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FEATURES Linguistic conquests EXPANSION Croatia is the most recent country to join the EU. The European and Croatian flags are raised by the Eurocorps at a welcome ceremony in July 2013 (above); and (below right) a press conference in 1971 to mark a 'conclusive agreement' for the UK's entry into the EEC (European Economic Community) In getting from there (Fontenoy) to here (the negotiating table in Brussels) we Europeans have taken a very long and very expensive journey. If I associate it now with just two names, please do not misunderstand me. These names are simply markers – the biggest and perhaps the most horrific markers – for points along this historical route. They are Napoleon and Hitler. Both stand as indicators for policies of enforced union on the continent. In each case that policy of political domination brought with it the domination of a single language. The French Revolution was so important because it occurred in the most highly developed, populous, cultured and powerful state on the continent. Napoleon extended the rule of France to extraordinary lengths. His administrative reforms blithely abolished numerous smaller kingdoms and dukedoms, created a buffer zone for France across the Rhine, and incorporated into France all the Low Countries and much of North Germany. French départments stretched up the North Sea coast as far as Hamburg. And the whole Empire was administered, of course, in French. Where it replaced archaic and diverse rules and regulations in the invaded countries, the modernising effect of a uniform code napoléon survived him. But the high tide of French language and cultural esteem receded along with the brothers, cousins and marshals he had imposed on the thrones. He epitomised the over-reaching tyrant. After his fall, French influence was less than when he had assumed power. France had over-reached itself. The impact of Hitler was similar. From the Nuremburg Rallies to the Nuremburg Trials, the influence of Nazi Germany had a meteoric rise and an equally precipitous fall. At the peak of its power, there was hardly a country on the continent not conquered by Germany or sympathetic to the Nazi regime, with the exception of the UK and the Soviet Union. With the arrogance of conquest went an extension of cultural and linguistic influence. With military defeat in 1945, both collapsed. German cultural influence suffered fundamental and long-lasting damage from the post-war revelations of German war crimes and the moral degradation of the Nazi regime. As a result, West Germany could play no part in European unification until it had been rehabilitated in the eyes of its neighbours. It was not until 1949 that the Bundesrepublik was established, built out of an amalgamation of the American, British and French zones of occupation. Merely being invited to join the community of West European nations – for © EUROPEAN UNION, 2013 As if to show how cultivated and ironic the tone of the episode was, the first shots were in fact fired by the French, who won the day. Three years later, peace was signed and the magnanimous Louis XV, in a gesture befitting his role as monarch of the most powerful nation on earth, gave back to Austria all the territory he had won at Fontenoy. His ally, Frederick the Great, was not so generous, holding on to Silesia. Fortunately we have moved on, as far as relations between European states are concerned. Politics is conducted in Brussels by continuous diplomacy. The interests at stake may be not dissimilar to those that prompted Louis XV to go to war, but now successors to these monarchs draft an instruction to their Permanent Representatives in Brussels instead. The ironic hip flask gesture has become a diplomatic boutade that everyone round the negotiating table can smile at. The French response is now a new proposal for fixing the price of wine, or milk, or beef. Vol/52 No/6 2013 DECEMBER 2013/JANUARY 2014 The Linguist 9