Euro English

Euro English
Euro English
European English
English
Native to	European Union ; European Free Trade Association
Region	Europe
Ethnicity	Europeans
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Ingvaeonic Anglo-Frisian Anglic English International English European English Jargon of the Institutions of the European Union and of the European Free Trade Association Euro English; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Germanic Proto-West Germanic Proto-English Old English Middle English Early Modern English Modern English ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Glossary of European Union concepts, acronyms, and jargon;
Writing system	Latin (English alphabet); Unified English Braille
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
IETF	en-EU
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Euro English,^[1] Euro-English,^[2] or European English, less commonly known as EU English, Continental English, and EU Speak, is a group of dialects of the English language and a form of International English as used in Europe based on common lexical and grammatical mistranslations influenced by the native languages of its non-native English-speaking population mostly built on the technical jargon of the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).^[3]^[4] It is mostly used among EU staff, EFTA staff, expatriates and migrants from EU and EFTA countries, global nomads and young international travelers such as international students in the EU's Erasmus programme, as well as European diplomats with a lower proficiency in English inclusive of both Standard English and non-standard native speaker dialects of English.^[5]^[6]^[7]

History

The usage of the English language in other parts of Europe spread through the 19th century, when the British Empire inherited colonies elsewhere in Europe such as Malta, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Menorca, Heligoland, and the Ionian Islands, the latter three in modern-day Spain, Germany, and Greece respectively.

The term "Euro English" was first used by Carstensen in 1986 to denote the adoption of anglicisms in Europe.^[8]

The enlargement of the European Union over several decades gradually diluted the influence of two of the EU's other non-English working languages of German and French. The use of English in European Union institutions and the European Free Trade Association, the development of European Union law as identified in the "Glossary of European Union concepts, acronyms, and jargon," the integration of international business and trade practices among member states, the influence of the Legal English and Business English registers, and the increased mistranslation and coinage of technical, legal, international business, international relations, and public policy jargon by non-native speakers of English has led to the development of Euro English. The development of the international student exchange Erasmus Programme, an open borders travel policy establishing the Schengen Area, and the establishment of a customs union created a new class of mobile young people in Europe who needed a lingua franca to communicate across Europe, and English usually filled that role.^[9]^[3]^[4]

In 2006, Mollin rejected the idea that Euro-English existed as an independent variety of English amongst European academics at the time.^[8]^[10] According to Forche (2012), 'The question whether the appropriation of English by non-native speakers in Continental Europe is giving rise to a potential European variety of English has not yet been resolved.'^[2] In his test group of Erasmus students, Forche found more evidence of Euro-English than Mollin did amongst European academics.^[11] Many of the features suggested to be characteristic of Euro-English could be identified as learners' mistakes, although there are some nativisation tendencies.^[11] Although these young mobile Europeans had a greater potential to shape a continental norm, they appeared to use English mostly for pragmatic reasons rather than as a language they strongly identified with, and there was still not enough evidence to conclude Euro-English constituted an independent variety.^[11]

Euro-English was heavily influenced and dominated by British English, due to the United Kingdom's having been an EU member state between 1973 and 2020. However, the UK's withdrawal in early 2020 means that the EU's scope of native English dialects has been mostly reduced to the varieties of Hiberno-English spoken in the Republic of Ireland; one source believes that this will allow room for Romance languages to have more of an influence on Euro-English.^[12] There is also a possibility of a Romance language replacing English. After the UK withdrew from the EU, the Government of France wanted to encourage greater use of French as a working language.^[13]

Mannoni (2021) found that both the Euro English as found in European Union law, as well as legal Chinese in Mainland China, were 'hybrid languages'.^[1]

Style guides

European Union and the European Free Trade Association

English Style Guide: "A handbook for authors and translators in the European Commission" – executive branch of the European Union.^[14]
Interinstitutional Style Guide -- used across several institutions of the European Union, European Economic Area, and the European Free Trade Association.^[15]

Council of Europe

Council of Europe - English Style Guide, by the Council of Europe^[16]

Euro English in computers

The Unicode Common Locale Data Repository Project had drafted/defined "en-150" for English in Europe.

Grammar

"English is widely used on the European continent as an international language. Frequently conferences are conducted in English (and their proceedings published in English) when only a few of the participants are native speakers. At such conferences the English spoken often shows features at variance with the English of England but shared by the other speakers. Continental meanings of eventual and actual, continental uses of tenses, calques on French formulas of conference procedure, various details of pronunciation, and dozens of other features mark the English as an emerging continental norm. Native speakers attending the conference may find themselves using some of these features as the verbal interaction takes place."

– Charles A. Ferguson (1992)^[17]

Conjugation

Non-native English speakers frequently drop the third person singular suffix (-s). For example: he often call meetings.^[6]

Speakers of Euro English, in particular those from Eastern Europe, may use the progressive aspect with stative predicates, such as saying I'm coming from Spain instead of I come from Spain. This is atypical in Standard English, but it is permissible in Euro English.^[5]^[18]

Deixis

A construction that appears with very high frequency in European speakers of English is, for example, Euro English we were five people at the party, as opposed to Standard English there were five people at the party.^[5] Such constructions introduce a type of mandatory "clusivity" to the English language, in which the speaker always signifies whether they are a part of some bigger group.

Euro English also features slightly more frequent usage of the indefinite personal pronoun one, such as in one can protect one's country. This mirrors the more frequent usage of such pronouns in European languages, but is also sometimes used as third-person reflexive pronouns, such as with French on and se, Scandinavian sig and sin, German man and sich, etc.

Inflection

Some words are given a plural with a final "s" in Euro-English, such as informations and competences, to match similar words in European languages (such as informations and compétences in French), while this pluralisation is ungrammatical in British or American English.^[19]

Register

It is extremely frequent among European speakers of English to prefer the singular they in formal contexts, whereas native English speakers in the US and UK have historically considered it an informal colloquialism.^[20]^[21]^[22]^{[dubious – discuss]} This mirrors the usage of "singular plurals", in terms of levels of formality, in European languages, such as French vous, German Sie, older Spanish vos, Danish and Norwegian De, even though all of these examples are strictly used in the second person.

Vocabulary

Standard English	Euro English	Origin
Current	Actual^[17]	The English adjective actual has undergone semantic shift and is now a false friend (cf. cognates in German aktuell, Dutch actueel, French actuel, Romanian/Spanish/Catalan/Galician actual, Portuguese atual, Italian attuale, Czech aktuální, Polish aktualny).^[23]
To plan (for), include, provide (for)	To foresee	French prévoir.^[24]
Bureaucracy	Berlaymont^[5]
Conditions	Conditionality^[5]
Six months	Semester^[5]
He has retired to his office	He has retired to his cabinet	Unknown^[25]
Deadline	Delay^[12]	From the French délai, meaning "time limit, deadline; waiting period"
Planning	Planification	Formed in imitation of a Romance language; compare French planification, Spanish planificación.^[26]
To refrain from doing something	To hop over	Used in Nordic countries.^[5]
To be naive	To be blue-eyed	Used in Nordic countries (and is understood by German speakers).^[5]^[27]
To overcharge	To salt^[5]
To specify	To precise,^[24] to outline	From French and other Romance influence^[28]

The English plural of the word euro was first defined as euro without a final s, before becoming euros with a final s.

References

^ ^a ^b Mannoni 2021, 6. Conclusion.
^ ^a ^b Forche 2012, p. 447.
^ ^a ^b "Thirteenth Annual Report of the European Free Trade Association (Geneva, Switzerland / 1972-1973)" (PDF). European Free Trade Association (EFTA). September 1973.
^ ^a ^b "Differences between EU, EEA, EFTA, and Schengen countries". European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ "Brexit could create a new 'language'". The Independent. 20 September 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
^ ^a ^b "The EU will still speak English but in its own way". Financial Times. 29 June 2016. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
^ Trudgill, Peter. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society.
^ ^a ^b Mollin 2006, p. 6.
^ Forche 2012, p. 456.
^ Forche 2012, pp. 447, 473.
^ ^a ^b ^c Forche 2012, p. 473.
^ ^a ^b Sonnad, Nikhil (11 May 2016). "The English language could get really weird if Britain leaves the EU". Quartz. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
^ Forrest, Adam (10 June 2021). "French set to replace English as EU's 'working language'". The Independent. London. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
^ "English resources: English Style Guide". European Commission. April 2023. Archived from the original on 22 December 2016.
^ "Publications Office — Interinstitutional style guide — Home". Publications.Europa.eu.
^ "Council of Europe English Style Guide PDF" (PDF). European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe. 20 October 2023. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2023.
^ ^a ^b Forche 2012, p. 448.
^ Salakhyan, Elena (2012). "The Tübingen Corpus of Eastern European English (TCEEE): From a small-scale corpus study to a newly emerging non-native English variety". Token: A Journal of English Linguistics.
^ Nordquist, Richard (21 March 2017). "Euro-English in Language". ThoughtCo.com. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
^ Pinker, Steven (2014). The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. Penguin. p. 260. ISBN 9780698170308.
^ Ross, Michael; West, Keith (2002). Delivering the Framework for Teaching English. Nelson Thornes. p. 180. ISBN 9780748762620.
^ Nicaise, Alexander (30 March 2020). "The Tragedy of the Singular 'They'". Free Inquiry.
^ How to Write Clearly (PDF), Directorate-General for Translation, European Commission, archived from the original (PDF) on 30 May 2009, retrieved 28 July 2018
^ ^a ^b Gardner, Jeremy (8 May 2013), A Brief List of Misused English Terms in EU Publications (PDF), European Court of auditors Secretariat General Translation Directorate, archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2013
^ "10 Funny Euro-English Words We Might Hear More Of Soon". 19 May 2016.
^ Gardner, Jeremy (2016). Misused English words and expressions in EU publications (PDF). European Court of Auditors.
^ "Duden | blauäugig | Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft". www.duden.de (in German). Retrieved 25 January 2021.
^ Shaw, Albert (1914). The American Review of Reviews. Review of Reviews. p. 345. It is to be wished that the Commission or the railroads had outlined, "precised," as the French say, the real fundamentals of the difficulty of the railroads.

Bibliography

Forche, Christian R. (2012). "On the emergence of Euro-English as a potential European variety of English – attitudes and interpretations". Jezikoslovlje. 23 (2): 447–478.
Mannoni, Michele (2021). "Rights Metaphors Across Hybrid Legal Languages, Such as Euro English and Legal Chinese". International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. 34 (5). International Association for the Semiotics of Law: 1375–1399. doi:10.1007/s11196-020-09814-6. PMC 8019294. PMID 33840914.
Mollin, Sandra (2006). Euro-English: Assessing Variety Status. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. p. 6. ISBN 382336250X.