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'”

About the 'hypothetical' Proto-Indo-European language

Indo-European is most commonly referred to by many – usually non-Indo-European – linguists as the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. Also, people usually refer to other languages or language families without written remains as hypothesis. We could talk, then, about the hypothetical Indo-Uralic, Eurasian, Ural-Altaic, Proto-Pontic or Nostratic languages, for example.

On the other hand, there are some languages, like Minoan – already mentioned in the previous post -, which aren’t officially hypothetical. I guess that’s because we have some written remains (still undeciphered) of a probable language system, supposedly related to Eteocretan, a younger language … Read the rest “About the 'hypothetical' Proto-Indo-European language”

Basque, 'the oldest language'

There are, from time to time, some articles or speeches which address a common misconception hardly related to linguistics, namely that of Basque being ‘the oldest language’.

Firstly, let me say that I (as many others) like the Basque language specially because of its peculiarity: it is one of those strange language isolates that can be found in some corners of the world, having resisted the linguistic battle of those unending cultural wars that contact between different human societies usually generate. In this very case, the language resisted the spread of Indo-European dialects in Western Europe, just as Uralic resisted … Read the rest “Basque, 'the oldest language'”

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

We 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:

The uprising and fall of civilizations is a random event, which depends on too many factors to be completely ascertained by any academic discipline.
The more powerful a country is (and the richer its

… Read the rest

First Post

This very first post is written in English, the present world’s lingua franca which is (hopefully) going to hand over its international and European role to let Europaio, based on the Proto-Indo-European language – the ancestor of most of our mother tongues -, become our common language. It will make us feel comfortable when speaking to foreigners (a word whose meaning will also change) and will improve communication between nations and peoples, thus allowing another gigantic growth of knowledge and welfare.

Or maybe not. We’ll see.… Read the rest “First Post”