Abstract
This chapter argues that Brexit strengthens the normative case for English as the lingua franca of the EU. As observed by Philippe Van Parijs (Linguistic justice for Europe and for the world, Oxford University Press, 2011), the rise of English as the EU’s and global lingua franca is accompanied by various injustices that affect non-native English speakers. These speakers have to bear most of the costs associated with learning English and enjoy fewer opportunities than native English speakers due to their lower level of English proficiency. Moreover, their self-respect risks being undermined by the fact that their native language(s) is(are) considered less important and prestigious than English. This chapter examines these injustices in turn and argues that Brexit will reduce all of them, thus enhancing the moral justification for adopting English as the sole or main lingua franca of the EU.
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Notes
- 1.
Apart from Lacey (2017, pp. 250–251), who very briefly touches upon this issue, and Modiano (2017), who has recently examined the place of English in a post-Brexit EU from a sociolinguistics perspective, no substantial academic analysis has been dedicated to this problem, and especially to its normative dimensions.
- 2.
Van Parijs especially highlights how English has become the dominant global language mainly ‘because of a haphazard sequence of events that could easily have led elsewhere’ (Van Parijs 2011, p. 22), including battles, wars, and various migratory movements.
- 3.
We set aside, here, a discussion of the role of the USA in the promotion of English as a lingua franca.
- 4.
None of the foregoing analysis implies, of course, that the existence of a hierarchy of Englishes should be taken as a natural and inevitable phenomenon. Such hierarchies are inherently social, and they result in forms of injustice that ought to be addressed rather than taken for granted (e.g. see Peled and Bonotti forthcoming). However, this issue falls outside the scope of the present analysis.
- 5.
A similar proposal is advanced by Modiano (2017), who argues that Brexit will facilitate the development of a ‘Euro-English’, which refers to the language of those ‘continental Europeans whose speech is not decidedly based on any one Inner Circle variety but is nevertheless characterized by influences from standardized English as well as their native tongues, and where there is a propensity to use culture-specific features common to the manner in which English is used as an L2 in continental Europe, when and where such usage is situationally appropriate’ (Modiano 2017, p. 322).
- 6.
For a similar point, see also Rose (2008, p. 471).
- 7.
This measure, of course, should not be discriminatory and should apply both to native English speakers and to native speakers of other languages who would like to move to work in any EU member state. Since, however, it should be assumed that speakers of any other language would already enjoy opportunities in the territory in which their language is a ‘queen’, then the net effect of the measure would be to equalize opportunities between native and non-native English speakers, all things considered.
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Mac Giolla Chríost, D., Bonotti, M. (2018). Brexit and English as a Lingua Franca in the European Union. In: Brexit, Language Policy and Linguistic Diversity. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78726-8_3
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