mare nostrum
I am very fond of the sea.
Of the Baltic sea, obviously, but also of the Mediterranean, less as a swimming pool (for that, I prefer colder water), but more as a geographical and linguistic area to explore.
Since I started learning languages in my early 20s, I decided to learn all major languages of the European Mediterranean.
I have learnt many of them, starting from Latin: Italian, French, Spanish, and Modern Greek.
Portuguese is the largest gap remaining, but it is on my to-do list; and Catalan is on my wish list.
However, recent geopolitical events have been shifting the centre of power towards the east of Europe. Thus,I have been toying with the idea of learning all major languages of the Baltic and the Black seas.
For the Baltic sea region, I already know Latvian, Russian, German, and Estonian. If I add Polish and Swedish, as is my plan, I am almost there. Finnish is too similar to Estonian, perhaps I would pass. But after having learned Estonian, learning Lithuanian is becoming increasingly appealing, to get all three Baltic languages under my belt.
Now, to the Black sea region. Ukrainian is a must, and adding Bulgarian, a Slavic language, and Romanian, a Romance one, should not be too difficult.
Intermarium, meaning “between seas”, was an idea to unite the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lands stretching from the Baltic sea in the north to the Black and Mediterranean seas in the south, developed by a Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski in the aftermath of WWI. The idea did not materialise then, for a variety of reasons, but an idea to build a regional alliance along the similar geographical lines is seeing a revival recently.
For my part, I find the idea attractive. The countries in the region would benefit from closer cooperation, better mutual knowledge, and strategic alignment on critical issues. They will also be better heard on the global stage if they speak up and defend their interests together.
So, in my language-focused mind, I am now pondering about learning all the languages of the Intermarium. This basically means resuscitating my forgotten Hungarian and adding some Croatian, Slovakian, and Slovenian, all Slavic languages.
How hard can it be?
19 languages 