MAGISTRALE 1 - classwork to complete for 4th November

Module 2

1) Translate the article below.

Eurish – L’inglese Europeo Una Nuova Lingua ?

I Britannici Non Capiscono l’Inglese Parlato dagli Europei

STRASBURGO – “L’uso del così chiamato Eurish – fusione dell’inglese con le altre lingue europee – all’interno della Ue aliena e confonde la gente”, questo è quanto afferma la scrittrice irlandese Emily O’Reilly. O’Reilly, che è anche difenditrice civica dell’Unione Europea, analizza una serie di espressioni che gli europei traducono letteralmente da francese, tedesco o olandese, e che gli inglesi formulano diversamente. Così i documenti non sono tenuti in ‘file’ ma in ‘dossier’, un lavoro non è ‘assigned’ ma ‘attributed’, le decisioni ‘are not made but adopted’. E aggiunge O’Reilly: “Procedures are not subjected to checks but to ‘controls’”.“Il bizzarro guazzabuglio di Inglese” prosegue la purista, “ora lingua standard all’interno dell’Ue fa grattare la testa ai madrelingua”.
La scrittrice e giornalista è, per mestiere, sensibile ai suoni e ai significati della lingua e afferma la necessità di una campagna di sensibilizzazione per assicurare l’uso dell’Inglese corrente. Questa è la richiesta espressa in una conferenza via video da lei tenuta a Strasburgo ieri (12-02-18, ndr), durante la quale ha appunto analizzato le storture sintattiche e semantiche di questo neonato linguaggio. E quelli che parlano un fluente Euro-Inglese sono rimasti genuinamente sorpresi. Mai si sarebbero aspettati di non essere capiti in una lingua che hanno imparato così bene. Emily O’Reilly però dalla cattedra bacchetta e spiega che “la combinazione di jargon, uso probabilistico dei termini e sequenza inusuale di parole mina il senso di significato comune, che è la caratteristica essenziale del linguaggio corrente”.
Serviranno nuove lezioni British o in Europa sta davvero nascendo una nuova lingua franca?

2) Now read the source text the Italian version  was taken  from. Underline the sections  which  are translated directly from the source text. How similar is your translation to  the original?

Do you speak Eurish? EU has its own language…and it's far too difficult for the rest of us

THE Brussels bubble has become so self-contained that it has developed its own Euro-English jargon that even native English speakers struggle to understand.

The use of so-called 'Eurish' - a fusion of English with other European languages - within the European Union (EU) alienates and confuses people said EU ombudsman Emily O'Reilly.Calling for the overly bureaucratic language to be replaced by plain English, Ms O'Reilly said: "In Euro-English legislation never 'provides' but it 'foresees'; documents are not held on file but on a 'dossier' and work is not assigned to staff but it is 'attributed'."She added: "Procedures are not subjected to checks but to 'controls'; decisions are never made but they are 'adopted'. 

The bizarre hotchpotch of English - now the default EU language - with other European languages, particularly French, has led to many native English speakers scratching their heads. Ms O'Reilly chose "horizontal rules" as her favourite example of baffling EU jargon as she called for a language awareness campaign to ensure the use of plain English. But those fluent in Euro-English were genuinely surprised when they found out native English speakers struggle to understand them.

Ms O'Reilly said: "A senior person never says or states something but he 'emphasises' or 'stresses'; or if those words have already been used you'll find him 'underlining'."In fact, senior EU people 'underline' until they are blue in the face."

Speaking via video link in Strasbourg to a conference about the EU's muddled language in Dublin yesterday, Ms O'Reilly said Eurish was also heavily reliant on the use of the passive voice. Giving examples such as "it must be borne in mind" and "it must be emphasised", she warned that such phrases may seem harmless, but could have negative consequences. She said: "The obvious difficultly is that a native English speaker - and presumably other English speakers who are not part of the 'Brussels bubble' - will find much of this language difficult to understand."Warning that Euro-English risked alienating readers and listeners, Ms O'Reilly said: "In fact, the combination of jargon, odd use of terminology and unusual word sequence undermines the sense of a shared meaning, which is an essential characteristic of plain language." 

The EU has 24 official and working languages, with French, Dutch and German and English among the main languages used.

“ Learning a second language should be obligatory in all  countries.” Discuss ( approx. 400 wds) 

To  be able to  complete this essay  you will  need to  find reliable sources. For the next lesson,  bring along a list of sources you have researched and be ready to  explain why they would be relevant to  the essay  in question.

We will  be doing preparatory work  for the essay in  question, DO NOT begin it yet,