Flemish expert argues for recognition of linguistic realities
In his latest book, UAntwerp linguist Frank van Splunder argues for a more realistic approach to dealing with language issues in everyday life
English only, please
Van Splunder lives in Ghent, a city where most stores on the main shopping street had French names during the 1970s, including the main department store, À l’Innovation. “Now, French has disappeared, and 55% of the shops have an English or an English-sounding name,” says van Splunder, who recently made his way through the Veldstraat, notebook in hand.
Today, À l’Innovation is called Galeria Inno Department Store. “The more neutral abbreviation ‘Inno’ was put between the Italian ‘Galeria’ – to give the name a fashionable touch – and the American ‘Department Store’, which emphasises the growing economic power of the US after the Second World War. It was then that society strengthened, without actually imposing, English as a global language.”
Dialects vs languages
In his new book Taalstrijd (Language Wars), van Splunder also mentions the English-only movement, a US group that advocates for the use of only English in official government dealings.
English has become a product to attract foreign teachers and students
“But this group of right-wing neocons, which feels threatened by the rise of the Spanish language in the US and aims for the recognition of English as an official language, is marginal,” says van Splunder, who works at UAntwerp’s Linguapolis Institute for Language and Communication.
Theirs is a curious ambition, since after reading van Splunder’s book, it becomes evident that it can be pretty counterproductive to impose a language. “The present situation is as different as day and night from the one in Europe during the 19th century, when new nations like France and Germany needed a flag, a currency, an army and a language to create an identity.”
According to van Splunder, languages don’t really exist. They are all dialects, and the ones backed by a powerful economic, cultural and political system become languages. “The fact that we speak Dutch and not ‘Flemish’ is a political decision. Geographically, one dialect/language slowly moves into another,” he says. “Travelling from Western Europe to Asia, you would still be able to understand the locals by adapting your language bit by bit.”
The pragmatic American perspective, which sees a language as instrumental and does not want to impose a particular identity, is rooted in that country’s historical role as a trading nation. “The striking irony is that to become the leading global language, English didn’t need the support of the British or American government,” van Splunder observes. “You think a Brexit would mean the end of English in Europe? Of course not!”
Ideological boxes
The rise of English as a global language coincided with another evolution: The decline of a standard language. As a teacher, van Splunder witnesses on a daily basis how linguistic communities around the world have developed their own version of English. “The English spoken by my students from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh – countries where English has a prominent role in education – is simply not understood internationally.”
Yet van Splunder is not against Indian or other regional varieties of English and argues that they can be useful within a national context. “English succeeded in what Esperanto never did: It became the language of a global community of non-native speakers,” he says. “Still, not all varieties of English are equal. Some have even suggested recognising Dutch-English as a separate variety. It’s a controversial stand, but it does illustrate that the English of native speakers is not the only standard anymore.”
Van Splunder is not a linguistic romantic who wishes to keep every possible language or dialect alive. But he is dismayed that the current pleas for multilingualism from university administrators ironically often result in more English. “It is hypocritical that universities talk about the quality of education without mentioning the quality of the teaching language. English has become a product to attract foreign teachers and students.”
Instead, the Antwerp professor argues for a broader understanding of multilingualism, with English as a second language and sufficient room for other traditional European languages. He also hopes his book will serve as a mind-opening read for politicians and will help them to step out of their ideological boxes.
“These days, a lot of Belgians are bilingual: Flemings speak better English than they do French, and francophones speak better English than they do Dutch,” he says. “So why don’t communities accept that it can be better to speak the more neutral English with each other, as we already do in an academic context?”
It would make a lot of sense, concludes van Splunder, “to recognise English as an extra official language in Belgium. Look at Brussels: It is multilingual, but at the same time it holds onto a 19th-century frame of reference.”
Taalstrijd is published in Dutch by ASP
Photo by Vincent Jauniaux/UAntwerp
