Languages of Europe

Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European 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 Romance, Slavic, 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. 13 million), Baltic (c. 7 million), Albanian (c. 5 million), Indo-Aryan (Romani, c. 1.5 million), and Celtic (c. 1 million).

For the ethnography of Europe, see Ethnic groups in Europe. For the populations of Europe by country and the population overall, see Demographics of Europe.

See also: Languages of the European Union, List of extinct languages of Europe, and List of endangered languages in Europe

Of the approximately 45 million Europeans speaking non-Indo-European languages, most speak languages within either the Uralic or Turkic families. Still smaller groups (such as Basque and various languages of the Caucasus) account for less than 1% of the 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: French, Italian, German, English, and Russian. While Russian has the largest number of native speakers (more than 100 million in Europe), English has the largest number of speakers in total, including some 200 million speakers of English as a second or foreign language. (See English language in Europe.)

Indo-European languages

See also: List of Indo-European languages

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).

Romance

Further information: Romance languages and Italic languages

Romance languages, 20th century.

Roughly 215 million Europeans (primarily in Western and Southern Europe) are native speakers of Romance languages, the largest groups including French (c. 72 million), Italian (c. 65 million), Spanish (c. 40 million), Romanian (c. 24 million), Portuguese (c. 10 million), Catalan (c. 9 million), Sicilian (c. 5 million, also subsumed under Italian), Venetian language (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 languages are divided phylogenetically into Italo-Western, Eastern Romance (including Romanian) and Sardinian. The Romance-speaking area of Europe is occasionally referred to as Latin Europe.[2]

We can further break down Italo-Western into the Italo-Dalmatian languages (sometimes grouped with Eastern Romance), including the 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 the Gallo-Romance languages, including French and its varieties (Langues d'oïl), the Rhaeto-Romance languages and the Gallo-Italic languages; the Occitano-Romance languages, grouped with either Gallo-Romance or East Iberian, including Occitan, Catalan and Aragonese; and finally the West Iberian languages (Spanish-Portuguese), including the Astur-Leonese languages, Galician-Portuguese, and Castilian.

Germanic

Further information: Germanic-speaking Europe

The present-day distribution of the Germanic languages in Europe:

North Germanic languages

  Icelandic

  Faroese

  Norwegian

  Swedish

  Danish

West Germanic languages

  Scots

  English

  Frisian

  Dutch

  Low German

  German

Dots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.

The Germanic languages make up the predominant language family in Western, Northern and Central Europe. An estimated 210 million Europeans are native speakers of Germanic languages, the largest groups being German (c. 95 million), English (c. 70 million), 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

Main articles: German language, Geographical distribution of German speakers, Low Franconian languages, and Dutch-speaking Europe

German is spoken throughout Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, much of Switzerland (including the northeast areas bordering on Germany and Austria), northern Italy (South Tyrol), Luxembourg, and the East Cantons of Belgium.

There are several groups of German dialects:

• High German includes several dialect families:
  • Standard German
  • Central German dialects, spoken in central Germany and including 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 northern and eastern parts 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, the northern half of 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

Main articles: Anglo-Frisian languages and European English

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 shares various features with the Scandinavian languages.[3]

Slavic

See also: Slavic languages and Slavs

Political map of Europe with countries where the national language is Slavic. Pale green represents West Slavic languages, wood green represents East Slavic languages, and dark green represents South Slavic languages.

Slavic languages are spoken in large areas of Southern, Central 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 adjacent 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).

Other

• Greek (c. 13 million) is the official language of Greece and Cyprus, and there are Greek-speaking enclaves in Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, North 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 was studied by the German linguist Gerhard Rohlfs during the 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

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

• The Baltic languages are spoken in Lithuania (Lithuanian (c. 3 million), Samogitian) and Latvia (Latvian (c. 2 million), 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 (c. 5 million) has two major dialects, Tosk Albanian and Gheg Albanian. It is spoken in Albania and Kosovo, neighboring North 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, c. 700,000), Cornish (Cornwall, c. 500) and Breton (Brittany, c. 200,000)
  • Goidelic family: Irish (Ireland, c. 140,000), Scottish Gaelic (Scotland, c. 50,000), and Manx (Isle of Man, 1,800)

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: Romani (c. 1.5 million speakers), introduced in Europe during the late medieval period.
• The Iranian languages in Europe are natively represented in the North Caucasus, notably with Ossetian (c. 600,000).

Non-Indo-European languages

Uralic

Main article: Uralic languages

Distribution of Uralic languages in Eurasia

Uralic is native to northern Eurasia. Finno-Ugric groups the Uralic languages other than Samoyedic. Finnic languages include Finnish (c. 5 million) and Estonian (c. 1 million). The Sami languages (c. 30,000) are closely related to Finnic.

The Ugric languages are represented in Europe with the Hungarian language (c. 13 million), historically introduced with the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin of the 9th century.

The Samoyedic Nenets language is spoken in Nenets Autonomous Okrug of Russia, located in the far northeastern corner of Europe (as delimited by the Ural Mountains).

Turkic

Main article: Turkic languages

Distribution of Turkic languages in Eurasia

• 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

• The Basque language (or Euskara, c. 750,000) 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 (c. 500,000) 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 Sicilian, Italian, French and, more recently, English. It is unique in that it is the only Semitic language whose standard form is written in 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

Further information: Ethnic groups in Europe § History, Vernacular, and De vulgari eloquentia

Language and identity, standardization processes

In the Middle Ages the two most important defining elements of Europe were Christianitas and Latinitas.

The earliest dictionaries were glossaries: 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 standardisation of languages).

The concept of the nation state began 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: 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 whose 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

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

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, North Macedonia, Moldova and Russia have chosen to sign without ratifying the convention.

Scripts

Alphabets used in national languages in Europe:

  Greek

  Greek & Latin

  Latin

  Latin & Cyrillic

  Cyrillic

  Georgian

  Armenian

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.

See also: Antiqua–Fraktur dispute

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

Main article: Languages of the European Union

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 any of the designated 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

Further information: List of endangered languages in Europe, List of extinct languages of Europe, and List of languages of Russia

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 is intended to include any language variety with an ISO 639 code. However, it omits sign languages. Because the ISO-639-2 and ISO-639-3 codes have different definitions, this means that some communities of speakers may be listed more than once. For instance, speakers of Austro-Bavarian are listed both under "Bavarian" (ISO-639-3 code bar) as well as under "German" (ISO-639-2 code de).

Name	ISO- 639	Classification	Speakers in Europe		Official status
			Native	Total	National[nb 2]	Regional
Adyghe	ady	Northwest Caucasian, Circassian	117,500[25]			Adygea (Russia)
Albanian (Shqip) Arbëresh Arvanitika	sq	Indo-European	5,367,000[26] 5,877,100[27] (Balkans)		Albania, Kosovo[nb 3], North Macedonia	Italy, Arbëresh dialect: Sicily, Calabria,[28] Apulia, Molise, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Campania, Montenegro (Ulcinj, Tuzi)
Aragonese	an	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	25,000[29]	55,000[30]		Aragon (Spain)[nb 4]
Aromanian	rup	Indo-European, Romance, Eastern	114,000[31]			North Macedonia (Kruševo)
Asturian (Astur-Leonese)	ast	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	351,791[32]	641,502[32]		Asturias[nb 4]
Austro-Bavarian	bar	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Bavarian	14,000,000[33]		Austria (as German)
Avar	av	Northeast Caucasian, Avar–Andic	760,000			Dagestan (Russia)
Azerbaijani	az	Turkic, Oghuz	500,000[34]		Azerbaijan	Dagestan (Russia)
Bashkir	ba	Turkic, Kipchak	1,221,000[35]			Bashkortostan (Russia)
Basque	eu	Basque	750,000[36]			Basque Country: Basque Autonomous Community (Spain, official), Navarre (Spain, official in the Basque-speaking and mixed parts of the region), French Basque Country (France, not official)
Belarusian	be	Indo-European, Slavic, East	3,300,000[37]		Belarus
Bosnian	bs	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian	2,500,000[38]		Bosnia and Herzegovina	Kosovo[nb 3], Montenegro
Breton	br	Indo-European, Celtic, Brittonic	206,000[39]			None, de facto status in Brittany (France)
Bulgarian	bg	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Eastern	7,800,000[40]		Bulgaria	Mount Athos (Greece)
Catalan	ca	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Occitano-Romance	4,000,000[41]	10,000,000[42]	Andorra	Balearic Islands (Spain), Catalonia (Spain), Valencian Community (Spain), Aragon (Spain)[nb 4], Pyrénées-Orientales (France)[nb 4], Alghero (Italy)
Chechen	ce	Northeast Caucasian, Nakh	1,400,000[43]			Chechnya & Dagestan (Russia)
Chuvash	cv	Turkic, Oghur	1,100,000[44]			Chuvashia (Russia)
Cimbrian	cim	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Bavarian	400[45]
Cornish	kw	Indo-European, Celtic, Brittonic	557[46]			Cornwall (United Kingdom)[nb 4]
Corsican	co	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	30,000[47]	125,000[47]		Corsica (France), Sardinia (Italy)
Crimean Tatar	crh	Turkic, Kipchak	480,000[48]			Crimea
Croatian	hr	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian	5,600,000[49]		Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia	Burgenland (Austria), Vojvodina (Serbia)
Czech	cs	Indo-European, Slavic, West, Czech–Slovak	10,600,000[50]		Czech Republic
Danish	da	Indo-European, Germanic, North	5,500,000[51]		Denmark	Faroe Islands (Denmark), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)[52]
Dutch	nl	Indo-European, Germanic, West	22,000,000[53]		Belgium, Netherlands
English	en	Indo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian, Anglic	63,000,000[54]	260,000,000[55]	Ireland, Malta, United Kingdom
Erzya	myv	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Mordvinic	120,000[56]			Mordovia (Russia)
Estonian	et	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	1,165,400[57]		Estonia
Extremaduran	ext	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	200,000[58]			Extremadura (Spain)
Faroese	fo	Indo-European, Germanic, North	66,150[59]			Faroe Islands (Denmark)
Finnish	fi	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	5,400,000[60]		Finland
Franco-Provençal (Arpitan)	frp	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance	140,000[61]			Aosta Valley (Italy)
French	fr	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl	71,500,000[62]	135,000,000[55]	Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland	Aosta Valley[63] (Italy), Jersey (United Kingdom), El Pas de la Casa (Andorra)
Frisian	fry frr stq	Indo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian	470,000[64]			Friesland (Netherlands), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)[65]
Friulan	fur	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic	600,000[66]			Friuli (Italy)
Gagauz	gag	Turkic, Oghuz	140,000[67]			Gagauzia (Moldova)
Galician	gl	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	2,400,000[68]			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[69]	170,000,000[55]	Austria, Belgium, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland	South Tyrol[70], Friuli-Venezia Giulia[71] (Italy)
Greek	el	Indo-European, Hellenic	11,000,000[72]		Cyprus, Greece	Albania (Himara, Finiq, Dervican and other southern townships)
Hungarian	hu	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Ugric	13,000,000[73]		Hungary	Burgenland (Austria), Vojvodina (Serbia), Romania
Icelandic	is	Indo-European, Germanic, North	330,000[74]		Iceland
Ingrian	izh	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	120[75]
Ingush	inh	Northeast Caucasian, Nakh	300,000[76]			Ingushetia (Russia)
Irish	ga	Indo-European, Celtic, Goidelic	240,000[77]	1,300,000	Republic of Ireland	Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)
Istriot	ist	Indo-European, Romance	900[78]
Istro-Romanian	ruo	Indo-European, Romance, Eastern	1,100[79]
Italian	it	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	65,000,000[80]	82,000,000[55]	Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, Vatican City	Croatia Istria County (Croatia), Slovenia Slovenian Istria (Slovenia)
Italiot Greek	mis	Indo-European, Hellenic, Greek, Attic-Ionic	20,000 native speakers in 1981[81]	50,000		Calabria[82] (Bovesia), Apulia[83] (Salento), (Italy)
Judeo-Italian	itk	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	250[84]
Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino)	lad	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	320,000[85]	few[86]		Bosnia and Herzegovina[nb 4], France[nb 4]
Kabardian	kbd	Northwest Caucasian, Circassian	530,000[87]			Kabardino-Balkaria & Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
Kalmyk	xal	Mongolic	80,500[88]			Kalmykia (Russia)
Karelian	krl	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	36,000[89]			Karelia (Russia)
Karachay-Balkar	krc	Turkic, Kipchak	300,000[90]			Kabardino-Balkaria & Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
Kashubian	csb	Indo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic	50,000[91]			Poland
Kazakh	kk	Turkic, Kipchak	1,000,000[92]		Kazakhstan
Komi	kv	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Permic	220,000[93]			Komi Republic (Russia)
Latin	la	Indo-European, Italic, Latino-Faliscan	extinct	few[94]	Vatican City
Latvian	lv	Indo-European, Baltic	1,750,000[95]		Latvia
Ligurian	lij	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic	500,000[96]			Liguria (Italy)
Lithuanian	lt	Indo-European, Baltic	3,000,000[97]		Lithuania
Lombard	lmo	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic	3,600,000[98]			Lombardy (Italy)
Low German (Low Saxon)	nds wep	Indo-European, Germanic, West	1,000,000[99]	2,600,000[99]		Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)[100]
Luxembourgish	lb	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German	336,000[101]	386,000[101]	Luxembourg	Wallonia (Belgium)
Macedonian	mk	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Eastern	1,400,000[102]		North Macedonia
Mainfränkisch	vmf	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper	4,900,000[103]			Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria & Thuringia (Germany)
Maltese	mt	Semitic, Arabic	520,000[104]		Malta
Manx	gv	Indo-European, Celtic, Goidelic	230[105]	2,300[106]		Isle of Man
Mari	chm mhr	Uralic, Finno-Ugric	500,000[107]			Mari El (Russia)
Megleno-Romanian	ruq	Indo-European, Romance, Eastern	3,000[108]
Mirandese	mwl	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	15,000[109]			Miranda do Douro (Portugal)
Moksha	mdf	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Mordvinic	2,000[110]			Mordovia (Russia)
Montenegrin	cnr	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian	240,700[111]		Montenegro
Neapolitan	nap	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	5,700,000[112]			Campania (Italy)[113]
Nenets	yrk	Uralic, Samoyedic	4,000[114]			Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Russia)
Norman	nrf	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl	50,000[115]			Normandy (France), Jersey (United Kingdom)
Norwegian	no	Indo-European, Germanic, North	5,200,000[116]		Norway
Occitan	oc	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Occitano-Romance	500,000[117]			Catalonia (Spain)[nb 5]
Ossetian	os	Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Eastern	450,000[118]		Georgia	North Ossetia-Alania (Russia)
Palatinate German	pfl	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central	1,000,000[119]			Germany
Picard	pcd	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl	200,000[120]			Wallonia (Belgium)
Piedmontese	pms	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic	1,600,000[121]			Piedmont (Italy)[122]
Polish	pl	Indo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic	38,500,000[123]		Poland
Portuguese	pt	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	10,000,000[124]		Portugal
Rhaeto-Romance	fur lld roh	Indo-European, Romance, Western	370,000[125]		Switzerland	Veneto Belluno, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, South Tyrol,[126] & Trentino (Italy)
Ripuarian (Platt)	ksh	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central	900,000[127]			Germany, Netherlands, Wallonia (Belgium)
Romani	rom	Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Western	1,500,000[128]			Kosovo[nb 3][129]
Romanian	ro	Indo-European, Romance, Eastern	24,000,000[130]	28,000,000[131]	Moldova, Romania	Mount Athos (Greece), Vojvodina (Serbia)
Russian	ru	Indo-European, Slavic, East	106,000,000[132]	160,000,000[132]	Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia	Mount Athos (Greece), Gagauzia (Moldova), Transnistria (Moldova), Svalbard (Norway), Ukraine
Sami	se	Uralic, Finno-Ugric	23,000[133]		Norway	Sweden, Finland
Sardinian	sc	Indo-European, Romance	1,350,000[134]			Sardinia (Italy)
Scots	sco	Indo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian, Anglic	110,000[135]			Scotland (United Kingdom), Ulster (Republic of Ireland), Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)
Scottish Gaelic	gd	Indo-European, Celtic, Goidelic	57,000[136]			Scotland (United Kingdom)
Serbian	sr	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian	9,000,000[137]		Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo[nb 3], Serbia	Croatia, Mount Athos (Greece), North Macedonia, Montenegro
Sicilian	scn	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	4,700,000[138]			Sicily (Italy)
Silesian	szl	Indo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic	522,000[139]			Upper Silesia (Poland, Czech Republic & Germany), Silesia (Poland)
Silesian German	sli	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central	11,000[140]			Upper Silesia (Poland, Czech Republic & Germany), Silesia (Poland)
Slovak	sk	Indo-European, Slavic, West, Czech–Slovak	5,200,000[141]		Slovakia	Vojvodina (Serbia), Czech Republic
Slovene	sl	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western	2,100,000[142]		Slovenia	Friuli-Venezia Giulia[143] (Italy)
Sorbian (Wendish)	wen	Indo-European, Slavic, West	20,000[144]			Brandenburg & Sachsen (Germany)[145]
Spanish (Castilian)	es	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	38,000,000[146]	76,000,000[55]	Spain	Andorra, Gibraltar (United Kingdom)
Swabian German	swg	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic	820,000[147]			Germany
Swedish	sv	Indo-European, Germanic, North	11,100,000[148]	13,280,000[148]	Finland, Sweden
Swiss German	gsw	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic	5,000,000[149]		Switzerland (as German)
Tabasaran	tab	Northeast Caucasian, Lezgic	126,900[150]			Dagestan (Russia)
Tat	ttt	Indo-European, Iranian, Western	30,000[151]			Dagestan (Russia)
Tatar	tt	Turkic, Kipchak	4,300,000[152]			Tatarstan (Russia)
Turkish	tr	Turkic, Oghuz	12,000,000[153]		Turkey, Cyprus	Northern Cyprus
Udmurt	udm	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Permic	340,000[154]			Udmurtia (Russia)
Ukrainian	uk	Indo-European, Slavic, East	32,600,000[155]		Ukraine	Transnistria Transnistria (Moldova)
Upper Saxon	sxu	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central	2,000,000[156]			Sachsen (Germany)
Vepsian	vep	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	1,640[157]			Karelia Karelia (Russia)
Venetian	vec	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	3,800,000[158]			Veneto (Italy)[159]
Võro	vro	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	87,000[160]			Võru County (Estonia)
Walloon	wa	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl	600,000[161]			Wallonia (Belgium)
Walser German	wae	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic	20,000[162]
Welsh	cy	Indo-European, Celtic, Brittonic	562,000[163]	750,000		Wales (United Kingdom)
Wymysorys	wym	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German	70[164]
Yenish	yec	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German	16,000[165]			Switzerland[nb 4]
Yiddish	yi	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German	600,000[166]			Bosnia and Herzegovina[nb 4], Netherlands[nb 4], Poland[nb 4], Romania[nb 4], Sweden[nb 4], Ukraine[nb 4]

Languages spoken in Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia

There are various definitions of Europe, which may or may not include all or parts of Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. For convenience, the languages and associated statistics for all five of these countries are grouped together on this page, as they are usually presented at a national, rather than subnational, level.

Name	ISO- 639	Classification	Speakers in expanded geopolitical Europe		Official status
			L1	L1+L2	National[nb 6]	Regional
Abkhaz	ab	Northwest Caucasian, Abazgi	Abkhazia/Georgia[167]: 191,000[168] Turkey: 44,000[169]		Abkhazia	Georgia (Abkhazia)
Adyghe (West Circassian)	ady	Northwest Caucasian, Circassian	Turkey: 316,000 [169]
Albanian	sq	Indo-European, Albanian	Turkey: 66,000 (Tosk) [169]
Arabic	ar	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, West	Turkey: 2,437,000 Not counting post-2014 Syrian refugees[170]
Armenian	hy	Indo-European, Armenian	Armenia: 3 million[171] Artsakh/Azerbaijan[172]: 145,000 Georgia: around 0.2 million ethnic Armenians (Abkhazia: 44,870[173]) Turkey: 61,000 [169] Cyprus: 668[174]^:3		Armenia Artsakh	Cyprus
Azerbaijani	az	Turkic, Oghuz	Azerbaijan 9 million[175] Turkey: 540,000[169] Georgia 0.2 million		Azerbaijan
Batsbi	bbl	Northeast Caucasian, Nakh	Georgia : 500 [176]
Bulgarian	bg	Indo-European, Slavic, South	Turkey: 351,000 [169]
Crimean	crh	Turkic, Kipchak	Turkey: 100,000 [169]
Georgian	ka	Kartvelian, Karto-Zan	Georgia: 3,224,696 [177] Turkey: 151,000 [169] Azerbaijan: 9,192 ethnic Georgians [178]		Georgia
Greek	el	Indo-European, Hellenic	Cyprus: 679,883[179]^:2.2 Turkey: 3,600 [169]		Cyprus
Juhuri	jdt	Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Southwest	Azerbaijan: 24,000 (1989)[180]
Kurdish	kur	Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Northwest	Turkey: 15 million [181] Armenia: 33,509 [182] Georgia: 14,000 Azerbaijan: 9,000			Armenia
Laz	lzz	Kartvelian, Karto-Zan, Zan	Turkey: 20,000 [183] Georgia: 2,000 [183]
Meglenian	ruq	Indo-European, Italic, Romance, East	Turkey: 4-5,000 [184]
Mingrelian	xmf	Kartvelian, Karto-Zan, Zan	Georgia (including Abkhazia): 344,000 [185]
Pontic Greek	pnt	Indo-European, Hellenic	Turkey: greater than 5,000[186] Armenia: 900 ethnic Caucasus Greeks[187] Georgia: 5,689 Caucasus Greeks[177]
Romani language and Domari language	rom, dmt	Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indic	Turkey: 500,000 [169]
Russian	ru	Indo-European, Balto-Slavic, Slavic	Armenia: 15,000 [188] Azerbaijan: 250,000 [189] Georgia: 130,000[188]	Armenia: about 0.9 million [190] Azerbaijan : about 2.6 million [190] Georgia: about 1 million[190] Cyprus: 20,984[191]	Abkhazia South Ossetia	Armenia Azerbaijan
Svan	sva	Kartvelian, Svan	Georgia (incl. Abkhazia) : 30,000 [192]
Tat	ttt	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Southwest	Azerbaijan: 10,000[193]
Turkish	tr	Turkic, Oghuz	Turkey: 66,850,000 [169] Cyprus: 1,405 <[194] + 265,100 in the North[195]		Turkey Cyprus Northern Cyprus

Immigrant communities

Recent (post–1945) immigration to Europe introduced substantial communities of speakers of non-European languages.[196]

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).[197] 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	Native	Ethnic diaspora
Arabic	ar	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	> 4 million[198]	12 million[199]
Turkish	tr	Turkic, Oghuz	3 million[200]	7 million[201]
Armenian	hy	Indo-European	1 million[202]	2-3 million[203]
Kurdish	ku	Indo-European, Iranian, Western	600,000[204]	1 million[205]
Bengali–Assamese	bn as syl	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	600,000[206]	1 million[207]
Azerbaijani	az	Turkic, Oghuz	500,000[208]	700,000[209]
Kabyle	kab	Afro-Asiatic, Berber	500,000[210]	1 million[211]
Chinese	zh	Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic	300,000[212]	2 million[213]
Urdu	ur	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	300,000[214]	1.8 million[215]
Uzbek	uz	Turkic, Karluk	300,000[216]	1–2 million[217]
Persian	fa	Indo-European, Iranian, Western	300,000[218]	400,000 million[219]
Punjabi	pa	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	300,000[220]	700,000[221]
Gujarati	gu	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	200,000[222]	600,000[223]
Tamil	ta	Dravidian	200,000[224]	500,000[225]
Somali	so	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic	200,000[226]	400,000[227]

Sign languages

Main article: List_of_sign_languages § Europe

Various sign languages are also used in Europe. The most widespread sign language family in Europe is the French Sign Language family, but others include the BANZSL family, the Danish Sign Language family and the Swedish Sign Language family. There are also language isolates, most notably Spanish Sign Language.

The three most used sign languages in Europe, according to Ethnologue, are French Sign Language (spoken in France and Switzerland, and in countries outside Europe), British Sign Language (in the United Kingdom) and German Sign Language (in Germany).

The EU and several other European countries afford legal recognition for various sign languages.[228]

See also

• Ethnic groups in Europe
• Eurolinguistics
• European Day of Languages
• Greek East and Latin West
• Multilingual countries and regions of Europe
• Travellingua
• Standard Average European

Notes

1. "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.
2. Sovereign states, defined as United Nations member states and observer states. 'Recognised minority language' status is not included.
3. The Republic of Kosovo is a partially recognized state (recognized by 111 out of 193 UN member states as of 2017).
4. Recognized and protected, but not official.
5. The Aranese dialect, in Val d'Aran county.
6. Sovereign states, defined as United Nations member states and observer states. 'Recognised minority language' status is not included.

References

1. "International migrant stock: By destination and origin". United Nations..
2. Friedman, Lawrence; Perez-Perdomo, Rogelio (2003). Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe. Stanford University Press. p. 1. ISBN 0-8047-6695-9.
3. "Linguist makes sensational claim: English is a Scandinavian language". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
4. F. Violi, Lessico Grecanico-Italiano-Grecanico, Apodiafàzzi, Reggio Calabria, 1997.
5. Paolo Martino, L'isola grecanica dell'Aspromonte. Aspetti sociolinguistici, 1980. Risultati di un'inchiesta del 1977
6. Filippo Violi, Storia degli studi e della letteratura popolare grecanica, C.S.E. Bova (RC), 1992
7. Filippo Condemi, Grammatica Grecanica, Coop. Contezza, Reggio Calabria, 1987;
8. "In Salento e Calabria le voci della minoranza linguistica greca". Treccani, l'Enciclopedia italiana.
9. 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.
10. Aquilina, J. (1958). "Maltese as a Mixed Language". Journal of Semitic Studies. 3 (1): 58–79. doi:10.1093/jss/3.1.58.
11. Aquilina, Joseph (July–September 1960). "The Structure of Maltese". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 80 (3): 267–68. doi:10.2307/596187.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. Wansbrough, John E. (1996). "Chapter 3: Lingua Franca". Lingua Franca in the Mediterranean. Routledge.
15. Calvet, Louis Jean (1998). Language wars and linguistic politics. Oxford [England]; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 175–76.
16. Jones, Branwen Gruffydd (2006). Decolonizing international relations. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 98.
17. Kahane 1986, p. 495 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKahane1986 (help)
18. Darquennes, Jeroen; Nelde, Peter (2006). "German as a Lingua Franca". Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. 26: 61–77. doi:10.1017/s0267190506000043.
19. "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Strasbourg, 5.XI.1992". Council of Europe. 1992.
20. 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".
21. "Languages Policy: Linguistic diversity: Official languages of the EU". European Commission, European Union. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
22. "Languages of Europe: Official EU languages". European Commission, European Union. 2009. Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
23. "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.
24. "Europeans and Their Languages" (PDF). European Commission. 2006. p. 8. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
25. Adyghe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
26. Albanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
27. "Albanian". Ethnologue. Retrieved 12 December 2018. Population total of all languages of the Albanian macrolanguage.
28. "Archived copy". Archived from the original Check |url= value (help) on 2009-08-06. Retrieved 2020-06-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
29. Report about Census of population 2011 of Aragonese Sociolinguistics Seminar and University of Zaragoza
30. "Más de 50.000 personas hablan aragonés". Aragón Digital. Archived from the original on January 1, 2015.
31. Aromanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
32. III Sociolinguistic Study of Asturias (2017). Euskobarometro.
33. German dialect, Bavarian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
34. c. 130,000 in Dagestan. In addition, there are about 0.5 million speakers in immigrant communities in Russia, see #Immigrant communities. Azerbaijani at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
35. Bashkort at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
36. (in French) VI° Enquête Sociolinguistique en Euskal herria (Communauté Autonome d'Euskadi, Navarre et Pays Basque Nord) (2016).
37. Belarusian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
38. Bosnian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
39. Breton at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
40. Bulgarian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
41. "Catalan".
42. "Informe sobre la Situació de la Llengua Catalana | Xarxa CRUSCAT. Coneixements, usos i representacions del català". blogs.iec.cat.
43. Chechen at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
44. Chuvash at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
45. German dialect, Cimbrian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
46. UK 2011 Census
47. Corsican at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
48. Crimean Tatar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
49. Croatian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
50. Czech at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
51. Danish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
52. recognized as official language in Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Flensburg, Flensburg and Rendsburg-Eckernförde (§ 82b LVwG)
53. Dutch at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
54. English at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
55. Europeans and their Languages Archived 6 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Data for EU27, published in 2012.
56. Erzya at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
57. Estonian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
58. Extremaduran at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
59. Faroese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
60. Finnish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
61. Franco-Provençal at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
62. French at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
63. 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.
64. Frisian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
65. recognized as official language in the Nordfriesland district and in Helgoland (§ 82b LVwG).
66. e18|fur|Friulan
67. Gagauz at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
68. Galician at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
69. 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.
70. STATUTO SPECIALE PER IL TRENTINO-ALTO ADIGE (1972), Art. 99–101.
71. Official site of the Autonomous Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia
72. 11 million in Greece, out of 13.4 million in total. Greek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
73. Hungarian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
74. Icelandic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
75. Ingrian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
76. Ingush at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
77. Irish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
78. Istriot at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
79. Istro-Romanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
80. Italian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
81. N. Vincent, Italian, in B. Comrie (ed.) The world's major languages, London, Croom Helm, 1981. pp. 279-302.
82. "Consiglio regionale della Calabria". www.consiglioregionale.calabria.it.
83. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-01-22. Retrieved 2018-01-21.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
84. Judeo-Italian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
85. Judaeo-Spanish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
86. 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.
87. Kabardian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
88. Oirat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
89. Karelian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
90. Karachay-Balkar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
91. Kashubian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
92. 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.
93. 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)
94. 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.
95. Latvian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
96. Ligurian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
97. Lithuanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
98. Lombard at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
99. 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)
100. 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).
101. Luxembourgish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
102. Macedonian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
103. German dialect, Main-Franconian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
104. Maltese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
105. Manx at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
106. Whitehead, Sarah (2 April 2015). "How the Manx language came back from the dead". theguardian.com. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
107. Mari at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
108. Megleno-Romanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
109. Mirandese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
110. Moksha at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
111. "Montenegro". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
112. Neapolitan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
113. 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.
114. 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)
115. Jèrriais at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
116. "Norwegian". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
117. 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.
118. Total 570,000, of which 450,000 in the Russian Federation. Ossetian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
119. German dialect, Palatinate German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
120. Picard at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
121. Piedmontese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
122. 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.
123. Polish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
124. Portuguese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
125. Includes Friulian, Romansh, Ladin. Friulian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) Ladin at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) Romansch at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
126. STATUTO SPECIALE PER IL TRENTINO-ALTO ADIGE (1972), Art. 102.
127. German dialect, Kölsch at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
128. 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)
129. Constitution of Kosovo, p. 8.
130. Romanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
131. "Româna". unilat.org (in Romanian). Latin Union. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
132. 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).
133. 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).
134. AA. VV. Calendario Atlante De Agostini 2017, Novara, Istituto Geografico De Agostini, 2016, p. 230
135. Scots at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
136. Gaelic, Scottish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
137. Serbian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
138. Sicilian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
139. Silesian at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
140. German dialect, Lower Silesian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
141. Slovak at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
142. Slovene at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
143. Official site of the Autonomous Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia
144. Sorbian, Upper at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
145. 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).
146. Spanish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
147. German dialect, Swabian German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
148. Swedish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
149. German dialect, Swiss German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
150. Tabassaran at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
151. 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.
152. Tatar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
153. 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).
154. Udmurt at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
155. Ukrainian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
156. German dialect, Upper Saxon German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
157. Russian Census 2010. Veps at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
158. Venetian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
159. 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.
160. Võro at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
161. Walloon at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
162. Highest Alemannic dialects, Walser German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
163. Welsh at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
164. Moribund German dialect spoken in Wilamowice, Poland. 70 speakers recorded in 2006. Wymysorys at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
165. Yenish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
166. 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)
167. Abkhazia is a de facto state recognized by Russia and a handful of other states, but considered by Georgia to be ruling over a Georgian region
168. Abkhazian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
169. Lewis, M. Paul (ed.) (2009). "Ethnologue report for Turkey (Asia)". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. SIL International. Archived from the original on 2010-07-07. Retrieved 2009-09-08.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
170. Lewis, M. Paul (ed.) (2009). "Ethnologue report for Turkey (Asia)". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. SIL International. Archived from the original on 2010-07-07. Retrieved 2009-09-08.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
171. "Armenian 2011 census data, chapter 5" (PDF).
172. Note: de facto independent republic, Azerbaijan claims sovereignty over it.
173. ETHNO-CAUCASUS - НАСЕЛЕНИЕ КАВКАЗА - РЕСПУБЛИКА АБХАЗИЯ - НАСЕЛЕНИЕ АБХАЗИИ
174. Council of Europe (2014-01-16). "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Fourth periodical presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 15 of the Charter. CYPRUS" (PDF). Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
175. Azeri community in Dagestan excluded
176. "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
177. 2014 Georgian census
178. Censuses of Republic of Azerbaijan 1979, 1989, 1999, 2009Archived November 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
179. "Cyprus" (PDF). Euromosaic III. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
181. SIL Ethnologue gives estimates, broken down by dialect group, totalling 31 million, but with the caveat of "Very provisional figures for Northern Kurdish speaker population". Ethnologue estimates for dialect groups: Northern: 20.2M (undated; 15M in Turkey for 2009), Central: 6.75M (2009), Southern: 3M (2000), Laki: 1M (2000). The Swedish Nationalencyklopedin listed Kurdish in its "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), citing an estimate of 20.6 million native speakers.
182. http://armstat.am/file/article/sv_03_13a_520.pdf
183. "Laz". Ethnologue.
184. Thede Kahl (2006): The islamisation of the Meglen Vlachs (Megleno-Romanians): The village of Nânti (Nótia) and the “Nântinets” in present-day Turkey, Nationalities Papers, 34:01, p80-81: "Assuming that nearly the total population of Nânti emigrated, then the number of emigrants must have been around 4,000. If the reported number of people living there today is added, the whole Meglen Vlachs population is c. 5,000. Although that number is only a rough estimate and may be exaggerated by the individual interviewees, it might correspond to reality."
185. Endangered Languages Project: Mingrelian
186. Özkan, Hakan (2013). "The Pontic Greek spoken by Muslims in the villages of Beşköy in the province of present-day Trabzon". Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. 37 (1): 130–150. doi:10.1179/0307013112z.00000000023.
187. 2011 Armenian Census
188. "Падение статуса русского языка на постсоветском пространстве". Demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 2016-10-25. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
190. "Русскоязычие распространено не только там, где живут русские". demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 2016-10-23.
191. Στατιστική Υπηρεσία - Πληθυσμός και Κοινωνικές Συνθήκες - Απογραφή Πληθυσμού - Ανακοινώσεις - Αποτελέσματα Απογραφής Πληθυσμού, 2011 (in Greek). Demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 2013-05-07. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
192. Endangered Languages Project: Svan
193. John M. Clifton, Gabriela Deckinga, Laura Lucht, Calvin Tiessen, “Sociolinguistic Situation of the Tat and Mountain Jews in Azerbaijan,” In Clifton, ed., Studies in Languages of Azerbaijan, vol. 2 (Azerbaijan & St Petersburg, Russia: Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan & SIL International 2005). Page 3.
194. Population enumerated by age, sex, language spoken and district (1.10.2011) (sheet D1A). CYstat. June 2013.
195. "Census.XLS" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
196. "International migrant stock: By destination and origin". United Nations.
197. Cole, Jeffrey (2011), Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, p. 367, ISBN 1-59884-302-8
198. France: 4 million, Germany: 500k (2015), Spain: 200k UK: 159k (2011 census)
199. 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.
200. Germany: 1,510k, France: 444k, Netherlands: 388k, Austria: 197k, Russia: 146k, UK: 99k, Switzerland: 44k, Sweden: 44.
201. See Turks in Europe: only counting recent (post-Ottoman era) immigration: Germany: 4 million, France: 1 million, UK: 500,000, Netherlands: 500,000, Austria: 400,000, Switzerland, Sweden and Russia: 100-200,000 each.
202. 830k in Russia (2010 census), 100k in Ukraine (SIL Ethnologue 2015).
203. 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.
204. Germany: 541k
205. Kurdish population: mostly Kurds in Germany, Kurds in France, Kurds in Sweden.
206. Sylheti: 300k in the UK, Bengali: 221k in the UK.
207. see British Indian, Bangladeshi diaspora, Bengali diaspora.
208. 515k in Russia (2010 census)
209. Azerbaijani diaspora : Russia 600k, Ukraine 45k, not counting 400,000 in Azerbajjan's Quba-Khachmaz region, technically in Europe (being north of the Caucasus watershed).
210. France: 500k
211. Kabyle people in France: 1 million.
212. Germany 120k, Russia: 70k, UK 66k, Spain 20k.
213. Overseas Chinese: France 700,000, UK: 500,000, Russia: 300,000, Italy: 300,000, Germany: 200,000, Spain: 100,000.
214. UK: 269k (2011 census).
215. Pakistani diaspora, the majority Pakistanis in the UK.
216. Russia: 274k (2010 census)
217. see Uzbeks in Russia.
218. UK: 76k, Sweden: 74k, Germany: 72k, France 40k.
219. Iranian diaspora: Germany: 100k, Sweden: 100k, UK: 50k, Russia: 50k, Netherlands: 35k, Denmark: 20k.
220. UK: 280k
221. see British Punjabis
222. UK: 213k
223. see Gujarati diaspora
224. UK: 101k, Germany: 35k, Switzerland: 22k.
225. Tamil diaspora: UK 300k, France 100k, Germany 50k, Switzerland 40k, Netherlands, 20k, Norway 10k.
226. UK: 86k, Sweden: 53k, Italy: 50k
227. Somali diaspora: UK: 114k, Sweden: 64k, Norway: 42k, Netherlands: 39k, Germany: 34k, Denmark: 21k, Finland: 19k.
228. doi:10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1417

External links

• 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.