Blurb:

I would like to address the question raised in the subtitle: can Europe speak with a single voice in many languages? In the course of this chapter I shall attempt to answer the question from a linguistic point of view. This doesn’t mean that I am not aware of the political side of the problem: the problem of a Europe that cannot speak with a single voice because of a lack of consensus. It is simply that I have more to say about multilingualism. In upholding the values of a multilingual Europe I shall return to some linguistic situations that are becoming increasingly important in contemporary Europe; and, in particular, language contact and language transfer, interlanguage and error analysis. I should like to do this in memory of the scholarship of Pitt Corder, to whom this chapter is dedicated. In my conclusions, I intend to suggest a possible new direction for applied linguistics to promote the preservation of language and culture diversity. I hope this will be a useful contribution to our conference which is devoted to the role of linguistic research in the reconfiguration of Europe. But now, without further ado, let me begin by introducing a notion that is central to most of the issues I have just mentioned: I speak of the devil of course!