If Europe should have a lingua franca that was NOT English, should it be French, German or Russian?

[Tooting Carmen]

What is interesting is that, ever since the EU expanded eastwards in 2004, there has thus been a shift away from French in favour of German as being Europe's second most-learnt/used language after English. As for Russian, needless to say it has collapsed in importance since the break-up of the USSR, but were Russia to become more powerful (economically, militarily and especially culturally) again, would it see a revival in interest elsewhere?

[Tooting Carmen]

Anyone?

[miruna99]

French

This would be the strongest candidate: the only other language to have enjoyed the status of global lingua franca in modern history; still remains the official language of most world organisations; has, by far, the greatest cultural capital; and would be more accessible to Spaniards and Italians who have the lowest levels of English on the continent.


German

I would have to challenge your assertion and say German is firmly in 4th place in terms of foreign languages learned in Europe (plenty of data out there to support this). This is partly due to native German speakers having such high levels of English proficiency.

Those newer EU members in Eastern Europe have far higher levels of English than Spain or Italy.

The idea that, say, a Spaniard and a Finn would use German to communicate with one another seems very far-fetched.


Russian

No chance. English has replaced it as the lingua franca in the Baltics and is well on its way to do the same even in the former SSRs of Central Asia and, especially, the Caucasus. Less said about Ukraine the better.

As for cultural influence, forget it. Russia is in the same boat as Japan; a former world power that faces huge internal pressures from a terminally aging and shrinking population. The only Europeans who would learn either language are those with a niche interest or who plan on living there for an extended period of time.


Conclusion

The reality is that English hasn't even peaked yet in its role of global lingua franca which sounds scary. The internet and, in particular, social media will only cement and deepen its current status. If Europe were to implement a different lingua franca, it would simply be the de jure language with English remaining the de facto language.

[Tooting Carmen]

French

This would be the strongest candidate: the only other language to have enjoyed the status of global lingua franca in modern history; still remains the official language of most world organisations; has, by far, the greatest cultural capital; and would be more accessible to Spaniards and Italians who have the lowest levels of English on the continent.

Good points.

German

I would have to challenge your assertion and say German is firmly in 4th place in terms of foreign languages learned in Europe (plenty of data out there to support this). This is partly due to native German speakers having such high levels of English proficiency.

Those newer EU members in Eastern Europe have far higher levels of English than Spain or Italy.

The idea that, say, a Spaniard and a Finn would use German to communicate with one another seems very far-fetched.

Look up the Eurobarometer surveys, and you'll see that most Accession countries (bar Romania, which has always had a special relationship with France) speak and study German much more than French.

Russian

No chance. English has replaced it as the lingua franca in the Baltics and is well on its way to do the same even in the former SSRs of Central Asia and, especially, the Caucasus. Less said about Ukraine the better.

The large Russian minorities may have something to say about that, and I thought Russian still has co-official status in many of those countries and is thus learnt even by non-Russians?

As for cultural influence, forget it. Russia is in the same boat as Japan; a former world power that faces huge internal pressures from a terminally aging and shrinking population. The only Europeans who would learn either language are those with a niche interest or who plan on living there for an extended period of time.

'Terminally ageing and shrinking' are problems throughout the Global North, only that those two are (for now) especially extreme cases.

Conclusion

The reality is that English hasn't even peaked yet in its role of global lingua franca which sounds scary. The internet and, in particular, social media will only cement and deepen its current status. If Europe were to implement a different lingua franca, it would simply be the de jure language with English remaining the de facto language.

Maybe what you say is true at European level, but globally Spanish, Mandarin and to an extent French (mostly due to Africa) and Arabic are challenging the hegemony of English on the internet and the media.

[Incal]

None of those. Should be Italian, if Europe wants to pay respect to their origins. If they want to be practical though, maybe Swedish.

[CordedWhelp]

Komi

[TheMaestro]

Italiano, best language in the world

[Zohor]

So you were basing choice of second lingua franca on what is learnt in schools as second foreign language? This is kind of weird cause students(I am basing only on my point of view and people I know) usually don't focus much on learning second language. Also I was taught Russian and it is not the only case, there are other high schools in my area where you could learn Russian as second foreign language. It's weird you didn't mention Spanish, it's also commonly learnt as it is second most commonly used Indo-European language after English all over the world.

Also if not English then I guess it would be language of world hegemon, English got more widespread when USA got a superpower after WWII. Nowadays it would take much effort to design again versions for codes in other languages than English. What I want to say is that the chance that English will not be lingua franca are very low. In case if really English would not be lingua franca, then it would be sensible to pick a language which is the closest to English, but as the world usualy follows superpowers then there is high chance for Chinese to go through, or maybe it's simplified version like written with Latin alphabet, or even "Chinglish" version.

Out of these three Russian has the least chance since it uses another alphabet

[Tooting Carmen]

So you were basing choice of second lingua franca on what is learnt in schools as second foreign language? This is kind of weird cause students(I am basing only on my point of view and people I know) usually don't focus much on learning second language.

That was one criteria but by no means the only one. I was also thinking about population sizes and the prestige (or lack thereof) of countries where different languages are spoken.

It's weird you didn't mention Spanish, it's also commonly learnt as it is second most commonly used Indo-European language after English all over the world.

In a way, yes, but strictly within Europe it very much takes a backseat compared to both English and the three OP options.

Also if not English then I guess it would be language of world hegemon, English got more widespread when USA got a superpower after WWII. Nowadays it would take much effort to design again versions for codes in other languages than English. What I want to say is that the chance that English will not be lingua franca are very low. In case if really English would not be lingua franca, then it would be sensible to pick a language which is the closest to English, but as the world usualy follows superpowers then there is high chance for Chinese to go through, or maybe it's simplified version like written with Latin alphabet, or even "Chinglish" version.

Yeah I wonder if people are actually gonna start taking Mandarin seriously?

Out of these three Russian has the least chance since it uses another alphabet

A banal excuse.

[Dušan]

None of those. Should be Italian, if Europe wants to pay respect to their origins. If they want to be practical though, maybe Swedish.

Italiano, best language in the world

I agree with Italian.
It is way better than English.

Yet English is better than German and French.