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 in Europe are Romance, Germanic, and Slavic; they have more than 200 million speakers each and together account 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), Celtic (c. 4 million), and Armenian (c. 4 million); Indo-Aryan, though a large subfamily of Indo-European, has a relatively small number of speakers in Europe (Romani, c. 1.5 million).

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 (language isolate), Semitic languages (Maltese, c. 0.5 million), and various languages of the Caucasus — account for less than 1% of the European population among 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, French, Italian, German, and English. Russian is the most-spoken native language in Europe, and 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

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).

Germanic

The present-day distribution of the Germanic languages in Europe:
North Germanic languages
  Danish
West Germanic Languages
  Scots
  Yola
  Dutch
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), Norwegian (c. 5 million) and Limburgish (c. 1.3 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, Low Franconian (including Dutch) and High German (including Standard German).[2]

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:

The Frisian languages are spoken by about 400,000 (as of 2015) Frisians,[3][4] who live on the southern coast of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. These languages include West Frisian, East Frisian (of which the only surviving dialect is Saterlandic) and North Frisian.[3]

Dutch

Dutch is spoken throughout the Netherlands, the northern half of Belgium, as well as the Nord-Pas de Calais region of France. The traditional dialects of the Lower Rhine region of Germany are linguistically more closely related to Dutch than to modern German. In Belgian and French contexts, Dutch is sometimes referred to as Flemish. Dutch dialects are varied and cut across national borders.

German

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

There are several groups of German dialects:

Low Saxon (Low German)

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 West Low German and East Low German.[5]

North Germanic (Scandinavian)

The North Germanic languages are spoken in Nordic countries and include Swedish (Sweden and parts of Finland), Danish (Denmark), Norwegian (Norway), Icelandic (Iceland), Faroese (Faroe Islands), and Elfdalian (in a small part of central Sweden).

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.[6] Even so, especially Swedish, but also Danish and Norwegian, have strong vocabulary connections to the German language.

Limburgish

Limburgish (also called Limburgan, Limburgian, or Limburgic) Is a west Germanic language spoken in the province of Limburg in the Netherlands, Belgium and neighboring regions of Germany

Romance

The Distribution of the Romance languages, 20th century.

Roughly 215 million Europeans (primarily in Southern and Western 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. 7 million), Sicilian (c. 5 million, also subsumed under Italian), Venetian (c. 4 million), Galician (c. 2 million), Sardinian (c. 1 million),[7][8][9] Occitan (c. 500,000), besides numerous smaller communities.

The Romance languages evolved 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.[10]

Italo-Western can be further broken down into the Italo-Dalmatian languages (sometimes grouped with Eastern Romance), including the Tuscan-derived Italian and numerous local Romance languages in Italy as well as Dalmatian, and the Western Romance languages. The Western Romance languages in turn separate into the Gallo-Romance languages, including Langues d'oïl such as French, the Francoprovencalic languages Arpitan and Faetar, the Rhaeto-Romance languages, and the Gallo-Italic languages; the Occitano-Romance languages, grouped with either Gallo-Romance or East Iberian, including Occitanic languages such as Occitan and Gardiol, and Catalan; Aragonese, grouped in with either Occitano-Romance or West Iberian, and finally the West Iberian languages, including the Astur-Leonese languages, the Galician-Portuguese languages, and the Castilian languages.

Slavic

Political map of Europe with countries where the national language is Slavic:
  West Slavic languages
  East Slavic languages
  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. 45 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:

Others

Historic distribution of the Baltic languages in the Baltic (simplified).
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 representative: Romani (c. 1.5 million speakers), introduced in Europe during the late medieval period. Lacking a nation state, Romani is spoken as a minority language throughout Europe.
  • The Iranian languages in Europe are natively represented in the North Caucasus, notably with Ossetian (c. 600,000).

Non-Indo-European languages

Turkic

Distribution of Turkic languages in Eurasia

Uralic

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), Estonian (c. 1 million), Mari (c. 400,000) and Kven (c. 8,000). 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).

Others

Sign languages

Several dozen manual languages exist across Europe, with the most widespread sign language family being the Francosign languages, with its languages found in countries from Iberia to the Balkans and the Baltics. Accurate historical information of sign and tactile languages is difficult to come by, with folk histories noting the existence signing communities across Europe hundreds of years ago. British Sign Language (BSL) and French Sign Language (LSF) are probably the oldest confirmed, continuously used sign languages. Alongside German Sign Language (DGS) according to Ethnologue, these three have the most numbers of signers, though very few institutions take appropriate statistics on contemporary signing populations, making legitimate data hard to find.

Notably, few European sign languages have overt connections with the local majority/oral languages, aside from standard language contact and borrowing, meaning grammatically the sign languages and the oral languages of Europe are quite distinct from one another. Due to (visual/aural) modality differences, most sign languages are named for the larger ethnic nation in which they are spoken, plus the words "sign language", rendering what is spoken across much of France, Wallonia and Romandy as French Sign Language or LSF for: langue des signes française.

Recognition of non-oral languages varies widely from region to region.[21] Some countries afford legal recognition, even to official on a state level, whereas others continue to be actively suppressed.[22]

The major sign linguistic families are:

History of standardization

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:

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.[29] 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 European national languages:
  Greek
  Greek & Latin
  Latin

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 from 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".[30] 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

The European Union (as of 2021) had 27 member states accounting for a population of 447 million, or about 60% 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.[31] 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.[32]

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.[33] 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".[34]

List of languages

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 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
AbazaabqNorthwest Caucasian, Abazgi49,800[35]Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
AdygheadyNorthwest Caucasian, Circassian117,500[36]Adygea (Russia)
Albanian (Shqip)
Arbëresh
Arvanitika
sqIndo-European5,367,000[37]
5,877,100[38] (Balkans)
Albania, Kosovo[nb 3], North MacedoniaItaly, Arbëresh dialect: Sicily, Calabria,[39] Apulia, Molise, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Campania
Montenegro (Ulcinj, Tuzi)
AragoneseanIndo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian25,000[40]55,000[41]Northern Aragon (Spain)[nb 4]
AromanianrupIndo-European, Romance, Eastern114,000[42]North Macedonia (Kruševo)
Asturian (Astur-Leonese)astIndo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian351,791[43]641,502[43]Asturias[nb 4]
AvaravNortheast Caucasian, Avar–Andic760,000Dagestan (Russia)
AzerbaijaniazTurkic, Oghuz500,000[44]AzerbaijanDagestan (Russia)
BashkirbaTurkic, Kipchak1,221,000[45]Bashkortostan (Russia)
BasqueeuBasque750,000[46]Basque Country: Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre (Spain), French Basque Country (France)[nb 4]
BavarianbarIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Bavarian14,000,000[47]Austria (as German)South Tyrol
BelarusianbeIndo-European, Slavic, East3,300,000[48]Belarus
BosnianbsIndo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian2,500,000[49]Bosnia and HerzegovinaKosovo[nb 3], Montenegro
BretonbrIndo-European, Celtic, Brittonic206,000[50]None, de facto status in Brittany (France)
BulgarianbgIndo-European, Slavic, South, Eastern7,800,000[51]BulgariaMount Athos (Greece)
CatalancaIndo-European, Romance, Western, Occitano-Romance4,000,000[52]10,000,000[53]AndorraBalearic Islands (Spain), Catalonia (Spain), Valencian Community (Spain), easternmost Aragon (Spain)[nb 4], Pyrénées-Orientales (France)[nb 4], Alghero (Italy)
ChechenceNortheast Caucasian, Nakh1,400,000[54]Chechnya & Dagestan (Russia)
ChuvashcvTurkic, Oghur1,100,000[55]Chuvashia (Russia)
CimbriancimIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Bavarian400[56]
CornishkwIndo-European, Celtic, Brittonic563[57]Cornwall (United Kingdom)[nb 4]
CorsicancoIndo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian30,000[58]125,000[58]Corsica (France), Sardinia (Italy)
Crimean TatarcrhTurkic, Kipchak480,000[59]Crimea (Ukraine)
CroatianhrIndo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian5,600,000[60]Bosnia and Herzegovina, CroatiaBurgenland (Austria), Vojvodina (Serbia)
CzechcsIndo-European, Slavic, West, Czech–Slovak10,600,000[61]Czech Republic
DanishdaIndo-European, Germanic, North5,500,000[62]DenmarkFaroe Islands (Denmark), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)[63]
DutchnlIndo-European, Germanic, West, Low Franconian22,000,000[64]Belgium, Netherlands
ElfdalianovdIndo-European, Germanic, North2000
EmilianeglIndo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic
EnglishenIndo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian, Anglic63,000,000[65]260,000,000[66]Ireland, Malta, United Kingdom
ErzyamyvUralic, Finno-Ugric, Mordvinic120,000[67]Mordovia (Russia)
EstonianetUralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic1,165,400[68]Estonia
ExtremaduranextIndo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian200,000[69]
FaroesefoIndo-European, Germanic, North66,150[70]Faroe Islands (Denmark)
FinnishfiUralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic5,400,000[71]FinlandSweden, Norway, Republic of Karelia (Russia)
Franco-Provençal (Arpitan)frpIndo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance140,000[72]Aosta Valley (Italy)
FrenchfrIndo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl81,000,000[73]210,000,000[66]Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, SwitzerlandAosta Valley[74] (Italy), Jersey (United Kingdom)
Frisianfry
frr
stq
Indo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian470,000[75]Friesland (Netherlands), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)[76]
FriulanfurIndo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic600,000[77]Friuli (Italy)
GagauzgagTurkic, Oghuz140,000[78]Gagauzia (Moldova)
GalicianglIndo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian2,400,000[79]Galicia (Spain), Eo-Navia (Asturias)[nb 4], Bierzo (Province of León)[nb 4] and Western Sanabria (Province of Zamora)[nb 4]
GermandeIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German97,000,000[80]170,000,000[66]Austria, Belgium, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, SwitzerlandSouth Tyrol,[81] Friuli-Venezia Giulia[82] (Italy)
GreekelIndo-European, Hellenic13,500,000[83]Cyprus, GreeceAlbania (Himara, Finiq, Dervican and other southern townships)
HungarianhuUralic, Finno-Ugric, Ugric13,000,000[84]HungaryBurgenland (Austria), Vojvodina (Serbia), Romania, Slovakia, Subcarpathia (Ukraine), Prekmurje, (Slovenia)
IcelandicisIndo-European, Germanic, North330,000[85]Iceland
IngrianizhUralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic120[86]
IngushinhNortheast Caucasian, Nakh300,000[87]Ingushetia (Russia)
IrishgaIndo-European, Celtic, Goidelic240,000[88]2,000,000IrelandNorthern Ireland (United Kingdom)
IstriotistIndo-European, Romance900[89]
Istro-RomanianruoIndo-European, Romance, Eastern1,100[90]
ItalianitIndo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian65,000,000[91]82,000,000[66]Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, Vatican CityIstria County (Croatia), Slovenian Istria (Slovenia)
Italiot GreekmisIndo-European, Hellenic, Greek, Attic-Ionic20,000 native speakers in 1981[92]50,000Calabria[93] (Bovesia), Apulia (Salento), (Italy)
Judeo-ItalianitkIndo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian250[94]
Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino)ladIndo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian320,000[95]few[96]Bosnia and Herzegovina[nb 4], France[nb 4]
KabardiankbdNorthwest Caucasian, Circassian530,000[97]Kabardino-Balkaria & Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
KalmykxalMongolic80,500[98]Kalmykia (Russia)
KareliankrlUralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic36,000[99]Republic of Karelia (Russia)
Karachay-BalkarkrcTurkic, Kipchak300,000[100]Kabardino-Balkaria & Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
KashubiancsbIndo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic50,000[101]Poland
KazakhkkTurkic, Kipchak1,000,000[102]KazakhstanAstrakhan Oblast (Russia)
KomikvUralic, Finno-Ugric, Permic220,000[103]Komi Republic (Russia)
KvenfkvUralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic2000-8000Norway
KumykkumTurkic, Kipchak450,000[104]Dagestan (Russia)
LatinlaIndo-European, Italic, Latino-Faliscanextinctfew[105]Vatican City
LatvianlvIndo-European, Baltic1,750,000[106]Latvia
LigurianlijIndo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic500,000[107]Monaco (Monégasque dialect is the "national language")Liguria (Italy), Carloforte and Calasetta (Sardinia, Italy)[108][109]
Limburgishli
lim
Indo-European, Germanic, West, Low Franconian1,300,000 (2001)[110]Limburg (Netherlands)
LithuanianltIndo-European, Baltic3,000,000[111]Lithuania
LombardlmoIndo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic3,600,000[112]Lombardy (Italy)
Low German (Low Saxon)nds
wep
Indo-European, Germanic, West1,000,000[113]2,600,000[113]Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)[114]
LuxembourgishlbIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German336,000[115]386,000[115]LuxembourgWallonia (Belgium)
MacedonianmkIndo-European, Slavic, South, Eastern1,400,000[116]North Macedonia
MainfränkischvmfIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper4,900,000[117]
MaltesemtSemitic, Arabic520,000[118]Malta
ManxgvIndo-European, Celtic, Goidelic230[119]2,300[120]Isle of Man
Marichm
mhr
mrj
Uralic, Finno-Ugric500,000[121]Mari El (Russia)
Megleno-RomanianruqIndo-European, Romance, Eastern3,000[122]
MirandesemwlIndo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian15,000[123]Miranda do Douro (Portugal)
MokshamdfUralic, Finno-Ugric, Mordvinic2,000[124]Mordovia (Russia)
MontenegrincnrIndo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian240,700[125]Montenegro
NeapolitannapIndo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian5,700,000[126]Campania (Italy)[127]
NenetsyrkUralic, Samoyedic4,000[128]Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Russia)
NormannrfIndo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl50,000[129]Guernsey (United Kingdom), Jersey (United Kingdom)
NorwegiannoIndo-European, Germanic, North5,200,000[130]Norway
OccitanocIndo-European, Romance, Western, Occitano-Romance500,000[131]Catalonia (Spain)[nb 5]
OssetianosIndo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Eastern450,000[132]North Ossetia-Alania (Russia), South Ossetia
Palatinate GermanpflIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central1,000,000[133]
PicardpcdIndo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl200,000[134]Wallonia (Belgium)
PiedmontesepmsIndo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic1,600,000[135]Piedmont (Italy)[136]
PolishplIndo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic38,500,000[137]Poland
PortugueseptIndo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian10,000,000[138]Portugal
Rhaeto-Romancefur
lld
roh
Indo-European, Romance, Western370,000[139]SwitzerlandVeneto Belluno, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, South Tyrol,[140] & Trentino (Italy)
Ripuarian (Platt)kshIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central900,000[141]
RomagnolrgnIndo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic
RomaniromIndo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Western1,500,000[142]Kosovo[nb 3][143]
RomanianroIndo-European, Romance, Eastern24,000,000[144]28,000,000[145]Moldova, RomaniaMount Athos (Greece), Vojvodina (Serbia)
RussianruIndo-European, Slavic, East106,000,000[146]160,000,000[146]Belarus, Kazakhstan, RussiaMount Athos (Greece), Gagauzia (Moldova), Left Bank of the Dniester (Moldova), Ukraine
SamiseUralic, Finno-Ugric23,000[147]NorwaySweden, Finland
SardinianscIndo-European, Romance1,350,000[148]Sardinia (Italy)
ScotsscoIndo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian, Anglic110,000[149]Scotland (United Kingdom), County Donegal (Republic of Ireland), Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)
Scottish GaelicgdIndo-European, Celtic, Goidelic57,000[150]Scotland (United Kingdom)
SerbiansrIndo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian9,000,000[151]Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo[nb 3], SerbiaCroatia, Mount Athos (Greece), North Macedonia, Montenegro
SicilianscnIndo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian4,700,000[152]Sicily (Italy)
SilesianszlIndo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic522,000[153]
Silesian GermansliIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central11,000[154]
SlovakskIndo-European, Slavic, West, Czech–Slovak5,200,000[155]SlovakiaVojvodina (Serbia), Czech Republic
SloveneslIndo-European, Slavic, South, Western2,100,000[156]SloveniaFriuli-Venezia Giulia[82] (Italy)
Sorbian (Wendish)wenIndo-European, Slavic, West20,000[157]Brandenburg & Sachsen (Germany)[158]
SpanishesIndo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian47,000,000[159]76,000,000[66]SpainGibraltar (United Kingdom)
Swabian GermanswgIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic820,000[160]
SwedishsvIndo-European, Germanic, North11,100,000[161]13,280,000[161]Sweden, Finland, Åland and Estonia
Swiss GermangswIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic5,000,000[162]Switzerland (as German)
TabasarantabNortheast Caucasian, Lezgic126,900[163]Dagestan (Russia)
TattttIndo-European, Iranian, Western30,000[164]Dagestan (Russia)
TatarttTurkic, Kipchak4,300,000[165]Tatarstan (Russia)
TurkishtrTurkic, Oghuz15,752,673[166]Turkey, CyprusNorthern Cyprus
UdmurtudmUralic, Finno-Ugric, Permic340,000[167]Udmurtia (Russia)
UkrainianukIndo-European, Slavic, East32,600,000[168]UkraineLeft Bank of the Dniester (Moldova)
Upper SaxonsxuIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central2,000,000[169]
VepsianvepUralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic1,640[170]Republic of Karelia (Russia)
VenetianvecIndo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian3,800,000[171]Veneto (Italy)[172]
VõrovroUralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic87,000[173]Võru County (Estonia)
WalloonwaIndo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl600,000[174]Wallonia (Belgium)
Walser GermanwaeIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic20,000[175]
WelshcyIndo-European, Celtic, Brittonic562,000[176]750,000Wales (United Kingdom)
WymysoryswymIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German70[177]
YenishyecIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German16,000[178]Switzerland[nb 4]
YiddishyiIndo-European, Germanic, West, High German600,000[179]Bosnia and Herzegovina[nb 4], Netherlands[nb 4], Poland[nb 4], Romania[nb 4], Sweden[nb 4], Ukraine[nb 4]
ZeelandiczeaIndo-European, Germanic, West, Low Franconian220,000[180]

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

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
AbkhazabNorthwest Caucasian, AbazgiAbkhazia/Georgia:[181] 191,000[182]
Turkey: 44,000[183]
AbkhaziaAbkhazia
Adyghe (West Circassian)adyNorthwest Caucasian, CircassianTurkey: 316,000[183]
AlbaniansqIndo-European, AlbanianTurkey: 66,000 (Tosk)[183]
ArabicarAfro-Asiatic, Semitic, WestTurkey: 2,437,000 Not counting post-2014 Syrian refugees[183]
ArmenianhyIndo-European, ArmenianArmenia: 3 million[184]
Artsakh/Azerbaijan:[185] 145,000
Georgia: around 0.2 million ethnic Armenians (Abkhazia: 44,870[186])
Turkey: 61,000[183]
Cyprus: 668[187]:3
Armenia
Artsakh
Cyprus
AzerbaijaniazTurkic, OghuzAzerbaijan 9 million[188]
Turkey: 540,000[183]
Georgia 0.2 million
Azerbaijan
BatsbibblNortheast Caucasian, NakhGeorgia: 500[189]
BulgarianbgIndo-European, Slavic, SouthTurkey: 351,000[183]
Crimean TatarcrhTurkic, KipchakTurkey: 100,000[183]
GeorgiankaKartvelian, Karto-ZanGeorgia: 3,224,696[190]
Turkey: 151,000[183]
Azerbaijan: 9,192 ethnic Georgians[191]
Georgia
GreekelIndo-European, HellenicCyprus: 679,883[192]:2.2
Turkey: 3,600[183]
Cyprus
JuhurijdtIndo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, SouthwestAzerbaijan: 24,000 (1989)[193]
KurdishkurIndo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, NorthwestTurkey: 15 million[194]
Azerbaijan: 9,000
KurmanjikmrIndo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, SouthwestTurkey: 8.13 million[195]
Armenia: 33,509[196]
Georgia: 14,000
Armenia
LazlzzKartvelian, Karto-Zan, ZanTurkey: 20,000[197]
Georgia: 2,000[197]
Megleno-RomanianruqIndo-European, Italic, Romance, EastTurkey: 4–5,000[198]
MingrelianxmfKartvelian, Karto-Zan, ZanGeorgia (including Abkhazia): 344,000[199]
Pontic GreekpntIndo-European, HellenicTurkey: greater than 5,000[200]
Armenia: 900 ethnic Caucasus Greeks[201]
Georgia: 5,689 Caucasus Greeks[190]
Romani language and Domari languagerom, dmtIndo-European, Indo-Iranian, IndicTurkey: 500,000[183]
RussianruIndo-European, Balto-Slavic, SlavicArmenia: 15,000[202]
Azerbaijan: 250,000[202]
Georgia: 130,000[202]
Armenia: about 0.9 million[203]
Azerbaijan: about 2.6 million[203]
Georgia: about 1 million[203]
Cyprus: 20,984[204]
Abkhazia
South Ossetia
Armenia
Azerbaijan
SvansvaKartvelian, SvanGeorgia (incl. Abkhazia): 30,000[205]
TattttIndo-European, Indo-Aryan, Iranian, SouthwestAzerbaijan: 10,000[206]
TurkishtrTurkic, OghuzTurkey: 66,850,000[183]
Cyprus: 1,405[207] + 265,100 in the North[208]
Turkey
Cyprus
Northern Cyprus

Immigrant communities

Recent (post–1945) immigration to Europe introduced substantial communities of speakers of non-European languages.[1]

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).[209] Armenians, Berbers, and Kurds have diaspora communities of c. 1–2,000,000 each. The various languages of Africa and languages of India form numerous smaller diaspora communities.

List of the largest immigrant languages
NameISO 639ClassificationNativeEthnic diaspora
ArabicarAfro-Asiatic, Semitic5,000,000[210]12,000,000[211]
TurkishtrTurkic, Oghuz3,000,000[212]7,000,000[213]
ArmenianhyIndo-European1,000,000[214]3,000,000[215]
KurdishkuIndo-European, Iranian, Western600,000[216]1,000,000[217]
Bengali–Assamesebn as sylIndo-European, Indo-Aryan600,000[218]1,000,000[219]
AzerbaijaniazTurkic, Oghuz500,000[220]700,000[221]
KabylekabAfro-Asiatic, Berber500,000[222]1,000,000[223]
ChinesezhSino-Tibetan, Sinitic300,000[224]2,000,000[225]
UrduurIndo-European, Indo-Aryan300,000[226]1,800,000[227]
UzbekuzTurkic, Karluk300,000[228]2,000,000[229]
PersianfaIndo-European, Iranian, Western300,000[230]400,000[231]
PunjabipaIndo-European, Indo-Aryan300,000[232]700,000[233]
GujaratiguIndo-European, Indo-Aryan200,000[234]600,000[235]
TamiltaDravidian200,000[236]500,000[237]
SomalisoAfro-Asiatic, Cushitic200,000[238]400,000[239]

See also

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. Versloot, Arjen; Adamczyk, Elzbieta (1 January 2017). "The Geography and Dialects of Old Saxon: River-basin communication networks and the distributional patterns of North Sea Germanic features in Old Saxon". Frisians and Their North Sea Neighbours: 125.
  3. Kuipers-Zandberg, Helga; Kircher, Ruth (1 November 2020). "The Objective and Subjective Ethnolinguistic Vitality of West Frisian: Promotion and Perception of a Minority Language in the Netherlands". Sustainable Multilingualism. 17 (1): 1–25. doi:10.2478/sm-2020-0011. S2CID 227129146.
  4. Winter, Christoph (21 December 2022), "Frisian", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.938, ISBN 978-0-19-938465-5, retrieved 21 May 2023
  5. Russ, Charles (13 September 2013). The Dialects of Modern German. doi:10.4324/9781315001777. ISBN 9781315001777.
  6. "Linguist makes sensational claim: English is a Scandinavian language". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  7. Ti Alkire; Carol Rosen (2010). Romance languages: a Historical Introduction. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 3.
  8. Sergio Lubello (2016). Manuale Di Linguistica Italiana, Manuals of Romance linguistics. De Gruyter. p. 499.
  9. This includes all of the varieties of Sardinian, written with any orthography (the LSC, used for all of Sardinian, or the Logudorese, Nugorese and Campidanese orthographies, only used for some dialects of it) but does not include Gallurese and Sassarese, that even though they have sometimes been included in a supposed Sardinian "macro-language" are actually considered by all Sardinian linguists two different transitional languages between Sardinian and Corsican (or, in the case of Gallurese, are sometimes classified as a variant of Corsican). For Gallurese: ATTI DEL II CONVEGNO INTERNAZIONALE DI STUDI Ciurrata di la Linga Gadduresa, 2014 , for Sassarese: Maxia, Mauro (2010). Studi sardo-corsi. Dialettologia e storia della lingua tra le due isole (in Italian). Sassari: Taphros. p. 58. La tesi che individua nel sassarese una base essenzialmente toscana deve essere riesaminata alla luce delle cospicue migrazioni corse che fin dall'età giudicale interessarono soprattutto il nord della Sardegna. In effetti, che il settentrione della Sardegna, almeno dalla metà del Quattrocento, fosse interessato da un forte presenza corsa si può desumere da diversi punti di osservazione. Una delle prove più evidenti è costituita dall'espressa citazione che di questo fenomeno fa il cap. 42 del secondo libro degli Statuti del comune di Sassari, il quale fu aggiunto nel 1435 o subito dopo. Se si tiene conto di questa massiccia presenza corsa e del fatto che la presenza pisana nel regno di Logudoro cessò definitivamente entro il Duecento, l'origine del fondo toscano non andrà attribuita a un influsso diretto del pisano antico ma del corso che rappresenta, esso stesso, una conseguenza dell'antica toscanizzazione della Corsica). They are legally considered two different languages by the Sardinian Regional Government too (Autonomous Region of Sardinia (15 October 1997). "Legge Regionale 15 ottobre 1997, n. 26" (in Italian). pp. Art. 2, paragraph 4. Archived from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2008.).
  10. 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.
  11. F. Violi, Lessico Grecanico-Italiano-Grecanico, Apodiafàzzi, Reggio Calabria, 1997.
  12. Paolo Martino, L'isola grecanica dell'Aspromonte. Aspetti sociolinguistici, 1980. Risultati di un'inchiesta del 1977
  13. Filippo Violi, Storia degli studi e della letteratura popolare grecanica, C.S.E. Bova (RC), 1992
  14. Filippo Condemi, Grammatica Grecanica, Coop. Contezza, Reggio Calabria, 1987;
  15. "In Salento e Calabria le voci della minoranza linguistica greca". Treccani, l'Enciclopedia italiana.
  16. "Kartvelian languages | Kartvelian, Georgian, Svan & Laz". Britannica. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  17. 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.
  18. Aquilina, J. (1958). "Maltese as a Mixed Language". Journal of Semitic Studies. 3 (1): 58–79. doi:10.1093/jss/3.1.58.
  19. Aquilina, Joseph (July–September 1960). "The Structure of Maltese". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 80 (3): 267–68. doi:10.2307/596187. JSTOR 596187.
  20. Werner, Louis; Calleja, Alan (November–December 2004). "Europe's New Arabic Connection". Saudi Aramco World. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  21. Reagan, Timothy (2014). "Language Policy for Sign Languages". The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. pp. 1–6. doi:10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1417. ISBN 9781405194730.
  22. Murray, Joseph J. (2015). "Linguistic Human Rights Discourse in Deaf Community Activism". Sign Language Studies. 15 (4): 379–410. doi:10.1353/sls.2015.0012. JSTOR 26190995. PMC 4490244. PMID 26190995.
  23. 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. JSTOR 3164593. S2CID 162293323. ...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.
  24. Wansbrough, John E. (1996). "Chapter 3: Lingua Franca". Lingua Franca in the Mediterranean. Routledge.
  25. Calvet, Louis Jean (1998). Language wars and linguistic politics. Oxford [England]; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 175–76.
  26. Jones, Branwen Gruffydd (2006). Decolonizing international relations. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 98.
  27. Kahane, Henry (September 1986). "A Typology of the Prestige Language". Language. 62 (3): 495. doi:10.2307/415474. JSTOR 415474.
  28. Darquennes, Jeroen; Nelde, Peter (2006). "German as a Lingua Franca". Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. 26: 61–77. doi:10.1017/s0267190506000043. S2CID 61449212.
  29. "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Strasbourg, 5.XI.1992". Council of Europe. 1992.
  30. 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".
  31. "Languages Policy: Linguistic diversity: Official languages of the EU". European Commission, European Union. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  32. "Languages of Europe: Official EU languages". European Commission, European Union. 2009. Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
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  34. "Europeans and Their Languages" (PDF). European Commission. 2006. p. 8. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
  35. Abaza at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  36. Adyghe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  37. Albanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  38. "Albanian". Ethnologue. Retrieved 12 December 2018. Population total of all languages of the Albanian macrolanguage.
  39. "Norme per la tutela e la valorizzazione della lingua e del patrimonio culturale delle minoranze linguistiche e storiche di Calabria". Archived from the original on 6 August 2009. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  40. https://zaguan.unizar.es/record/60448 Report about Census of population 2011 of Aragonese Sociolinguistics Seminar and University of Zaragoza
  41. "Más de 50.000 personas hablan aragonés". Aragón Digital. Archived from the original on 1 January 2015.
  42. Aromanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  43. III Sociolinguistic Study of Asturias (2017). Euskobarometro.
  44. 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) (subscription required)
  45. Bashkort at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  46. (in French) VI° Enquête Sociolinguistique en Euskal herria (Communauté Autonome d'Euskadi, Navarre et Pays Basque Nord) Archived 21 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine (2016).
  47. German dialect, Bavarian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  48. Belarusian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  49. Bosnian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  50. Breton at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  51. Bulgarian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  52. "Catalan". 19 November 2019.
  53. "Informe sobre la Situació de la Llengua Catalana | Xarxa CRUSCAT. Coneixements, usos i representacions del català". blogs.iec.cat.
  54. Chechen at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  55. Chuvash at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  56. German dialect, Cimbrian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  57. "Main language (detailed)". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 31 July 2023. (UK 2021 Census)
  58. Corsican at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  59. Crimean Tatar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  60. Croatian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  61. Czech at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  62. Danish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  63. recognized as official language in Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Flensburg, Flensburg and Rendsburg-Eckernförde (§ 82b LVwG)
  64. Dutch at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  65. English at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  66. Europeans and their Languages Archived 6 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Data for EU27 Archived 29 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine, published in 2012.
  67. Erzya at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  68. Estonian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  69. Extremaduran at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  70. Faroese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  71. Finnish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  72. Franco-Provençal at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  73. French at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  74. 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.
  75. Frisian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  76. recognized as official language in the Nordfriesland district and in Helgoland (§ 82b LVwG).
  77. e18|fur|Friulan
  78. Gagauz at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  79. Galician at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  80. 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.
  81. Statuto Speciale Per Il Trentino-Alto Adige Archived 26 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine (1972), Art. 99–101.
  82. "Official site of the Autonomous Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia".
  83. 11 million in Greece, out of 13.4 million in total. Greek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  84. Hungarian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  85. Icelandic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  86. Ingrian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  87. Ingush at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  88. Irish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  89. Istriot at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  90. Istro-Romanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  91. Italian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  92. N. Vincent, Italian, in B. Comrie (ed.) The world's major languages, London, Croom Helm, 1981. pp. 279–302.
  93. "Consiglio regionale della Calabria". www.consiglioregionale.calabria.it.
  94. Judeo-Italian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  95. Judaeo-Spanish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  96. 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.
  97. Kabardian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  98. Oirat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  99. Karelian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  100. Karachay-Balkar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  101. Kashubian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  102. About 10 million in Kazakhstan. Kazakh at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required). Technically, the westernmost portions of Kazakhstan (Atyrau Region, West Kazakhstan Region) are in Europe, with a total population of less than one million.
  103. 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) (subscription required)
  104. "2010 Russian Census". Archived from the original on 6 October 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
  105. 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.
  106. Latvian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  107. Ligurian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  108. "Legge Regionale 15 ottobre 1997, n. 26". Regione autonoma della Sardegna – Regione Autònoma de Sardigna. Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  109. "Legge Regionale 3 Luglio 2018, n. 22". Regione autonoma della Sardegna – Regione Autònoma de Sardigna. Archived from the original on 5 March 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  110. "Redirected". Ethnologue. 19 November 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  111. Lithuanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  112. Lombard at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  113. 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) (subscription required), Westphalian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  114. 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).
  115. Luxembourgish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  116. Macedonian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  117. German dialect, Main-Franconian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  118. Maltese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  119. Manx at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  120. Whitehead, Sarah (2 April 2015). "How the Manx language came back from the dead". theguardian.com. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  121. Mari at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  122. Megleno-Romanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  123. Mirandese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  124. Moksha at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  125. "Montenegro". Ethnologue. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
  126. Neapolitan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  127. 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.
  128. 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)
  129. Jèrriais at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  130. "Norwegian". Ethnologue. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  131. Occitan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required). 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.
  132. Total 570,000, of which 450,000 in the Russian Federation. Ossetian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  133. German dialect, Palatinate German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  134. Picard at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  135. Piedmontese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  136. 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.
  137. Polish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  138. Portuguese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  139. Includes Friulian, Romansh, Ladin. Friulian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Ladin at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romansch at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  140. Statuto Speciale Per Il Trentino-Alto Adige Archived 26 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine (1972), Art. 102.
  141. German dialect, Kölsch at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  142. Romani, Balkan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, Baltic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, Carpathian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, Finnish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, Sinte at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, Vlax at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, Welsh at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  143. Constitution of Kosovo, p. 8 Archived 11 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  144. Romanian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  145. "Româna". unilat.org (in Romanian). Latin Union. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  146. 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) (subscription required).
  147. 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) (subscription required), Lule Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Southern Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Kildin Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Skolt Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Inari Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required).
  148. AA. VV. Calendario Atlante De Agostini 2017, Novara, Istituto Geografico De Agostini, 2016, p. 230
  149. Scots at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  150. Gaelic, Scottish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  151. Serbian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  152. Sicilian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  153. Silesian at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) closed access
  154. German dialect, Lower Silesian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  155. Slovak at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  156. Slovene at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  157. Sorbian, Upper at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  158. 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).
  159. Spanish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  160. German dialect, Swabian German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  161. Swedish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  162. German dialect, Swiss German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  163. Tabassaran at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  164. Tat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Judeo-Tat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) 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 the South Caucasus.
  165. Tatar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  166. c. 12 million in European Turkey, 0.6 million in Bulgaria, 0.6 million in Cyprus and Northern Cyprus; and 2,679,765 L1 speakers in other countries in Europe according to a Eurobarometer survey in 2012: https://languageknowledge.eu/languages/turkish
  167. Udmurt at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  168. Ukrainian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  169. German dialect, Upper Saxon German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  170. Russian Census 2010. Veps at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  171. Venetian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  172. 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. Archived from the original on 24 July 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2009.
  173. Võro at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  174. Walloon at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  175. Highest Alemannic dialects, Walser German at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  176. Welsh at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  177. Moribund German dialect spoken in Wilamowice, Poland. 70 speakers recorded in 2006. Wymysorys at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  178. Yenish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  179. Total population estimated at 1.5 million as of 1991, of which c. 40% in the Ukraine. Yiddish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Eastern Yiddish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Western Yiddish at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  180. Zeelandic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  181. 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
  182. Abkhazian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  183. Lewis, M. Paul, ed. (2009). "Ethnologue report for Turkey (Asia)". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. SIL International. Archived from the original on 7 July 2010. Retrieved 8 September 2009.
  184. "Armenian 2011 census data, chapter 5" (PDF).
  185. Note: de facto independent republic, Azerbaijan claims sovereignty over it.
  186. "Ethno-Caucasus – Население Кавказа – Республика Абхазия – Население Абхазии".
  187. Council of Europe (16 January 2014). 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) (Report).
  188. Azeri community in Dagestan excluded
  189. "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  190. "2014 Georgian census" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2017.
  191. Censuses of Republic of Azerbaijan 1979, 1989, 1999, 2009Archived 30 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  192. "Cyprus" (PDF). Euromosaic III. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
  193. "Ethnologue: Azerbaijan". Tedsnet.de. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  194. 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.
  195. Ozek, Fatih; Saglam, Bilgit; Gooskens, Charlotte (1 December 2021). "Mutual intelligibility of a Kurmanji and a Zazaki dialect spoken in the province of Elazığ, Turkey". Applied Linguistics Review. De Gruyter academic publishing. 14 (5): 1411–1449. doi:10.1515/applirev-2020-0151. S2CID 244782650. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  196. "Article" (PDF). armstat.am.
  197. "Laz". Ethnologue.
  198. 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."
  199. "Endangered Languages Project: Mingrelian".
  200. 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.
  201. "2011 Armenian Census" (PDF).
  202. Падение статуса русского языка на постсоветском пространстве. Demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 25 October 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  203. Русскоязычие распространено не только там, где живут русские. demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 23 October 2016.
  204. Στατιστική Υπηρεσία – Πληθυσμός και Κοινωνικές Συνθήκες – Απογραφή Πληθυσμού – Ανακοινώσεις – Αποτελέσματα Απογραφής Πληθυσμού, 2011 (in Greek). Demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 7 May 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  205. "Endangered Languages Project: Svan".
  206. 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.
  207. "Population enumerated by age, sex, language spoken and district (1.10.2011) (sheet D1A)". Population – Country of Birth, Citizenship Category, Country of Citizenship, Language, 2011. CYstat. June 2013.
  208. "Census.XLS" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  209. Cole, Jeffrey (2011), Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, p. 367, ISBN 978-1-59884-302-6
  210. France: 4,000,000, Germany: 500k (2015), Spain: 200k UK: 159k (2011 census)
  211. 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.
  212. Germany: 1,510k, France: 444k, Netherlands: 388k, Austria: 197k, Russia: 146k, UK: 99k, Switzerland: 44k, Sweden: 44.
  213. See Turks in Europe: only counting recent (post-Ottoman era) immigration: Germany: 4,000,000, France: 1,000,000, UK: 500,000, Netherlands: 500,000, Austria: 400,000, Switzerland, Sweden and Russia: 200,000 each.
  214. 830k in Russia (2010 census), 100k in Ukraine (SIL Ethnologue 2015).
  215. 2,000,000 Armenians in Russia. France 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.
  216. Germany: 541k
  217. Kurdish population: mostly Kurds in Germany, Kurds in France, Kurds in Sweden.
  218. Sylheti: 300k in the UK, Bengali: 221k in the UK.
  219. see British Indian, Bangladeshi diaspora, Bengali diaspora.
  220. 515k in Russia (2010 census)
  221. Azerbaijani diaspora: Russia 600k, Ukraine 45k, not counting 400,000 in Azerbajian's Quba-Khachmaz Region (Shabran District, Khachmaz District, Quba District, Qusar District, Siyazan District) technically in Europe (being north of the Caucasus watershed).
  222. France: 500k
  223. Kabyle people in France: 1,000,000.
  224. Germany 120k, Russia: 70k, UK 66k, Spain 20k.
  225. Overseas Chinese: France 700,000, UK: 500,000, Russia: 300,000, Italy: 300,000, Germany: 200,000, Spain: 100,000.
  226. UK: 269k (2011 census).
  227. Pakistani diaspora, the majority Pakistanis in the UK.
  228. Russia: 274k (2010 census)
  229. see Uzbeks in Russia.
  230. UK: 76k, Sweden: 74k, Germany: 72k, France 40k.
  231. Iranian diaspora: Germany: 100k, Sweden: 100k, UK: 50k, Russia: 50k, Netherlands: 35k, Denmark: 20k.
  232. UK: 280k
  233. see British Punjabis
  234. UK: 213k
  235. see Gujarati diaspora
  236. UK: 101k, Germany: 35k, Switzerland: 22k.
  237. Tamil diaspora: UK 300k, France 100k, Germany 50k, Switzerland 40k,u Netherlands, 20k, Norway 10k.
  238. UK: 86k, Sweden: 53k, Italy: 50k
  239. Somali diaspora: UK: 114k, Sweden: 64k, Norway: 42k, Netherlands: 39k, Germany: 34k, Denmark: 21k, Finland: 19k.
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