A Brexit for English as EU Language?
When checking the internet for new developments resulting from Brexit, I found many articles concerning the Brexit of English as a EU language.
Danuta Hubner, a Polish politician and chair of the European Parliament’s constutitional affairs committee, has come out with a warning that a British exit from the European Union could also delete English from the EU’s list of 24 official languages.
However, I never really thought about this consequence. Besides 24 “official languages”, only three are used as working languages: English, French, and German. Some articles believe that English will not disappear as a major language, especially giving financial reasons. Translating all the documents would cost a huge amount of time and money.
Additionally, as Ireland is still in the EU and also Scotland is attempting to join the EU again, English as a language is still apparent within the EU. As it is taught as a second language in many countries, English makes it easy to communicate.
Nevertheless, with Britain not being in the EU anymore, it is apparent that the usage of English might decrease slightly. As I am also attending a linguistics seminar at the moment in which we are talking about the developments of English today and tomorrow, it will be interesting to see how the English language will develop in the future. As a fast, American English is already emerging, which I guess will increase with Britain having left the EU. Students will probably go abroad to America oder Australia more often than to Britain and thus bring more influence from abroad to Europe than Britain itself might have done.
http://www.politico.eu/article/english-will-not-be-an-official-eu-language-after-brexit-senior-mep/
