Languages of Europe
Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total population of 744 million (as of 2018), some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language; within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Slavic, Romance and Germanic, with more than 200 million speakers each, between them accounting for close to 90% of Europeans. Smaller phyla of Indo-European found in Europe include Hellenic (Greek, c. 10 million), Baltic (c. 7 million), Albanian (c. 5 million), Indo-Aryan (Romani, c. 1.5 million) and Celtic (including Welsh, c. 1 million).
Of c. 45 million Europeans speaking non-Indo-European languages, around 20 million each fall within the Uralic and Turkic families. Still smaller groups (such as Basque and various languages of the Caucasus) account for less than 1% of European population between them. Immigration has added sizeable communities of speakers of African and Asian languages, amounting to about 4% of the population,[1] with Arabic being the most widely spoken of them. Five languages have more than 50 million native speakers in Europe: Russian, German, French, Italian and English. While Russian has the largest number of native speakers (more than 100 million in Europe), English in Europe has the largest number of speakers in total, including some 200 million speakers of English as a second language.
Contents
Indo-European languages[edit]
The Indo-European language family is descended from Proto-Indo-European, which is believed to have been spoken thousands of years ago. Early speakers of Indo-European daughter languages most likely expanded into Europe with the incipient Bronze Age, around 4,000 years ago (Bell-Beaker culture).
Slavic[edit]
Slavic languages are spoken in large areas of Central Europe, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe. An estimated 250 million Europeans are native speakers of Slavic languages, the largest groups being Russian (c. 110 million in European Russia and adjacient parts of Eastern Europe, Russian forming the largest linguistic community in Europe), Polish (c. 55 million), Ukrainian (c. 40 million), Serbo-Croatian (c. 21 million), Czech (c. 11 million), Bulgarian (c. 9 million), Slovak (c. 5 million) Belarusian and Slovene (c. 3 million each) and Macedonian (c. 2 million).
Phylogenetically, Slavic is divided into three subgroups:
- West Slavic includes Polish, Czech, Slovak, Lower Sorbian, Upper Sorbian and Kashubian.
- East Slavic includes Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn.
- South Slavic is divided into Southeast Slavic and Southwest Slavic groups: Southwest Slavic languages include Serbo-Croatian and Slovene, each with numerous distinctive dialects. Serbo-Croatian boasts four distinct national standards, Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian, all based on the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect; Southeast Slavic languages include Bulgarian, Macedonian and Old Church Slavonic (a liturgical language).
Romance[edit]
Roughly 215 million Europeans (primarily in Southern and Western Europe) are native speakers of Romance languages, the largest groups including French (c. 69 million), Italian (c. 65 million), Spanish (Castilian) (c. 40 million), Romanian (c. 23 million), Portuguese (c. 10 million), Sicilian (c. 5 million, also subsumed under Italian), Catalan (c. 4 million), Galician (c. 2 million), Sardinian (c. 1 million), Occitan (c. 500,000), besides numerous smaller communities.
The Romance languages are descended from varieties of Vulgar Latin spoken in the various parts of the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity. Latin was itself part of the (otherwise extinct) Italic branch of Indo-European. Romance is divided phylogenetically into Italo-Western, Eastern Romance (including Romanian) and Sardinian. The Romance-speaking area in Europe is often referred to as Latin Europe.[2]
Italo-Western in turn has the sub-branches Italo-Dalmatian (sometimes grouped with Eastern Romance), including Tuscan-derived Italian and numerous local Romance lects in Italy as well as Dalmatian, and the Western Romance languages.
The Western Romance languages in turn separate into:
- Gallo-Romance, including French and its varieties (Langues d'oïl), the Rhaeto-Romance languages, and the Gallo-Italic languages,
- Occito-Romance (East Iberian), grouped with either Gallo-Romance or West Iberian, including Occitan, Catalan and Aragonese,
- West Ibero-Romance (Spanish-Portuguese), including Astur-Leonese languages, Galician-Portuguese and Castilian.
Germanic[edit]
The Germanic languages make up the predominant language family in northwestern Europe. An estimated 210 million Europeans are native speakers of Germanic languages, the largest groups being German (c. 95 million), English (c. 70 million) and Dutch (c. 24 million), Swedish (c. 10 million), Danish (c. 6 million) and Norwegian (c. 5 million).
There are two extant major sub-divisions: West Germanic and North Germanic. A third group, East Germanic, is now extinct; the only known surviving East Germanic texts are written in the Gothic language. West Germanic is divided into Anglo-Frisian (including English), Low German and Low Franconian (including Dutch) and High German (including Standard German).
- German and Low Franconian
German is spoken throughout Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the East Cantons of Belgium, much of Switzerland (including the northeast areas bordering on Germany and Austria) and northern Italy (South Tyrol).
There are several groups of German dialects:
- High German include several dialect families:
- Standard German
- Central German dialects, spoken in central Germany and include Luxembourgish
- High Franconian, a family of transitional dialects between Central and Upper High German
- Upper German, including Austro-Bavarian and Swiss German
- Yiddish is a Jewish language developed in Germany and shares many features of High German dialects and Hebrew.
Low German (including Low Saxon) is spoken in various regions throughout Northern Germany and the North and East of the Netherlands. It is an official language in Germany. It may be separated into Low Saxon (West Low German) and East Low German.
Dutch is spoken throughout the Netherlands, northern Belgium, as well as the Nord-Pas de Calais region of France, and around Düsseldorf in Germany. In Belgian and French contexts, Dutch is sometimes referred to as Flemish. Dutch dialects are varied and cut across national borders.
- Anglo-Frisian
The Anglo-Frisian language family is now mostly represented by English (Anglic), descended from the Old English language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons:
- English, the main language of the United Kingdom, also used in English-speaking Europe
- Scots, spoken in Scotland and Ulster.
The Frisian languages are spoken by about 500,000 Frisians, who live on the southern coast of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. These languages include West Frisian, Saterlandic, and North Frisian.
- North Germanic (Scandinavian)
The North Germanic languages are spoken in Scandinavian countries and include Danish (Denmark), Norwegian (Norway), Swedish (Sweden and parts of Finland), or Elfdalian (in a small part of central Sweden), Faroese (Faroe Islands), and Icelandic (Iceland).
English has a long history of contact with Scandinavian languages, given the immigration of Scandinavians early in the history of Britain, and has similar structure with Scandinavian languages.[3]
Other[edit]
- Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus, and there are Greek-speaking enclaves in Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, the Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Turkey, and in Greek communities around the world. Dialects of modern Greek that originate from Attic Greek (through Koine and then Medieval Greek) are Cappadocian, Pontic, Cretan, Cypriot, Katharevousa, and Yevanic
- Italiot Greek is, debatably, a Doric dialect of Greek. It is spoken in southern Italy only, in the southern Calabria region (as Grecanic)[4][5][6][7][8] and in the Salento region (as Griko). It has been studied by the German linguist Gerhard Rohlfs during 1930s and 1950s.
- Tsakonian is a Doric dialect of the Greek language spoken in the lower Arcadia region of the Peloponnese around the village of Leonidio
- The Baltic languages are spoken in Lithuania (Lithuanian, Samogitian) and Latvia (Latvian, Latgalian). Samogitian and Latgalian are usually considered to be dialects of Lithuanian and Latvian respectively.
- There are also several extinct Baltic languages, including: Galindian, Curonian, Old Prussian, Selonian, Semigallian and Sudovian.
- Albanian has two major dialects, Tosk Albanian and Gheg Albanian. It is spoken in Albania and Kosovo, neighboring Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, Italy and Montenegro. It is also widely spoken in the Albanian diaspora.
- There are six living Celtic languages, spoken in areas of northwestern Europe dubbed the "Celtic nations". All six are members of the Insular Celtic family, which in turn is divided into:
- Brythonic family: Welsh (Wales), Cornish (Cornwall) and Breton (Brittany)
- Goidelic family: Irish (Ireland), Scottish Gaelic (Scotland), and Manx (Isle of Man)
- Continental Celtic languages had previously been spoken across Europe from Iberia and Gaul to Asia Minor, but became extinct in the first millennium AD.
- The Indo-Aryan languages have one major representation, it being Romani (c. 1.5 million speakers), introduced to Europe in the late medieval period.
- The Iranian languages in Europe are natively represented in the North Caucasus, notably with Ossetian.
- Armenian speakers came to Russia in significant numbers after the First World War due to Armenian genocide and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (see below).
Non-Indo-European languages[edit]
Uralic[edit]
Uralic is native to northern Eurasia. Finno-Ugric groups the Uralic languages other than Samoyedic. Finnic languages include Finnish and Estonian. The Sami languages are closely related to Finnic.
The Ugric languages are represented in Europe with the Hungarian language, historically introduced with the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin of the 9th century.
The Samoyedic Nenets language is spoken in Nenets Autonomous Okrug in the far northeastern corner of Europe (as delimited by the Ural Mountains).
Turkic[edit]
- Oghuz languages in Europe include Turkish, spoken in European Turkey and by immigrant communities; Azerbaijani is spoken in Azerbaijan and parts of Southern Russia and Gagauz is spoken in Gagauzia.
- Kypchak languages in Europe include Crimean Tatar, which is spoken in Crimea; Tatar, which is spoken in Tatarstan; Bashkir, which is spoken in Bashkortostan; and Kazakh, which is spoken in Kazakhstan.
- Oghur languages were historically indigenous to much of Eastern Europe; however, most of them are extinct today, with the exception of Chuvash, which is spoken in Chuvashia.
Other[edit]
- The Basque language (or Euskara) is a language isolate and the ancestral language of the Basque people who inhabit the Basque Country, a region in the western Pyrenees mountains mostly in northeastern Spain and partly in southwestern France of about 3 million inhabitants, where it is spoken fluently by about 750,000 and understood by more than 1.5 million people. Basque is directly related to ancient Aquitanian, and it is likely that an early form of the Basque language was present in Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European languages in the area in the Bronze Age.
- North Caucasian languages is a geographical blanket term for two unrelated language families spoken chiefly in the north Caucasus and Turkey—the Northwest Caucasian family (including Abkhaz and Circassian) and the Northeast Caucasian family, spoken mainly in the border area of the southern Russian Federation (including Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia).
- Kalmyk is a Mongolic language, spoken in the Republic of Kalmykia, part of the Russian Federation. Its speakers entered the Volga region in the early 17th century.
- Maltese is a Semitic language with Romance and Germanic influences, spoken in Malta.[9][10][11][12] It is based on Sicilian Arabic, with influences from Italian (particularly Sicilian), French, and, more recently, English. It is unique in that it is the only Semitic language whose standard form is written in the Latin script. It is also the smallest official language of the EU in terms of speakers, and the only official Semitic language within the EU. Cypriot Maronite Arabic (also known as Cypriot Arabic) is a variety of Arabic spoken by Maronites in Cyprus. Most speakers live in Nicosia, but others are in the communities of Kormakiti and Lemesos. Brought to the island by Maronites fleeing Lebanon over 700 years ago, this variety of Arabic has been influenced by Greek in both phonology and vocabulary, while retaining certain unusually archaic features in other respects.
History of standardization[edit]
Language and identity, standardization processes[edit]
In the Middle Ages the two most important defining elements of Europe were Christianitas and Latinitas. Thus language—at least the supranational language—played an elementary role[clarification needed]. The earliest dictionaries were glossaries, i.e., more or less structured lists of lexical pairs (in alphabetical order or according to conceptual fields). The Latin-German (Latin-Bavarian) Abrogans was among the first. A new wave of lexicography can be seen from the late 15th century onwards (after the introduction of the printing press, with the growing interest in standardizing languages).
The concept of the nation state begins to emerge in the early modern period. Nations adopted particular dialects as their national language. This, together with improved communications, led to official efforts to standardise the national language, and a number of language academies were established (e.g., 1582 Accademia della Crusca in Florence, 1617 Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft in Weimar, 1635 Académie française in Paris, 1713 Real Academia Española in Madrid). Language became increasingly linked to nation as opposed to culture, and was also used to promote religious and ethnic identity (e.g., different Bible translations in the same language for Catholics and Protestants).
The first languages for which standardisation was promoted included Italian (questione della lingua: Modern Tuscan/Florentine vs. Old Tuscan/Florentine vs. Venetian → Modern Florentine + archaic Tuscan + Upper Italian), French (the standard is based on Parisian), English (the standard is based on the London dialect) and (High) German (based on the dialects of the chancellery of Meissen in Saxony, Middle German, and the chancellery of Prague in Bohemia ("Common German")). But several other nations also began to develop a standard variety in the 16th century.
Lingua franca[edit]
Europe has had a number of languages that were considered linguae francae over some ranges for some periods according to some historians. Typically in the rise of a national language the new language becomes a lingua franca to peoples in the range of the future nation until the consolidation and unification phases. If the nation becomes internationally influential, its language may become a lingua franca among nations that speak their own national languages. Europe has had no lingua franca ranging over its entire territory spoken by all or most of its populations during any historical period. Some linguae francae of past and present over some of its regions for some of its populations are:
- Classical Greek and then Koine Greek in the Mediterranean Basin from the Athenian empire to the eastern Roman Empire, being replaced by Modern Greek.
- Koine Greek and Modern Greek, in the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire and other parts of the Balkans south of the Jireček Line.[13]
- Vulgar Latin and Late Latin among the uneducated and educated populations respectively of the Roman empire and the states that followed it in the same range no later than 900 AD; medieval Latin and Renaissance Latin among the educated populations of western, northern, central and part of eastern Europe until the rise of the national languages in that range, beginning with the first language academy in Italy in 1582/83; new Latin written only in scholarly and scientific contexts by a small minority of the educated population at scattered locations over all of Europe; ecclesiastical Latin, in spoken and written contexts of liturgy and church administration only, over the range of the Roman Catholic Church.
- Lingua Franca or Sabir, the original of the name, an Italian-based pidgin language of mixed origins used by maritime commercial interests around the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and early Modern Age.[14]
- Old French in continental western European countries and in the Crusader states.[15]
- Czech, mainly during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (14th century) but also during other periods of Bohemian control over the Holy Roman Empire.
- Middle Low German (14th–16th century, during the heyday of the Hanseatic League).
- Spanish as Castilian in Spain and New Spain from the times of the Catholic Monarchs and Columbus, c. 1492; that is, after the Reconquista, until established as a national language in the times of Louis XIV, c. 1648; subsequently multinational in all nations in or formerly in the Spanish Empire.[16]
- Polish, due to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (16th–18th centuries).
- Italian due to the Renaissance, the opera, the Italian empire, the fashion industry and the influence of the Roman catholic church.[17]
- French from the golden age under Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV c. 1648; i.e., after the Thirty Years' War, in France and the French colonial empire, until established as the national language during the French Revolution of 1789 and subsequently multinational in all nations in or formerly in the various French Empires.[15]
- German in Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe.[18]
- English in Great Britain until its consolidation as a national language in the Renaissance and the rise of Modern English; subsequently internationally under the various states in or formerly in the British Empire; globally since the victories of the predominantly English speaking countries (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and others) and their allies in the two world wars ending in 1918 (World War I) and 1945 (World War II) and the subsequent rise of the United States as a superpower and major cultural influence.
- Russian in the former Soviet Union and Russian Empire including Northern and Central Asia.
Linguistic minorities[edit]
Historical attitudes towards linguistic diversity are illustrated by two French laws: the Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts (1539), which said that every document in France should be written in French (neither in Latin nor in Occitan) and the Loi Toubon (1994), which aimed to eliminate anglicisms from official documents. States and populations within a state have often resorted to war to settle their differences. There have been attempts to prevent such hostilities: two such initiatives were promoted by the Council of Europe, founded in 1949, which affirms the right of minority language speakers to use their language fully and freely.[19] The Council of Europe is committed to protecting linguistic diversity. Currently all European countries except France, Andorra and Turkey have signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, while Greece, Iceland and Luxembourg have signed it, but have not ratified it; this framework entered into force in 1998. Another European treaty, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, was adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe: it entered into force in 1998, and while it is legally binding for 24 countries, France, Iceland, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova and Russia have chosen to sign without ratifying the convention.
Scripts[edit]
The main scripts used in Europe today are the Latin and Cyrillic.
The Greek alphabet was derived from the Phoenician alphabet, and Latin was derived from the Greek via the Old Italic alphabet. In the Early Middle Ages, Ogham was used in Ireland and runes (derived the Old Italic script) in Scandinavia. Both were replaced in general use by the Latin alphabet by the Late Middle Ages. The Cyrillic script was derived from the Greek with the first texts appearing around 940 AD.
Around 1900 there were mainly two typeface variants of the Latin alphabet used in Europe: Antiqua and Fraktur. Fraktur was used most for German, Estonian, Latvian, Norwegian and Danish whereas Antiqua was used for Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese, English, Romanian, Swedish and Finnish. The Fraktur variant was banned by Hitler in 1941, having been described as "Schwabacher Jewish letters".[20] Other scripts have historically been in use in Europe, including Phoenician, from which modern Latin letters descend, Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on Egyptian artefacts traded during Antiquity various runic systems used in Northern Europe preceding Christianisation, and Arabic during the era of the Ottoman Empire.
Hungarian rovás was used by the Hungarian people in the early Middle Ages, but it was gradually replaced with the Latin-based Hungarian alphabet when Hungary became a kingdom, though it was revived in the 20th century and has certain marginal, but growing area of usage since then.
European Union[edit]
The European Union (as of 2016) had 28 member states accounting for a population of 510 million, or about 69% of the population of Europe.
The European Union has designated by agreement with the member states 24 languages as "official and working:" Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.[21] This designation provides member states with two "entitlements:" the member state may communicate with the EU in the designated one of those languages and view "EU regulations and other legislative documents" in that language.[22]
The European Union and the Council of Europe have been collaborating in education of member populations in languages for "the promotion of plurilingualism" among EU member states,[23] The joint document, "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR)", is an educational standard defining "the competencies necessary for communication" and related knowledge for the benefit of educators in setting up educational programs. In a 2005 independent survey requested by the EU's Directorate-General for Education and Culture regarding the extent to which major European languages were spoken in member states. The results were published in a 2006 document, "Europeans and Their Languages", or "Eurobarometer 243". In this study, statistically relevant samples of the population in each country were asked to fill out a survey form concerning the languages that they spoke with sufficient competency "to be able to have a conversation".[24]
List of languages[edit]
The following is a table of European languages. The number of speakers as a first or second language (L1 and L2 speakers) listed are speakers in Europe only;[nb 1] see list of languages by number of native speakers and list of languages by total number of speakers for global estimates on numbers of speakers.
The list includes any language or dialect with an ISO 639 code; this means that some communities of speakers within a macrolanguage may be listed more than once, e.g. speakers of Austro-Bavarian listed both separately (under bar) and subsumed in the total given under "German" (de).
| Name | ISO-639 | Classification | L1 speakers (in Europe) |
L1+L2 speakers (in Europe) |
Official status (national)[nb 2] | Official status (regional) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abkhaz | ab | Northwest Caucasian, Abazgi | 113,000[25] |  Abkhazia |
||
| Adyghe | ady | Northwest Caucasian, Circassian | 117,500[26] |  Adygea (Russia)
| ||
| Albanian | sq | Indo-European | 5,400,000[27] |  Albania,  Kosovo[nb 3] |
 Macedonia
| |
| Aragonese | an | Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian | 25,000[28] | 55,000[29] |  Aragon (Spain)[nb 4]
| |
| Arbëresh | aae | Indo-European, Albanian, Tosk | 100,000 native speakers in 2007[30] | 400,000[31][32][33][34] | .svg/23px-Flag_of_Sicily_(revised).svg.png){kind=small} Sicily,  Calabria,[35]  Apulia,  Molise,  Basilicata,  Abruzzo,  Campania, (Italy)
| |
| Aromanian | rup | Indo-European, Romance, Eastern | 114,000[36] | Macedonia
| ||
| Asturian (Astur-Leonese) | ast | Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian | 351,791[37] | 641,502[37] |  Asturias[nb 4]
| |
| Austro-Bavarian | bar | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Bavarian | 14,000,000[38] |  Austria (as German) |
||
| Avar | av | Northeast Caucasian, Avar–Andic | 760,000 |  Dagestan (Russia)
| ||
| Azerbaijani | az | Turkic, Oghuz | 500,000[39] |  Azerbaijan |
Dagestan (Russia)
| |
| Bashkir | ba | Turkic, Kipchak | 1,221,000[40] |  Bashkortostan (Russia)
| ||
| Basque | eu | Basque | 750,000[41] | Basque Autonomous Community (Spain, official), Navarre (Spain, official in the northern part of the region), French Basque Country (France, not official) | ||
| Belarusian | be | Indo-European, Slavic, East | 3,300,000[42] |  Belarus |
||
| Bosnian | bs | Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian | 2,500,000[43] |  Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Kosovo[nb 3],  Montenegro
| |
| Breton | br | Indo-European, Celtic, Brittonic | 206,000[44] | (none, de facto status in .svg/23px-Flag_of_Brittany_(Gwenn_ha_du).svg.png){kind=small} Brittany (France))
| ||
| Bulgarian | bg | Indo-European, Slavic, South, Eastern | 7,800,000[45] |  Bulgaria |
||
| Catalan | ca | Indo-European, Romance, Western, Occitano-Romance | 4,000,000[46] | 10,000,000[47] |  Andorra |
 Balearic Islands (Spain),  Catalonia (Spain), .svg/23px-Flag_of_the_Valencian_Community_(2x3).svg.png){kind=small} Valencian Community (Spain), Aragon (Spain)[nb 4], Pyrénées-Orientales (France)[nb 4], Alghero (Italy)
|
| Chechen | ce | Northeast Caucasian, Nakh | 1,400,000[48] |  Chechnya & Dagestan (Russia)
| ||
| Chuvash | cv | Turkic, Oghur | 1,100,000[49] |  Chuvashia (Russia)
| ||
| Cimbrian | cim | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Bavarian | 400[50] | |||
| Cornish | kw | Indo-European, Celtic, Brittonic | 557[51] |  Cornwall (United Kingdom)
| ||
| Corsican | co | Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian | 30,000[52] | 125,000[52] |  Corsica (France),  Sardinia (Italy)
| |
| Crimean Tatar | crh | Turkic, Kipchak | 480,000[53] |  Crimea
| ||
| Croatian | hr | Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian | 5,600,000[54] | Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Croatia |
 Burgenland (Austria)
| |
| Czech | cs | Indo-European, Slavic, West, Czech–Slovak | 10,600,000[55] |  Czech Republic |
||
| Danish | da | Indo-European, Germanic, North | 5,500,000[56] |  Denmark |
 Faroe Islands (Denmark),  Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)[57]
| |
| Dutch | nl | Indo-European, Germanic, West | 22,000,000[58] | .svg/23px-Flag_of_Belgium_(civil).svg.png){kind=small} Belgium,  Netherlands |
||
| English | en | Indo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian, Anglic | 60,000,000[59] | 260,000,000[60] |  Ireland,  Malta,  United Kingdom |
|
| Erzya | myv | Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Mordvinic | 120,000[61] |  Mordovia (Russia)
| ||
| Estonian | et | Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic | 1,165,400[62] |  Estonia |
||
| Extremaduran | ext | Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian | 200,000[63] | .svg/23px-Flag_of_Extremadura_(with_coat_of_arms).svg.png){kind=small} Extremadura (Spain)
| ||
| Faroese | fo | Indo-European, Germanic, North | 66,150[64] | Faroe Islands (Denmark)
| ||
| Finnish | fi | Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic | 5,400,000[65] |  Finland |
||
| Franco-Provençal (Arpitan) | arp | Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance | 140,000[66] |  Aosta Valley (Italy)
| ||
| French | fr | Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl | 66,000,000[67] | 135,000,000[60] | Belgium,  France,  Luxembourg,  Monaco,  Switzerland |
Aosta Valley[68] (Italy),  Jersey (United Kingdom), El Pas de la Casa, (Andorra)
|
| Frisian | fry frr stq | Indo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian | 470,000[69] |  Friesland (Netherlands), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)[70]
| ||
| Gagauz | gag | Turkic, Oghuz | 140,000[71] |  Gagauzia (Moldova)
| ||
| Galician | gl | Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian | 2,400,000[72] |  Galicia (Spain), Eo-Navia (Asturias)[nb 4], Bierzo (Province of León)[nb 4] and Western Sanabria (Province of Zamora)[nb 4]
| ||
| German | de | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German | 97,000,000[73] | 170,000,000[60] | Austria, Belgium,  Germany,  Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland |
 South Tyrol[74] (Italy)
|
| Greek | el | Indo-European, Hellenic | 11,000,000[75] |  Cyprus,  Greece |
||
| Hungarian | hu | Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Ugric | 13,000,000[76] |  Hungary |
Burgenland (Austria),  Vojvodina (Serbia), Romania
| |
| Icelandic | is | Indo-European, Germanic, North | 330,000[77] |  Iceland |
||
| Ingrian | izh | Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic | 120[78] |  Ingria (Russia)
| ||
| Ingush | inh | Northeast Caucasian, Nakh | 300,000[79] |  Ingushetia (Russia)
| ||
| Irish | ga | Indo-European, Celtic, Goidelic | 240,000[80] | 1,300,000 | Republic of Ireland |
 Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)
|
| Istriot | ist | Indo-European, Romance | 900[81] | Croatia
| ||
| Istro-Romanian | ruo | Indo-European, Romance, Eastern | 1,100[82] | Croatia
| ||
| Italian | it | Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian | 65,000,000[83] | 82,000,000[60] |  Italy,  San Marino, Switzerland,  Vatican City |
Istria County (Croatia),  Slovenian Istria (Slovenia)
|
| Italiot Greek | mis | Indo-European, Hellenic, Greek, Attic-Ionic | 20,000 Native speakers in 1981[84] | 50,000 | Calabria[85] (Bovesia), Apulia[86] (Salento), (Italy)
| |
| Judeo-Italian | itk | Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian | 250[87] | Italy,  Corfu (Greece)
| ||
| Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino) | lad | Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian | 320,000[88] | few[89] | Bosnia and Herzegovina, France,  Turkey
| |
| Kabardian | kbd | Northwest Caucasian, Circassian | 530,000[90] |  Kabardino-Balkaria &  Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
| ||
| Kalmyk | xal | Mongolic | 80,500[91] |  Kalmykia (Russia)
| ||
| Karelian | krl | Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic | 36,000[92] |  Karelia (Russia)
| ||
| Karachay-Balkar | krc | Turkic, Kipchak | 300,000[93] | Kabardino-Balkaria & Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
| ||
| Kashubian | csb | Indo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic | 50,000[94] |  Poland
| ||
| Kazakh | kk | Turkic, Kipchak | 1,000,000[95] |  Kazakhstan |
||
| Komi | kv | Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Permic | 220,000[96] |  Komi Republic (Russia)
| ||
| Latin | la | Indo-European, Italic, Latino-Faliscan | extinct | few[97] | Vatican City |
|
| Latvian | lv | Indo-European, Baltic | 1,750,000[98] |  Latvia |
||
| Ligurian | lij | Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic | 500,000[99] |  Liguria (Italy)
| ||
| Lithuanian | lt | Indo-European, Baltic | 3,000,000[100] |  Lithuania |
||
| Lombard | lmo | Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic | 3,600,000[101] |  Lombardy (Italy)
| ||
| Low German (Low Saxon) | nds wep | Indo-European, Germanic, West | 1,000,000[102] | 2,600,000[102] | Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)[103]
| |
| Luxembourgish | lb | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German | 336,000[104] | 386,000[104] | Luxembourg |
|
| Macedonian | mk | Indo-European, Slavic, South, Eastern | 1,400,000[105] | Macedonia |
||
| Mainfränkisch | vmf | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper | 4,900,000[106] |  Baden-Württemberg, .svg/23px-Flag_of_Bavaria_(lozengy).svg.png){kind=small} Bavaria &  Thuringia (Germany)
| ||
| Maltese | mt | Semitic, Arabic | 520,000[107] | Malta |
||
| Manx | gv | Indo-European, Celtic, Goidelic | 230[108] | 2,300[109] |  Isle of Man
| |
| Mari | chm mhr | Uralic, Finno-Ugric | 500,000[110] |  Mari El (Russia)
| ||
| Megleno-Romanian | ruq | Indo-European, Romance, Eastern | 3,000[111] |  Greek Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia
| ||
| Mirandese | mwl | Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian | 15,000[112] |  Miranda do Douro (Portugal)
| ||
| Moksha | mdf | Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Mordvinic | 2,000[113] | Mordovia (Russia)
| ||
| Montenegrin | cnr | Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian | 240,700[114] | Montenegro
|
||
| Neapolitan | nap | Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian | 5,700,000[115] | Campania (Italy)[116]
| ||
| Nenets | yrk | Uralic, Samoyedic | 4,000[117] |  Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Russia)
| ||
| Norman | nrf | Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl | 50,000[118] |  Normandy (France), Jersey (United Kingdom)
| ||
| Norwegian | no | Indo-European, Germanic, North | 5,200,000[119] |  Norway |
||
| Occitan | oc | Indo-European, Romance, Western, Occitano-Romance | 500,000[120] | Catalonia (Spain)
| ||
| Ossetian | os | Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Eastern | 450,000[121] |  South Ossetia |
 North Ossetia-Alania (Russia)
| |
| Palatinate German | pfl | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central | 1,000,000[122] | Germany
| ||
| Picard | pcd | Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl | 200,000[123] | Belgium
| ||
| Piedmontese | pms | Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic | 1,600,000[124] |  Piedmont (Italy)[125]
| ||
| Polish | pl | Indo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic | 38,500,000[126] | Poland |
||
| Portuguese | pt | Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian | 10,000,000[127] |  Portugal |
||
| Rhaeto-Romance | fur lld roh | Indo-European, Romance, Western | 370,000[128] | Switzerland |
 Belluno,  Friuli-Venezia Giulia, South Tyrol,[129] &  Trentino (Italy)
| |
| Ripuarian (Platt) | ksh | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central | 900,000[130] | Belgium, Germany, Netherlands
| ||
| Romani | rom | Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Western | 1,500,000[131] | Kosovo[nb 3][132]
| ||
| Romanian | ro | Indo-European, Romance, Eastern | 24,000,000[133] | 28,000,000[134] |  Moldova,  Romania,  Transnistria |
Vojvodina, Timok Serbia
|
| Russian | ru | Indo-European, Slavic, East | 106,000,000[135] | 160,000,000[135] | Abkhazia Belarus, Kazakhstan,  Russia, South Ossetia, Transnistria |
Gagauzia (Moldova), Svalbard (Norway),  Ukraine
|
| Sami | se | Uralic, Finno-Ugric | 23,000[136] | Norway |
 Sweden, Finland
| |
| Sardinian | sc | Indo-European, Romance | 1,350,000[137] | Sardinia (Italy)
| ||
| Scots | sco | Indo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian, Anglic | 110,000[138] |  Scotland (United Kingdom),  Ulster (Ireland & United Kingdom)
| ||
| Scottish Gaelic | gd | Indo-European, Celtic, Goidelic | 57,000[139] | Scotland (United Kingdom)
| ||
| Serbian | sr | Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian | 9,000,000[140] | Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo[nb 3],  Serbia |
Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro
| |
| Sicilian | scn | Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian | 4,700,000[141] | |||
| Silesian | szl | Indo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic | 522,000[142] |  Upper Silesia (Poland, Czech Republic & Germany),  Silesia (Poland)
| ||
| Silesian German | sli | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central | 11,000[143] | Upper Silesia (Poland, Czech Republic & Germany), Silesia (Poland)
| ||
| Slovak | sk | Indo-European, Slavic, West, Czech–Slovak | 5,200,000[144] |  Slovakia |
Vojvodina (Serbia), Czech Republic
| |
| Slovene | sl | Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western | 2,100,000[145] | Slovenia |
||
| Sorbian (Wendish) | wen | Indo-European, Slavic, West | 20,000[146] |  Brandenburg &  Sachsen (Germany)[147]
| ||
| Spanish (Castilian) | es | Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian | 38,000,000[148] | 76,000,000[60] |  Spain |
|
| Swabian German | swg | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic | 820,000[149] | Germany
| ||
| Swedish | sv | Indo-European, Germanic, North | 9,100,000[150] | 12,000,000[150] | Finland, Sweden |
|
| Swiss German | gsw | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic | 5,000,000[151] | Switzerland (as German) |
||
| Tabasaran | tab | Northeast Caucasian, Lezgic | 126,900[152] | Dagestan (Russia)
| ||
| Tat | ttt | Indo-European, Iranian, Western | 30,000[153] | Dagestan (Russia)
| ||
| Tatar | tt | Turkic, Kipchak | 4,300,000[154] |  Tatarstan (Russia)
| ||
| Turkish | tr | Turkic, Oghuz | 12,000,000[155] | Turkey, Cyprus |
 Northern Cyprus
| |
| Udmurt | udm | Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Permic | 340,000[156] |  Udmurtia (Russia)
| ||
| Ukrainian | uk | Indo-European, Slavic, East | 32,600,000[157] | Ukraine, Transnistria |
||
| Upper Saxon | sxu | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central | 2,000,000[158] | Sachsen (Germany)
| ||
| Vepsian | vep | Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic | 1,640[159] | Karelia (Russia)
| ||
| Venetian | vec | Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian | 3,800,000[160] | Veneto (Italy)[161]
| ||
| Võro | vro | Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic | 87,000[162] |  Võru County (Estonia)
| ||
| Walloon | wa | Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl | 600,000[163] |  Wallonia (Belgium)
| ||
| Walser German | wae | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic | 20,000[164] | Switzerland
| ||
| Welsh | cy | Indo-European, Celtic, Brittonic | 562,000[165] | 750,000 | .svg/23px-Flag_of_Wales_(1959–present).svg.png){kind=small} Wales (United Kingdom)
| |
| Wymysorys | wym | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German | 70[166] | Poland
| ||
| Yenish | yec | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German | 16,000[167] | Switzerland
| ||
| Yiddish | yi | Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German | 600,000[168] | Bosnia and Herzegovina, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine
|
Immigrant communities[edit]
Recent (post-1945) immigration to Europe introduced substantial communities of speakers of non-European languages.[169]
The largest such communities include Arabic speakers (see Arabs in Europe) and Turkish speakers (beyond European Turkey and the historical sphere of influence of the Ottoman Empire, see Turks in Europe).[170] Armenians, Berbers and Kurds have diaspora communities of c. 1–2 million each. The various languages of Africa and languages of India form numerous smaller diaspora communities.
- List of the largest immigrant languages
| Name | ISO 639 | Classification | L1 | Ethnic diaspora |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | ar | Afro-Asiatic, Semitic | > 4 million[171] | c. 12 million[172] |
| Turkish | tr | Turkic, Oghuz | c. 3 million[173] | c. 7 million[174] |
| Armenian | hy | Indo-European | c. 1 million[175] | c. 2-3 million[176] |
| Kurdish | ku | Indo-European, Iranian, Western | c. 0.6 million[177] | c. 1 million[178] |
| Bengali–Assamese | bn as syl | Indo-European, Indo-Aryan | c. 0.6 million[179] | c. 1 million[180] |
| Azerbaijani | az | Turkic, Oghuz | c. 0.5 million[181] | c. 0.7 million[182] |
| Kabyle | kab | Afro-Asiatic, Berber | c. 0.5 million[183] | c. 1 million[184] |
| Chinese | zh | Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic | c. 0.3 million[185] | c. 2 million[186] |
| Urdu | ur | Indo-European, Indo-Aryan | c. 0.3 million[187] | c. 1.8 million[188] |
| Uzbek | uz | Turkic, Karluk | c. 0.3 million[189] | c. 1–2 million[190] |
| Persian | fa | Indo-European, Iranian, Western | c. 0.3 million[191] | c. 0.4 million[192] |
| Punjabi | pa | Indo-European, Indo-Aryan | c. 0.3 million[193] | c. 0.7 million[194] |
| Gujarati | gu | Indo-European, Indo-Aryan | c. 0.2 million[195] | c. 0.6 million[196] |
| Tamil | ta | Dravidian | c. 0.2 million[197] | c. 0.5 million[198] |
| Somali | so | Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic | c. 0.2 million[199] | c. 0.4 million[200] |
See also[edit]
- Ethnic groups in Europe
- Eurolinguistics
- European Day of Languages
- Multilingual countries and regions of Europe
- Travellingua
Notes[edit]
- ^ "Europe" is taken as a geographical term, defined by the conventional Europe-Asia boundary along the Caucasus and the Urals. Estimates for populations geographically in Europe are given for transcontinental countries.
- ^ Sovereign states, defined as United Nations member states and observer states. 'Recognised minority language' status is not included.
- ^ a b c d The Republic of Kosovo is a partially recognized state (recognized by 111 out of 193 UN member states as of 2017).
- ^ a b c d e f g Recognized and protected, but not official.
References[edit]
- ^ "International migrant stock: By destination and origin". United Nations..
- ^ Friedman, Lawrence; Perez-Perdomo, Rogelio (2003). Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804766959.
- ^ "Linguist makes sensational claim: English is a Scandinavian language". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ^ F. Violi, Lessico Grecanico-Italiano-Grecanico, Apodiafàzzi, Reggio Calabria, 1997.
- ^ Paolo Martino, L'isola grecanica dell'Aspromonte. Aspetti sociolinguistici, 1980. Risultati di un'inchiesta del 1977
- ^ Filippo Violi, Storia degli studi e della letteratura popolare grecanica, C.S.E. Bova (RC), 1992
- ^ Filippo Condemi, Grammatica Grecanica, Coop. Contezza, Reggio Calabria, 1987;
- ^ In Salento e Calabria le voci della minoranza linguistica greca | Treccani, il portale del sapere
- ^ Alexander, Marie; et al. (2009). "2nd International Conference of Maltese Linguistics: Saturday, September 19 – Monday, September 21, 2009". International Association of Maltese Linguistics. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
- ^ Aquilina, J. (1958). "Maltese as a Mixed Language". Journal of Semitic Studies. 3 (1): 58–79. doi:10.1093/jss/3.1.58.
- ^ Aquilina, Joseph (July–September 1960). "The Structure of Maltese". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 80 (3): 267–68. doi:10.2307/596187.
- ^ Werner, Louis; Calleja, Alan (November–December 2004). "Europe's New Arabic Connection". Saudi Aramco World. Archived from the original on 2012-09-29. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
- ^ Counelis, James Steve (March 1976). "Review [untitled] of Ariadna Camariano-Cioran, Les Academies Princieres de Bucarest et de Jassy et leur Professeurs". Church History. 45 (1): 115–116. doi:10.2307/3164593.
...Greek, the lingua franca of commerce and religion, provided a cultural unity to the Balkans...Greek penetrated Moldavian and Wallachian territories as early as the fourteenth century.... The heavy influence of Greek culture upon the intellectual and academic life of Bucharest and Jassy was longer termed than historians once believed.
- ^ Wansbrough, John E. (1996). "Chapter 3: Lingua Franca". Lingua Franca in the Mediterranean. Routledge.
- ^ a b Calvet, Louis Jean (1998). Language wars and linguistic politics. Oxford [England]; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 175–76.
- ^ Jones, Branwen Gruffydd (2006). Decolonizing international relations. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 98.
- ^ Kahane 1986, p. 495
- ^ Darquennes, Jeroen; Nelde, Peter (2006). "German as a Lingua Franca". Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. 26: 61–77. doi:10.1017/s0267190506000043.
- ^ "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Strasbourg, 5.XI.1992". Council of Europe. 1992.
- ^ Facsimile of Bormann's Memorandum (in German)
The memorandum itself is typed in Antiqua, but the NSDAP letterhead is printed in Fraktur.
"For general attention, on behalf of the Führer, I make the following announcement:
It is wrong to regard or to describe the so‑called Gothic script as a German script. In reality, the so‑called Gothic script consists of Schwabach Jew letters. Just as they later took control of the newspapers, upon the introduction of printing the Jews residing in Germany took control of the printing presses and thus in Germany the Schwabach Jew letters were forcefully introduced.
Today the Führer, talking with Herr Reichsleiter Amann and Herr Book Publisher Adolf Müller, has decided that in the future the Antiqua script is to be described as normal script. All printed materials are to be gradually converted to this normal script. As soon as is feasible in terms of textbooks, only the normal script will be taught in village and state schools.
The use of the Schwabach Jew letters by officials will in future cease; appointment certifications for functionaries, street signs, and so forth will in future be produced only in normal script.
On behalf of the Führer, Herr Reichsleiter Amann will in future convert those newspapers and periodicals that already have foreign distribution, or whose foreign distribution is desired, to normal script". - ^ "Languages Policy: Linguistic diversity: Official languages of the EU". European Commission, European Union. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
- ^ "Languages of Europe: Official EU languages". European Commission, European Union. 2009. Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
- ^ "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR)". Council of Europe. Archived from the original on 30 October 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
- ^ "Europeans and Their Languages" (PDF). European Commission. 2006. p. 8. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
- ^ Abkhazian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Adyghe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Albanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ [1] Report about Census of population 2011 of Aragonese Sociolinguistics Seminar and University of Zaragoza
- ^ People that declared that they can speak aragonese in the 2011 Spanish census. Archived 2015-01-01 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Albanian, Arbëreshë".
- ^ Toso, Fiorenzo (2006). Baldini & Castoldi, ed. Lingue d'Europa. La pluralità linguistica dei Paesi europei fra passato e presente. Roma. p. 90. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
- ^ P. Bruni, ed. (2004). Arbëreshë: cultura e civiltà di un popolo.
- ^ "Ethnologue: Albanian, Arbëreshë". Retrieved October 29, 2014.
- ^ "Currently there are about fifty Albanian-speaking centres in Italy, with a population estimated to be around 100,000, though there are no precise figures for the actual numbers of Italo-Albanians. The most recent precise figure is given in the census for 1921; the number of Albanian speakers was 80,282, far fewer than the 197 thousand mentioned in the study of A. Frega of 1997."
Amelia De Lucia; Giorgio Gruppioni; Rosalina Grumo; Gjergj Vinjahu (eds.). "Albanian Cultural Profile" (PDF). Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche, Università degli Studi di Bari, Italia. - ^ https://www.consiglioregionale.calabria.it%2Fupload%2Ftesticoordinati%2FLR%252015-2003(TC).doc&usg=AOvVaw3b_0rnoUMKe_LqDmReh8QK
- ^ Aromanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ a b III Sociolinguistic Study of Asturias (2017). Euskobarometro.
- ^ German dialect, Bavarian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Total population 24 million, c. 130,000 in Dagestan, c. 400,000 in Azerbajjan's Quba-Khachmaz region, technically in Europe (being north of the Caucasus watershed). In addition, there are about 0.5 million speakers in immigrant communities in Russia, see #Immigrant communities. Azerbaijani at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Bashkort at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ (in French) VI° Enquête Sociolinguistique en Euskal herria (Communauté Autonome d'Euskadi, Navarre et Pays Basque Nord) (2016).
- ^ Belarusian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Bosnian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Breton at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Bulgarian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ "Catalan".
- ^ Catalan News Agency - Number of Catalan speakers rising despite adverse context Informe sobre la Situació de la Llengua Catalana | Xarxa CRUSCAT. Coneixements, usos i representacions del català
- ^ Chechen at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Chuvash at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ German dialect, Cimbrian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ UK 2011 Census
- ^ a b Corsican at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Crimean Tatar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Croatian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Czech at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Danish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ recognized as official language in Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Flensburg, Flensburg and Rendsburg-Eckernförde (§ 82b LVwG)
- ^ Dutch at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ English at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ a b c d e Europeans and their Languages Archived 6 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Data for EU27, published in 2012.
- ^ Erzya at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Estonian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Extremaduran at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Faroese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Finnish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Franco-Provençal at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ French at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Le Statut spécial de la Vallée d'Aoste, Article 38, Title VI. Region Vallée d'Aoste. Archived from the original on 4 November 2011. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
- ^ Frisian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ recognized as official language in the Nordfriesland district and in Helgoland (§ 82b LVwG).
- ^ Gagauz at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Galician at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ includes: bar Bavarian, cim Cimbrian, ksh Kölsch, sli Lower Silesian, vmf Mainfränkisch, pfl Palatinate German, swg Swabian German, gsw Swiss German, sxu Upper Saxon, wae Walser German, wep Westphalian, wym Wymysorys, yec Yenish, yid Yiddish; see German dialects.
- ^ STATUTO SPECIALE PER IL TRENTINO-ALTO ADIGE (1972), Art. 99–101.
- ^ 11 million in Greece, out of 13.4 million in total. Greek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Hungarian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Icelandic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Ingrian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Ingush at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Irish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Istriot at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Istro-Romanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Italian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ N. Vincent, Italian, in B. Comrie (ed.) The world's major languages, London, Croom Helm, 1981. pp. 279-302.
- ^ "Consiglio regionale della Calabria". www.consiglioregionale.calabria.it.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-01-22. Retrieved 2018-01-21.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
- ^ Judeo-Italian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Judaeo-Spanish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ SIL Ethnologue: "Not the dominant language for most. Formerly the main language of Sephardic Jewry. Used in literary and music contexts." ca. 100k speakers in total, most of them in Israel, small communities in the Balkans, Greece, Turkey and in Spain.
- ^ Kabardian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Oirat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Karelian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Karachay-Balkar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Kashubian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ About 10 million in Kazakhstan. Kazakh at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015). Technically, the westernmost portions of Kazakhstan (Atyrau Region, West Kazakhstan Region) are in Europe, with a total population of less than one million.
- ^ 220,000 native speakers out of an ethnic population of 550,000. Combines Komi-Permyak (koi) with 65,000 speakers and Komi-Zyrian (kpv) with 156,000 speakers. Komi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Contemporary Latin: People fluent in Latin as a second language are probably in the dozens, not hundreds. Reginald Foster (as of 2013) estimated "no more than 100" according to Robin Banerji, Pope resignation: Who speaks Latin these days?, BBC News, 12 February 2013.
- ^ Latvian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Ligurian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Lithuanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Lombard at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ a b 2.6 million cited as estimate of all Germans who speak Platt "well or very well" (including L2; 4.3 million cited as the number of all speakers including those with "moderate" knowledge) in 2009. Heute in Bremen. „Ohne Zweifel gefährdet“. Frerk Möller im Interview, taz, 21. Februar 2009. However, Wirrer (1998) described Low German as "moribund".Jan Wirrer: Zum Status des Niederdeutschen. In: Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik. 26, 1998, S. 309. The number of native speakers is unknown, estimated at 1 million by SIL Ethnologue. Low German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015), Westphalian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ The question whether Low German should be considered as subsumed under "German" as the official language of Germany has a complicated legal history. In the wake of the ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (1998), Schleswig-Holstein has explicitly recognized Low German as a regional language with official status (§ 82b LVwG).
- ^ a b Luxembourgish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Macedonian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ German dialect, Main-Franconian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Maltese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Manx at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Whitehead, Sarah (2 April 2015). "How the Manx language came back from the dead". theguardian.com. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- ^ Mari at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Megleno-Romanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Mirandese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Moksha at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ "Montenegro". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
- ^ Neapolitan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ In 2008, law was passed by the Region of Campania, stating that the Neapolitan language was to be legally protected. "Tutela del dialetto, primo via libera al Ddl campano". Il Denaro (in Italian). 15 October 2008. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
- ^ total 22,000 native speakers (2010 Russian census) out of an ethnic population of 44,000. Most of these are in Siberia, with about 8,000 ethnic Nenets in European Russia (2010 census, mostly in Nenets Autonomous Okrug)
- ^ Jèrriais at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ "Norwegian". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- ^ Occitan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015). includes Auvergnat, Gascon, Languedocien, Limousin, Provençal, Vivaro-Alpine. Most native speakers are in France, their number is unknown, as varieties of Occitan are treated as French dialects with no official status.
- ^ Total 570,000, of which 450,000 in the Russian Federation. Ossetian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ German dialect, Palatinate German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Picard at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Piedmontese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Piedmontese was recognised as Piedmont's regional language by the regional parliament in 1999. Motion 1118 in the Piedmontese Regional Parliament, Approvazione da parte del Senato del Disegno di Legge che tutela le minoranze linguistiche sul territorio nazionale - Approfondimenti, approved unanimously on 15 December 1999, Text of motion 1118 in the Piedmontese Regional Parliament, Consiglio Regionale del Piemonte, Ordine del Giorno 1118.
- ^ Polish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Portuguese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Includes Friulian, Romansh, Ladin. Friulian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) Ladin at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) Romansch at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ STATUTO SPECIALE PER IL TRENTINO-ALTO ADIGE (1972), Art. 102.
- ^ German dialect, Kölsch at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Romani, Balkan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) Romani, Baltic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) Romani, Carpathian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) Romani, Finnish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) Romani, Sinte at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) Romani, Vlax at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) Romani, Welsh at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Constitution of Kosovo, p. 8.
- ^ Romanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ "Româna". unilat.org (in Romanian). Latin Union. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- ^ a b L1: 119 million in the Russian Federation (of which c. 83 million in European Russia), 14.3 million in Ukraine, 6.67 million in Belarus, 0.67 million in Latvia, 0.38 million in Estonia, 0.38 million in Moldova. L1+L2: c. 100 million in European Russia, 39 million in Ukraine, 7 million in Belarus, 7 million in Poland, 2 million in Latvia, c. 2 million in the European portion of Kazakhstan, 1.8 million in Moldova, 1.1 million in Estonia. Russian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015).
- ^ mostly Northern Sami (sma), ca. 20,000 speakers; smaller communities of Lule Sami (smj, c. 2,000 speakers) and other variants. Northern Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015), Lule Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) Southern Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015), Kildin Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015), Skolt Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015), Inari Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015).
- ^ AA. VV. Calendario Atlante De Agostini 2017, Novara, Istituto Geografico De Agostini, 2016, p. 230
- ^ Scots at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Gaelic, Scottish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Serbian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Sicilian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Silesian at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
- ^ German dialect, Lower Silesian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Slovak at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Slovene at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Sorbian, Upper at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ GVG § 184 Satz 2; VwVfGBbg § 23 Abs. 5; SächsSorbG § 9, right to use Sorbian in communication with the authorities guaranteed for the "Sorbian settlement area" (Sorbisches Siedlungsgebiet, Lusatia).
- ^ Spanish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ German dialect, Swabian German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ a b Swedish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ German dialect, Swiss German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Tabassaran at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Tat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015), Judeo-Tat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) 2,000 speakers in the Russian Federation according to the 2010 census (including Judeo-Tat). About 28,000 speakers in Azerbaijan; most speakers live along or just north of the Caucasus ridge (and are thus technically in Europe), with some also settling just south of the Caucasus ridge, in Transcaucasia.
- ^ Tatar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ c. 11 million in European Turkey, 0.6 million in Bulgaria, 0.6 million in Cyprus and Northern Cyprus, not including several million recent immigrants to Western Europe (see #Immigrant communities).
- ^ Udmurt at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Ukrainian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ German dialect, Upper Saxon German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Russian Census 2010. Veps at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Venetian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ A motion to recognise Venetian as an official regional language has been approved by the Regional Council of Veneto in 2007. "Consiglio Regionale Veneto – Leggi Regionali". Consiglioveneto.it. Retrieved 2009-05-06.
- ^ Võro at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Walloon at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Highest Alemannic dialects, Walser German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Welsh at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Moribund German dialect spoken in Wilamowice, Poland. 70 speakers recorded in 2006. Wymysorys at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Yenish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Total population estimated at 1.5 million as of 1991, of which c. 40% in the Ukraine. Yiddish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015), Eastern Yiddish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015), Western Yiddish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ "International migrant stock: By destination and origin". United Nations.
- ^ Cole, Jeffrey (2011), Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, p. 367, ISBN 1-59884-302-8
- ^ France: 4 million, Germany: 500k (2015), Spain: 200k UK: 159k (2011 census)
- ^ Arab diaspora, mostly in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, current size unknown due to the European migrant crisis of 2015–present.
- ^ Germany: 1,510k, France: 444k, Netherlands: 388k, Austria: 197k, Russia: 146k, UK: 99k, Switzerland: 44k, Sweden: 44.
- ^ See Turks in Europe: only counting recent (post-Ottoman era) immigration: Germany: 4 million, France: 1 million, UK: 0.5 million, Netherlands: 0.5 million, Austria: 0.4 million, Switzerland, Sweden and Russia: c. 0.1.-0.2 million each.
- ^ 830k in Russia (2010 census), 100k in Ukraine (SIL Ethnologue 2015).
- ^ 1-2 million Armenians in Russia. France 250-750k, Ukraine 100k, Germany 100k, Greece 60-80k, Spain 40k, Belgium 30k, Czechia 12k, Sweden 12k, Bulgaria 10-22k, Belarus 8k, Austria 6k, Poland 3-50k, Hungary 3-30k, Netherlands 3-9k, Switzerland 3-5k, Cyprus 3k, Moldova 1-3k, UK 1-2k.
- ^ Germany: 541k
- ^ Kurdish population: mostly Kurds in Germany, Kurds in France, Kurds in Sweden.
- ^ Sylheti: 300k in the UK, Bengali: 221k in the UK.
- ^ see British Indian, Bangladeshi diaspora, Bengali diaspora.
- ^ 515k in Russia (2010 census)
- ^ [[Azerbaijani diaspora ]]: Russia 600k, Ukraine 45k, not counting c. 0.4 million in Azerbajjan's Quba-Khachmaz region, technically in Europe (being north of the Caucasus watershed).
- ^ France: 500k
- ^ Kabyle people in France: c. 1 million.
- ^ Germany 120k, Russia: 70k, UK 66k, Spain 20k.
- ^ Overseas Chinese: France 0.7 million, UK: 0.5 million, Russia: 0.3 million, Italy: 0.3 million, Germany: 0.2 million, Spain: 0.1 million.
- ^ UK: 269k (2011 census).
- ^ Pakistani diaspora, the majority Pakistanis in the UK.
- ^ Russia: 274k (2010 census)
- ^ see Uzbeks in Russia.
- ^ UK: 76k, Sweden: 74k, Germany: 72k, France 40k.
- ^ Iranian diaspora: Germany: 100k, Sweden: 100k, UK: 50k, Russia: 50k, Netherlands: 35k, Denmark: 20k.
- ^ UK: 280k
- ^ see British Punjabis
- ^ UK: 213k
- ^ see Gujarati diaspora
- ^ UK: 101k, Germany: 35k, Switzerland: 22k.
- ^ Tamil diaspora: UK 300k, France 100k, Germany 50k, Switzerland 40k, Netherlands, 20k, Norway 10k.
- ^ UK: 86k, Sweden: 53k, Italy: 50k
- ^ Somali diaspora: UK: 114k, Sweden: 64k, Norway: 42k, Netherlands: 39k, Germany: 34k, Denmark: 21k, Finland: 19k.
External links[edit]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Languages of Europe. |
- Everson, Michael (2001). "The Alphabets of Europe". evertype.com. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
- Haarmann, Harald (2011). "Europe's Mosaic of Languages". Institute of European History. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
- Reissmann, Stefan; Argador, Urion (2006). "Luingoi in Europa" (in Esperanto, English, and German). Reissmann & Argador. Archived from the original on 22 June 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
- Map of Minorities & Regional and Minority Languages of Europe, Language Diversity (2017)
- Zikin, Mutur (2007). "Europako Mapa linguistikoa" (in Basque). muturzikin.com. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
