MOOC: Multilingual Education

1.3. Multilingualism from a historical perspective

Week 1 Part 3 will help you:

become familiar with the history of multilingual practices in Europe,
become familiar with the concept of lingua franca.

To reach these goals you are expected to:

watch the video that introduces the topic of European multilingual history,
read the paragraphs below to familiarize yourself with the history of multilingual practices in Europe and the lingua francas in Europe,
do the quiz to learn some interesting facts about the history of European languages.

Video

Reading

European multilingual history

Multilingualism as a policy was adopted at the state level and incorporated into the legal framework of the country. The Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, linguistically one of the most heterogeneous territories in modern Europe, granted in its constitution equality in school, office and public life to all 14 languages spoken by its citizens. This law gave ‘linguistic-nationalities’, among other things, the right to establish their own schools and choose the language of instruction, and all citizens the right to use their mother tongue in court. Judges, consequently, had to pronounce verdicts in the language in which they were addressed. To enable this, the Empire began to methodically translate its codes and statutes into its various languages, and compiled its first multilingual legal dictionaries (e.g. a legal dictionary of the juridical and political terminology of all the Slavonic languages of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy).

On the individual level, plurilingualism was very common among the upper classes and court circles of the European societies before 1800. They often used foreign languages in internal as well as international communication, in private as well as public life. The polyglot Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V, is known for saying: “I speak Spanish with God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse.” On the other hand, plurilingualism was also seen as a precondition for mastering various tasks in everyday life of the middle and lower classes, as well. To be able to participate in the fields of trade and book-keeping, in church and in court, one had to use languages other than one’s own. However, this was perceived as normal and thus rarely emphasized or even mentioned in (written) sources.

The ‘lingua francas’ of Europe

Alongside its diverse multilingual practices, Europe has experienced a number of languages which have served as a lingua franca. In most cases those were the prestigious languages of the elites with enough political power to impose their language on a large territory (often the whole empire) or a specific field. The term lingua franca (in Late Latin: ‘Frankish language’ or ‘language of the Franks’, sometimes called also Sabir ), was first used with capital letters (as Lingua Franca) during the Middle Ages to describe a specific language, namely a French- and Italian-based jargon or pidgin that was developed by the Crusaders and traders for the purpose of commerce in the eastern Mediterranean and has already died out. Today we use the term generically to describe bridge languages, languages used as a means of communication between populations who use languages that are not mutually intelligible.

In European history, there have been a number of languages dominating either a region or specific walks of life. Latin was not only the lingua franca of the Roman Empire but also of the Roman Catholic Church and science until the 19^th century. From the 11^th to 19^th century, Italian and Provençal were used for various commercial activities in the Mediterranean, while Italian was also the language of culture and intellectual elites in general. European diplomatic circles of the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th century communicated predominantly in French. However, after the First and Second World War, English started to take over as the lingua franca of diplomacy. The German language was the dominant official language of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while Russian was and still is used as the language of interethnic communication in the former parts of the Soviet Union. In fact, it is still understood by a number of people in Eastern and Central Europe. In the multi-ethnic Yugoslavia, a similar role was played by Serbo-Croatian, which ceased to exist after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s (Kocbek 2013).

The lingua franca of the 21^st century Europe and the globalised world is English. English as a lingua franca (ELF) is predominantly used by non-native speakers who do not have a common native language and have chosen English as their language of communication. Thus, ELF is mostly used internationally and interculturally, which is why we also talk about ‘English as an international language’, ‘English as a global language’, ‘English as a world language’, ‘World Englishes’, etc. Due to its global status, English is taught worldwide and promoted as an important linguistic tool that helps individuals and groups function in the contemporary world with success. However, some researchers (Phillipson 1992) criticise the global teaching of English as an act of linguistic imperialism and a threat for widespread multilingual education.

Sources:

Braunmüller, K., Ferraresi, G. Ed. 2003. Aspects of Multilingualism in European Language History. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Pp. 1-7.

Kocbek, A. (2013). Legal terminology at arm’s length-the multiple dimensions of legal terms. Linguistica, 53(2), 25-37.

Marácz, László. 2012. “Multilingualism in the Transleithanian Part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918): Policy and Practice” Jezikoslovlje 13.2: 269-298.

Phillipson, Robert. 1992. Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: OUP.

Activity

What do you know about the European languages? Do the quiz and learn some interesting facts about European languages.