The European language revolution no one is talking about

Europe has never been more linguistically divided

It turns out that language is not only important for communication, maintaining relationships and self expression it is a key part of nation building.

As I delve deeper into Europe and what is really going on here I came across some fascinating insights into the development of language, the implications of which are pretty far reaching.

How many languages do you speak?

If you are from Europe the chances are at least two if not three. But why does it even matter?

Wouldn't it be easier if we just all spoke English?

Well maybe…but its a bit more complicated than that

Languages connect us, help us think, but not only that Languages are a key tool in solidifying and defining countries.

While weapons draw borders, languages stabilise them. - Philippe Van Parijs

The nearly universal congruence between the names of European countries and the names of their languages is not a coincidence.

Language matters not only for communication but also for the unity of a country’s people. It is instrumental in building that guiding vision.

As I continue to look deeper into Europe the EU the spread and decline of languages tells a compelling story.

The thing to understand here is that language does not always just organically grow or spread.

for it to unite nations it often has to be implemented consciously. It is very often a top down decison and promoted or officially implemented by the ruling class to ensure that the masses adopt it.

Before unification in 1871 Germany was a collection of independent states with various dialects and languages Bavarian,

Standard German or Hochdeutsch only became the dominant language when it was promoted as a national language to unify the newly formed country. Education, media, and government policies enforced its adoption over time.

Inevitably throughout this process certain regional cultures are lost.

In fact many long time viewers of this channel have commented that German regional dialects have declined significantly due to the unifying language policy of hoch Deutsch. and it’s predominantly only the southern states that still cling onto these linguistic traditions.

The same was the case for China.

Historically china had hundreds of regional languages and dialects (e.g., Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hokkien, Hakka).

And it wasn't until 1956 when the government established Mandarin (Putonghua) as the official national language that it really began to solidify and unify the country.

The thing I want to discuss here is that Europe has seen a dramatic change over the last three decades linguistically.

This is based on data from the 2024 Eurobarometer survey produced by the European Commission.

There is a really cool website called languageknowledge.eu which mobilises the Eurobarometer’s linguistic data and so you can get a very clear idea of how the linguistic landscape has changed over the past three decades in all the EU member states.

The thing about data is that it tells a different story depending on which lense you view it through. The Eurobarometer survey themselves presented it as a unifying picture of Europe. Which I would love for this to be true but I’m not so sure how accurate that is.

What I deduced from the data, with the help of Philippe Van Parijs is that that nearly all EU Member States are less linguistically unified in 2024 than they were in 2012.

But not only that there has been a dramatic shift, especially in parts of eastern Europe that were previously under soviet communist rule away from Russian towards English

So is this the start of national disintegration or the beginning of a unifying linguistic revolution that Europe so desperately needs?

Well, maybe it’s a bit of both.

Linguistic nation-building

Of the EU’s 27 Member States, 24 use a closely related word for their national language and their country. (Austria, Belgium and Cyprus are the only exceptions.)

As I mentioned before this is no coincidence. The unity and even the territorial integrity of a nation is closely linked to the sharing of a single language by all its citizens. It is the reason why governments impose language policies if they do not organically spread by themselves.

That’s one of the reasons why comparing the united states of Europe to the united states of American just falls flat.

Europe doesn’t have a unified language.

Six countries manage to get nearly 98% of their population to know their national language well or very well.

And it may surprise you to hear that Germany was one of them. Even though less than 90% of the population are native German speakers the country still managed to get 98% of the population to speak German well or very well.

So well done Germany.

Latvia and Estonia were among the least linguistically unified at 88% and 82%, mainly because about a quarter of their populations are native Russian speaking

Luxembourg was also below 90% unified and by far the lowest performer was Belgium at just 66%. Slightly ironic given that this is were the headquarters of the European government is situated.

But the real revelation in this data is the spread of English.

I have talked about this at length in many videos. I see it as a large detractor for native English speakers to even try to learn foreign languages because whether you like it or not, English is the lingua franca of Europe.

And it is only increasing. Today young people are overwhelmingly choosing to learn English above all other languages.

Most Europeans in the youngest age group now claim to master it as a non-native language. Clearly, Brexit did not halt the march towards a common lingua franca.

So what does this mean?

Well that really depends on how you look at it. For communication and social cohesion it is necessary to have a common language but inevitably things get lost in the process.

I’m sure you have all noticed how English is infiltrating many other European languages and the lines are becoming very blurred with weird amalgamations cropping up like Denglish and Frenglish.

The interesting thing here is that, at least in western Europe it is spreading culturally and organically It is not a top down process like that of hoch deutsch or Mandarin Chinese. In Eastern Europe there has been some top down promotion of English which we will get into in just a minute.

Resistance to English

The increasing dominance of English is not always welcomed. France is probably the most high profile example of putting limits on the spread on English in an attempt to preserve the purity of the french language.

Certain laws mandate that French be used in official government publications, advertisements, and in the workplace. It also requires French to be the language used in media, including TV programs and films.

France also has cultural policies and has instituted quotas for French language music and television content to combat the dominance of English-language media.

and not only that, they have even gone one step further to attempt to create French equivaelnets for English terms especially in technology and business, in an attempt to keep the language pure.

This is not something which Germany has implemented. If you have a conversation about online digital stuff it often feels like you’re speaking English but with Germany grammar.

I think this has had mixed results. Young people in France, as in all other European countries are choosing to learn english

Russian-Nato language war

But probably the most significant development is the process by which English has replaced Russian in former Soviet republics and other eastern European countries.

Russian learning varied widely between these nine countries, but also you can see it has fallen spectacularly in all of them.

This went hand in hand with a sharp rise in the knowledge of English, with a percentage over 10 times higher for the youngest than for the oldest generation in most of the countries.

In my opinion this is a prime example of soft power. That is a complete and utter cultural take over in just 12 years, and much more powerful than physical weapons.

Ukraine implemented laws in 2017 and 2019 that banned the use of Russian as a language of instruction and encouraged the use of English in all schools. and seemingly in retaliation Russia did the same in Crimea and the Donbas.

I hate to politicise everything but language is a potent form of cultural technology that when wielded correctly can be far more powerful than physical weapons.

It means that all those young people in Eastern European countries are getting their information in English rather than Russian which means they inevitable will see the world through a western lens of empathise with western values.

Or am I reading too much into this?

Overall the southern countries such as Spain and Italy score lower in English proficiency than their northern neighbours but the data is hard to ignore.

There is a generational shift towards embracing English which if it continues means that most Europeans will grow up bilingual in English and their country of births own language.

History has shown that a common language is necessary for a country to function effectively. But it is not just about efficiency or functionality. Language goes deep into identity.

There is no question about it, with the prevelance of a unifying language parts of culture will be lost.

The question then becomes can individual nations find common ground while still preserving their own unique and distinct cultures?

What’s your take?