Europanto
Encyclopedia
Europanto is a macaronic language
concept with a fluid vocabulary from multiple European languages
of the user's choice or need. It was conceived in 1996 by Diego Marani
(a journalist, author and translator for the European Council of Ministers in Brussels
) based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU Languages. Marani used it in response to the perceived dominance of the English language
; it is an emulation of the effect that non-native speakers struggling to learn a language typically add words and phrases from their native language to express their meanings clearly.
The main concept of Europanto is that there are no fixed rules — merely a set of suggestions. This means that anybody can start to speak Europanto immediately; on the other hand, it is the speaker's responsibility to draw on an assumed common vocabulary
and grammar
to communicate.
Marani wrote regular newspaper
columns about the language and published a novel
using it. As of 2005, he no longer actively promotes it.
From Wilt
, novel by Tom Sharpe
.
Macaronic language
Macaronic refers to text spoken or written using a mixture of languages, sometimes including bilingual puns, particularly when the languages are used in the same context . The term is also sometimes used to denote hybrid words, which are in effect internally macaronic...
concept with a fluid vocabulary from multiple European languages
Languages of Europe
Most of the languages of Europe belong to Indo-European language family. These are divided into a number of branches, including Romance, Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Greek, and others. The Uralic languages also have a significant presence in Europe, including the national languages Hungarian, Finnish,...
of the user's choice or need. It was conceived in 1996 by Diego Marani
Diego Marani
Diego Marani is an Italian novelist, translator, and newspaper columnist. In 1996, while working as a translator for the Council of the European Union, he invented Europanto, a mock international auxiliary language. Marani has published different articles, short stories and video clips in Europanto...
(a journalist, author and translator for the European Council of Ministers in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
) based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU Languages. Marani used it in response to the perceived dominance of the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
; it is an emulation of the effect that non-native speakers struggling to learn a language typically add words and phrases from their native language to express their meanings clearly.
The main concept of Europanto is that there are no fixed rules — merely a set of suggestions. This means that anybody can start to speak Europanto immediately; on the other hand, it is the speaker's responsibility to draw on an assumed common vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
and grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
to communicate.
Marani wrote regular newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
columns about the language and published a novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
using it. As of 2005, he no longer actively promotes it.
Language code
The ISO 639-3 standard draft used to have the code eur for this constructed language, but it was retired on 16 January 2009, with the reason “Nonexistent”. For this reason, it is also not a valid language subtag for BCP 47 as it was not registered in the IANA Language Subtags Registry (waiting for a decision for the deletion request that was initiated in 2008, but also because ISO 639-3 was still a draft, as well as ISO 5646 which was still not published to allow importing standard ISO 639-3 codes in this registry on 29 July 2009).Example
This following Example Passage uses specific words from German, English, French, Italian, Dutch and common Romance-language words such as Mucho.From Wilt
Wilt
Wilt may refer to:* Wilting, the loss of rigidity of non-woody parts of plants* WILT, An acronym commonly used in instant messaging for 'What I'm Listening To'* Wilt disease, which can refer to a number of different diseases in plants....
, novel by Tom Sharpe
Tom Sharpe
Tom Sharpe is an English satirical author, best known for his Wilt series of novels.Sharpe was born in London and moved to South Africa in 1951, where he worked as a social worker and a teacher, before being deported for sedition in 1961...
.