Proto-Indo-European – Lingua Franca for the Imperium
If Europe had witnessed at some stage during the last couple of centuries the unification of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Romania and parts of Switzerland and Belgium, perhaps as the result of a successful campaign by Napoleon, then the interesting question arises: which language would the people of the new Mediterranean Imperium have chosen to communicate with each other?
Southern European lingua franca
My guess is that Latin would have soon overcome any rivals – notably French. It is from Latin that all the Romance languages evolved, so none of the participant nations of this hypothetical Napoleonic Imperium need feel slighted by having their language and culture ignored. All are off-spring of the Roman Empire. A stable empire demands a common language, but forcing French as a lingua franca onto the peoples of southern Europe would seem to serve the petty interests of French nationalism, rather than those of a Napoleonic Imperium aiming for centuries-long progress with stability. Additionally, Latin had been the language of the educated classes, of the natural sciences and humanities, throughout Europe for many centuries.
Literary tradition
With the advent of the IMPERIUM during the early 21st Century, a similar problem arises. Which language, out of the proud literary traditions of England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia or Russia, will the peoples of Europe decide to use to talk to one another?
Once again, the answer is straightforward: Aryan, or Proto-Indo-European, to give it the polite, if cumbersome, moniker.
On the practicality of such a venture, extensive and plausible reconstructions of the original Aryan language were already available by the middle of the 19th Century, ironically a generation before the abortive liberal experiment of Esperanto. Instead of patching together some artificial language like an intellectual Meccano kit, how much better to take inspiration from the source of all the languages, nations and tribes of Europe: the source of not only our language but our culture, our metaphysics and the very stuff we are made of! All the major tribes and language-groups of Europe (Celts, Germanics, Balts, Slavs, Hellenics and Italics, as well as many beyond) are direct descendants of the Proto-Indo-European ur-speech, so no nation need complain of alienation: instead all will rejoice in their common brotherhood. Necessary new words arising from new technologies can be incorporated into common-language Aryan much as they are today, perhaps even maintaining the Greek/ Latin composite pattern.
Natural language for Europeans
Once a common Aryan language is taught in all our schools across Europe, in addition to the regional or national mother-tongue, we will see two immediate benefits.
The first is practical. For the first time in millennia, the people of Europe will be able to speak to each other with ease. We can expect a corresponding acceleration of our culture, science and economy.
The second advantage is more esoteric, yet more profound, especially for the individual mind. Studying the roots of our own language will give us a deeper understanding of ourselves, as a member of a nation, a tribe (Celtic, Germanic, Slavic etc.) and as part of a potentially eternal race and culture.
Language is deeply implicated in consciousness; our native tongue forms our perception at the same time as exterior reality informs and modifies our language. As well as revealing the deepest strata of the European weltanschauung, study of the original Aryan language will necessarily throw light on significant divergences between one's own native language and the pan-continental speech from which it evolved. For instance: the subsequent development of the future tense in Germanic languages by use of the verb “will”. Not only will Europeans better understand the metaphysical structure of our 10,000+ years of shared culture, as outlined in Georges Dumézil's trifunctional hypothesis, but also the particular viewpoint and contribution summarized in the idiosyncrasies of their own unique mother tongue.
The argument for the original Aryan language as the common language of the future pan-European IMPERIUM is powerful: it will bring to each individual a fuller appreciation through words of both their nation and their race and culture, and their station in the cosmos.
Southern European lingua franca
My guess is that Latin would have soon overcome any rivals – notably French. It is from Latin that all the Romance languages evolved, so none of the participant nations of this hypothetical Napoleonic Imperium need feel slighted by having their language and culture ignored. All are off-spring of the Roman Empire. A stable empire demands a common language, but forcing French as a lingua franca onto the peoples of southern Europe would seem to serve the petty interests of French nationalism, rather than those of a Napoleonic Imperium aiming for centuries-long progress with stability. Additionally, Latin had been the language of the educated classes, of the natural sciences and humanities, throughout Europe for many centuries.
Literary tradition
With the advent of the IMPERIUM during the early 21st Century, a similar problem arises. Which language, out of the proud literary traditions of England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia or Russia, will the peoples of Europe decide to use to talk to one another?
Once again, the answer is straightforward: Aryan, or Proto-Indo-European, to give it the polite, if cumbersome, moniker.
On the practicality of such a venture, extensive and plausible reconstructions of the original Aryan language were already available by the middle of the 19th Century, ironically a generation before the abortive liberal experiment of Esperanto. Instead of patching together some artificial language like an intellectual Meccano kit, how much better to take inspiration from the source of all the languages, nations and tribes of Europe: the source of not only our language but our culture, our metaphysics and the very stuff we are made of! All the major tribes and language-groups of Europe (Celts, Germanics, Balts, Slavs, Hellenics and Italics, as well as many beyond) are direct descendants of the Proto-Indo-European ur-speech, so no nation need complain of alienation: instead all will rejoice in their common brotherhood. Necessary new words arising from new technologies can be incorporated into common-language Aryan much as they are today, perhaps even maintaining the Greek/ Latin composite pattern.
Natural language for Europeans
Once a common Aryan language is taught in all our schools across Europe, in addition to the regional or national mother-tongue, we will see two immediate benefits.
The first is practical. For the first time in millennia, the people of Europe will be able to speak to each other with ease. We can expect a corresponding acceleration of our culture, science and economy.
The second advantage is more esoteric, yet more profound, especially for the individual mind. Studying the roots of our own language will give us a deeper understanding of ourselves, as a member of a nation, a tribe (Celtic, Germanic, Slavic etc.) and as part of a potentially eternal race and culture.
Language is deeply implicated in consciousness; our native tongue forms our perception at the same time as exterior reality informs and modifies our language. As well as revealing the deepest strata of the European weltanschauung, study of the original Aryan language will necessarily throw light on significant divergences between one's own native language and the pan-continental speech from which it evolved. For instance: the subsequent development of the future tense in Germanic languages by use of the verb “will”. Not only will Europeans better understand the metaphysical structure of our 10,000+ years of shared culture, as outlined in Georges Dumézil's trifunctional hypothesis, but also the particular viewpoint and contribution summarized in the idiosyncrasies of their own unique mother tongue.
The argument for the original Aryan language as the common language of the future pan-European IMPERIUM is powerful: it will bring to each individual a fuller appreciation through words of both their nation and their race and culture, and their station in the cosmos.
Labels: Consciousness, Language, New Right Politics
posted by Alisdair Clarke at 7:57 AM
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