Languages
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Literature
2011 – the year of the translator
28 December 20114The Observer London -
13 December 20115PresseuropLe Soir
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INTEGRATION
Arabic, a European language like any other
11 November 20115Svenska Dagbladet Stockholm -
Germany
Spare us this Euro Newspeak
7 October 20111Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Spain
Babel in the Senate
20 January 20112PresseuropPúblico -
Baltic states
Where minorites must hold their tongue
6 January 20114De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
THE 10 DAYS OF EUROPE | 5
Join the Church of the Concrete
28 December 20104Presseurop -
Literature
Has America discovered Europe?
10 December 2010The New York Times New York -
Poland / Lithuania
Why Warsaw and Vilnius are at loggerheads
4 November 2010Rzeczpospolita Warsaw -
United Kingdom
Nein, we don’t speak foreign
25 August 20101PresseuropThe Independent -
29 April 2010PresseuropEl Mundo
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Languages
Goodbye English, long live Globish
2 April 201015The Guardian London -
26 March 2010PresseuropDe Morgen
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Languages
French resistance, German collaboration
22 March 20105Rzeczpospolita Warsaw -
15 March 2010PresseuropGandul
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Cinema
A Prophet, language is power
1 March 20102The Guardian London -
Multilinguism
Bye bye signor Orban, et dank U
12 February 20101Dilema Veche Bucharest -
Tower of Babel
Talk the hind legs, off a cobbler...
29 January 2010Cafebabel.com Paris -
Languages
10 hot words for 2010
14 January 20101La Repubblica Rome -
Language
French takes leave of Belgium
22 December 20094Le Monde Paris -
Tower of Babel
When in Rome, do as Roman babies
11 December 20091Cafebabel.com Paris -
Tower of Babel
Horrible songs that won't go away
27 November 2009Cafebabel.com Paris -
Trends
Booming business in Babel
24 November 2009PresseuropEvenimentul zilei -
Tower of Babel
Sour grapes
13 November 20091Cafebabel.com Paris -
TOWER OF BABEL
A bun in the oven
18 September 2009Cafebabel.com Paris -
University
English takes over Europe's lecture halls
16 September 20093El País Madrid -
Minorities
Slovakia and Hungary minding their language
11 September 20091PresseuropPravda -
Language
Triple Dutch
10 September 2009De Standaard Brussels -
Slovakia / Hungary
Only say it in Slovak
31 July 2009Heti Világgazdaság Budapest -
30 July 2009PresseuropLa Repubblica
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Tower of Babel
Send in the flies
10 July 2009Cafebabel.com Paris -
European Parliament
Europe in a headset
19 May 20092La Repubblica Rome
With the worldwide success of Stieg Larsson and Haruki Murakami, translation has not enjoyed such a boom for over a generation. But will it ever attain to that Holy Grail, of perfect fidelity to the original? 
A Swedish journalist of Palestinian origin embarks on a tour of Europe to take an inventory of the use of Arabic across the continent with surprising results. 
The German expression for “bailout funds” is “euro emergency parachute”. An easy way to grasp the complexities of Eurozone financial mechanisms, but a metaphor running out of steam, argues columnist Axel Hacke. 
The linguistic rights of the sizeable Russian and Polish minorities in the three former Soviet republics, which joined the EU in 2004, are hardly recognised. A Dutch journalist deplores governmental intransigence on the issue of languages. 
In the eighties and early noughties as stock market prices soared, we were burning cattle in the fields of Europe. But now the cult of abstract value is giving way to a return to faith in the real value of material things, Portuguese writer Gonçalo Tavares explains. 
With the help of independent publishing houses and with the input from the Old World’s cultural institutes and agencies, European literature is finally making inroads in the United States, a country which traditionally shies away from books in translation. 
With growing bitterness, Poland believes that its partnership with Lithuania is one built on empty promises. At the heart of the debate – the rights of the Polish minority in the Baltic state. 
With a vocabulary of only 1500 words, “Globish” or “decaffeinated English” has become the world lingua franca. Author Robert McCrum charts the rise of this new dialect of the 21st century. 
As English continues to encroach upon the rest of the world, Paris cranks out laws and invents new French words to protect the language of Molière. In Berlin, the battle has only just begun, and it looks to be a tough fight because Germany long ago laid down its arms. 
Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet has swept the board at France’s Césars, and looks set to win the Oscar for best foreign language film. One of its lessons is that in a fast-paced globalised world, the future belongs to those who can master two, or even three, languages. 
Initially thought to be a gimmick invented to occupy the Romanian commissioner Leonard Orban, newly arrived in Brussels in the wake of the 2007 enlargement, the portfolio of Multilinguism turned out to be surprisingly useful. Sadly, it will not be continued under the Barroso II Commission. 
It's said that the French are the biggest moaners in Europe, but other European countries have a plethora of expressions for when it comes to letting off steam. A cafebabel.com round up. 
Every year a slew of new words – Anglicisms, for the most part – emerge and enrich – or contaminate, depending on how you look at it – the Italian language. With its marked penchant for neologisms, the press then willingly takes over and spreads the word(s). Italian linguist Linda Rossi Holden looks at 10 such Anglicisms that might osmose into Italian in 2010. 
Not just in international institutions but everywhere in Brussels the French language continues to lose ground to English. As Le Monde's Belgian correspondent explains, in a country with no lingua franca, the language of Shakespeare allows speakers to avoid choosing between French and Flemish. 
In order to attract tiny tots' attention, or prevent them from screaming for ever, adults go into form of verbal regression. The noises they make, however, are not the same depending on the country you're in. Cafebabel.com rounds up European baby phrases. 
Some of the cheesiest pop songs just have a knack of boring a hole into your skull and taking up residence there. Cafebabel.com tracks down the dreaded earworm in his many European guises. 
Sour as vinegar, a saying with many variants across the continent, but why? It starts with the word itself – vinum acetum means ‘wine turned sour’. Cafebabel.com unleashes its idiom of the week. 
According to Eurostat, 5.4 million babies were born in 2008. Lithuanians are the most industrious breeders, while Germans are at the bottom of the chart. The ever sunny cafebabel.com rounds up European expressions to do with motherhood. 
The European Higher Education Area arrives is officially launched at the start of 2010, with the aim to harmonise studies across the European space. But in what language? With European universities offering more and more university degree programmes in English, their British counterparts are beginning to worry about losing their “competitive edge”, notes El País. 
People do not speak exactly the same language in The Netherlands and Flanders, though both are still variants of Dutch. But dictionaries would not distinguish between the two. At least not until Spectrum, a popular Dutch dictionary publisher, with the aid of two linguists, began treating Belgian Dutch as a separate language. 
Recently adopted in Bratislava, a law obliging Slovak citizens to express themselves in Slovak in public areas has prompted an outcry in Budapest, which views it as an infringement of the rights of Slovakia's Hungarian minority. With political rhetoric reaching fever pitch on both sides of the Danube, Hungarian weekly Heti Világgazdaság calls on the European Union to halt what it views as a dangerous upsurge in Slovakian nationalism. 
“Faire mouche” in French means to hit the bull’s eye, hit the nail right on the head; “die Fliege machen” or “eine Fliege machen” in German means to clear off, get lost: though both translate literally as “do (the) fly”. But sparing the life of this pesky insect is regarded as an act of kindness in Spain, Sweden, Latvia and France. The following is a selection of some choice European expressions that hit the nail – and not the fly – on the head. 
Twenty-three languages are spoken in the buildings of the European parliament in Strasbourg and Brussels. The job of ensuring that the different nations understand each other requires composure, enthusiasm, a huge amount of confidence, and an inquiring mind. Bring on the interpreters.