Why english is the official language in Europe? Andaluz to the power

[Zuvio]

Originally posted by johnny: Ching gay woh ee bay pee joh See ? I do speak Chinese. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Is this warped english for I need to go pee-pee real bad ?! [img]graemlins/saywhat.gif[/img]

[Bozos of Bones]

Originally posted by VulcanRider: Subject:Control Tower Exchanges Conversations that passengers normally don't hear. A Pan Am 727 flight engineer waiting for start clearance in Munich overheard the following: Lufthansa (in German): Ground, what is our start clearance time?" Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak English." Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany. Why must I speak English?" Unknown voice (in a beautiful British accent): "Because you lost the bloody war!"

Don't crusify me for something [img]graemlins/offtopic.gif[/img] .
A conversation between an american aircraft carrier and the canadian guard:
Canadians: Ship coming up from the east, you must modify your heading by fifteen degrees south in order to avoid collision.
Americans: This is the USS Luisianna. Negative, we will not modify our course. Modify your course by fifteen degrees north to avoid a collision.
Canadians(louder): Negative, I repeat; it is imperative that you alter your course by fifteen degrees due south or else there will be a collision.
Americans(a threatening tone): This is the captain of the USS Luisianna, second largest vessel of the American Naval Force. We are accompanied by a fleet totaling twelve battle ships. (his tone gets stronger) You are ordered to modify your heading by fifteen degrees north to avoid collision. If you do not comply, we will be forced to protect our fleet from direct collision by any means available!
Canadians(quietly): We are a lighthouse.

[Vaskez]

I also believe that population-wise German is the most-spoken in Europe, not French. Germany itself has a population above 75 million, then Austria with it's 8 million IIRC people and much of Switzerland also speak German. German is also the chosen 2nd language in many countries such as Hungary where the majority of tourists are german, so in short, german is far more important than french in Europe. Not tryina have a go, just putting in my 2 cents.

[The Hierophant]

Originally posted by Vaskez: Not tryina have a go, just putting in my 2 cents.

Of course you're tryina 'av a go. When is Uncle Vask not tryina 'av a go?

But I'm not tyina 'av a go here, just putting in my 2 cents [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[wellard]

Chinese is not the most spoken language. IIRC India has a larger population now than China *one baby per family rule has taken effect* so I guess Hindu would beat them anyway and does not Bangladesh speak Hindu as well as Bengali and English? And also Fijians who speak Hindu and English.

However a large percentage of the educated Indians speak English and with the USA,NZ,OZ,PNG many African countries like Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria ect and hundreds of pacific and Atlantic islands, hey even parts of Canada And when you take into account all the people who learn English as a second language then is no doubt as to which is the most spoken language in the world.

As to which is the most widely spoken language in Europe? hmmmm could Russian be a contender? Either way English is well beaten by German and French.

Just a side question. Is Spanish not the second most spoken language in the world? I’m betting that it may beat Hindu and leave China (mandarin) in a low 4th spot!

[wellard]

Correction for the above post! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

China population is 1.25 billion where as India is *only* 1.1 billion Mind you the chinese population figures take into account Tiawan and Tibet! Tiawan and Tibet might not agree with that accounting method [img]graemlins/laugh3.gif[/img]

[ 11-07-2003, 09:10 PM: Message edited by: wellard ]

[ZaRos]

I am not sure what im talking about...
But as fare as i remember there are eight different languages spoken in china, mandarin is the lagest of these, spoken by 700-800 millions.
As for india aren't there at least tre different regional languages? Hindu is by fare the most wide spread, don't remember the number of people speaking it, but my guess is a little less than speaks mandarin.
How many people speaks english, just a guess, 500 millions. And spanish a little more.
But what makes english the "world language" is the fact that 1.5 - 2.0 billions speak english when first and second language is put together.

And now for the great question...
Why isn't danish the most spoken language in the world? There are a few "episodes" in history which could have made danish the global language.
E.g. first; the viking were the first to discover north amarica, some of you out there might think that columbus were the first, but in northern america there have been found abandoned villages whis dates back to 1000-1100, approximately 400 years before columbus.
Second; The viking conquered a large part af Britain around the year 1000. The fact that they conquered a part af britain, dosn't necessarily meen that the british should start speaking danish, if that were the case most of us should speak latin due to the wide spread antic roman empire. What is wierd in this case is the fact that the british voluntarily adopted danish. Until 1600 danish were the choosen language in the british upper-class. I have personally read autentic british law material from the late fifteen hundreds, and it was written in danish (well old danish, it was bloody hard to understand [img]smile.gif[/img] ). But for some reason the role of the danish language was taken over by french. (DOH!!! My life would be so much easier if i didn't have to learn any secondary languages.)
What i am trying to say is; danish could have been the spoken language in the two nations which to day is linguistically dominating.

One could always hope that the danes could have a second shoot at getting a global languages [img]smile.gif[/img] . But i kinda doubt that...

[Skunk]

It always pains me when EU citizens display a lack of knowledge regarding the workings of the EU...

The EU has eleven official languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. The principle that all the EU's official languages are equal is enshrined in law in the following documents:

• The Treaty establishing the European Community states that every citizen of the Union may write to the European institutions in one of the official languages and have an answer in the same language;
• The first ever Regulation adopted by what was then the European Economic Community, in 1958, stipulates that all documents of general application shall be drafted in all the official languages.

www.europa.eu.int

In practice however, documents must first be written in one language (Origin), then translated (if not the same) to a 'common' language(Common), and then translated from this into all other languages (Destination).

This is a neccessary process because it would be impractical to require that all translaters are fluent in all 11 official languages (and the number of official languages is about to rise to 25).

There are three common languages defined in the EU (solely for the purposes of translation): English, French, German. Of the common languages documents, approximately 60% are written in English, 39% in French and 1% in German.

Some European politicians have taken to making announcements and speeches in English on the grounds that 56% of the EU population claim to be fluent in English - but their preference for English usage does not imply that English has become the sole official or defacto language of the EU.

Finally, Esperanto and latin were considered for the purpose of choosing one of the two as 'the official language' - but this was rejected many years ago. The over-riding reason for rejection was that the EU did not want a return to medieval times where only the highest educated (and rich) understood the language of government. Government should be accessible to all - and not just the élite.

Hope that this clarifies the issues.


[ 11-08-2003, 07:46 AM: Message edited by: Skunk ]

[Vaskez]

Good post, Skunk! *Smokes some skunk to aid relaxation and let Skunk's post sink in better* *passes the shit onto Hiero who takes a few puffs then falls unconscious*

[ 11-08-2003, 08:05 AM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]

[wellard]

Originally posted by Vaskez: Good post, Skunk! *Smokes some skunk to aid relaxation and let Skunk's post sink in better* *passes the shit onto Hiero who takes a few puffs then falls unconscious*

Ahhh Skunk I remember it well *sigh* [img]tongue.gif[/img]

ZaRos Until 1600 danish were the choosen language in the british upper-class. I have personally read autentic british law material from the late fifteen hundreds, and it was written in danish (well old danish, it was bloody hard to understand

I am sure that the language of the English court was French untill about that time and for a long time after was a major player in the nobility of England. But I think there may be some strength to the law being based on Danelaw and being written in an old Danish style. Maybe someone can help out here. I'm on thin ground here but I think a lot of northern england got a lot of words and certainly its accent from the Danes.