Language learning opens the windows of our minds, says Council of Europe Secretary
General Strasbourg, 24.09.2004 –
"Learning another language opens the windows of our minds", said Terry Davis, the Secretary
General of the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg today. Mr Davis was addressing colleagues in the
Council of Europe in a speech marking the European Day of Languages on 26 September.
"Language learning is a powerful tool for building tolerant, peaceful and inclusive multicultural
societies", he said. "The experience of learning a new language helps to develop openness to other
cultures and acceptance of different ways of life and beliefs. It raises awareness of linguistic and
cultural diversity and promotes tolerance of people with a different lifestyle."
Linguistic diversity
Linguistic diversity is a democratic and cultural cornerstone of the Union, recognised in Article 22
of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The importance of languages was
emphasised in the Council Resolution on linguistic diversity of 14 February 2002 on
acknowledging the part played by languages in social, economic and political integration,
particularly in an enlarged Europe.
Linguistic diversity is one of the operating principles of the European institutions. The Treaty on
European Union is authentic in each of its 12 language versions (Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish,
French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish) (Article 53), entitling
every citizen to write to any of the institutions in one of these languages and to have an answer in
the same language (Article 21). The Regulation of 6 October 1958 determining the languages to be
used by the European Economic Community places on an equal footing the 11 official and working
languages of the institutions, which are all the languages of the Treaties with the exception of Irish.
The 40 or so indigenous languages existing within the European Union are a key element of its
heritage and culture. The learning of languages opens doors to understanding of different cultures
and is a necessary skill for Europeans. The Union therefore encourages knowledge, preservation
and dissemination of European languages, as well as languages of third countries with which it
cooperates.
Languages, opening doors to cultures
Learning a foreign language is a condition of cultural exchange. It is also a necessity for Europeans,
who are required to move, work and communicate within an expanding European Union.
Accordingly, on the basis of the Council Resolution of March 1995 on improving the quality of
language learning and following the publication of the Commission's White Paper "Teaching and
learning: towards the learning society" (pdf format), the Union encourages the learning of at least
two foreign languages in addition to the mother tongue, and develops new teaching methods paving
the way for innovation, mobility and new technologies.
Language learning
The education activities carried out under the Socrates programme are designed to encourage
linguistic exchanges between young people and training of language teachers. The "Erasmus"
exchange programme enables higher-education students to study in a foreign country and provides
them with appropriate preparatory language courses. Socrates also targets adults, who are
encouraged to engage in lifelong learning, which includes languages. It contains a "Lingua"
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element, devoted entirely to the promotion of language learning, contributing to improvement in the
quality of language teaching, and funding the development of teaching methods.
The Youth programme also affords opportunities for language learning through exchanges and
mobility measures organised for the benefit of young Europeans.
One of the objectives of the Leonardo da Vinci training programme is to improve occupational
mobility and multilingual and multicultural communication in the working environment. Action
aimed at boosting access to employment through the European Social Fund includes funding for
language training.
New methods of learning
New methods of learning languages are being rapidly developed, with Socrates and Leonardo da
Vinci contributing to this and to the dissemination of successful experiments in the languagelearning field. This activity is backed up by a European label awarded every year, in each Member
State, to innovative language-learning projects.
The European Commission also provides citizens with information and advice on ways of learning
languages.
Various Community programmes support the use of new information and communications
technologies in the teaching of languages.
The eLearning initiative is designed to help European education and training systems to adapt to the
new economic, social and cultural environment created by the spread of digital technologies. One of
its priorities focuses on language learning.
Behind the scenes, research into language-learning methods and technologies is conducted within
the research framework programme, with particular emphasis on education and training, under
the User-friendly information society programme.
Preserving, enhancing and disseminating languages
Linguistic diversity is one of the most remarkable aspects of Europe's cultural heritage, providing a
source of richness for building up the Union's trade and economy.
Languages, heritage and cultural aspects
An information campaign aimed at the general public: "European Year of Languages" was
organised in 2001 by the European Union and the Council of Europe. It celebrated linguistic
diversity in Europe and emphasised the need, for each European, to learn languages with a view to
interacting and understanding other cultures. This campaign was not limited to the languages of
Europe: sign language, national, regional and minority languages, languages of migrants and also
languages of other continents were covered.
Regional and minority languages, i.e. languages traditionally spoken by a part of the population of
Member States of the European Union, are the subject of specific EU activities: a "European
Bureau for Lesser Used Languages" and an information network "Mercator" receive financial
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support, while specific projects are geared to the promotion of regional and minority languages,
including conferences, cultural events and networking.
Seeking to foster mutual knowledge of cultural works by Europeans, the Culture 2000 programme
supports the translation of European 20th-century literary works: novels, plays, poetry. In the
audiovisual field, the MEDIA programme encourages the subtitling of films, with a view to
disseminating European audiovisual and cinematographic works more widely.
Multilingualism in the information society
Networks contribute to the opening of markets in cultural products and services, hitherto essentially
national or monolingual. They also promote the dissemination of certain languages such as English,
together with products and services utilising those languages, from the United States in particular.
Aimed at stimulating the development, dissemination and use of European multilingual content
on global networks, the eContent programme has as one of its priorities the creation and use of
multilingual digital content. Enterprises in this field are thus given support to adopt strategies taking
full account of cultural and linguistic aspects.
At research level, activities developed under the User-friendly information society programme deal
with "language technologies", for example, the development of machine translation and
multilingual research tools
Subsequently, the TEN-Telecom programme helps in financing the launch phases of multilingual,
interactive and multimedia services throughout the Union.
In conjunction with its multilingual activities, the European Commission has bought the rights to
multilingual machine translation software, SYSTRAN, whilst financing further development. Its
Translation Service has been using this tool for around 20 years.
The culture professionals
The European Union has around 7 million people professionally active in the cultural sector. It
caters for their specific needs through activities geared to training, mobility, employment,
cooperation and research.
Training and mobility of professionals
The Leonardo da Vinci programme aims to develop quality, innovation and the European
dimension in vocational training, including support for cultural and linguistic training projects
(arts and culture management, learning arts and crafts, heritage restoration and tourist marketing,
inter-cultural communication, etc.).
The Erasmus strand of the Socrates education programme provides mobility grants for students, a
sizeable proportion of whom come from the cultural sector. The importance of such mobility,
involving not only students but also teachers, trainers and researchers, was emphasised by the
Council on 14 December 2000.
The Culture 2000 programme, helping to enhance the value of a European cultural area, has as one
of its objectives the development of artists through a residence programme encouraging mobility
and meetings of young artists of all disciplines by creating, or providing training in, dance or music.
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The MEDIA programme fosters the creation of European training courses enabling professionals in
the audiovisual industry to boost their artistic, technical and commercial skills.
Culture and employment
As part of employment policy, the European Union and the Member States jointly invest in
programmes aimed at developing skills and improving job prospects for Europeans. This action,
conducted through the European Social Fund, covers occupations in the culture and crafts sectors,
among others.
The European Union has also developed EURES, a network of European employment partners
designed to help job seekers in Europe, including jobs in the fine arts and craft trades. The more
specialised CORTEX European forum, set up under the Leonardo da Vinci programme, provides a
platform for interaction between culture professionals, young graduates and trainers in the cultural
engineering field, together with databases on job opportunities and training courses in the cultural
sector.
Moreover, studies are conducted on the potential of culture as a factor for social cohesion and
employment in Europe, with reference also to the information society. Other studies focus on
artists’ mobility and employment. On 17 December 1999, the Council adopted conclusions on
cultural industries and employment in Europe, calling on the Commission and the Member States to
take this potential into account in their actions, programmes and policies.
Cooperation
Numerous Community policies contain an element of encouraging collaboration between cultural
institutions and individuals. The Culture 2000 programme accordingly supports the networking
and cooperation of cultural operators both within the Union and in third countries.
Digital networks may help to boost this cooperation, with experiments being conducted into new
working methods as part of the "information society" research programme assisted by the new
technologies: Internet-based collaborative work platforms, virtual reality tools, etc.
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The celebration of linguistic diversity
Table of content
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The human condition
The structure of language
Language acquisition
Language families
The languages of Europe
Internet links
The human condition
Our planet has over six billion people who speak between 6000 and 7000 different languages. A
few languages are spoken by hundreds of millions of speakers, such as English or Chinese, but most
are spoken by only a few thousand, or just a handful of speakers. In fact, 96% of the world's
languages are spoken by just 4% of the people.
Europeans often feel their continent to have an exceptional number of languages, especially when
compared to North America or Australia. Yet, only 3% of the world's total, some 225 languages, are
indigenous to Europe. Most of the world's languages are spoken in a broad area on either side of the
Equator - in Southeast Asia, India, Africa, and South America.
Many Europeans may think that a monolingual way of life is the norm. But between a half and twothirds of the world's population is bilingual to some degree, and a significant number are
plurilingual. Plurilingualism is much more the normal human condition than monolingualism.
Diversity of languages and of cultures, as in the case of biodiversity, is increasingly being seen as a
good and beautiful thing in itself. Each language has its own way of seeing the world and is the
product of its own particular history. All languages have their individual identity and value, and all
are equally adequate as modes of expression for the people who use them. We know from
comparisons of the rates at which children learn to speak, that no language is intrinsically more
difficult than any other language.
The structure of language
Language is an arbitrary system of sounds and symbols which is used for many purposes by a group
of people, chiefly to communicate with each other, to express cultural identity, to convey social
relationships, and to provide a source of delight (for example, in literature). Languages differ from
each other in their sounds, grammar, vocabulary, and patterns of discourse. But all languages are
highly complex entities.
Languages vary in the number of their vowel and consonant sounds from less than a dozen to over a
hundred. European languages tend to have inventories in the middle range - from around 25 such
sounds (e.g. Spanish) to over 60 (e.g. Irish). Alphabets reflect these sounds with varying degrees of
accuracy: some alphabets (e.g. Welsh) are very regular in the way they symbolise sounds; others
(e.g. English) are very irregular.
Within grammar, each language comprises several thousand points of word formation and sentence
construction. Each language has a huge vocabulary available to meet the needs of its users - in the
case of European languages, where scientific and technical vocabulary is very large, this reaches
several hundred thousand words and phrases.
Individual speakers know and use only a fraction of a language's total vocabulary. The words
educated people use - their active vocabulary - can reach some 50,000 words; the words they know
but do not use - their passive vocabulary - is somewhat larger. In everyday conversation, people
often make use of a small number of words, but with great frequency. It has been estimated that a
21-year-old has already uttered some 50 million words.
Living languages and cultures are constantly changing. People influence each other in the way they
speak and write. New media, such as the Internet, give languages fresh opportunities to grow.
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Languages are always in contact with each other, and affect each other in many ways, especially by
borrowing words. English, for example, has over the centuries borrowed from over 350 languages,
and European languages are all currently borrowing many words from English.
Language acquisition
The task of learning the mother tongue is one which we accomplish essentially in the first five years
of life, though certain features of language (such as vocabulary acquisition) continue indefinitely.
Language develops through several stages. During the first year the baby makes a wide range of
vocalisations, out of which emerge the rhythm and intonation patterns, and then the vowels and
consonants. Around one year the first understandable words are uttered. During the second year
two-word combinations follow, moving slowly to three- and four-word combinations. Three and
four-year-olds use increasingly longer and complex sentences. Vocabulary grows from some 50
active words by 18 months to several thousand words by age five.
The mother tongue is usually described as an individual's first learned or primary language. This is
the language people know best, the language they use most, or the language with which they most
closely identify. With some bilingual people, two languages have been learned so closely together
that it is impossible to choose between them, in terms of "first" or "second" languages. With most
bilinguals, however, the distinction is clearer, as the learning of a second or third language takes
place in school or later in life. There is no absolute age limit beyond which it is impossible to learn
another language.
Bilingualism is a complex phenomenon. A common myth is that a bilingual person has two equally
developed languages; in reality, bilinguals rarely display a balance between their two languages.
Another myth is that all bilinguals are the same in their abilities; in reality, they display many kinds
of bilingualism. Some sound like native speakers in both their languages; others have a strong
foreign accent in one. Some can read well in both languages; others can do so only in one. Some
prefer to write in one language, but can only talk in another.
Bilingualism brings all kinds of benefits. Being bilingual can enhance your chances of successfully
learning other languages. Somehow, the learning of a third language is facilitated by the learning of
a second. Bilinguals may also have some advantages in thinking: there is evidence that they make
faster progress than monolinguals in certain areas of early cognitive development and are in many
ways more creative in their linguistic skills.
Bilinguals have the great advantage of being able to communicate with a wider variety of people.
Because bilinguals have the opportunity of experiencing two or more cultures in an intimate way,
their ability can lead to more sensitivity in communication and a readiness to overcome cultural
barriers and to build cultural bridges. There are also important practical issues: bilinguals have a
potential economic advantage because a larger number of jobs becomes available to them. It is also
increasingly accepted that multilingual companies have a competitive edge over monolingual ones.
Language families
Languages are related to each other like the members of a family. Most of the languages of Europe
can be grouped together, because of their common origins, as a single, large Indo-European
language family. The families in Europe with the most member-languages and the most speakers
are the Germanic, Romance, and Slavic.
The Germanic language family has a northern branch with Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic
and Faeroese, as well as a western branch with German, Dutch, Frisian, English and Yiddish as its
members. The Romance language family has as its members Romanian, Italian, Corsican, Spanish,
Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan, French, Romansh, Ladin and Sardinian. To the Slavic language
family belong languages such as Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Sorbian, Czech, Slovak,
Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian and Bulgarian. Within the Celtic family are Irish, Scots
Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton, with revival movements under way for Cornish and Manx. To the Baltic
family belong Latvian and Lithuanian. Separate families with only one member are Greek,
Albanian and Armenian. Basque is an exceptional case, because it does not belong to the IndoEuropean family and its origins are unknown.
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Other language families also have members in Europe. In the North we find the Uralic languages:
Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, several Sámi languages, as well as other small languages in the
northern parts of the Russian Federation such as Ingrian or Karelian. In the Southeast we find
representatives of the Altaic language family, notably Turkish and Azerbaijani. The Caucasian
family is spoken in a relatively small and compact area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea,
and comprises also about 40 members, among them Georgian, and Abkhaz. The Afro-Asiatic
family includes Maltese, Hebrew and Berber.
All these languages use a small number of alphabetic scripts. Most languages use the Roman (or
Latin) alphabet. Russian and some other Slavic languages use Cyrillic. Greek, Yiddish, Armenian
and Georgian each have their own script. Non-European languages widely used on European
territory include Arabic, Chinese and Hindi, each with its own writing system.
The languages of Europe
Estimates vary but there are about 225 spoken indigenous languages. The five languages spoken by
most people in Europe are, by number of mother tongue speakers, Russian, German, English,
French and Italian. But most European countries operate routinely with several languages.
The exceptions are small states such as Liechtenstein and the Holy See (Vatican), and even in these
places we find significant use of second languages.
The 48 states parties to the European Cultural Convention have around 40 "state" languages and
many accord special status to other languages.
Most countries have a number of traditionally spoken minority or regional languages. The Russian
Federation has by far the highest number of languages spoken on its territory; the number varies
from 130 to 200 depending on the criteria.
Some regional and minority languages have obtained official status, for example, Basque, Catalan
and Galician in the regions of Spain in which they are spoken. Welsh has protective language rights
in the United Kingdom, as does Frisian in the Netherlands and the Sámi languages in Norway,
Sweden and Finland.
Due to the influx of migrants and refugees from all over the world, Europe has become increasingly
multilingual. London, for example, has more than 300 languages spoken as a home language. Most
other larger cities, particularly in western Europe, easily have 100-200 languages spoken as mother
tongues by their school populations. The most common languages include Arabic, Berber Turkish,
Kurdish, Hindi, Punjabi, and Chinese. However, many of these languages are spoken by small
minorities, and their future is under threat.
Daily, informal, oral interaction between parents and children is crucial to the survival of a
language. Experts have estimated that over this century at least half of the world's languages, and
perhaps more, will die out. Within two generations all traces of a language can disappear when
children are no longer raised in it.
The reasons for giving up a language are manifold, and include the physical destruction (through
environmental crisis and disease) of a community or its habitat, active antagonism by political
groups, and - the commonest cause - economic and cultural domination by more powerful and
prestigious languages. But whatever the reason, the result is the same: the loss to humanity of a
unique resource.
Through the work of the Council of Europe, two important international instruments came into
force in 1998. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is in force in 11
countries; the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities which includes
some provisions for minority languages, is in force in over 30 European countries. These treaties
are important in protecting and promoting the linguistic wealth of Europe.
At the beginning of the 21st century all European citizens live in a multilingual environment. In
their daily lives citizens come across many different languages, for example on a bus or a train,
through TV, radio or newspapers, or the ingredients on a product in the supermarket.
There is a need to increase popular knowledge and understanding of the diversity of the languages
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of Europe, and of the factors affecting their maintenance and growth. There is a need to generate a
greater interest in and curiosity about languages. There is a need to enhance linguistic tolerance
within and between nations.
These are just some of the aims of the European Year of Languages 2001 which is organised by the
Council of Europe and the European Union.
Internet links
The World Wide Web has many sites on languages, diversity of languages, multilingualism,
language learning, etc. Below is just a small selection (most of these sites will lead you further by
following their collections of links).
Language policy division, Council of Europe: www.coe.int/lang
European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe, Graz: www.ecml.at
European
Charter
for
Regional
or
Minority
Languages:
conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/HTML/148.htm
European Commission: europa.eu.int/comm/education/languages/index.html
European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages: www.eblul.org
European Centre for Minority Issues: www.ecmi.de
European Language Council: userpage.fu-berlin.de/~elc
Linguistic Rights (Most Clearinghouse): www.unesco.org/most/ln2lin.htm
European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations: www.ercomer.org
Youth of European Nationalities: oehinfo.uibk.ac.at/misc/jev
Ethnologue database (6,700 languages of the world): www.sil.org/ethnologue
Languages on the web (over 30.000 links): www.languages-on-the-web.com
Human Languages Page: www.june29.com/HLP
Eurolang: www.eurolang.net/browse.htm
Linguist-list: linguistlist.org
Computer E-mail Lists for Individual Languages: www.evertype.com/langlist.html
Yamada WWW Language resources: babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/guides.html
Central
site
of
Mercator
centres:
www.mercator-central.org;
Mercator Education: www.mercator-education.org
Foreign language Resources: www.itp.berkeley.edu/~thorne/HumanResources.html
Eric Clearinghouse on languages and linguistics: www.cal.org/ericcll
University of Cambridge Language Centre: www.langcen.cam.ac.uk
Frequently asked questions about linguistics: www.zompist.com/langfaq.html
Dictionaries (1500 in 230 languages): www.yourdictionary.com
Or, similarly dictionaries at: www.dictionary.com
Other dictionary (reference to international organisations): europa.eu.int/eurodicautom/login.jsp
"Linguistic Olympics" (games, quizzes): darkwing.uoregon.edu/~tpayne/lingolym
also in Russian: proling.iitp.ru
Tongue twisters, with 1842 entries in 75 languages: www.uebersetzung.at/twister
Sounds of the world's animals: www.georgetown.edu/cball/animals/animals.html
The Lord's Prayer in 1116 languages and dialects: www.christusrex.org/www1/pater
How to say "I love you" in various languages: www.worldpath.net/~hiker/
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