets. Both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets are used for multiple languages in multiple states, both inside and outside Europe. As well as these two, there are two alphabets used primarily for a single language, although they are occasionally applied to minority languages in the states from which they originate. The oldest of these alphabets is theGreek alphabet, which could be considered the progenitor of all the surviving alphabets of Europe, with the earliest recorded inscriptions appearing in the 9th century BC. The other is found in theCaucasus, originating in the 5th century. TheGeorgian alphabet is used primarily to write Georgian, though it is also used to write the other Kartvelian languages,Svan,Mingrelian andLaz, all of which are found largely within the borders ofGeorgia.
(Sources and further information for this section: Haarmann 1973, Asher 1994, Price 1998, Grzega 2006)
The sound systems of languages may differ considerably between languages. European languages can thus rather be characterized negatively, e.g. by the absence ofclick sounds. One could also think of specificprosodic features, such astonal accents. But there are also tonal languages in Europe:Serbo-Croatian (e.g.lètī ‘he flies, is flying’ with long rising accent vs.lêta ‘years’ with long falling accent) andSlovene (e.g.sûda ‘of the vessel’ with long falling accent vs.súda ‘of the court’ with long rising accent). In Slovene, the use of the musical accent is declining (cf. Rehder 1998: 234) but there are hardly any contexts where intelligibility is endangered. In SwedenSwedish (but not inFinland Swedish) there also is a pitch accent in some words, which can be meaningful, e.g.´anden ‘the duck’ vs.ˇanden ‘the ghost, spirit’.
(Sources and further information for this section: Asher 1994, Price 1998, Haspelmath 2001, Heine/Kuteva 2006)
As a general introductory remark we can distinguish between threestructural types of languages:
European languages are seldom pure representatives of one type. For (a) Modern English is a good example (and in many ways the code oral of French verbs); for (c) Old English and Modern High German are good examples (and in many ways the code écrit of French verb forms); classical representatives of type (b) are Finnish and Hungarian. If a language is not isolating, this does not necessarily mean that it has no word-order rules.Latin,Basque,Finnish and theSlavic languages have a relatively freeword order, whereas many languages show more restricted rules.German andDutch, e.g., show verb-second word-order in main clauses and verb-final order in subordinateclauses. English hassubject-verb word-order, which is also preferred by theRomanic languages.Irish andScottish Gaelic have a basic verb-initial word order.
We can also distinguish between analytic constructions (with free grammaticalmorphemes, i.e. grammatical elements as separate words) and synthetic constructions (with bound grammatical morphemes, i.e. grammatical elements attached to or included in a word), e.g.the houseof the man vs.the man's house.
Apart from the points already mentioned, the categories ofaspect (not always easy to separate from the tense system) and gender are noteworthy. Under the category of aspect linguists basically understand the distinction between perfective actions (activity finished, has led to a result; single event) and imperfective actions (activity not yet finished, w/out information on termination; long duration, repetitive). The Slavic languages have a fine and rigid aspect system; in English there's the distinction between progressive and non-progressive (simple) and a distinction between present perfect and past; in the Romanic languages the imperfect serves to denote background actions.
The most currentgender systems in Europe are twofold (masculine vs. feminine, e.g. in the Romanic languages, or uter vs. neuter, e.g. in Swedish and Danish); but there are also languages that are threefold (e.g. Slavic, German) or lack grammatical gender at all (e.g. English, Hungarian, Finnish). The problem of gender also concerns the system of personalpronouns. We normally distinguish between three persons singular and three persons plural, but there are also some languages that have specific words for the dual (e.g.Slovene). In the 3rd person singular we often have a distinction according to grammatical gender; in English, though, the choice is determined by natural gender; in Hungarian and Finnish we have no differentiation at all, in the Scandinavian languages on the other hand we have a differentiation that incorporate both grammatical and natural gender. In some languages the grammatical gender is also relevant in the 3rd pl. (e.g. the Romance languages).
Whereas traditionally we group languages according to historical language families (e.g.Indo-European languages,Uralic languages), a more modern way is to look at grammatical features from a synchronic point of view. A certain number of common structural features would then characterize asprachbund. For Europe, the most prominent sprachbund that we can determine is referred to as SAE (=Standard Average European) or Charlemagne sprachbund. Haspelmath (2001) illustrates that German, Dutch,French,Occitan and NorthernItalian are the most central members of this sprachbund. Important features are (cf., e.g., Haspelmath 2001, Heine/Kuteva 2006):
(Sources and further information for this section: Haarmann 1975, Haarmann 1993, Paczolay 1997, Panzer 2000, Görlach 2002)
Latin, French and English not only served or still serve aslinguae francae (cf. below), but also influenced the vernacular/national languages due to their high prestige. Due to this prestige, there are not only "necessity loans", but also "luxury loans" and pseudo-loans. Many loans from these three languages (esp. Neo-Latin with its Greek elements) can be consideredinternationalisms, although occasionally the meanings vary from one language to another, which might even lead to misunderstandings. Examples:
Three minor source languages for European borrowings areArabic (esp. in mathematics and science, foreign plants and fruits), Italian (esp. in arts, esp. from the 15th to the 17th centuries), and German (esp. in arts, education, mining, trading from the 12th to the 20th centuries with varying importance).
As far as the structuring or "wording" of the world is concerned changes occur relatively fast due to progress in knowledge, sociopolitical changes etc. Lexical items that seem more conservative are proverbs andmetaphorical idioms. Many European proverbs and idioms go back to antiquity and the Bible; some originate in national stories and were spread over other languages via Latin. A typical European proverb to express that there is no profit without working can be paraphrased as "Roasted pigeons/larks/sparrows/geese/chickens/birds don't fly into one's mouth", e.g.:
(Sources and further information for this section: Axtell 1993, Collett 1993, Morrison et al. 1994, Hickey/Stewart 2005, Grzega 2006)
InGeert Hofstede's terms Europe can, to a large extent, be considered anindividualistic civilization (i.e. a rather direct and analytic style is preferred, important points are mentioned before an explanation or illustration in an argument, decisions are based on compromise or majority vote); in contrast, the Sinic (Chinese), Japanese, Arabic and Hindu (Indian) civilizations are collectivistic (i.e. a rather indirect and synthetic style is used, explanations and illustrations are mentioned before the essential point of an argument, decisions are reached through consent). We can further makeEdward Hall's distinction between "low context" communication (i.e. direct style, person-oriented, self-projection, loquacity) and "high context" communication (i.e. indirect style, status-oriented, reservation, silence). Most European nations use "low context" communication.
(Sources and further information for this section: Haarmann 1975, Haarmann 1993, Grzega 2006)
Threelinguae francae are prominent in European history:
Linguae francae that were less widespread, but still played a comparatively important role in European history are:
The first type ofdictionary was theglossary, a more or less structured list of lexical pairs (in alphabetical order or according to conceptual fields). The Latin-German (Latin-Bavarian) Abrogans was among the first of these. A new wave oflexicography can be seen from the late 15th century onwards (after the introduction of theprinting press, with the growing interest in standardizing languages).
(Sources and further information for this section: Haarmann 1975, Haarmann 1993, Grzega 2006)
In the Middle Ages the two most important definitory elements of Europe wereChristianitas andLatinitas. Thus language—at least the supranational language—played an elementary role. This changed with the spread of the national languages in official contexts and the rise of a national feeling. Among other things, this led to projects of standardizing national language and gave birth to a number of language academies (e.g. 1582Accademia della Crusca in Florence, 1617 Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, 1635Académie française, 1713Real Academia de la Lengua in Madrid). "Language" was then (and still is today) more connected with "nation" than with "civilization" (particularly in France). "Language" was also used to create a feeling of "religious/ethnic identity" (e.g. differentBible translations by Catholics and Protestants of the same language).
Among the first standardization discussions and processes are the ones for Italian ("questione della lingua": Modern Tuscan/Florentine vs. Old Tuscan/Florentine vs. Venetian > Modern Florentine + archaic Tuscan + Upper Italian), French (standard is based on Parisian), English (standard is based on theLondon dialect) and (High) German (based on:chancellery of Meißen/Saxony + Middle German + chancellery ofPrague/Bohemia ["Common German"]). But also a number of other nations began to look for and develop a standard variety in the 16th century.
(Sources and further information for this section: Stephens 1976, Price 1998, Ahrens 2003, Grzega 2006)
Despite the importance of English as an international lingua franca in Europe, Europe is also linguistically diverse, and minority languages are protected, e.g. by theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages founded in the 1990s. This underlines that the popular view of "one nation = one language" (cf. Wirrer 2003) is mostly false.
A minority language can be defined as a language used by a group that defines itself as an ethnic minority group, whereby the language of this group is typologically different and not a dialect of the standard language. For several years now, Jan Wirrer has been working on the status of minority languages in Europe (cf., e.g., Wirrer 2000 and 2003). In Europe—e.g. thanks to the European Charter of Regional and Minority Language—some languages are in quite a strong position, in the sense that they are given special status, such as Basque, Irish, Welsh, Catalan, Rhaeto-Romance/Romansh and Romani, native language of theRoma/Gypsies in southern Europe), whereas others are in a rather weak position (e.g. Frisian, Scottish Gaelic, Turkish, Sámi, Sorbian/Wendish and Yiddish, the once common language ofAshkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe). Especially non-indigenous minority languages are not given official status in the EU.
Some minor languages don't even have a standard yet, i.e. they have not even reached the level of anausbausprache yet, which could be changed, e.g., if these languages were given official status. (cf. also next section).
(Sources and further information for this section: Siguan 2002, Ahrens 2003, Grzega 2006)
France is the origin of two laws, or decrees, concerning language: the Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts (1239), which says that every document in France should be written in French (i.e. not in Latin nor Occitan) and the FrenchLoi Toubon, which aims at eliminating Anglicisms from official documents. But a characteristic feature of Europe is linguistic diversity and tolerance, which is not only shown by the European Charta of Regional and Minority Languages. An illustrative proof of the promotion of linguistic diversity in the Middle Ages is the translation school inToledo, Spain, founded in the 12th century (in medieval Toledo the Christian, Jewish and Arab civilizations lived together remarkably peacefully).
This tolerant linguistic attitude is also the reason why the EU's general rule is that every official national language is also an official EU language. However, Letzebuergish/Luxemburgish is not an official EU language, because there are also other (stronger) official languages with "EU status" in that country. Several concepts for an EU language policy are being debated:
