Common EU Language

[Quillan]

I heard something yesterday that I didn't know and it made me think of an old onion thrown up every time anyone mentions the EU and it becoming federalised which is unlike the USA we do not speak a common language. So would anyone like to guess what is the official language of the USA?

By the way in the top eleven languages spoken in the USA and not in any particular order are Russian, Italian, Arabic, English, Korean, Chinese, French, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Spanish and German.

[Rabbie]

I would have guessed English on the grounds that that is the language that the laws are written in and the language used in Congress.

I do know that there was a proposal in the early days to make German the official language but I don't know what happened to that idea.

[Quillan]

You're right in that government and the justice system use English, goes back to when we owned it but there is no official single language. It's something to do with the constitution that does not deny people to use the language of their original country. So all in all just the same as the EU. Oh and Spanish is the second most spoken language.

[AnOther]

Since when did Americans speak English [6]

[Quillan]

Good point, the wording when refering to law is "(American) English".

[NickP]

[quote user="Quillan"] It's something to do with the constitution that does not deny people to use the language of their original country. So all in all just the same as the EU. .[/quote]

Well then, that means that France is well out of step.[:P]

[Jonzjob]

It's obvious really and I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned before?

The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been

reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European

communications. Although Germany lobbied hard to have German accepted as

the preferred language Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was very happy

with English given the spelling concessions that have been agreed upon.

As part of the negotiations it was agreed that English spelling had

some room for improvement and a five-year phased plan has been adopted

for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short). The spelling

changes are to remove the pronunciation ambiguities in British English

and make the language simpler for non-native speakers.

In the

first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c." Sertainly, sivil

servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be

replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but

typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing

publik emthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be

replaced by "f". This will make words like fotograf" 20 persent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be

expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are

possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which

have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that

the horible mes of silent "e"s in the languag is disgrasful, and they

would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by " v".

During

ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou",

and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of

leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten

styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi

tu understand ech ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru.