Translator: Anthony Bleton-Martin Reviewer: Cristina Bufi-Pöcksteiner
TEDx drives us to be ambitious.
So, tonight I would like to propose a very ambitious project
since it aims to revitalize Europe.
Yes, yes, nothing!
You have to know how to aim high!
Because Europe is an extraordinary civilizational project.
Think about it: it’s the first time
that a geographical set the size of an empire
is constituted by adhesion and not by invasion.
Because beyond common values,
since antiquity
has been established over the centuries a true convergence of civilization.
Despite the silos, despite the borders, despite the differences,
the tourist or business traveler feels everywhere at home
in Rome, Dublin, Copenhagen, Seville, or Athens.
The artistic and architectural foundations,
cultural values,
human rights, the defense of freedoms,
the rules of life, love and death
are everywhere the same.
And yet,
after a really exciting debut,
the political Europe skates.
It seems we’re stuck,
that something prevents us from moving forward, from going further together.
So, some say
that it is because Europe is too bureaucratic, too economic,
too centralized, not enough political …
Perhaps.
My conviction is that Europe lacks something fundamental.
Something that all the nations under construction have imposed,
sometimes by force,
to their people to obtain unity.
Something so important
that countries that do not have it are under constant threat of explosion.
This something is a common language.
You can not unify a people without a common language.
The Roman Empire had Latin,
the British empire had English,
the Chinese federate with the ideograms,
the Muslim world with Arabic Koran,
Latin America with Spanish,
and the opposite, Catalonia, Belgium or Quebec
experience serious difficulties
largely related to the lack of a common language.
Until the end of the 18th century,
Europe has maintained a cohesion within its elites thanks to Latin.
And then, the appearance of the Nations-Nations
was made by the imposition of national languages
and by the progressive suppression of that common language which was Latin.
This emergence of nationalism and this inability to understand each other
have led as everyone knows to the horrible wars of the twentieth century
who finally had only one virtue:
to convince us to do everything possible to find peace,
to find peace …
And the best solution we found for that
was the invention of political Europe.
But since then, we have trouble understanding each other.
24 official languages!
Just that !
So, in this photo that is taken from the site of the European Union,
everyone looks happy,
but I assure you, it’s a photomontage!
Because in reality,
24 languages is very complicated, it is expensive and it creates tension.
So, of these 24 languages, three are called working languages:
German, French and especially English,
who seems to be taking everything away right now.
But the problem is that English is not everyone’s language,
English is not the language of the Europeans.
English is at most the language of some European states
and again, the most important of them
comes, unfortunately, to loudly slam the door
from our common house.
And then, contrary to popular belief,
English is a very difficult language to master,
which leads to many misunderstandings
and much suffering.
And what drives mostly a lot of Europeans
to be ultimately very reluctant to use it,
because they live it as a symbol of injustice
and submission to a foreign power.
So, if we want to unify Europe,
we need a common language that is not English!
Which is not any of the languages of Europe either,
we are not going to replace one injustice with another.
It will not be Latin, I reassure you right away,
you have to know how to turn pages.
Esperanto could have been a good candidate,
unfortunately he suffers from many defects
including that of being too theoretical,
not natural enough,
which in my opinion, he can not take off.
So, the European language does not exist.
So what do we do ?
And if we were ambitious?
And if we created it?
Ridiculous?
Perhaps…
So what ? Good!
It seems that all good ideas are at first considered ridiculous,
then dangerous and finally obvious.
Because to create a language, to build a language,
it is possible, history has shown it.
Literary Arabic is a constructed language,
Swahili, the official language of Kenya and Tanzania, is a constructed language,
modern Hebrew is also a constructed language
and the least we can say is that they walk!
So, why not us in Europe?
So,
what would be the specifications?
Well, we need to build a language
which is the synthesis of the languages of Europe,
without privileging any,
a language that is common, but not unique –
if I am French, I keep French and I also speak this common language –
a language that is egalitarian between men and women,
in order to avoid the problems of inclusiveness,
a language that reflects our history,
in clear, which has its roots in Greek and Latin,
and above all, a language that is easy,
easy to read, to learn, to understand.
As a guide, a classical language such as German or French
requires 1,500 hours to reach a correct level.
In contrast, a constructed language requires 150 hours, 10 times less!
As much to tell you that there is interest to go there.
So, given
that no current language corresponds to these specifications,
and seeing that I had a little time to lose –
it’s important to lose a little time, from time to time –
well, I built one and called it Europeo,
naturally.
So, how did I proceed?
It turns out that in life, beyond being passionate about languages,
I am also a computer scientist, I work in software
and so, like all computer scientists, like everyone else,
I have access, we have access, to extraordinary tools.
And the first of them when we talk about languages is Google Translate.
So I created a software called europeo.li
which you can all access,
I invite you to try it as soon as you have a few minutes.
It is a software in which you enter a word
in any language of Europe,
any word,
and the software translates thanks to Google Translate
in the 24 languages of the European Union.
And then he’s going to do the average,
to finally do the calculation of the center of gravity,
by weighting by the population that speaks each of these languages.
We thus obtain the most consensual word
and, in an almost democratic way, the most European word.
So for you to see what it looks like,
some examples.
The word of choice is “ambitious”.
Well, if we put it in the software,
we will have the 24 translations and the European word will be “ambitios”.
Another example, the word “beer” will result in “beer”.
Another word, the word “want” translates as “fly”.
And last example,
the word “please” will mean “prose”.
Which gives us the most indispensable sentence
wherever you are in Europe:
“I steal a prose beer”.
(Applause)
So, other examples, if you’re not beer,
I can offer you a cider, a wine rod, o a wine bianc,
an aqua mineral, an orange juice,
a te, o a coffee.
So, that’s me speaking it,
but for you to have a real sensation,
that you understand
what is his music, his phonetics,
well, I asked friends from all over Europe
to give you a little demonstration.
[Sofie, Belgia: European Civilization is extraordinary …]
[Veronica, Spania: I needed a lingua.]
[Maria, Ireland: It’s possible!]
[Romania: The European Union deve far li maximum …]
[Sofie, Belgia: … por crear e adopt a lingua comun …]
[Maria, Ireland: e for alle citizens speaks lingua.]
[Romania: For the future of Europa …]
[Sofie, Belgia: … a lingua comun is the ultimate ambition!]
Needed a translation?
The magic of this story,
is that computer science allows us to dig up a language
which is buried in us and we all understand.
It’s not our language
and yet, without being really able to explain why,
it’s a bit of our language,
because in fact it’s more than a language, it’s our common heritage that stands out,
and that is what should guide the European language.
So you’ll understand,
whether it’s Europeo or another constructed language –
I think interlingua, interlingua,
that I invite you to discover –
have ambition for Europe today,
it is daring to affirm that it is possible to imagine a common language,
to set it up, with the help of linguists of course,
and that it is thanks to her only
that we will build a real unity in Europe.
Thank you.
(Applause)
TEDx drives us to be ambitious.
So, tonight I would like to propose a very ambitious project
since it aims to revitalize Europe.
Yes, yes, nothing!
You have to know how to aim high!
Because Europe is an extraordinary civilizational project.
Think about it: it’s the first time
that a geographical set the size of an empire
is constituted by adhesion and not by invasion.
Because beyond common values,
since antiquity
has been established over the centuries a true convergence of civilization.
Despite the silos, despite the borders, despite the differences,
the tourist or business traveler feels everywhere at home
in Rome, Dublin, Copenhagen, Seville, or Athens.
The artistic and architectural foundations,
cultural values,
human rights, the defense of freedoms,
the rules of life, love and death
are everywhere the same.
And yet,
after a really exciting debut,
the political Europe skates.
It seems we’re stuck,
that something prevents us from moving forward, from going further together.
So, some say
that it is because Europe is too bureaucratic, too economic,
too centralized, not enough political …
Perhaps.
My conviction is that Europe lacks something fundamental.
Something that all the nations under construction have imposed,
sometimes by force,
to their people to obtain unity.
Something so important
that countries that do not have it are under constant threat of explosion.
This something is a common language.
You can not unify a people without a common language.
The Roman Empire had Latin,
the British empire had English,
the Chinese federate with the ideograms,
the Muslim world with Arabic Koran,
Latin America with Spanish,
and the opposite, Catalonia, Belgium or Quebec
experience serious difficulties
largely related to the lack of a common language.
Until the end of the 18th century,
Europe has maintained a cohesion within its elites thanks to Latin.
And then, the appearance of the Nations-Nations
was made by the imposition of national languages
and by the progressive suppression of that common language which was Latin.
This emergence of nationalism and this inability to understand each other
have led as everyone knows to the horrible wars of the twentieth century
who finally had only one virtue:
to convince us to do everything possible to find peace,
to find peace …
And the best solution we found for that
was the invention of political Europe.
But since then, we have trouble understanding each other.
24 official languages!
Just that !
So, in this photo that is taken from the site of the European Union,
everyone looks happy,
but I assure you, it’s a photomontage!
Because in reality,
24 languages is very complicated, it is expensive and it creates tension.
So, of these 24 languages, three are called working languages:
German, French and especially English,
who seems to be taking everything away right now.
But the problem is that English is not everyone’s language,
English is not the language of the Europeans.
English is at most the language of some European states
and again, the most important of them
comes, unfortunately, to loudly slam the door
from our common house.
And then, contrary to popular belief,
English is a very difficult language to master,
which leads to many misunderstandings
and much suffering.
And what drives mostly a lot of Europeans
to be ultimately very reluctant to use it,
because they live it as a symbol of injustice
and submission to a foreign power.
So, if we want to unify Europe,
we need a common language that is not English!
Which is not any of the languages of Europe either,
we are not going to replace one injustice with another.
It will not be Latin, I reassure you right away,
you have to know how to turn pages.
Esperanto could have been a good candidate,
unfortunately he suffers from many defects
including that of being too theoretical,
not natural enough,
which in my opinion, he can not take off.
So, the European language does not exist.
So what do we do ?
And if we were ambitious?
And if we created it?
Ridiculous?
Perhaps…
So what ? Good!
It seems that all good ideas are at first considered ridiculous,
then dangerous and finally obvious.
Because to create a language, to build a language,
it is possible, history has shown it.
Literary Arabic is a constructed language,
Swahili, the official language of Kenya and Tanzania, is a constructed language,
modern Hebrew is also a constructed language
and the least we can say is that they walk!
So, why not us in Europe?
So,
what would be the specifications?
Well, we need to build a language
which is the synthesis of the languages of Europe,
without privileging any,
a language that is common, but not unique –
if I am French, I keep French and I also speak this common language –
a language that is egalitarian between men and women,
in order to avoid the problems of inclusiveness,
a language that reflects our history,
in clear, which has its roots in Greek and Latin,
and above all, a language that is easy,
easy to read, to learn, to understand.
As a guide, a classical language such as German or French
requires 1,500 hours to reach a correct level.
In contrast, a constructed language requires 150 hours, 10 times less!
As much to tell you that there is interest to go there.
So, given
that no current language corresponds to these specifications,
and seeing that I had a little time to lose –
it’s important to lose a little time, from time to time –
well, I built one and called it Europeo,
naturally.
So, how did I proceed?
It turns out that in life, beyond being passionate about languages,
I am also a computer scientist, I work in software
and so, like all computer scientists, like everyone else,
I have access, we have access, to extraordinary tools.
And the first of them when we talk about languages is Google Translate.
So I created a software called europeo.li
which you can all access,
I invite you to try it as soon as you have a few minutes.
It is a software in which you enter a word
in any language of Europe,
any word,
and the software translates thanks to Google Translate
in the 24 languages of the European Union.
And then he’s going to do the average,
to finally do the calculation of the center of gravity,
by weighting by the population that speaks each of these languages.
We thus obtain the most consensual word
and, in an almost democratic way, the most European word.
So for you to see what it looks like,
some examples.
The word of choice is “ambitious”.
Well, if we put it in the software,
we will have the 24 translations and the European word will be “ambitios”.
Another example, the word “beer” will result in “beer”.
Another word, the word “want” translates as “fly”.
And last example,
the word “please” will mean “prose”.
Which gives us the most indispensable sentence
wherever you are in Europe:
“I steal a prose beer”.
(Applause)
So, other examples, if you’re not beer,
I can offer you a cider, a wine rod, o a wine bianc,
an aqua mineral, an orange juice,
a te, o a coffee.
So, that’s me speaking it,
but for you to have a real sensation,
that you understand
what is his music, his phonetics,
well, I asked friends from all over Europe
to give you a little demonstration.
[Sofie, Belgia: European Civilization is extraordinary …]
[Veronica, Spania: I needed a lingua.]
[Maria, Ireland: It’s possible!]
[Romania: The European Union deve far li maximum …]
[Sofie, Belgia: … por crear e adopt a lingua comun …]
[Maria, Ireland: e for alle citizens speaks lingua.]
[Romania: For the future of Europa …]
[Sofie, Belgia: … a lingua comun is the ultimate ambition!]
Needed a translation?
The magic of this story,
is that computer science allows us to dig up a language
which is buried in us and we all understand.
It’s not our language
and yet, without being really able to explain why,
it’s a bit of our language,
because in fact it’s more than a language, it’s our common heritage that stands out,
and that is what should guide the European language.
So you’ll understand,
whether it’s Europeo or another constructed language –
I think interlingua, interlingua,
that I invite you to discover –
have ambition for Europe today,
it is daring to affirm that it is possible to imagine a common language,
to set it up, with the help of linguists of course,
and that it is thanks to her only
that we will build a real unity in Europe.
Thank you.
(Applause)
Please follow and like us: