The EU will speak English, but it will do so in its own way
英国走了，欧盟怎么讲英语？
广州英语翻译公司：斯卡平克：英国退欧后，欧盟日常交流仍会使用英语。但欧盟官员将随心所欲地使用英语，不会再有英国人纠错。
Among those celebrating Britain’s “leave” vote were French politicians who saw the chance for their language to replace English as the EU’s lingua franca. “The English language has no legitimacy in Brussels,” said Robert Ménard, mayor of the southern French town of Béziers.
庆祝英国“退欧”公投的人中包括法国政客，他们认为这是法语取代英语成为欧盟官方语言的大好机会。“英语在布鲁塞尔失去了合法性，”法国南部小镇朗格多克贝济耶(Béziers)的市长罗伯特•梅纳尔(Robert Ménard)表示。广州英语翻译公司。
But English will not disappear from Brussels. It is decades since the supremacy of the English language owed anything to the UK’s role, or lack of one. But Britain’s one-time ruling of the waves, followed by US global dominance, means English is the language the world’s ambitious people learn.
但是，英语不会从布鲁塞尔消失。英语不靠英国的作用（或者说没有作用）占据至高无上的地位已有数十年。但英国曾经是海上霸主、随后美国主导全球，这意味着英语是全世界雄心勃勃的人们学习的语言。
Mastering a foreign language is a lifetime’s work. People do not lightly give up one to learn another. In the EU’s institutions, a Dane is not going to start speaking to, or emailing, a Pole in anything other than English, whatever official policy says. If, as some are suggesting, the EU begins insisting that recruits speak either French or German, it will suffer a severe shortfall in applicants.
掌握一门外语需要付出一生的功夫。人们不会轻易放弃一门语言而去学习另一门语言。在欧盟机构内，无论官方政策如何规定，丹麦人都不会使用除英语外的其他语言跟波兰人交谈或写邮件。正如一些人所提出的那样，如果欧盟开始坚持让新员工说法国或德语，应聘者会急剧减少。广州英语翻译公司。
But that does not mean the UK’s departure will have no effect on the EU’s lingua franca. The English spoken by EU functionaries has already deviated from the British norm, as a publication titled “Misused English words and expressions in EU publications” shows. The document lists nearly 100 words and expressions which it says European officials get wrong.
但是这并不意味着英国退欧对欧盟官方语言没有影响。欧盟内公职人员所讲的英语已经背离了英国标准英语，正如一份题为《欧盟出版物中被误用的英语单词和表达方式》(Misused English words and expressions in EU publications)的出版物所表明的。这份文件列出了近100个单词和表达方式，称欧盟官员们用错了。
Published by the European Court of Auditors, which monitors the EU’s financial management, the document says: “Over the years, the European institutions have developed a vocabulary that differs from that of any other recognised form of English.” For example, EU documents use the word “actual” to mean “happening now” rather than something real or existing.
这份由欧洲审计院(European Court of Auditors)发表的文件称：“多年来，欧洲机构发展出一套有别于其他公认的英语形式的词汇表。”例如，欧盟文件使用“实际”(actual)一词来表示“正在发生”，而不是指真实(real)或现有的(existing)。广州英语翻译公司。
They say “ensure” when they mean “provide” (“ensure to patients with rare diseases universal access to high quality care”). They write “punctual” when they mean “occasional”, talking about “punctual expert group meetings”. Instead of appearing before “selection panels”, job candidates are interviewed by a “jury”.
他们用“确保”(ensure)来表示“提供”(provide)的意思（“向罕见疾病的患者确保全民优质医疗”）。他们用“准时”(punctual)来表示“临时”(occasional)，比如“准时专家小组会议”。应聘者不是出现在“甄选小组”(selection panels)面前，而是接受“陪审团”(jury)的面试。
The misused-words compendium bristles with irritation. But, like the hopeful French politicians, it misunderstands how language works. People use it not to adhere to a set of rules but to communicate.
有关不当用词的这份汇编流露出气恼。但是，就像满怀希望的法国政客一样，它误解了语言的角色。人们使用语言不是为了遵守规则，而是为了交流。广州英语翻译公司。
The language guide seems to accept this. It says it is not trying “to dictate how people should speak or write in the privacy of their own Directorates-General”.
这份语言使用指南似乎也接受这个观点。它表示，它并不试图“规定人们在各自的总司内部如何讲话或撰写”。
But it says that the EU’s English writing is targeted at a British or Irish audience and “should therefore follow a standard that reflects usage in the United Kingdom and Ireland”.
但是，它称，欧盟英文报告的受众群体是英国人或者爱尔兰人，“因此应该遵循一套符合英国和爱尔兰用法的标准”。
Well, once exit negotiations are concluded, the UK will be gone, leaving the Irish to try to stem the tide of misuse. They will be too few to get anyone to listen. EU officials will be able to hold their “punctual” meetings without anyone telling them it is the wrong word.
好吧，一旦完成了退欧谈判，英国将离开欧盟，留下爱尔兰人试图阻止不当使用英语的趋势。他们人数太少，不足以引起重视。欧盟官员将可以召开他们的“准时”会议，而没有人告诉他们用词错误。广州英语翻译公司。
That Eurocrats are changing English to suit themselves is not unusual. When people with different mother tongues get together to co-operate, they frequently develop a common language.
欧盟官员为了适应自己的习惯而改变英语用法，这很正常。当使用不同母语的人一起合作时，他们常常会发展出一种共同语言。
A lingua franca of this sort is called a “pidgin”. In his book Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society, Peter Trudgill defines a pidgin as “a lingua franca which has no native speakers”. In an EU without the UK, that will be a good description of European English. Mr Trudgill says pidgins often incorporate words from the mother tongues of its speakers. That is what has happened with the EU’s use of “actual” as “now”. It probably comes from the French.
这种通用语被称为“洋泾浜”(pidgin)。在《社会语言学：语言与社会简介》(Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society)一书中，彼得•特鲁吉尔(Peter Trudgill)把“洋泾浜”定义为“没有母语使用者的通用语言”。在失去英国的欧盟里，该定义可以很好地描述欧盟英语。特鲁吉尔称，“洋泾浜”往往从使用者的母语中吸纳词汇。这便是欧盟把“实际”当作“现在”使用的背景。这很可能出自法语。广州英语翻译公司。
Mr Trudgill says pidgins are often simplified versions of the base language. EU English is actually (in the native speaker sense) pretty sophisticated — probably because most of its users studied it at school. But, in its spoken form, you do come across the simplification Mr Trudgill mentions: non-native English speakers frequently leave the “s” off the end of third person singular verbs (“he often call meetings”).
特鲁吉尔称，“洋泾浜”往往是基础语言的简化版。欧盟英语实际上相当复杂——这很可能是因为多数使用者在学校学习了这种语言。但是，在口语中，你确实会碰到特鲁吉尔提到的简化版：非英语母语者在第三人称单数动词后面常常忘了加“s”（例如，he often call meetings）。
English is now so widely used in diplomacy and business that most conversations happen without native speakers there. With the UK out, that will increasingly be true of the EU too. Its everyday communication will still be in English. But EU functionaries will be able to change the language as they wish. There will be no Brits to tell them they are wrong.
英语如今被广泛使用于没有母语者在场的外交和商务场合。英国退欧后，欧盟将越来越多地出现这种情况。日常交流仍然会使用英语。但是欧盟官员将可以随心所欲地改变英语用法。不会再有英国人站出来告诉他们用错了。
