> , based on common mistranslations and the technical jargon of the European Union (EU) and the native languages of its non-native, English-speaking population. It is mostly used among EU staff, expatriates and migrants from EU countries, young international travellers (such as exchange students in the EU's Erasmus programme) and European diplomats with a lower proficiency in the language.
This sounds niche, scattered and irrelevant as far as language making goes. Erasmus students and expatriates? EU staff?
It seems that you need some sort of concentration (virtual or geographical) to make a supposedly second-rate variation of some language. I don’t see how people from all across “continental” Europe which are also so scattered domestically (Erasmus students?) could make something cohesive enough to call it Euro English.
- A Spaniard might say “how you say” but would a Polish person do that?
- A Polish person might drop a lot of articles but would a Spaniard do that?
I’m from Scandinavia and a supposed mistake that people from the Nordic countries commit is to use “blue-eyed” to mean “naive”. And sure that’s a direct translation of the “naive” expression but I have never heard anyone from Scandinavia say that in English.
I see the footnotes for the opening paragraphs are The Independent, the Financial Times and a British linguist. I don’t know what the deal is with the British (similar to Americans but their distance from Europe excuses them IMO) and their insistence that Europe (really “Continental Europe” i.e. Europe which isn’t a bus drive under the English Channel away from the mainland) consists of this uniform blob of non-Anglos who drive scooters, eat baguettes and go to raves. And speak the same pidgin apparently.
> The divergence is presumably going to accelerate after Brexit, now that there's even fewer native speakers around to anchor it to British English.
That’s a laugh. Language isn’t spread by way of EU diplomats. Regular people are more likely to be “anchored” to American English.
One Czech guy I was talking to recently sounds like he moved to California at the age of nine.
> That’s a laugh. Language isn’t spread by way of EU diplomats. Regular people are more likely to be “anchored” to American English.
American English is the best variant of English because we stole it. Nobody cares if somebody messes with it because, eh, it isn’t ours anyway. Let’s drive this language like a stolen car.
> this uniform blob of non-Anglos who drive scooters, eat baguettes and go to raves. And speak the same pidgin apparently.
This sounds niche, scattered and irrelevant as far as language making goes. Erasmus students and expatriates? EU staff?
It seems that you need some sort of concentration (virtual or geographical) to make a supposedly second-rate variation of some language. I don’t see how people from all across “continental” Europe which are also so scattered domestically (Erasmus students?) could make something cohesive enough to call it Euro English.
- A Spaniard might say “how you say” but would a Polish person do that?
- A Polish person might drop a lot of articles but would a Spaniard do that?
I’m from Scandinavia and a supposed mistake that people from the Nordic countries commit is to use “blue-eyed” to mean “naive”. And sure that’s a direct translation of the “naive” expression but I have never heard anyone from Scandinavia say that in English.
I see the footnotes for the opening paragraphs are The Independent, the Financial Times and a British linguist. I don’t know what the deal is with the British (similar to Americans but their distance from Europe excuses them IMO) and their insistence that Europe (really “Continental Europe” i.e. Europe which isn’t a bus drive under the English Channel away from the mainland) consists of this uniform blob of non-Anglos who drive scooters, eat baguettes and go to raves. And speak the same pidgin apparently.
> The divergence is presumably going to accelerate after Brexit, now that there's even fewer native speakers around to anchor it to British English.
That’s a laugh. Language isn’t spread by way of EU diplomats. Regular people are more likely to be “anchored” to American English.
One Czech guy I was talking to recently sounds like he moved to California at the age of nine.