官方語言太多，歐盟也“有點煩”

用24種語言表達一個意思不容易。

When what is now the European Union first took root in the 1950s, it included just six nations, and in three of them many people spoke French. It could sidestep national jealousies without trouble by designating most of the member nations’ main languages as official languages.

20世紀50年代，歐盟的前身剛成立時，只有6個國家，其中3個國家的很多人講法語。將大部分成員國的主要語言指定為官方語言可以毫不費力地避免國家間的嫉妒。

But that set a precedent, and as the union has grown much larger, so has the official language roster — not to mention the bill for translation and interpretation, which now runs to about 1 billion euros, or more than $1 billion, a year.

但它樹了一個先例，而歐盟壯大了很多，所以官方語言也多了很多，更別提翻譯和口譯的費用——現(xiàn)在在這方面每年大約要花費10億歐元，相當于10多億美元。

Defenders of the policy say it preserves diversity and promotes language learning. They contend that it is not to blame for the bloc’s repeated failure to speak as one over issues like migration, the economy and Russia.

這項政策的維護者表示，它能保持歐盟的多樣性，促進語言學習。他們認為，它不是導致該集團在移民、經(jīng)濟和俄羅斯等問題上多次口徑不一致的原因。

Still, the polyglottery can be a bit of a strain, especially when it comes to tongues like Irish, which only a few Irish citizens use frequently outside the education system. Though Irish has been an official language of the union for a decade, member nations keep postponing the deadline for providing full Irish translation and interpretation services.

不過，使用多種語言可能是一種負擔，尤其是涉及愛爾蘭語等語言——只有少量愛爾蘭公民在教育體系之外經(jīng)常使用愛爾蘭語。雖然愛爾蘭語成為歐盟的官方語言已有10年時間，但成員國在不斷推遲提供完整的愛爾蘭翻譯和口譯服務的日期。

Liadh Ni Riada, an Irish member of the European Parliament, went on what she called a two-week language strike in 2015, speaking only Irish at work, to demonstrate her annoyance at the delays. She has threatened to do it again.

2015年，歐洲議會(European Parliament)的愛爾蘭成員莉埃德·妮·利埃達(Liadh Ni Riada)進行了為期兩周的語言示威，她在工作中只講愛爾蘭語，以表達對推遲的不滿。她威脅說還會這么做。

There is also a push to recognize Luxembourgish, the only national language of a member state that the union has not made official. Yet Luxembourgers also use German and French, and even their laws are all written in French. So the authorities are looking for a way to enhance the language’s status that would not entail a lot of translation and interpretation expense.

還有人主張將盧森堡語列為歐盟的官方語言，它是唯一未獲承認的歐盟成員國官方語言。不過，盧森堡人也使用德語和法語，甚至連他們的法律也完全是用法語寫成的。所以，當局在尋找一種既能提高該語言地位又不會增加很多翻譯和口譯費用的方式。

The European Union may add Turkish as its 25th official language, even if Turkey never becomes a member. The reason is Cyprus.

歐盟可能將土耳其語列為第25種官方語言，哪怕土耳其永遠無法成為成員國。原因是塞浦路斯。

The island has been divided for decades between the mainly Greek-speaking Republic of Cyprus and a breakaway Turkish-speaking region in the north. The two sides have been in painstaking talks to reunite the island, and the republic, which belongs to the European Union, has requested official status for Turkish as a gesture to the north.

數(shù)十年來，該小島分裂為主要講希臘語的塞浦路斯共和國和北部的一個分裂出去的講土耳其語的地區(qū)。雙方在進行統(tǒng)一該島的艱苦談判，屬于歐盟的塞浦路斯共和國為向北邊示好，請求歐盟將土耳其語列為官方語言。

There is no assurance that the unity talks will succeed, so no vote has been held yet by member governments on the language request.

由于無法確定統(tǒng)一談判能否成功，所以成員國尚未就該語言請求進行投票。

As you might expect, some official languages are more official than others. To save time and money, officials and staff members at the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, usually write internally in only three — English, French and German — and often speak in English, to the annoyance of the French.

正如你可能料到的，有些官方語言比其他的更為官方。為了節(jié)省時間和金錢，該集團執(zhí)行機構歐盟委員會(European Union)的官員和工作人員通常在內(nèi)部僅用三種語言書寫——英語、法語和德語——常常只講英語，這令法國人深為惱火。

Now that Britain has voted to leave the union, some French politicians want to demote English, and a prominent Polish lawmaker, Danuta Hubner, warned that “if we don’t have the U.K., we don’t have English.”

由于英國已投票脫歐，所以有些法國政治人士想要將英語降級。著名的波蘭議員達努塔·哈布納(Danuta Hubner)警告稱，“如果沒有英國，我們就不要英語。”

But when lawyers looked into it, they concluded that it would take a unanimous vote, and there is almost no chance of that. Ireland and Malta rely on English, and it is extremely popular in Central and Eastern Europe. Somebody would be sure to veto the move.

不過，律師們研究后發(fā)現(xiàn)，這需要全體一致投票通過，而那幾乎是不可能實現(xiàn)的。愛爾蘭和馬耳他依賴英語，而且英語在中歐和東歐非常流行。有些人肯定會否決這項動議。