The languages of the European Union

Today the European Union consists of more than 25 countries. In the future, even more countries will belong to the EU. A new country usually means a new language as well. Currently, more than 20 different languages are spoken in the EU. All languages in the European Union are equal. This variety of languages is fascinating. But it can lead to problems as well. Skeptics believe that the many languages are an obstacle for the EU. They hinder efficient collaboration. Many think, therefore, that there should be a common language. All countries should be able to communicate with this language. But it's not that easy. No language can be named the one official language. The other countries would feel disadvantaged. And there isn't a truly neutral language in Europe… An artificial language such as Esperanto wouldn't work either. Because the culture of a country is always reflected in the language. Therefore, no country wants to relinquish its language. The countries see a part of their identity in their language. Language policy is an important item on the EU's agenda. There is even a commissioner for multilingualism. The EU has the most translators and interpreters worldwide. Around 3,500 people work to make an agreement possible. Nevertheless, not all documents can always be translated. That would take too much time and cost too much money. Most documents are only translated into a few languages. The many languages are one of the biggest challenges of the EU. Europe should unite, without losing its many identities!

Guess the language!

______an is the native language of about 12 million people. The majority of those people live in ______a and other countries in southeastern Europe. ______an is counted among the South Slavic languages. It is closely related to Croatian and Bosnian. The grammar and vocabulary are very similar. Such being the case, it is easy for ______ans, Croatians, and Bosnians to understand each other. The ______an alphabet contains 30 letters. Each one has a distinct pronunciation.

Parallels to ancient tonal languages can be found in the intonation. In Chinese, for example, the pitch of the syllables changes with the meaning. That is similar to ______an. However, in this case only the pitch of the accented syllable plays a role. The strongly inflectional language structure is another hallmark of ______an. That means that nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns are always inflected. If you are interested in grammatical structures, you should definitely learn ______an!