ヨーロッパ言語の日
欧州評議会により2001年9月26日にヨーロッパ言語の日が制定されて以来、毎年この日を記念する祭典が行われています。
この日には、47か国にまで拡大した欧州評議会加盟国の8億人以上の人々に、他の言語を学ぶための特別な呼び掛けが行われます。言語の多様性は更なる異文化理解への鍵であり、ヨーロッパ大陸の豊かな文化遺産を活用するためのツールとして、欧州評議会は欧州全域で多言語や文化の多様性を奨励しています。
言語は言葉以上のものであり、その目的は文化を豊かにすることです。言語学習のためのルールはなく、人々は年齢や社会的背景に関係なく学ぶことができます。また言語学習の開始が早ければ早いほど容易に吸収でき、そのうえ社会の成熟や個々のヨーロッパ市場開放を促します。
毎年およそ10の言語がこの世界から消失しています。 21世紀の終わりには、世界の言語の50～90％が失われると予想されています。そのような理由から、今日ヨーロッパ全体における多言語使用の推進は、言語保護を思い起こさせるためのとても重要な活動なのです。
知ってましたか？
- 世界には6000～7000言語存在し、ヨーロッパだけでも約225種類の方言があります。
- 世界の言語の殆どは、アジアとアフリカで話されています。
- 少なくとも世界人口の半数は、バイリンガルか複数言語を話します。要するに、2言語以上を話すまたは理解します。
- バイリンガリズムは、容易に追加言語の学習を可能にし、思考プロセスを強化します。
European Day of Languages
As an initiative of the Council of Europe, the European Day of Languages is celebrated every year on September 26 since 2001.
On this date a special call to learn other languages is done to more than 800 million Europeans spread in the 47 member states of the Council of Europe. Linguistic diversity is a tool for achieving greater intercultural understanding and a key element in the rich cultural heritage of our continent. The Council of Europe promotes multilingualism and cultural diversity across Europe.
Language is more than words, its purpose is to increase the culture. There is no rule for language learning, and people can do it regardless of age or social background. In fact, the sooner you start learning a language, the easier it is. Furthermore, language learning can improve socialization and open doors in the single European market.
Each year about 10 languages disappear in the world. At the end of the twenty-first century will have lost between 50 and 90% of the world’s languages. For this reason the promotion of multilingualism across Europe during this day is a very important task to recall everybody to reflect for the protection of our languages.
Did you know that…?
- There are between 6000 and 7000 languages in the world with about 225 indigenous languages in Europe, representing around 3% of the world’s total languages
- Languages are sometimes related to each other if they come from similar roots. These are known as ‘language families’. The three main language families in Europe are Germanic, Romance and Slavic.
- Most European languages use the Latin alphabet and some Slavic languages use the Cyrillic alphabet. Armenian, Georgian, Greek and Yiddish have their own alphabet.
- London is the most linguistically diverse city in the world, as over 250 languages are spoken there.
- The European Union has 24 official languages, these are; Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.
- However, there are many, many more languages spoken in Europe that aren’t official languages of the EU, such as Luxembourgish.
- Most of the world’s languages are spoken in Asia and Africa
- At least half of the world’s population are bilingual or plurilingual, i.e. they speak or understand two or more languages
- Bilingualism makes the learning of additional languages easier and enhances the thinking process.
Alberto
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