EURISH—A BUREAUCRAT’S LANGUAGE.

EURISH—A BUREAUCRAT’S LANGUAGE. A large number of the Europeans who speak Eurish interact with other Europeans at European Union functions. This article by Selina Sykes on the Express website quotes Emily O’Reilly, a European Union ombudsman, who disapproves of the influence on the English language of continental bureaucrats talking together. O’Reilly points out that:

*”In Euro-English legislation never ‘provides’ but it ‘foresees’;

*Documents are not held on file but on a ‘dossier’ and work is not assigned to staff but it is ‘attributed’.”

*”Procedures are not subjected to checks but to ‘controls’; decisions are never made but they are ‘adopted’.

* A senior person never says or states something but he ’emphasises’ or ‘stresses’; or if those words have already been used you’ll find him ‘underlining’.

And, of course, Bureaucratic Eurish relies heavily on the passive voice.

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