英国脱欧后，英语也要脱欧？

Is the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union going to deal a fatal blow to the language of Shakespeare on the continent? English, one of the 24 official languages of the EU, is very much spoken in Brussels and in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. But according to certain leading French politicians, its status after the Brexit should be questioned.

英国脱离欧盟会对英语在欧洲大陆的使用产生致命的影响吗？英语，是欧盟24种官方语言之一，在布鲁塞尔和欧洲议会所在地斯特拉斯堡都非常盛行。但是据某法国政要说，英国脱欧后，英语的地位也应受到质疑。

On Friday morning, the mayor of the southern French town of Béziers, Robert Ménard — a man with close ties to the National Front — reckoned that English no longer had “any legitimacy” in Brussels.

法国南部城市贝济耶市市长罗伯特•麦纳德与国民阵线有非常密切的联系，周五上午，他说他猜测英语在布鲁塞尔不再具有“任何合法性”。

Left-wing presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who supports moving away from European treaties, has, for his part, said that English can no longer be “the third working language” of the European Parliament.

左翼总统候选人让•吕克•梅朗松支持把英语从欧盟协议中去除，他个人认为英语不能再是欧洲议会“第三大工作语言”了。

In various ways, they’re both wrong. The very complex operation of multilingualism in European institutions doesn’t rely on the single criterion of a member state’s membership in — or withdrawal from — the EU.

从多种角度看，他们都错了。欧盟复杂的多语种工作机制并不依赖于成员国留下或退出欧盟这一单一标准。

The EU’s official languages are communicative languages recognized by the institutions. At the inception of the European structure, during the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951, there were four: French, German, Italian and Dutch. Today there are 24 of these official languages, including Bulgarian, Danish, Croatian and, obviously, English. In the European Parliament, all documents and discussions must be translated simultaneously into the 24 languages.

欧盟的官方语言是由组织机构认定的交流语言。在欧盟的初始阶段，在1951年欧洲煤钢共同体成立期间，有四种工作语言：法语、德语、意大利语和荷兰语。如今有24种官方语言，包括保加利亚语、丹麦语、克罗地亚语，当然了，还有英语。在欧洲议会，所有的文件和会议讨论都必须同时译成24种语言。

The official language of a member state doesn’t automatically become an official language of the EU (as is notably the case with Luxembourgish). This recognition happens at the request of the state. If a state withdraws, its language might also be withdrawn, even if a case for it was never made.

成员国的官方语言并不会自动转为欧盟的官方语言（卢森堡语的例子就很著名），应一国要求，才会得到认可。如果一国退出，它的语言也许也会退出，尽管之前没有过这样的例子。

Nevertheless, Great Britain’s exit should not be enough to abolish the use of English in Brussels, contrary to what Robert Ménard thinks. That is quite simply because the English language is one of the official languages of Ireland and Malta, who are still members of the EU.

然而，英国退出对废弃在布鲁塞尔使用英语而言还远远不够，和罗伯特•麦纳德所想相反。道理非常简单，因为英语是爱尔兰和马耳他的官方语言之一，它们还是欧盟的成员。

Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s proposal is subtler because the European MP is targeting English not in its capacity as an official language, but as a working language. To enable the fluidity of exchanges within the EU, certain discussions led by certain institutions happen in a limited number of languages. Contrary to what the presidential candidate asserts, this isn’t the case during sessions of the European Parliament (except for press conferences). The European Commission, however, does have three official working languages: French, German and English.

让-吕克•梅朗松的提议就比较微妙，因为他针对的不是英语作为官方语言的能力，而是工作语言。为了保证欧盟内部交流的顺畅，一些机构组织的一些会议中，语言使用的数量是有限的。与梅朗松宣称的相反，这和欧洲议会的会议没多大关系（除了资讯发布会）。而欧洲委员会有三种官方工作语言：法语，德语和英语。

This linguistic choice is clearly tied to member states’ influence, but it also follows practical concerns and historical traditions. Deliberation in the European Union Court of Justice takes place in French, as do the majority of discussions in the European Court of Auditors.

这种语言学上的选择显然是和成员国的影响力联系在一起的，但是它也要遵循实际考虑和历史传统。欧洲法院的审议是用法语进行的，欧洲审计院的大部分会议也是用法语。

So although the U.K. doesn’t use the euro and has preserved its monetary sovereignty, the European Central Bank has, since its creation, always and exclusively used the English language. And this is not for London’s sake, but for the sake of not complicating its extremely sensitive communication by multiplying the channels of translation.

因此，尽管英国不使用欧元，保留着它的货币主权，但欧洲中央银行自从建立之初就总是使用英语一种语言。这不是因为伦敦的影响力，而是因为不想增加翻译的语种，避免让它已经非常敏感的交流变得更复杂。

Vocabulary:

inception: 起初

exclusively: 唯一地，排外地