The European Policy of Promotion of Multilingualism in Relation to the Current Evolution of Slavic Languages in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The respect for and protection of cultural and linguistic diversity have long been guaranteed in various international and European legislative acts. More recently, the European Union has also developed laws aimed at the preservation and promotion of multilingualism. Linguistic diversity has long been seen as an obstacle to the effective functioning of EU institutions. Recently, however, it has been considered as a valuable “heritage” of the EU. In my article I will present the changes occurring presently in modem Slavic languages of Central and Eastern Europe. The tendency of these languages towards increased analytism transforms these predominantly synthetic languages into more analytical ones. These conclusions have led us to the following question: What is the current state of modem Slavic languages and how far may their evolution be addressed by policies promoting multilingualism? I analysed modern Slavic languages by means of the parallel corpora of chosen languages from the Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure project (including UNESCO and EU legislation, etc.).