Minority languages: do we need them?

This afternoon, as usual in a country where people are more apt to talk about languages than about the weather, I got into a discussion about minority languages, and specifically the current measures to promote of Catalan, which many non-Catalan Spaniards feel go to far. This is in part due to the link between language and identity, which is so strong that reaffirming Catalan is in effect a way of rejecting the rest of Spain. And the rest of Spain feels it this way, which of course makes it difficult to think about the issue objectively.

I am not devoid of emotion on the issue either: up till now I have always argued that people should be free to use whatever language they want. To me, it has always been a question of the pendulum swinging back: over the past two centuries, during the creation and consolidation of nation-states across Europe national, uniform languages were imposed by the central governments (of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Great Britain, to name a few), to the detriment of minority languages. Now, along with changing views regarding the nation-state and the rise of the ideas self-determination and subsidiarity, it is swinging back, and languages that survived the slaughter (Frisian, Welsh, Gaelic, Catalan and Basque) are not only tolerated but welcomed - by those that either already speak these languages, or have a good motive to keep them alive.

But I have had this discussion several times without really seeing anyone change their positions, which means I should probably think things through even further. (Which is what I am doing now.)

The decision of the central governments to impose a single, official language was of course completely logical from their point of view. Having a single language makes communication so much easier and quicker, much in the same way that roads can dramatically improve mobility and trade, and that legislation can make all the difference in the world to the stability and efficiency of a society. You might even summarize the whole Roman Empire (and the European Union, for that matter) as roads, legislation and language (yes, alright, the Romans also brought wine, and it was also safe to walk the streets at night ...).

So do we really want to take a step backwards, and allow people to wall themselves off again? I am not sure. But I don't think that will happen anyway. I think that we are already moving towards a near future in which a large portion of the population of most countries will speak at least two and often three languages: their "own" language, that of the country they live in, and possibly also an "international" language. You can already see it happening now, and I see no reason to try to stop it. The only problem left now is which language to choose as the international vernacular.

Within the institutions, this is very much a hot potato, because for many many years, the main working language was French. But ever since the Swedes and Fins joined (1995), English has been winning ground, which is a thorn in the side of the Francophones. A friend of mine has the solution, however: he says we should just kick the British out of the European Union. That way, the issue would cease to be political, and we could simply let the majority decide (and at the moment, the majority is in favor of English). Much as I love this idea, it will not be necessary, I think: I can already see that Francophones are increasingly willing to speak English. And - with apologies to my English-speaking colleagues - on the whole, they are doing a better job than the Anglophones who for decades now have been mangling French out of recognition.