The European Day of Languages Le Lingue e la cultura non conoscono frontiere Peter Brown Director, British School Trieste Founder Chair, EAQUALS Europe Direct – Comune di Trieste 26 Settembre 2006

Background  The Council of Europe:  Founded in 1949  46 member states  Distinct from the EU  Based in Strasbourg  on the principles of: Democracy The Rule of Law Human Rights

Winston Churchill  In 1946  gave two key speeches which changed our understanding our Europe  5th March – Fulton  19th September - Zurich

British School Trieste EDL - 26 September 2006  barbecue  tattoo zero saga cruise  shampoo  cravat  penguin  bistro  mosquito  Native Cuban Polynesian Arabic Icelandic  Dutch  Hindi  Croatian  Welsh  Russian  Spanish

Linguistic Diversity - 1 è languages è 6bn people | 189 states è Losing 1 language a day è 3% languages in Europe è >50% world’s population estimated as plurilingual Some facts:Some research: è Languages borrow è Languages are related è Multilingual (L >300) è Babies hear >40 vowels è Children learn all languages equally easily

Linguistic Europe  ≧ 225 languages  3 main families Germanic Romance Slavic  all 3 in Trieste  most use the Latin alphabet, but....

Linguistic Diversity - 2 è Russian è German è English è French è Italian Europe: most common mother tongues: Europe: common immigrant languages (London): è Arabic è Turkish è Kurdish è Berber è Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, ….

Deutsch Hrvatski Italiano Magyar Slovensko English

Polyphiloprogenitive.. (T.S. Eliot) In the beginning was the Word In principio era il Verbo (from logos...)

Language Migration

Base Language

Language Migration Local Separation Experience Knowledge Base Language

Language Migration Local Separation Experience Knowledge Base Language

Language Migration Local Separation Experience Knowledge Base Language Local evolved

Language Migration Local Separation Experience Knowledge Base Language Base Local evolved

Language Migration Interacts ind. Local Separation Experience Knowledge Base Language Base Local evolved

Language Migration Interacts ind. Local Separation Experience Knowledge Base Language Base Local evolved New Language evolves

Frontiers

Natural Seas, lakes,.. Mountains,.. Frontiers

Natural Seas, lakes,.. Mountains,.. International Political, Borders, Wars Frontiers

Natural Seas, lakes,.. Mountains,.. International Political, Borders, Wars Cultural Behaviour Meanings Frontiers

Natural Seas, lakes,.. Mountains,.. No Frontiers International Political, Borders, Wars Cultural Behaviour Meanings Frontiers

Science maths astronomy medicine physics Natural Seas, lakes,.. Mountains,.. No Frontiers International Political, Borders, Wars Cultural Behaviour Meanings Frontiers

Science maths astronomy medicine physics Natural Seas, lakes,.. Mountains,.. No Frontiers Philosophy Religion International Political, Borders, Wars Cultural Behaviour Meanings Frontiers

Science maths astronomy medicine physics Natural Seas, lakes,.. Mountains,.. No Frontiers Philosophy Religion Arts, drama, architecture International Political, Borders, Wars Cultural Behaviour Meanings Frontiers

Science maths astronomy medicine physics Natural Seas, lakes,.. Mountains,.. No Frontiers Philosophy Religion Arts, drama, architecture International Political, Borders, Wars Cultural Behaviour Meanings Growth Age Frontiers

Science maths astronomy medicine physics Natural Seas, lakes,.. Mountains,.. No Frontiers Philosophy Religion Arts, drama, architecture International Political, Borders, Wars Cultural Behaviour Meanings Growth Age Knowledge baseIntercultural Und Frontiers

Science maths astronomy medicine physics Natural Seas, lakes,.. Mountains,.. No Frontiers Philosophy Religion Arts, drama, architecture International Political, Borders, Wars Cultural Behaviour Meanings Information Highway Growth Age Knowledge baseIntercultural Und Frontiers

M E Raichle M.D. Washington U School of Medicine St. Louis29 Raichle Neuro imaging Marcus E. Raichle. M.D. Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis High Low Brain activity SEEING + HEARING WORDS Indeed, all areas involved in each of the separate activities are now involved simultaneously. Above: the result of experiments where people were confronted with simple reading (left picture) or simple listening (right picture) tasks. Amount of activity in different areas of the brain is shown by color shades. High activity is yellow, low activity is blue. Other colors mark a range of intermediate degrees of activity (see legend to the top right). We can clearly see that different language activities are handled in different areas of the human brain. What will happen if we present two tasks simultaneously?

Language is the light of reason..,  “words are the signs of ideas...”  Language diversity (opportunity v. threat)  Diversity implies Knowledge Knowledge Frontiers Frontiers Culture Culture  “invisible cities” (Italo Calvino on translation)  Myrddin “I know why men are troubled...”  My languages define me

As pine trees Hold the wind’s imprint After the wind is gone, is no longer there So words Retain a man’s imprint After the man is gone, is no longer there George Seferis (Greek Poet – 1966)

Recognised by The Council of Europe British School Trieste 2006 The European Association for Quality Language Services