Languages of Europe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

 It has been suggested that Alphabetic list of living languages in Europe be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Most of the many languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Another major family is the Finno-Ugric. The Turkic family also has several European members. The North and South Caucasian families are important in the southeastern extremity of geographical Europe. Basque is a language isolate.

As yet this list does not include languages spoken by relatively recently-arrived migrant communities.

Main alphabets used in Europe and Turkey. Dark blue: Latin; dark violet: Latin and Cyrillic; red: Cyrillic; light green: Greek; turquoise: Greek and Latin
Main alphabets used in the past in Europe (around 1900)

Contents

[edit] Altaic languages

[edit] Distribution of the proposed Altaic languages across Eurasia

The proposed but controversial Altaic language family is claimed to consist of three branches (Turkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus) that show similarities in vocabulary, morphological and syntactic structure, and certain phonological features. On the basis of systematic sound correspondences, they are generally considered to be genetically related. In Europe the Turkic branch prevail, though the Mongolic branch is represented also.

[edit] Mongolic languages

Languages of Europe
                         North Germanic                     West Germanic
                    Celtic
                         Western Romance      Italian / Southern Romance
     Eastern Romance      Basque
                         East Slavic                     West Slavic
               South Slavic
          Baltic
     Greek      Albanian      Armenian      Iranian
               Finno-Permic      Hungarian      Ob-Ugric
     Caucasian      Turkic      Kalmyk      Arabic / Maltese      Berber

[edit] Northwestern Turkic (Kypchak) languages

[edit] Southwestern Turkic (Oghuz) languages

[edit] Bolgar languages

[edit] Basque

The Basque language is a language isolate spoken at the western Pyrenees and directly related to ancient Aquitanian. The language is documented in form of short inscriptions since the Roman era and arguably may have been spoken in a wider area since Paleolithic times.

The language is also spoken by immigrants in Australia, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Philippines, and the USA.[1]

[edit] Finno-Ugric languages

The Finno-Ugric languages are a subfamily of the Uralic language family.

[edit] Northwest Caucasian languages

Ethno-Linguistic groups in the Caucasus region

[edit] Northeast Caucasian languages

[edit] South Caucasian languages

[edit] Maltese

Maltese is a Semitic language with Romance and Germanic influences, spoken in Malta.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][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 being the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet in its standard form. It is the smallest official language of the EU in terms of speakers, and the only official Semitic language within the EU.

[edit] Indo-European languages

Most European languages are Indo-European languages. This large language-family is descended from a common language that was spoken thousands of years ago, which is referred to as Proto-Indo-European.

[edit] Albanian

Albanian language (also known as Shqip) is made up of two major dialects, Gheg and Tosk spoken in Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, in Republic of Kosovo, Serbia, and Albanian speakers living in parts of Montenegro, also southern parts of Italy, northern part of Greece and many other European countries.

[edit] Armenian

The Armenian language is widely spoken as the majority language in Armenia. There are Armenian speakers in globally scattered communities of the Armenian diaspora in Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas (in North and South America).

[edit] Baltic languages

Distribution of the Baltic languages in the Baltic (simplified).

[edit] Celtic languages

The Celtic nations where most Celtic speakers are now concentrated

[edit] Brythonic

[edit] Goidelic (Gaelic)

[edit] Germanic languages

Main article: Germanic Europe

[edit] North Germanic

(descending from Old Norse)

The Germanic languages in Europe      Dutch (West Germanic)      High German (West Germanic)      Insular Anglo-Frisian (West Germanic)      Continental Anglo-Frisian (West Germanic)      East North Germanic      West North Germanic      Line dividing the North and West Germanic languages.

[edit] West Germanic

[edit] German
Main article: German-speaking Europe

[edit] Low Franconian

[edit] Anglo-Frisian
Main article: English-speaking Europe

[edit] East Germanic

[edit] Greek

[edit] Romance languages

Main article: Romance languages
Romance languages, 20th c.

The Romance languages descended from the Vulgar Latin spoken across most of the lands of the Roman Empire.

  • Latin is usually classified as an Italic language of which the Romance languages are a subgroup. It is extinct as a spoken language, but it is widely used as a liturgical language by the Roman Catholic Church and studied in many educational institutions. It is also the official language of Vatican City. Latin was the main language of literature, sciences and arts for many centuries and greatly influenced all European languages.
  • Occitan is spoken principally in France, but is only officially recognized in Spain as one of the three official languages of Catalonia (termed there Aranese). Its use was severely reduced due to the once de jure and currently de facto promotion of French.
  • Arpitan, sometimes called "Franco-Provençal," was spoken historically along a large segment of the French state along the eastern border of the principal northern and southern French languages (i.e., standard French and Occitan), extending into Switzerland. It too is in grave danger of extinction.
  • Norman has been debatedly referred to as a language in its own right or a dialect of standard French with its own regional character. Its use is recognized in the Channel Islands only, which used to be a part of the history Duchy of Normandy.
  • Corsican is spoken exclusively on the French island of Corsica and is much more closely related to the Italian or northern Italian regional languages. Unlike other French minority languages, it has a healthier outlook, but still suffers from a lack of promotion.
  • Italian is official in Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, Vatican and several regions of Croatia and Slovenia.
  • Romansh is an official language of Switzerland.
  • Spanish (also termed Castilian) is official in Spain. It is also official in most Latin American countries.
  • Mirandese is officially recognized by the Portuguese Parliament.
  • Galician, akin to Portuguese, is co-official in Galicia, Spain. It is also spoken by Galician diaspora (more than local population).
  • Leonese is recognized in Castile and León (Spain).


Some of the above languages are official in the European Union and the Latin Union and the more prominent ones are studied in many educational institutions worldwide. This is due to the fact that just three of the Romance languages, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are spoken by close to a billion speakers.

Many other Romance languages and their local varieties are spoken throughout Europe. Some of them are recognized as regional languages.

Romance languages are divided into many subgroups and dialects. For an exhaustive list, see List of Romance languages.

[edit] Indo-Iranian languages

[edit] Indo-Aryan Languages

[edit] Iranian languages

[edit] Slavic languages

Slavic languages

[edit] West Slavic languages

[edit] East Slavic languages

[edit] South Slavic languages

[edit] General issues

[edit] Linguas Francas—past and present

Europe’s history is characterized by six linguas francas:

Linguas francas that were characteristic of parts of Europe at some periods:

[edit] First dictionaries and grammars

The first type of dictionaries are 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 is 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 for standardizing languages).

[edit] Language and identity, standardization processes

In the Middle Ages the two most important definitory elements of Europe were Christianitas and Latinitas. Thus language—at least the supranational language—played an elementary role. This changed with the spread of the national languages in official contexts and the rise of a national feeling. Among other things, this led to projects of standardizing national language and gave birth to a number of language academies (e.g. 1582 Accademia della Crusca in Florence, 1617 Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, 1635 Académie française, 1713 Real Academia de la Lengua in Madrid). “Language” was then (and still ist today) more connected with “nation” than with “civilization” (particularly in France). “Language” was also used to create a feeling of “religious/ethnic identity” (e.g. different Bible translations by Catholics and Protestants of the same language).

Among the first standardization discussions and processes are the ones for Italian (“questione della lingua”: Modern Tuscan/Florentine vs. Old Tuscan/Florentine vs. Venetian > Modern Florentine + archaic Tuscan + Upper Italian), French (standard is based on Parisian), English (standard is based on the London dialect) and (High) German (based on: chancellery of Meißen/Saxony + Middle German + chancellery of Prague/Bohemia [“Common German”]). But also a number of other nations have begun to look for and develop a standard variety in the 16th century.

[edit] Treatment of linguistic minorities

The linguistic diversity of Europe is protected by e.g. the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

The historical attitue towards diversity can be illustrated by two French laws, or decrees: the Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts (1539), which says that every document in France should be written in French (i.e. not in Latin nor Occitan) and the Loi Toubon (1994), which aims to eliminate Anglicisms from official documents.

Despite previous attempts to achieve national linguistic homogenization, like in France during the Revolution, Franco's Spain and Metaxas's Greece, the “one nation = one language” concept is hard on its way to become obsolete. As for now, France, Andorra and Turkey are the only European countries that have not yet signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, while Greece, Iceland and Luxembourg signed it, but haven't ratified it. This framework entered into force in 1998 and is now nearly compulsory to implement in order to be accepted in the European Union, which implies France would not qualify for EU entry were it to apply for membership now.

Early promotion of linguistic diversity is attested at the translation school in Toledo, founded in the 12th century (in medieval Toledo the Christian, the Jewish and the Arab civilizations lived together remarkably peacefully).

A minority language can be defined as a language used by a group that defines itself as an ethnic minority group, whereby the language of this group is typologically different and not a dialect of the standard language. In Europe some languages are in quite a strong position, in the sense that they are given special status, (e.g. Basque, Irish, Welsh, Catalan, Rhaeto-Romance/Romansh), whereas others are in a rather weak position (e.g. Frisian, Scottish Gaelic, Turkish)[dubious – discuss]—especially allochthonous minority languages are not given official status in the EU (in part because they are not part of the cultural heritage of a civilization). Some minor languages don’t even have a standard yet, i.e. they have not even reached the level of an ausbausprache yet, which could be changed, e.g., if these languages were given official status. (cf. also next section).

[edit] Official status and proficiency

A more tolerant linguistic attitude is the reason why the EU’s general rule is that every official national language is also an official EU language. However Luxembourgish for instance is not an official EU language, because there are also other (stronger) official languages with “EU status” in the respective nation.[dubious – discuss] Several concepts for an EU language policy are being debated:

  • one official language (e.g. English, French, German)
  • several official languages (e.g. English, French, German, Italian, Spanish + another topic-dependent language)
  • all national languages as official languages, but with a number of relais languages for translations (e.g. English, French, German as relais languages).

New immigrants in European countries are expected to learn the host nation's language, but are still speaking and reading their native languages (i.e. Arabic, Hindustani/Urdu, Mandarin Chinese, Swahili and Tahitian) in Europe's increasingly multiethnic/multicultural profile. But, those languages aren't native or indigenous to Europe, therefore aren't considered important in the issue of allowing them printed in European countries' official documents.

The proficiency of languages is increasingly related to second or third language learning and has been subject to recent shifts caused by changing popularity and government policy.

Knowledge of English

Knowledge of German (different scale from English)

Knowledge of French (same scale as German)

Knowledge of Spanish (same scale as German)

Knowledge of Italian

Knowledge of Russian

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ UCLA — Language Materials Project
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ Journal of Semitic Studies 1958 3(1):58-79; doi:10.1093/jss/3.1.58
  5. ^ [3]
  6. ^ The Structure of Maltese by Joseph Aquilina Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 80, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1960), pp. 267-268
  7. ^ [4]
  8. ^ [5]
  9. ^ [6]
  10. ^ [7]
  11. ^ [8]
  12. ^ [9]
  13. ^ cf. Jireček Line; "...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." James Steve Counelis, review of Ariadna Camariano-Cioran, Les Academies Princieres de Bucarest et de Jassy et leur Professeurs in Church History 45:1:115-116 (March 1976) at JSTOR
  14. ^ Jeroen Darquennes and Peter Nelde, "German as a Lingua Franca", Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 26:61-77 (2006)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


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Languages of Europe
Sovereign
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other territories
Italics indicates an unrecognised or partially recognised country.  1 / 7 Entirely in Asia / on the African Plate, but historically considered European.  2 Partially or entirely in Asia, depending on the border definitions.  3 Has part of its territory in Asia.
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