Abstract
The English language is the most dominant language in the Western world and its influence can be noticed in every aspect of human communication. It’s increasing diffusion, especially since the turn of the century, is hard to measure with conventional means. The present research studies the use of language in websites of European Union (EU) member states, in order to collect data about the prevalence of the English language in the different countries and regions of the European Union. To achieve a realistic representation of today’s landscape of the European Web, this study uses a vast population of websites and a representative sampling size and methodology. By analyzing and processing the findings from over 100,000 websites from every country in the EU, a solid foundation is set that is used to explore the dominance of the English language in the European World Wide Web in general. This is the first study that examines the presence of English content in the websites of all EU member countries and provides statistical evidence regarding the ratio of English content availability for each country. Conclusively, the results of the research demonstrate that the English language is available on more than one quarter of all websites of non-English speaking EU member states. Moreover, it is available in the vast majority of multilingual and bilingual websites, while at the same time being the only language that is available in a number of monolingual websites. In addition, it is shown preference over the national language in a significant number of cases. A moderate negative correlation is found between a member state’s population and the availability of English in these countries’ websites and the same holds true for a member state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Both these correlations indicate that smaller countries tend to provide more content in English in order to establish a stronger presence in the international environment. Taking into account the role of language in the expression of national identity, this study provides data and insights which may contribute to the discussion about the changes underway in the national identity of EU member states.
Highlights
In an effort to increase international communication, people and organizations within the European Union (EU) area and Europe in general have been adopting the use of English as a common language for a long time
The use of the English language is considered an important factor for the internationalization of institutional and organizational websites [1,2], there is still, according to our knowledge, no study that focuses on the EU countries and spans multiple disciplines from education to government and commerce
The facts that the EU member states are archetypal nation-states and language is the common denominator of national identity strengthen the need for a study such as the one at hand, which will try to provide data regarding the influence of a foreign language in member states of a multinational formation such as the EU
Summary
In an effort to increase international communication, people and organizations within the EU area and Europe in general have been adopting the use of English as a common language for a long time. The purpose of this research is to study the diffusion of the English language, and measure its spread in countries of the EU, and in the ones that don’t have English as one of their official languages. In order to meet these goals, the study provides accurate and fully quantifiable data extracted by a very large and representative sample of EU websites. This information can become a valuable instrument in understanding the use of language to achieve better international reach, and the changes underway in the national identity of EU member states
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