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S. Nikolova • On the use of “Lingua Franca” and local languages in the publications ...
languages in the world, and none is without meaning; 11
But if I do not know the meaning of the languages, I shall
be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner
to me.
2. 14:37 If any one thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual,
he should acknowledge that what I am writing to you is
a command of the Lord. 38 If any one does not recognize
this, he is not recognized. 39 So, my brethren, earnestly
desire to prophecy, and do not forbid speaking in
tongues.
During the Middle Ages in Christendom however, people
began using ever more a limited number of languages in
their writing. It was in that period that there arose the
theory about the three sacred languages – Hebrew, Greek
and Latin, which were on the cross of Jesus Christ. According
to that theory only these languages had the right to be
used in writing. This theory was even called „heresy“ in the
world of Slavdom, even though it was never adopted or imposed
officially by the Western Church and it had nothing
to do with the dogmas of Christianity. Independent of that,
however, in Western and Central Europe and in a part of
the Western Balkans it was then that Latin established itself
as a lingua franca and was used everywhere in writing as
late as the 19th century in the territories under the jurisdiction
of the Roman Catholic Church and became the universally
recognized language of research, including research in
the area of Humanities.
During the same period there began also the struggle
against monolingualism for the right of every nation to develop
their written culture in their own language. Basing his
arguments on the biblical texts quoted above and on the
Gospel according to Matthew 5:45 Constantine-Cyril, the
creator of the Slavonic alphabet, defended in 868 this right.
The author of the Vita of Cyril wrote: “When he was in Venice
bishops, priests and monks rallied against him like
crows before a falcon and voiced the three-language heresy
saying: tell us, o man, how do you write now books for the
Slavs and how do you teach them? So far nobody has created
such books – neither the apostles, nor the pope of
Rome, nor Gregory the Theologian, nor Jerome, nor Augustin.
We know only three languages in which it is proper to
glory God by means of books: Hebrew, Greek and Latin”.
And the Philosopher replied: “Does not rain fall from God
equally for the benefit of all? Also does not the sun shine on
all (according to Matthew 5:45). Do we not all breathe air?
Are you not ashamed when you choose only three languages
leaving all other tribes and nations to be blind and
deaf? Tell me: Do you think that God is powerless and cannot
give that or you consider Him to be envious and not to
want to do that? But then we know many nations that have
books and glorify God each nation in its own language. It is
known that such nations are the Armenians, the Persians,
the Abasgs, the Iberians, the Sugds, the Goths, the Avares,
the Tirsians, the Khazars, the Arabs, the Egyptians, the Syrians
and many other nations ... “With these words and with
other stronger one he brought shame on them, „left them
and went away” (after Matthew 16:4). Already then as a result
of that struggle, which went on with varying success
among the different Slavonic tribes and nations (in the 9th
century did not have big differences between their languages),
the majority of them began using a fourth literary
language based on the language they spoke in that time. Of
course, with the passage of time it began to drift away in
different degrees from the spoken language in the different
regions were it was used, but it still remains closely linked
with the separate national languages that emerged later.
Be as it may, after the epoch of the Renaissance the use of
the separate national languages expanded ever more in all
spheres of public life in all regions of Europe. Today however
in the epoch of globalization, the process develops in
the opposite direction. In most cases the language that is
used and that replaces the other languages establishes itself
in a natural way depending on the historical and contemporary
causes for its bigger dissemination as a spoken language
and gradually it begins playing the role of a lingua
franca. It is no secret that English is this language today. The
processes developing in publishing activities in the field of
the Humanities take place in full in the same area. That is
why we speak today about the problems of the “lesser
used” languages in the publications in the sphere of the Humanities
and about the use of English as a lingua franca in
them.
It seems to me though that before speaking about the use
of a lingua franca and local languages, which are usually
“lesser used” languages, we must be clear about what we
understand under the concept “lesser used” languages.
Where is the borderline between the languages that are
used more and the “lesser used” languages and on the basis
of what criteria is the borderline fixed? Is a “lesser used”
language one that is spoken by say 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, 3 or 1
million people or less, while it is a language that has a research
tradition in the Humanities, a tradition developed over
centuries, and is it “lesser used” than a language spoken by
say 100, 200, 300 million people or more, a language that
has naturally more publications in our time? I cannot answer
that question.
I could only say that logic demands that we discuss the problem
as to the use of a lingua franca and local languages in
the Humanities in the sphere of European Research area we
ought to take into consideration in that respect the official
documents of the European Union. As far as I know there is
no and there cannot be any rule or law in any European
state that makes it obligatory for people not to write their
works in a local language, but only in foreign languages and
there is not any rule or law in the opposite sense. On the
contrary, there are 23 official languages in the EU and three
official alphabets - Latin, Greek and Cyrillic. They are considered
by the European institutions to be an impulse for dialogue
and integration. Article 22 of the EU's charter of fundamental
rights, adopted in 2000, requires the EU to respect
linguistic diversity and art. 21 prohibits discrimination
based on language. Together with respect for individuals,
openness towards other cultures, tolerance for others, and
respect for linguistic diversity is a core EU value. This principle
applies not only to the 23 official EU languages, but also
to the many dialects and minority languages spoken by segments
of its population. It is this that makes the EU what it
is - not a 'melting pot' that reduces differences, but a place
where diversity can be celebrated as an asset. According to
the Treaty of Lisbon (Article 2), signed by the heads of state
of all EU member-states now, the EU shall respect its rich
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