Category: European Union

Translation of A Grammar of Modern Indo-European from English into Spanish: Gramática del indoeuropeo moderno

The two introductory sections of A Grammar of Modern Indo-European, the main work of the Indo-European Revival Association, has been translated into Spanish as Gramática del indoeuropeo moderno.

The book is, as always, licensed under GFDL – CC-by-sa, so that everyone can copy, redistribute, modify, etc. the work and indeed translate it into any possible language, and then edit and/or publish it.

The association has some collaborative websites prepared for volunteers ready to add some translated sections of the book, and also for experts and people interested in IE languages, to add information about the Proto-Indo-European language and … Read the rest “Translation of A Grammar of Modern Indo-European from English into Spanish: Gramática del indoeuropeo moderno”

Indo-European language or Indo-European languages?

I’ve recently received an email from a new reader who wanted to share with us “his language”, namely a ‘modernized Indo-European’, which he had been working on for very very long before we began our public work at the Indo-European Revival Association, and which he deems “a more modern version of our Indo-European“.

After telling him he was not the first who show up with such a project (there are at least one or two more out there in the Net), I told him very clearly what our opinion about IE is:

A) There are different schools about how … Read the rest “Indo-European language or Indo-European languages?”

Indo-European Grammar, First Printed Edition, with maps, summary tables, etymologies, PIE phonology and syntax…

Yes, we eventually decided to print some copies of our Indo-European Grammar – with public subsidies, we will be able to release some dozens in this first printed edition.

Our objetive was to translate version 2.x (now near 2.2) into Spanish, German and French, to post news in Modern Indo-European and to begin with the Syntax volume, but now the order has changed.

We plan to publish an improved edition (revised by Indo-European scholars), which will probably be called already version 3.x. We plan to include more information about IE dialects and about Proto-Indo-European syntax, and to make printed copies … Read the rest “Indo-European Grammar, First Printed Edition, with maps, summary tables, etymologies, PIE phonology and syntax…”

The ‘Grin Report’ and its pretended support of Esperanto over Indo-European as European Union’s official language

We have received at Indo-European Language Revival Association an email suggesting us learning more about Esperanto, describing its advantages, and especially talking about the Grin Report, an expert study supposedly favoring Esperanto as the only language for the European Union. This mail comes probably from a reader of Spanish newspapers who read about recent news on Indo-European revival, who possibly didn’t read about our proposal, maybe because we use mainly English in our writings and he just can’t speak but Spanish and Esperanto…

I think that specially any study written about linguistic policy – in our … Read the rest “The ‘Grin Report’ and its pretended support of Esperanto over Indo-European as European Union’s official language”

About European Union's push for 'Multilingualism'

It’s not new, but still many newspapers want to present such “multilingualism” initiatives as ‘fresh’. Nothing changed while Jan Figel was the commissioner in charge of languages for the European Union, and nothing is changing with the take over of Romanian Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban.

When politicians in the EU talk about the advantages of ‘multilingualism’, it’s like when they talk about ‘multiculturalism’ and its benefits for society: the more they talk about it (specially when there is a right-wing government like this one), the more they are afraid of its consequences, and the less solutions they (want to) find … Read the rest “About European Union's push for 'Multilingualism'”

Happy new Indo-European Year!

We are entering a new year, hopefully The first Indo-European Year.

I have been thinking about where we started, and what I thought exactly a year ago that it was going to happen with our Indo-European revival projects. Even though I usually complain a lot about our lack of resources, I shall say that if the coming years are so good as the last, then the language revival is certainly going to succeed.

I am quite happy now looking at the past, and I am usually very pessimistic. I won’t make an extensive report – we will publish … Read the rest “Happy new Indo-European Year!”

The Paneuropean Movement and the European language

Paneuropean flagWe learnt some time ago about the Paneuropean movement in Europe, founded in 1923 by Count Richard Nikolaus von Coudenhove-Kalergi, and we thought we definitely found what we were looking for: a traditional idea of a single Pan-European State, formed by all European democratic states.

At first, we wanted the International Paneuropean Union to get involved in the promotion of the Indo-European language, but there is no easy way to do that. We are a modern private group, and they are a traditional public association; our proposal is completely new and unknown – to the extent that some people are … Read the rest “The Paneuropean Movement and the European language”

Why not adopt a single official language for the European Union?

How would the EU justify not adopting European as its official language? The multilingual European Day of Languages (2001) cultural political issue (of learning to speak at least two foreign languages) is being accepted more and more as a central EU policy, despite its little success in defending Europe’s diversity – as the languages learnt are the two or three more supported by the EU. Following the linguistic FAQ of the official EU website,

1. “[We do not adopt a single official language for the EU] Because it would cut off most people in the EU from an … Read the rest “Why not adopt a single official language for the European Union?”

Indo-European? Why?

I was thinking about the conversation I am going to have with the person responsible of a University Department of Classical Languages. And all of a sudden the most obvious question I could face arose: why? A simple question deserves a simple and clear answer, and I wanted it written down here, too; so I came to the main implicit reasons hypothesis under which we work:

  1. The uprising and fall of civilizations is a random event, which depends on too many factors to be completely ascertained by any academic discipline.
  2. The more powerful a country is (and the richer its
… Read the rest “Indo-European? Why?”