Languages of Europe

{{See also|Indo-European languages|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).

[[File:Germanic languages in Europe.png|300px|thumb|right|

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

North Germanic languages

{{legend|#02FDFF|Icelandic}}

{{legend|#1FC5FC|Faroese}}

{{legend|#0080FF|Norwegian}}

{{legend|#003F80|Swedish}}

{{legend|#0433FF|Danish}}

West Germanic Languages

{{legend|#FCA502|English}}

{{legend|#FD7B24|Scots}}

{{legend|#E2BD00|Frisian}}

{{legend|#FFF435|Dutch}}

{{legend|#ADFF2F|Low German}}

{{legend|#018000|High German}}

Dots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.]]

The Germanic languages make up the predominant language family in Western, Northern and Central Europe. It is estimated that over 500 million Europeans are speakers of Germanic languages,{{Citation |title=Germanic languages |date=2025-01-03 |work=Wikipedia |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages#CITEREFK%C3%B6nigvan_der_Auwera1994 |access-date=2025-01-13 |language=en}} the largest groups being German ({{circa}} 95 million), English ({{circa}} 400 million){{citation needed|date=January 2024}}, Dutch ({{circa}} 24 million), Swedish ({{circa}} 10 million), Danish ({{circa}} 6 million), Norwegian ({{circa}} 5 million){{Cite web |last=Sipka |first=Danko |date=2022 |title=The Geography of Words |url=https://assets.cambridge.org/97811088/41658/index/9781108841658_index.pdf |access-date=December 23, 2023 |website=Cambridge University Press}} and Limburgish (c. 1.3 million).{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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).{{Cite journal |last1=Versloot |first1=Arjen |last2=Adamczyk |first2=Elzbieta |date=2017-01-01 |title=The Geography and Dialects of Old Saxon: River-basin communication networks and the distributional patterns of North Sea Germanic features in Old Saxon |url=https://www.academia.edu/19757571 |journal=Frisians and Their North Sea Neighbours |pages=125|doi=10.1515/9781787440630-014 }}

{{Main|Anglo-Frisian languages|English language in Europe}}

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 and the most widespread language in the Republic of Ireland, also spoken as a second or third language by many Europeans.{{Cite web |title=The Evolution of English: Contribution of European Languages |url=https://www.98thpercentile.com/blog/the-evolution-of-english-contributions-of-european-languages/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=www.98thpercentile.com |language=en}}
• Scots, spoken in Scotland and Ulster, recognized by some as a language and by others as a dialect of English{{Cite web |date=2023-12-05 |title=Scots language {{!}} History, Examples, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scots-language |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} (not to be confused with Scots-Gaelic of the Celtic language family).

The Frisian languages are spoken by about 400,000 ({{as of|2015|lc=y}}) Frisians,{{Cite journal |last1=Kuipers-Zandberg |first1=Helga |last2=Kircher |first2=Ruth |date=2020-11-01 |title=The Objective and Subjective Ethnolinguistic Vitality of West Frisian: Promotion and Perception of a Minority Language in the Netherlands |journal=Sustainable Multilingualism |language=en |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.2478/sm-2020-0011|s2cid=227129146 |doi-access=free }}{{Citation |last=Winter |first=Christoph |title=Frisian |date=2022-12-21 |url=https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-938 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics |access-date=2023-05-21 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.938 |isbn=978-0-19-938465-5|url-access=subscription }} 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.

{{Main|Dutch language#Europe{{!}}Dutch-speaking Europe|Dutch language|Low Franconian}}

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 numerous and varied.{{Cite web |date=2023-12-15 |title=Dutch language {{!}} Definition, Origin, History, Countries, Examples, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dutch-language |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}

{{Main|German language|Geographical distribution of German speakers}}

German is spoken throughout Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, much of Switzerland, northern Italy (South Tyrol), Luxembourg, the East Cantons of Belgium and the Alsace and Lorraine regions of France.{{Cite web |title=German, Standard {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/deu/ |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en}}

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 Bavarian and Swiss German
• Yiddish is a Jewish language developed in Germany and Eastern Europe. It shares many features of High German dialects and Hebrew.{{Cite web |title=Origins of Yiddish |url=https://sites.santafe.edu/~johnson/articles.yiddish.html |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=sites.santafe.edu}}

====Low German====

Low German is spoken in various regions throughout Northern Germany and the northern and eastern parts of the Netherlands.{{Cite web |date=2023-12-28 |title=All You Need To Know About The Official Languages Of Germany |url=https://gtelocalize.com/about-the-official-languages-of-germany/#Looking-for-a-reliable-German-Translation-Service |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=gtelocalize.com |language=en-US}} It may be separated into West Low German and East Low German.{{Cite book |last=Russ |first=Charles |date=2013-09-13 |title=The Dialects of Modern German |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315001777 |doi=10.4324/9781315001777|isbn=9781315001777 }}

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).{{cite book |last1=Louden |first1=Mark L. |title=The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-42186-7 |pages=807–832 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108378291.035 |chapter=Minority Germanic Languages}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121127094111.htm|title=Linguist makes sensational claim: English is a Scandinavian language|website=ScienceDaily|access-date=2016-03-06}} Even so, especially Dutch and Swedish, but also Danish and Norwegian, have strong vocabulary connections to the German language.{{Cite web |date=2019-02-21 |title=Linguistic variety in the Nordics |url=https://nordics.info/show/artikel/linguistic-variety-in-the-nordic-region |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=nordics.info |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last1=Gooskens |first1=Charlotte |last2=Kürschner |first2=Sebastian |last3=Heuven |first3=Vincent J. van |date=August 4, 2021 |title=The role of loanwords in the intelligibility of written Danish among Swedes |journal=Nordic Journal of Linguistics |language=en |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=4–29 |doi=10.1017/S0332586521000111 |issn=0332-5865|doi-access=free |hdl=1887/3205273 |hdl-access=free }}{{Cite journal |last1=Gooskens |first1=Charlotte |last2=van Heuven |first2=Vincent J. |last3=Golubović |first3=Jelena |last4=Schüppert |first4=Anja |last5=Swarte |first5=Femke |last6=Voigt |first6=Stefanie |date=2018-04-03 |title=Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in Europe |journal=International Journal of Multilingualism |language=en |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=169–193 |doi=10.1080/14790718.2017.1350185 |issn=1479-0718|doi-access=free |hdl=1887/79190 |hdl-access=free }}

{{Further|Romance languages|Italic languages}}{{See also|Latins}}File:Romance 20c en.png

Roughly 215 million Europeans (primarily in Southern and Western Europe) are native speakers of Romance languages, the largest groups including:{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

French ({{circa}} 72 million),

Italian ({{circa}} 65 million),

Spanish ({{circa}} 40 million),

Romanian ({{circa}} 24 million),

Portuguese ({{circa}} 10 million),

Catalan ({{circa}} 7 million),

Neapolitan ({{circa}} 6 million),

Sicilian ({{circa}} 5 million),

Venetian ({{circa}} 4 million),

Galician ({{circa}} 2 million),

Sardinian ({{circa}} 1 million),{{cite book |author=Ti Alkire |title=Romance languages: a Historical Introduction |author2=Carol Rosen |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |location=New York |page=3}}{{cite book |author=Sergio Lubello |title=Manuale Di Linguistica Italiana, Manuals of Romance linguistics |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2016 |page=499}}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: [http://maxia-mail.doomby.com/medias/files/atti-def-2015.compressed.pdf ATTI DEL II CONVEGNO INTERNAZIONALE DI STUDI Ciurrata di la Linga Gadduresa, 2014], for Sassarese: {{cite book |last=Maxia |first=Mauro |title=Studi sardo-corsi. Dialettologia e storia della lingua tra le due isole |year=2010 |location=Sassari |publisher=Taphros |page=58 |language=it |quote=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 ({{cite web |author=Autonomous Region of Sardinia |date=1997-10-15 |title=Legge Regionale 15 ottobre 1997, n. 26 |url=http://www.regione.sardegna.it/j/v/86?v=9&c=72&s=1&file=1997026 |access-date=2008-06-16 |pages=Art. 2, paragraph 4 |language=it |archive-date=1 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301195804/http://www.regione.sardegna.it/j/v/86?v=9&c=72&s=1&file=1997026 |url-status=dead }}).

Occitan ({{circa}} 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.{{Cite web |date=2025-02-06 |title=Romance languages {{!}} Definition, Origin, Characteristics, Classification, Map, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languages |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} 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.{{cite book |last1=Friedman |first1=Lawrence |last2=Perez-Perdomo |first2=Rogelio |date=2003 |title=Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEMUKyPTE9AC&q=%22latin+europe%22 |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=1 |isbn=0-8047-6695-9 |author-link1=Lawrence M. Friedman }}

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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

{{See also|Slavic languages|Slavs}}

[[File:Slavic europe (Kosovo unshaded).svg|thumb|300px|Political map of Europe with countries where the national language is Slavic:

{{legend|#7cdc87|West Slavic languages}}

{{legend|#008000|East Slavic languages}}

{{legend|#004040|South Slavic languages}}]]

Slavic languages are spoken in large areas of Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. An estimated 315 million people speak a Slavic language,{{Cite web |date=2023-11-02 |title=Slavic languages {{!}} List, Definition, Origin, Map, Tree, History, & Number of Speakers {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Slavic-languages |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} the largest groups being

Russian ({{circa}} 110 million in European Russia and adjacent parts of Eastern Europe, Russian forming the largest linguistic community in Europe),

Polish ({{circa}} 40 million{{e27|pol|Polish}}),

Ukrainian ({{circa}} 33 million{{e27|ukr|Ukrainian}}),

Serbo-Croatian ({{circa}} 18 million{{e27|hbs|Serbo-Croatian}}),

Czech ({{circa}} 11 million{{e27|ces|Czech}}),

Bulgarian ({{circa}} 8 million{{e27|bul|Bulgarian}}),

Slovak ({{circa}} 5 million{{e27|slk|Slovak}}),

Belarusian (c. 3.7 million{{e27|bel|Belarusian}}), Slovene ({{circa}} 2.3 million{{e27|slv|Slovene}})

and Macedonian ({{circa}} 1.6 million{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Macedonian-language |title=Macedonian Language |author= |date=12 January 2024|website=Britannica |publisher= Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=24 March 2024 |quote=}}).

Phylogenetically, Slavic is divided into three subgroups:{{Cite web |title=Slavic {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/subgroup/4249/ |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en}}

• West Slavic includes Polish, Polabian, Czech, Knaanic, Slovak, Lower Sorbian, Upper Sorbian, Silesian and Kashubian.
• East Slavic includes Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Ruthenian, and Rusyn.
• South Slavic includes Slovene and Serbo-Croatian in the southwest and Bulgarian, Macedonian and Church Slavonic (a liturgical language) in the southeast, each with numerous distinctive dialects. South Slavic languages constitute a dialect continuum where standard Slovene, Macedonian and Bulgarian are each based on a distinct dialect, whereas pluricentric Serbo-Croatian boasts four mutually intelligible national standard varieties all based on a single dialect, Shtokavian.

• Greek ({{circa}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• Italiot Greek is, debatably, a Doric dialect of Greek. It is spoken in southern Italy only, in the southern Calabria region (as Grecanic)F. Violi, Lessico Grecanico-Italiano-Grecanico, Apodiafàzzi, Reggio Calabria, 1997.Paolo Martino, L'isola grecanica dell'Aspromonte. Aspetti sociolinguistici, 1980. Risultati di un'inchiesta del 1977Filippo Violi, Storia degli studi e della letteratura popolare grecanica, C.S.E. Bova (RC), 1992Filippo Condemi, Grammatica Grecanica, Coop. Contezza, Reggio Calabria, 1987;{{cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it/magazine/lingua_italiana/speciali/minoranze/Romano.html|title=In Salento e Calabria le voci della minoranza linguistica greca|website=Treccani, l'Enciclopedia italiana}} and in the Salento region (as Griko). It was studied by the German linguist Gerhard Rohlfs during the 1930s and 1950s.{{cite journal |author1=Gerhard Rohlfs |author2=Salvatore Sicuro |title=Grammatica storica dei dialetti italogreci |url=https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1130000797628384384 |journal=(No Title) |access-date=8 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240420152930/https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1130000797628384384 |archive-date=20 April 2024 |language=it |url-status=live}}
• Tsakonian is a Doric dialect of the Greek language spoken in the lower Arcadia region of the Peloponnese around the village of Leonidio{{cite web | last=Dansby | first=Angela | title=The last speakers of ancient Sparta | website=BBC Home | date=December 16, 2020 | url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20201215-the-last-speakers-of-ancient-sparta | access-date=February 6, 2024}}

File:Baltic languages.png

• The Baltic languages are spoken in Lithuania (Lithuanian ({{circa}} 3 million), Samogitian) and Latvia (Latvian ({{circa}} 1.5 million), Latgalian). Samogitian and Latgalian used to be considered dialects of Lithuanian and Latvian respectively.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• There are also several extinct Baltic languages, including: Curonian,{{cite book |last=Pronk |first=Tijmen |date=2017 |title=USQUE AD RADICES Indo-European studies in honour of Birgit Anette Olsen: Curonian accentuation |url=https://www.academia.edu/35480576 |location=Copenhagen, Denmark |publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press |page=659 |isbn=9788763545761}}{{cite journal |last1=Vaba |first1=Lembit |date=July 2014 |title=Curonian linguistic elements in Livonian |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286371765 |journal=Eesti ja Soome-Ugri Keeleteaduse Ajakiri |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=173–191 |doi=10.12697/jeful.2014.5.1.09 |access-date=2024-02-18|doi-access=free }} Galindian, Old Prussian,{{cite journal |last1=Nomachi |first1=Motoki |date=2019 |title=Placing Kashubian in the Circum-Baltic (CB) area |url=https://www.journals.polon.uw.edu.pl/index.php/pf/article/view/470 |journal=Prace Filologiczne |volume=LXXIV |issue=2019 |pages=315–328 |doi=10.32798/pf.470 |access-date=2024-02-18|doi-access=free }} Selonian, Semigallian,{{cite web | last=Mažiulis | first=Vytautas J. | title=Baltic Languages | website=Encyclopedia Britannica | date=July 26, 1999 | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baltic-languages | access-date=February 18, 2024}} and Sudovian.{{cite journal |last1=Szatkowski |first1=Piotr |date=January 2022 |title=Language Practices in a Family of Prussian Language Revivalists: Conclusions Based on Short-Term Participant Observation |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358448619 |journal=Adeptus |issue=2626 |pages=173 |doi=10.11649/a.2626 |access-date=2024-02-18|doi-access=free }}
• Albanian ({{circa}} 7.5 million) has two major dialects, Tosk Albanian and Gheg Albanian. It is spoken in Albania and Kosovo, neighboring North Macedonia, Serbia, Italy, and Montenegro. It is also widely spoken in the Albanian diaspora.{{cite journal |last1=Çerpja |first1=Adelina |last2=Çepani |first2=Anila |date=December 2023 |title=Albanian Dialect Classifications |url=https://www.edicions.ub.edu/revistes/dialectologiaSP2023/documentos/1938.pdf |journal=Dialectologia |volume=11 |issue=2023 |pages=51–87 |doi=10.1344/dialectologia2023.2023.3 |access-date=8 March 2025}}
• Armenian ({{circa}} 7 million) has two major forms, Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian. It is spoken in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (Samtskhe-Javakheti) and Abkhazia, also Russia, France, Italy, Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus. It is also widely spoken in the Armenian Diaspora. {{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• 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:
• Brittonic family: Welsh (Wales, {{circa}} 462,000{{Cite web |title=Welsh {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/cym/ |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en}}), Cornish (Cornwall, {{circa}} 500{{Cite web |title=Cornish {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/cor/ |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en}}) and Breton (Brittany, {{circa}} 206,000{{Cite web |title=Breton {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/bre/ |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en}})
• Goidelic family: Irish (Ireland, {{circa}} 1.7 million{{Cite web |title=Irish {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/gle/ |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en}}), Scottish Gaelic (Scotland, {{circa}} 57,400{{Cite web |title=Scottish Gaelic {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/gla/ |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en}}), and Manx (Isle of Man, 1,660{{Cite web |title=Manx {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/glv/ |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en}})

: Continental Celtic languages had previously been spoken across Europe from Iberia and Gaul to Asia Minor, but became extinct in the first millennium CE.{{Cite web |title=Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic |url=https://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/spokenword/texts_cc.php |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=www.asnc.cam.ac.uk}}{{Cite web |date=2023-12-22 |title=Celtic languages {{!}} History, Features, Origin, Map, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Celtic-languages |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}

• The Indo-Aryan languages have one major representative: Romani ({{circa}} 4.6 million speakers{{Citation |title=ROMANI IN EUROPE |vauthors=Zatreanu M, Halwachs DW |url=https://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/roma/source/romanieurope_en.pdf |publisher=The Council of Europe}}), 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 ({{circa}} 600,000).{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

{{Main|Turkic languages}}

File:Turkic Languages distribution map.png

• Oghuz languages in Europe include Turkish, spoken in East Thrace and by immigrant communities; Azerbaijani is spoken in Northeast Azerbaijan and parts of Southern Russia and Gagauz is spoken in Gagauzia.{{Cite web |date=2025-02-28 |title=Turkic languages {{!}} Geography, History, & Comparison {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Turkic-languages |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}
• Kipchak languages in Europe include Karaim, Crimean Tatar and Krymchak, which is spoken mainly in Crimea; Tatar, which is spoken in Tatarstan; Bashkir, which is spoken in Bashkortostan; Karachay-Balkar, which is spoken in the North Caucasus, and Kazakh, which is spoken in Northwest 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.{{Cite journal |last=Yükselen Peler |first=Gökçe |date=2018 |title=Tarih İçinde Yunanistan'da Türk Dili: Hun-Avar-Bulgar Dönemi |url=https://iupress.istanbul.edu.tr/en/journal/tuded/article/tarih-icinde-yunanistanda-turk-dili-hun-avar-bulgar-donemi |journal=Journal of Turkish Language and Literature |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=429–448 |doi=10.26650/TUDED2018-0004|doi-access=free }}

{{Main|Uralic languages}}

File:Uralic languages ( ALL LANGUAGES ).png

The Uralic language family is native to northern Eurasia.

Finnic languages include Finnish ({{circa}} 5 million) and Estonian ({{circa}} 1 million), as well as smaller languages such as Kven ({{circa}} 8,000). Other languages of the Finno-Permic branch of the family include e.g. Mari (c. 400,000), and the Sami languages ({{circa}} 30,000).{{Cite web |date=2025-02-24 |title=Uralic languages {{!}} Finno-Ugric, Samoyedic, & Permic Groups {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uralic-languages |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}

The Ugric branch of the language family is represented in Europe by the Hungarian language ({{circa}} 13 million), historically introduced with the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin of the 9th century.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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).{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

{{Main|Semitic languages}}

File:Non-Indo European nations in Europe.svg

• Maltese ({{circa}} 500,000) is a Semitic language with Romance and Germanic influences, spoken in Malta.{{cite web |last=Alexander |first=Marie |title=2nd International Conference of Maltese Linguistics: Saturday, September 19 – Monday, September 21, 2009 |url=http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/maltese/abstracts.aspx |year=2009 |publisher=International Association of Maltese Linguistics |access-date=2 November 2009 |display-authors=etal |archive-date=23 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080623195959/http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/maltese/abstracts.aspx |url-status=dead }}{{cite journal |first=J. |last=Aquilina |title=Maltese as a Mixed Language |journal=Journal of Semitic Studies |year=1958 |volume=3 |number=1 |pages=58–79 |doi=10.1093/jss/3.1.58}}{{cite journal |title=The Structure of Maltese |first=Joseph |last=Aquilina |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=80 |number=3 |date=July–September 1960 |pages=267–68 |doi=10.2307/596187|jstor=596187 }}{{cite journal |title=Europe's New Arabic Connection |first1=Louis |last1=Werner |first2=Alan |last2=Calleja |url=http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200406/europe.s.new.arabic.connection.htm |journal=Saudi Aramco World |date=November–December 2004 |access-date=2016-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929195459/http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200406/europe.s.new.arabic.connection.htm |archive-date=2012-09-29 |url-status=dead }} It is based on Sicilian Arabic, with influences from Sicilian, Italian, French and, more recently, English. It is the only Semitic language whose standard form is written in Latin script. It is also the second smallest official language of the EU in terms of speakers (after Irish), and the only official Semitic language within the EU.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• 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.
• Eastern Aramaic, a Semitic language is spoken by Assyrian communities in the Caucasus and southern Russia who fled the Assyrian Genocide during World War I, and also by Assyrian communities in the Assyrian diaspora in other parts of Europe.{{Cite web |title=Assyrian Neo-Aramaic {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/aii/ |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en}}

• The Basque language (or Euskara, {{circa}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• North Caucasian languages is a geographical blanket term for two unrelated language families spoken chiefly in the north Caucasus and Turkey{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• the Northwest Caucasian family (including Abkhaz and Circassian){{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• the Northeast Caucasian family, spoken mainly in the border area of the southern Russian Federation (including Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia) and northern Azerbaijan{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• 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.{{Cite web |title=Kalmyk |url=https://celt.indiana.edu/portal/Kalmyk/index.html |access-date=2024-08-29 |website=Center for Language Technology |language=en-US}}
• Kartvelian languages (also known as Southwest Caucasian languages), the most common of which is Georgian ({{circa}} 3.5 million), others being Mingrelian and Svan, spoken mainly in the Caucasus and Anatolia.{{Cite web |title=Kartvelian languages {{!}} Kartvelian, Georgian, Svan & Laz |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kartvelian-languages |access-date=2023-09-03 |website=Britannica |language=en}}

{{Main|List of sign languages#Europe}}

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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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.{{Cite web |title=La Langue des signes française (LSF) {{!}} Fondation pour l'audition |url=https://www.fondationpourlaudition.org/la-langue-des-signes-francaise-569 |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=www.fondationpourlaudition.org}}

Recognition of non-oral languages varies widely from region to region.{{Cite book|doi=10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1417|chapter=Language Policy for Sign Languages|title=The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics|year=2014|last1=Reagan|first1=Timothy|pages=1–6|isbn=9781405194730}} Some countries afford legal recognition, even to official on a state level, whereas others continue to be actively suppressed.{{cite journal |last1=Murray |first1=Joseph J. |title=Linguistic Human Rights Discourse in Deaf Community Activism |journal=Sign Language Studies |date=2015 |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=379–410 |pmid=26190995 |url= |doi=10.1353/sls.2015.0012 |jstor=26190995 |pmc=4490244 }}

Though "there is a widespread belief—among both Deaf people and sign language linguists—that there are sign language families,"{{Cite journal |last=Reagan |first=Timothy |date=2021 |title=Historical Linguistics and the Case for Sign Language Families |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/799807 |journal=Sign Language Studies |language=en |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=427–454 |doi=10.1353/sls.2021.0006 |s2cid=236778280 |issn=1533-6263|url-access=subscription }} the actual relationship between sign languages is difficult to ascertain. Concepts and methods used in historical linguistics to describe language families for written and spoken languages are not easily mapped onto signed languages.{{Cite journal |last=Power |first=Justin M. |date=2022 |title=Historical Linguistics of Sign Languages: Progress and Problems |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=13 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.818753 |pmid=35356353 |issn=1664-1078 |doi-access=free |pmc=8959496 }} Some of the current understandings of sign language relationships, however, provide some reasonable estimates about potential sign language families:

• Francosign languages, such as LSF, ASL, Dutch Sign Language, Flemish Sign Language, and Italian Sign Language.{{Cite web |last=Andrews |first=Bruce |title=The rich diversity of sign languages explained |url=https://news.csu.edu.au/opinion/the-rich-diversity-of-sign-languages-explained |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=news.csu.edu.au |language=en-AU}}
• BANZSL languages, including British Sign Language (BSL), New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL), Australian Sign Language (Auslan), and Swedish Sign Language.{{Cite web |title=BANZSL |url=https://www.signcommunity.org.uk/banzsl.html |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=www.signcommunity.org.uk}}
• Isolate languages, such as Albanian Sign Language, Armenian Sign Language, Caucasian Sign Language, Spanish Sign Language (LSE), Turkish Sign Language (TİD), and perhaps Ghardaia Sign Language.
• Many other sign languages, such as Irish Sign Language (ISL), have unclear origins.{{Citation |chapter=Chapter 2. The Linguistic Setup of Sign Languages – The Case of Irish Sign Language (ISL) |date=2014-07-28 |pages=4–30 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |language=de |doi=10.1515/9781614514978.4 |isbn=978-1-61451-497-8 |title=Mouth Actions in Sign Languages |doi-access=free }}

{{further|Ethnic groups in Europe#History|Vernacular|De vulgari eloquentia}}

In the Middle Ages the two most important defining elements of Europe were Christianitas and Latinitas.{{Cite web |last=Mark |first=Joshua |date=28 June 2019 |title=Religion in the Middle Ages |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1411/religion-in-the-middle-ages/ |access-date=15 December 2023 |website=World History Encyclopedia}}

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).{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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.{{cite journal |title=Review [untitled] of Ariadna Camariano-Cioran, Les Academies Princieres de Bucarest et de Jassy et leur Professeurs |journal=Church History |volume=45 |number=1 |date = March 1976|pages=115–116 |quote=...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. |first=James Steve |last=Counelis |doi=10.2307/3164593|jstor=3164593 |s2cid=162293323 }}
• 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; Neo-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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• Old Occitan in central and southern France, north-western Italy and the main territories of the crown of Aragon (Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Aragon).{{Cite web |title=A troubadour literary koiné? |url=https://www.trob-eu.net/en/a-troubadour-literary-koine.html}}
• Lingua Franca or Sabir, the original of the name, an Italian and Catalan-based pidgin language of mixed origins used by maritime commercial interests around the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and early Modern Age.{{cite book |title=Lingua Franca in the Mediterranean |first=John E. |last=Wansbrough |chapter=Chapter 3: Lingua Franca |year=1996 |publisher=Routledge}}
• Old French in continental western European countries and in the Crusader states.{{cite book |title=Language wars and linguistic politics |first=Louis Jean |last=Calvet |location=Oxford [England]; New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |pages=175–76}}
• 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• Middle Low German, around the 14th–16th century, during the heyday of the Hanseatic League, mainly in Northeastern Europe across the Baltic Sea.
• 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.{{cite book |page=[https://archive.org/details/decolonizinginte00jone/page/n55 98] |title=Decolonizing international relations |url=https://archive.org/details/decolonizinginte00jone |url-access=limited |first=Branwen Gruffydd |last=Jones |location=Lanham, MD|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2006}}
• Polish, due to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (16th–18th centuries).{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• Italian due to the Renaissance, the opera, the Italian Empire, the fashion industry and the influence of the Roman Catholic church.{{cite journal |last=Kahane |first=Henry |date=September 1986 |title=A Typology of the Prestige Language |journal=Language |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=495–508 |doi=10.2307/415474 |jstor=415474}}
• 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.
• German in Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe.{{cite journal |first1=Jeroen |last1=Darquennes |first2=Peter |last2=Nelde |title=German as a Lingua Franca |journal=Annual Review of Applied Linguistics |volume=26 |pages=61–77 |year=2006 |doi=10.1017/s0267190506000043|doi-broken-date=18 December 2024 |s2cid=61449212 }}
• 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• Russian in the former Soviet Union and Russian Empire including Northern and Central Asia.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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.{{cite web|title=European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Strasbourg, 5.XI.1992|url=http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/148.htm|publisher=Council of Europe|year=1992|access-date=4 November 2009|archive-date=26 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110226052008/http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/HTML/148.htm|url-status=dead}} 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.{{Cite book |last1=Protsyk |first1=Oleh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMFE-OYR3dkC&dq=%22European+Charter+for+Regional+or+Minority%22+%221998%22+%22russia%22&pg=PA42 |title=Managing Ethnic Diversity in Russia |last2=Harzl |first2=Benedikt |date=2013-05-07 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-26774-1 |pages=42 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Assembly |first=Council of Europe: Parliamentary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wKonXLgCTLQC&dq=%22European+Charter+for+Regional+or+Minority%22+%221998%22+%22moldova%22&pg=PA235 |title=Documents: working papers, 2006 ordinary session (first part), 23 -27 January 2006, Vol. 1: Documents 10711, 10712, 10715-10769 |date=2006-11-08 |publisher=Council of Europe |isbn=978-92-871-5932-8 |pages=235 |language=en}}

[[File:Scripts of European national languages.png|thumb|320px|Alphabets used in European national languages:

{{legend|#008000|Greek}}

{{legend|#008080|Greek & Latin}}

{{legend|#000080|Latin}}

{{legend|#800080|Latin & Cyrillic}}

{{legend|#FF0000|Cyrillic}}

{{legend|#FF6600|Georgian}}

{{legend|#FFCC00|Armenian}}]]

The main scripts used in Europe today are the Latin and Cyrillic.{{Cite web |last=Dimitrov |first=Bogoya |date=2023-05-19 |title=Book Exhibition Dedicated to the Day of the Cyrillic Alphabet |url=https://blogs.eui.eu/library/cyrillic-alphabet/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=The EUI Library Blog |language=en-US}}

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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

{{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".[http://www.ligaturix.de/bormann.htm 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". 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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.{{Cite web |last=Gleichgewicht |first=Daniel |date=2020-04-30 |title=New illiberalism and the old Hungarian alphabet |url=https://neweasterneurope.eu/2020/04/30/new-illiberalism-and-the-old-hungarian-alphabet/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |website=New Eastern Europe |language=en-GB}}

{{main|Languages of the 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.{{cite web | url = https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/TPS00001/bookmark/table?lang=en&bookmarkId=6ef61f16-dadc-42b1-a6ce-3ddfda4727e8 | title = Population on 1 January | website = Eurostat | access-date = 27 March 2024}}

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.{{cite web|title=Languages Policy: Linguistic diversity: Official languages of the EU|url=http://ec.europa.eu/languages/policy/linguistic-diversity/official-languages-eu_en.htm|publisher=European Commission, European Union|date=4 June 2009|access-date= 9 August 2015}} 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.{{cite web|title=Languages of Europe: Official EU languages |url=http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/languages-of-europe/doc135_en.htm |publisher=European Commission, European Union |year=2009 |access-date=5 November 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202112407/http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/languages-of-europe/doc135_en.htm |archive-date=2 February 2009 }}

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.{{cite web|title=Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) |url=http://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Linguistic/CADRE_EN.asp |publisher=Council of Europe |access-date=5 November 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091030205032/http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/CADRE_EN.asp |archive-date=30 October 2009 }} 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{{clarify|date=December 2019}}{{Fix|text=Do you mean "significant"?}} 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".{{cite web|title=Europeans and Their Languages|url=http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf|publisher=European Commission|year=2006|access-date=5 November 2009|page=8}}

{{Further|List of European languages by number of speakers|List of endangered languages in Europe|List of extinct languages of Europe}}

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;{{refn|"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.|group=nb}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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).{{Cite web |title=Relationships to other parts of ISO 639 {{!}} ISO 639-3 |url=https://iso639-3.sil.org/about/relationships |access-date=2023-12-18 |website=iso639-3.sil.org}}

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.

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

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).{{citation |last=Cole|first=Jeffrey|author-link=Jeffrey Cole|year=2011|title=Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-302-6|page=367}}

Armenians, Berbers, and Kurds have diaspora communities of {{circa}} 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

{{Portal|Europe|Language}}

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

{{reflist|group=nb|30em}}

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

{{Commons category|Languages of Europe}}

• {{cite web |title=The Alphabets of Europe |url=http://www.evertype.com/alphabets |first=Michael |last=Everson |publisher=evertype.com |year=2001 |access-date=19 March 2010}}
• {{cite web |title=Europe's Mosaic of Languages|url=http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-2011081855 |first=Harald |last=Haarmann |publisher=Institute of European History |year=2011 |language=en |access-date=2 November 2011}}
• {{cite web |title=Scpraaxoi in Europa |first1=Stefan |last1=Reissmann |first2=Urion |last2=Argador |url=http://www.argador.info/skope/tero/Regioi/Europa/kultur/scpraaxoi/index.html |language=eo, en, de |publisher=Reissmann & Argador |year=2006 |access-date=2 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090622183043/http://www.argador.info/skope/tero/Regioi/Europa/kultur/scpraaxoi/index.html |archive-date=22 June 2009 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}
• [http://www.map.language-diversity.eu/ Map of Minorities & Regional and Minority Languages of Europe, Language Diversity (2017)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409044913/http://www.map.language-diversity.eu/ |date=9 April 2022 }}
• {{cite web |title=Europako Mapa linguistikoa |url=http://www.muturzikin.com/carteseurope/europe.htm |first=Mutur |last=Zikin |publisher=muturzikin.com |date=2007 |language=eu |access-date=2 November 2009}}

{{Languages of Europe}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Languages Of Europe}}