Letter: Lingua franca
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.YOUR report on linguistic confusion in Brussels (28 February) highlights a problem which in the short term can only get worse. In the long term, however, the solution could be to adopt a common European second language, which could be taught to all European schoolchildren from an early age.
As you point out, national rivalry will preclude the adoption of any modern language. The logical candidate is Latin, which was in fact used for this very purpose in the Middle Ages. Modern technological terms would pose no problem, since most of these are derived from Latin or Greek. The use of Latin would also put an end to the creeping Anglicisation of other languages which is a source of resentment to our European neighbours, particularly the French.
ROGER WORDSWORTH
Kirkham, Lancashire
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments