How Brussels sprouted its own unique dialect

In Brussels, according to a character in “Borgen”, a Danish political drama, “nobody can hear you scream.” Even if they could, they might not understand what was being said. Something about comitology, TLTROs and a holistic strategy on equitable rural development, whatever that might be? Most organisations, from the most gargantuan government to the tiniest start-up, develop their own jargon. The EU has created one so rich and acronym-filled that it surely counts as a dialect in its own right. Ministers who visit town are handed glossaries of Eurospeak; a local interpreter might soon be needed. Critics see this as evidence of officialdom run amok, of unaccountable Eurocrats so isolated in their ivory tower that they can barely communicate with mere citizens. Charlemagne, a near-fluent Eurospeaker, would like to defend his hometown patois. Not only is it an inevitable corollary of a multilingual union, it is a welcome one.