Which, if any, countries on the continent of Europe will be among the first to adopt English as an added "official" language?
 

This subject got a little bit of discussion around the time of the "Millenium Day" - - January 1, 2000 - - in the context of predicting changes for Europe over the next century.

Today, an article on Yahoo news brings it to the forefront again:

"Swiss multilingualism stirred up by English and new tongues"

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...amp;e=3&u=

/afp/20050412/lf_afp/afplifestyleswitzerland_050412154849

(Note: this URL intentionally broken in half so that it doesn't affect line length of the right hand frame - - you have to paste it back together).

I'm not sure that Switzerland will be among the first three; more likely...

Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden - - one of these seems most likely to be among the first. I think that one country (on the continent of Europe) will adopt English as an added "official" language by 2100.

More will follow, perhaps before 2200. In the first half dozen, I would say add one or more of these:

France (yes, France), Switzerland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Norway.

But who am I to speculate? And I really don't expect to live to see any of this...

Best wishes,

Rex

Scotland? ;)

I would be 121 years old, if still alive, in 2100. YIKES!!!!

I would have thought Germany.

In a hundred or two hundred years ???? Think you made a mistake in your dates.

Isn't English already an official language for those countries in the EU ?

Whoa, duck your heads, INCOMING!!!!!

I think the United States should adopt English as an official language.
Scotland is my second nomination.

Bet that raises some hackles.
I have a hung Finland will be on the list. Most educated Finns know English; they have to at universities because most international conferences are held in English as the major language. Technical presentations are in English.

At the Helsinki School of Economics, many courses are taught in English because most international students don't know Finnish.

Hopefully, NONE of them will adopt English as any sort of "official" language..why should they?..so you'll feel "more at home" there?

P.S...when will the USA adopt Spanish as an "official" language????

Intrepid, aren't there currently laws in some states, perhaps Calif/Texas, that dictate govt/official documents have to be offered in both Spanish and English? Don't public schools have to offer classes in Spanish if immigrants have not learned English? I haven't verified any of these questions, just seems I heard these issues discussed in the news some time ago...

That's what I think declaring an "official" language means - it means the government is not required to go to the expense to print documents in multiple languages.

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I have a hung Finland will be on the list. Most educated Finns know English; they have to at universities because most international conferences are held in English as the major language. Technical presentations are in English.

At the Helsinki School of Economics, many courses are taught in English because most international students don't know Finnish.
<<<<<

the same exact thing can be said about all EU countries.
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intrepid...no it has nothing to do with "you feeling more at home over there". (i know you are being sarcastic). america has nothing to do with it. EU needs a common language. when a german company hires italian consultants for a project, what language are they going to speak? this is one thing most americans do not understand...especially the ones who think americans are the only "rude" ones who would dream of speaking english in continental europe.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't english the "official" language of ALL pilots conversing with towers wherever they are. For instance, an Air France pilot landing in Bejing would speak english to the tower. Am I not correct?

Also on my trip to central Europe this year, I found almost all young people in Prague, Krakow,Budapest and Vienna spoke a little English as I THINK it is now taught in all schools thereby making it not an "official" second language but close to it.

john, i think the point of the OP was really "official" language, not close to it.

as i pointed out in my post, english is *close to* an official language in just about every european country.

yes, you are correct about aviation. it's been this way for years. however, it goes far, far beyond aviation (where one language is needed for obvious reason). if a czech company puts out a bid for a new computer system or building, they will do it in english 9 times out of 10.

...and when the czech, polish, danish, swedish, spanish etc company goes through with the project for the new building, computer system or whatever, chances are, the "official" language of the project will be english. employees who don't know english will be left out and career advancement will suffer. therefore they must learn english. English, the unofficial, official language of the EU.

i don't think it's very interesting to speculate what will happen in 200 years but in general, it is a political hot potato to try to adopt english as an official language and i don't see much real driver for politicians to doing that. the EU itself will adopt languages here and there but for individual countries, i don't see why. nationalism is on the rise in europe so it would be a difficult one.

What would the purpose of making English and official language in a nation where it is only spoken as a second language? Languages are typically declared "official" for the purpose of ensuring some measure of protection for a minority language. I don't see that this applies here. I don't see how some Swiss people using English at work creates a reason to make English an official language of the nation. The use of English will rise or fall based on the needs for communication with those who do not speak your first language.

Malta has already adopted English as one of their two official languages. It's European, it's in the EU, but is it "on the continent of Europe"?

Anselm

I honestly don't know any historical precedent (... well, on second thought, wait a minute - - is English an "official" language in India?)...

... but the point I was starting to make is that I can't think of any case where language was headed towards becoming the "lingua franca" (or the "backup" lingua franca?) in a country/culture/region - - but had ery fewe people speaking it as the first language at home

The point of the article is that more Swiss speak (or work in) English (only outside the home?) than French, the second most prevalent "official" language. Is Romansch headed towards being "demoted" off the list of "official" languages? Does every govrnment office in Switzerland have to have a complete set of documents in Romansch? I bet that more official documents are printed in English than Romansch.

The compelling reasons for any country to adopt an added official language would most likely be partly political, partly economic.

On a second note - - why was Scotland mentioned on several posts, when I repetedly said "on the continent of Europe". Is that phrase not clear enough?

Why would anyone bother to formally adopt English as an official language when it is already the 'official' lingua franca all over the world?

Making something official starts to sound like making it compulsory or at least highly desirable that people use it in certain defined circumstances, and suddenly you have stratified your society on that basis. Imagine the chaos if governments started issuing all offical documents in English only -although that would give you a good reason not to furnish an income tax return - or maybe not.

It is highly unlikely that anywhere in continental Europe, whatever that means, English will ever displace the native tongue in the home, and as the medium for social intercourse, as it admittedly has done in India. And that's how it needs to stay.

Harzer

I think the United States should have adopted English as its official language...that could have helped us avoid many problems!!!

Rex: Switzerland has three official languages, German, French and Italian. Rumantsch is a national, but not official language, so one would not see documents in that language all over the country, but Rumantsch speakers have the right to communicate with the government in their own language.

In any event, as I'm sure you're aware, Switzerland is a very decentralized country, with many of the government services controlled by the cantons, rather than the federal government. That goes for language as well, and for the most part cantons are unilingual.

In regards to the comment about Spanish becoming an official 2nd language in the US -- I know as a fact that there are a number of government agencies in Miami who when hiring, require a written test of fluency in Spanish of all applicants, but do not require any such test for abilities in English. There are literally people being hired who speak only Spanish, but they will not hire those who only speak English. Usually notices of employment say that it is required to be bi-lingual, but that is not true. The only ones who required to be bilinqual are those who are native English speakers.