The preeminence of the English language in international business is hardly surprising. No explanation is required for its superiority - it has become the lingua franca primarily because the world’s largest economic power, the USA, deals only in English.
Lingua franca is used intentionally here, for English has now the role once held by Latin as the dominant language in aviation and tourism. It is also the language of choice for scientific work - medical and technological research is published in English. IT is driven by English. Indeed, there is hardly a cutting edge field that is not dominated by English.
Although the USA is populated by immigrants and descendants of immigrants the melting pot has created a situation where, for example, Polish Americans admit their heritage, but speak little Polish, know little of their culture, in short, have become Americanized. Indeed, many Americans speak only English, in contrast to Europeans - and Canadians - who often are bilingual. Many Europeans speak a third language beyond their native one and English; it is not uncommon to have at least a rudimentary command of French or German, the other “power’ tongues in the European Union.
It is hardly surprising that English has made tremendous inroads in everyday usage. Many nationalists are concerned about this growing trend. Take Estonia as an example. When during the Soviet occupation Russian words crept into everyday usage, to the degree that the result was that Estonian speakers born abroad, speaking the language of the Republic period, often had difficulty understanding the meaning of Estonians at home. Russian use affected syntax and sentence structure as well. Often, one needed to reread a newspaper article to fully comprehend the intent of the journalist.
These days, protectors of the Estonian language are concerned about the encroachment of English into everyday usage. Finnish has had its day, now English rules. But, as an article in “Postimees” recently (11.II.2002) pointed out - every second word borrowed from English into Estonian is useless. Words already exist in Estonian that do not need to be replaced by English.
The best example recently was the search for an Estonian “bränd” - instead of the existing “mark”. “Marketing” has replaced “turundus”, “drink” is used instead of “jook” or “naps”, “shopping “ describes “poeskäimine”, “stoori” takes precedence over “lugu”, and so on, ad nauseum.
It should not be difficult to guess the meaning of other words that have appeared in Estonian publications recently: dresskõud, voljüüm, hõust, or vaib (OK, that’s a little tricky - vibe as in a form of popular music is meant).
This phenomenon is hardly new - Estonia during the short period of independence between the two World Wars borrowed many words from English, transport, business and sports, culture terms were adopted. however, English did not rule unchallenged (Another example here - Eesti ruulib! means Estonia rules, used as a headline after victory in last year’s Eurovision contest). German and French, Finnish and Russian influences were felt as well.
Philologists are concerned today about the fact that English now has no opponents. If this “borrowing” exceeds a certain critical level, then the unique expressions of any language may be threatened. Many note that if this trend (yup, another word in everyday Estonian usage) continues Estonian grammar may also be affected. Mati Erelt and Helle Metslang have recently noted the impact of Russian for example - the usage of the simple past tense (or passive) as is common in Russian has become more frequent in Estonian. The same applies for the increasing application of the future (will be) tense - “saamatulevik”, acknowledging the influence of indoeuropean tongues.
There are words used in spoken and printed Estonian today, borrowed from English, that in their original Estoinian meaning have a totally different meaning. A “liider” is not a leader; rather it is a wanton, profligate libertine - a person posessing few, if any morals. It is also a word rarely used by polite people, along the tones of “slut” in English. Thus one winces, when Estonia’s position as a “liider’ in the campaign for admittance into NATO is used. Did Estonia’s politicians compromise their morals, perform indecent acts to attain this status?
And let’s not get started on profanity. The “F•••” word is everywhere, one recent” Eesti Ekspress” “Reporter” section cover-story was, in bold caps “Overworked and underf•••ed”. To make it worse the subheading was translated into Estonian street slang as well. It seems that some editors, journalists have little in the way of scruples. The “f “word sells, one surmises, judging by its frequent appearances everywhere. Thank the yanks for that.
Estonia is not alone in this predicament. The Christian Science Monitor’s June 4th issue addressed, curiously enough, the uproar in Russia today. Russia is in vogue these days, Volodya and Dubya are best buds, many Russians have business dealings with the States, and after last month’s summits expect to see that increase.
As well, immigration from Russia to the USA is expected to rise - just what some Brooklynites want to hear.
The CSM reported that the State Duma is considering a legislative crackdown to stop the invasion of not only foreign slang (the “f” word is big in Russia as well) but business terms. The ruling United Russia Party claims that an estimated 10,000 English words are corrupting the Russian language. They have tabled a bill that aims to corral these influences and purge the Russian language of the “sloppy, obscene and alien elements”. The draconian bill would set terms for punishing offenders that work in the media, in government offices and in schools. Fines and administrative penalties are proposed; however, “serious offenders” (who might they be?) could have their publishing or broadcast licences revoked. This last is hardly surprising, considering that the state still effectively rules the media in Russia; dissent is rapidly squelched.
Remember, during Soviet times the Russian language and cyrillic alphabet were carefully supervised and monitored, imposed upon occupied countries. The influence of the west has undermined 70 ears of linguistic totalitarianism. This phenomenon has been labelled, by experts, according to CSM, appropriately as “nyu spik” (newspeak). Linguists and language specialists are warning that the wave of foreign borrowings in Russia is evolving out of control. Thus the tabled bill.
Russian examples of the English invasion provided are “stop” instead of “ostanovityes”, “supermarket” instead of “universam” as well as “ofis” instead of “kabinet”.
My favourite was “Pi-aR” instead of “svyazi s obschchestvenostyu” If you are befuddled, think about America again, where PR, public relations rules the roost. All in all the invasion of English is a threat globally, not only for Estonians and Russians. As Estonia has a unique language, spoken well by approximately only a million people we need to protect it against this onslaught. Legislation sounds too Sovietish, but common sense should take over. Imitation may be the best form of flattery, but not at the cost of losing a unique voice.
The role of Estonians everywhere should be to fight against this insiduous influx. Many Estonian Canadians pepper their speech with English words, second and third generation kids can hardly be expected to improve on their parents, grandparents. Let’s lead by example, and try to use an Estonian word instead of taking the easy way out and becoming Americanized.
Comment: Flavoured a la anglaise
Arvamus
TRENDING
