1. Eurolinguistics Overview:
– Eurolinguistics focuses on the study of European languages.
– Notable figures like Norbert Reiter, Harald Haarmann, and Mario Wandruszka have contributed to the field.
– Projects like ELAMA and EUROTYP address typological questions in European languages.
– Key sources for linguistic data include the Atlas Linguarum Europae and World Atlas of Linguistic Structures.
– The field covers aspects like writing systems, sound features, grammatical structures, sociolinguistics, and language politics in Europe.
2. Language Features in European Languages:
– European languages exhibit isolating, agglutinating, and inflecting structural types.
– Aspects like grammatical gender, word order, and aspect systems are significant in European languages.
– Some languages in Europe, like Slavic languages, have complex aspect systems, while others like English distinguish between progressive and non-progressive actions.
– The Charlemagne sprachbund highlights common features in European languages, including grammatical gender systems and pronoun distinctions.
– Vocabulary influence from languages like Latin, French, and English has shaped vernacular languages in Europe.
3. Communication Styles and Strategies in Europe:
– Geert Hofstede categorizes Europe as an individualistic civilization with direct and person-oriented communication.
– European communication tends to be low context, with reciprocal address terms and a dual system of pronouns.
– Status plays a less significant role in European communication compared to other civilizations.
– European communication includes salutations that often wish for health, success, or luck.
– Topics like small talk, cultural taboos, and communication strategies differ in Europe compared to other civilizations.
4. Linguistic Diversity and Language Policy in Europe:
– Europe is linguistically diverse, with minority languages protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
– Minority languages like Basque, Irish, and Welsh have special status in some European nations.
– Language academies and discussions on standardization have played a role in shaping national languages in Europe.
– The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages promotes linguistic diversity and tolerance in Europe.
– Language policies in countries like France and initiatives like the European Charta of Regional and Minority Languages reflect Europe’s commitment to linguistic diversity.
5. Notable Works and Authors in Eurolinguistics:
– Academic works like ‘The European Linguistic Area: Standard Average European’ and ‘Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe’ provide in-depth analyses of European languages.
– Notable authors like Harald Haarmann and Peter Collett have contributed to the study of European languages and communication styles.
– Works on politeness, interlanguage pragmatics, and linguistic diversity in Europe offer insights into language dynamics in the region.
– The integration of new immigrants and concepts for EU language policy reflect the multicultural profile of Europe and the importance of language in integration efforts.
– Tolerant linguistic attitudes in historical contexts like medieval Toledo have influenced language policies and practices in modern Europe.
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Eurolinguistics is a neologistic term for the study of the languages of Europe. The term Eurolinguistics was first used by Norbert Reiter in 1991 (German equivalent: Eurolinguistik). Apart from a series of works dealing with only a part of the European languages, the work of Harald Haarmann pursues a "pan- or trans-European perspective". This goal is also pursued by Mario Wandruszka.
Typological questions have mainly been dealt with by the Eurolinguistischer Arbeitskreis Mannheim (ELAMA; led by Per Sture Ureland) and the EUROTYP projects. Important sources of linguistic data for Eurolinguistic studies are the Atlas Linguarum Europae (for vocabulary studies) and the World Atlas of Linguistic Structures (Haspelmath et al. 2005, for grammar studies).
The internet platform EuroLinguistiX (ELiX) (edited by Joachim Grzega) offers a bibliography of Eurolinguistic publications as well as a wiki, a discussion forum, an academic internet journal in order to address also aspects of "linguistic and cultural history", "sociology of languages", "language politics" and "intercultural communication". In 2006, Joachim Grzega published a basic reader on common features of European languages.
Also joint with the ELAMA, the EuroLSJ project by Erhard Steller tries to collect essential results of Eurolinguistics and make them usable for everyday life in Europe by transforming them into a representative standard language (LSJ European / Europé LSJ) which wants to serve as an optimized "acquisition and memory helper" (Giuseppe G. Castorina) for a quicker and easier access to all languages of Europe.
