Languages of Europe

For the ethnography of Europe, see Peoples of Europe. For the populations of Europe by country and the population overall, see Demographics of Europe.

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

Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total population of 744 million (as of 2018), some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language; within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Romance, Germanic and Slavic with more than 200 million speakers each, between them accounting for close to 90% of Europeans. Smaller phyla of Indo-European found in Europe include Hellenic (Greek, c. 10 million), Baltic (c. 7 million), Albanian (c. 5 million), Indo-Aryan (Romani, c. 1.5 million) and Celtic (including Welsh, c. 1 million).

Of the approximately 45 million Europeans speaking non-Indo-European languages, most speak languages within either the Uralic and Turkic families. Still smaller groups (such as Basque and various languages of the Caucasus) account for less than 1% of the European population between them. Immigration has added sizeable communities of speakers of African and Asian languages, amounting to about 4% of the population, with Arabic being the most widely spoken of them.

Five languages have more than 50 million native speakers in Europe: French, Italian, German, English and Russian. While Russian has the largest number of native speakers (more than 100 million in Europe), English has the largest number of speakers in total, including some 200 million speakers of English as a second language. (See English language in Europe.)

Indo-European languages

See also: List of Indo-European languages

The Indo-European language family is descended from Proto-Indo-European, which is believed to have been spoken thousands of years ago. Early speakers of Indo-European daughter languages most likely expanded into Europe with the incipient Bronze Age, around 4,000 years ago (Bell-Beaker culture).

Romance

Further information: Romance languages and Italic languages

Romance languages, 20th century

Roughly 215 million Europeans (primarily in Southern and Western Europe) are native speakers of Romance languages, the most widely spoken of which include (over 10 million speakers): French, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), Romanian, Portuguese, Catalan. Numerous pockets of Romance languages are additionally spoken throughout the area as well, such as Lombard, Neapolitan, Sicilian, Venetian, among others in Italy, Occitan and Franco-Provencal, among others in France, and Asturleonese, Aragonese and Galician, among others in Spain.

The Romance languages are descended from varieties of Vulgar Latin spoken in the various parts of the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity. Latin was itself part of the (otherwise extinct) Italic branch of Indo-European. Romance is divided phylogenetically into Italo-Western, Eastern Romance (including Romanian) and Sardinian (sole member of its branch). The Romance-speaking area in Europe is often referred to as Latin Europe.

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

Germanic

Further information: Germanic-speaking Europe

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

  Icelandic

  Faroese

  Norwegian

  Swedish

  Danish

West Germanic languages

  Scots

  English

  Frisian

  Dutch

  Low German

  German

Dots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.

The Germanic languages make up the predominant language family in northwestern Europe. An estimated 210 million Europeans are native speakers of Germanic languages, the largest groups being German (c. 95 million), English (c. 70 million) and Dutch (c. 24 million), Swedish (c. 10 million), Danish (c. 6 million) and Norwegian (c. 5 million).

There are two extant major sub-divisions: West Germanic and North Germanic. A third group, East Germanic, is now extinct; the only known surviving East Germanic texts are written in the Gothic language. West Germanic is divided into Anglo-Frisian (including English), Low German and Low Franconian (including Dutch) and High German (including Standard German).

German and Low Franconian

Main articles: German language, German-speaking Europe, Low Franconian, and Dutch-speaking Europe

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

There are several groups of German dialects:

• High German include several dialect families:
  • Standard German
  • Central German dialects, spoken in central Germany and include Luxembourgish
  • High Franconian, a family of transitional dialects between Central and Upper High German
  • Upper German, including Austro-Bavarian and Swiss German
  • Yiddish is a Jewish language developed in Germany and shares many features of High German dialects and Hebrew.

Low German (including Low Saxon) is spoken in various regions throughout Northern Germany and the North and East of the Netherlands. It is an official language in Germany. It may be separated into Low Saxon (West Low German) and East Low German.

Dutch is spoken throughout the Netherlands, the northern half of Belgium, as well as the Nord-Pas de Calais region of France, and around Düsseldorf in Germany. In Belgian and French contexts, Dutch is sometimes referred to as Flemish. Dutch dialects are varied and cut across national borders.

Anglo-Frisian

Main articles: Anglo-Frisian languages and English-speaking 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, also used in English-speaking Europe
• Scots, spoken in Scotland and Ulster.

The Frisian languages are spoken by about 500,000 Frisians, who live on the southern coast of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. These languages include West Frisian, Saterlandic, and North Frisian.

North Germanic (Scandinavian)

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

English has a long history of contact with Scandinavian languages, given the immigration of Scandinavians early in the history of Britain, and has similar structure with Scandinavian languages.

Slavic

See also: Slavic languages and Slavs

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

Slavic languages are spoken in large areas of Central Europe, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe. An estimated 250 million Europeans are native speakers of Slavic languages, the largest groups being Russian (c. 110 million in European Russia and adjacent parts of Eastern Europe, Russian forming the largest linguistic community in Europe), Polish (c. 55 million), Ukrainian (c. 40 million), Serbo-Croatian (c. 21 million), Czech (c. 11 million), Bulgarian (c. 9 million), Slovak (c. 5 million) Belarusian and Slovene (c. 3 million each) and Macedonian (c. 2 million).

Phylogenetically, Slavic is divided into three subgroups:

• West Slavic includes Polish, Czech, Slovak, Lower Sorbian, Upper Sorbian and Kashubian.
• East Slavic includes Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn.
• South Slavic is divided into Southeast Slavic and Southwest Slavic groups: Southwest Slavic languages include Serbo-Croatian and Slovene, each with numerous distinctive dialects. Serbo-Croatian boasts four distinct national standards, Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian, all based on the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect; Southeast Slavic languages include Bulgarian, Macedonian and Old Church Slavonic (a liturgical language).

Other

• Greek (ca. 13 million) is the official language of Greece and Cyprus, and there are Greek-speaking enclaves in Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, North Macedonia, Romania, Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Turkey, and in Greek communities around the world. Dialects of modern Greek that originate from Attic Greek (through Koine and then Medieval Greek) are Cappadocian, Pontic, Cretan, Cypriot, Katharevousa, and Yevanic
  • Italiot Greek is, debatably, a Doric dialect of Greek. It is spoken in southern Italy only, in the southern Calabria region (as Grecanic) and in the Salento region (as Griko). It has been studied by the German linguist Gerhard Rohlfs during the 1930s and 1950s.
  • Tsakonian is a Doric dialect of the Greek language spoken in the lower Arcadia region of the Peloponnese around the village of Leonidio

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

• The Baltic languages are spoken in Lithuania (Lithuanian (ca. 3 million), Samogitian) and Latvia (Latvian (ca. 2 million), Latgalian). Samogitian and Latgalian are usually considered to be dialects of Lithuanian and Latvian respectively.
  • There are also several extinct Baltic languages, including: Galindian, Curonian, Old Prussian, Selonian, Semigallian and Sudovian.
• Albanian (ca. 5 million) has two major dialects, Tosk Albanian and Gheg Albanian. It is spoken in Albania and Kosovo, neighboring North Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, Italy and Montenegro. It is also widely spoken in the Albanian diaspora.
• There are six living Celtic languages, spoken in areas of northwestern Europe dubbed the "Celtic nations". All six are members of the Insular Celtic family, which in turn is divided into:
  • Brythonic family: Welsh (Wales, ca. 700 000), Cornish (Cornwall, ca. 500) and Breton (Brittany, ca. 200 000)
  • Goidelic family: Irish (Ireland, ca. 140 000), Scottish Gaelic (Scotland, ca. 50 000), and Manx (Isle of Man, ca. 1 800)
  • Continental Celtic languages had previously been spoken across Europe from Iberia and Gaul to Asia Minor, but became extinct in the first millennium AD.
• The Indo-Aryan languages have one major representation, it being Romani (c. 1.5 million speakers), introduced to Europe in the late medieval period.
• The Iranian languages in Europe are natively represented in the North Caucasus, notably with Ossetian (ca. 600 000).
• Armenian speakers (ca. 7 million) came to Russia in significant numbers after the First World War due to Armenian genocide and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (see below).

Non-Indo-European languages

Uralic

Main article: Uralic languages

Distribution of Uralic languages in Eurasia

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

The Ugric languages are represented in Europe with the Hungarian language (ca. 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 in the far northeastern corner of Europe (as delimited by the Ural Mountains).

Turkic

Main article: Turkic languages

Distribution of Turkic languages in Eurasia

• Oghuz languages in Europe include Turkish, spoken in European Turkey and by immigrant communities; Azerbaijani is spoken in Azerbaijan and parts of Southern Russia and Gagauz is spoken in Gagauzia.
• Kypchak languages in Europe include Crimean Tatar, which is spoken in Crimea; Tatar, which is spoken in Tatarstan; Bashkir, which is spoken in Bashkortostan; and Kazakh, which is spoken in Kazakhstan.
• Oghur languages were historically indigenous to much of Eastern Europe; however, most of them are extinct today, with the exception of Chuvash, which is spoken in Chuvashia.

Other

• The Basque language (or Euskara, ca. 750 000) is a language isolate and the ancestral language of the Basque people who inhabit the Basque Country, a region in the western Pyrenees mountains mostly in northeastern Spain and partly in southwestern France of about 3 million inhabitants, where it is spoken fluently by about 750,000 and understood by more than 1.5 million people. Basque is directly related to ancient Aquitanian, and it is likely that an early form of the Basque language was present in Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European languages in the area in the Bronze Age.
• North Caucasian languages is a geographical blanket term for two unrelated language families spoken chiefly in the north Caucasus and Turkey—the Northwest Caucasian family (including Abkhaz and Circassian) and the Northeast Caucasian family, spoken mainly in the border area of the southern Russian Federation (including Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia).
• Kalmyk is a Mongolic language, spoken in the Republic of Kalmykia, part of the Russian Federation. Its speakers entered the Volga region in the early 17th century.
• Maltese (ca. 500 000) is a Semitic language with Romance and Germanic influences, spoken in Malta. It is based on Sicilian Arabic, with influences from Sicilian, Italian, French and, more recently, English. It is unique in that it is the only Semitic language whose standard form is written in Latin script. It is also the smallest official language of the EU in terms of speakers, and the only official Semitic language within the EU.
• Cypriot Maronite Arabic (also known as Cypriot Arabic) is a variety of Arabic spoken by Maronites in Cyprus. Most speakers live in Nicosia, but others are in the communities of Kormakiti and Lemesos. Brought to the island by Maronites fleeing Lebanon over 700 years ago, this variety of Arabic has been influenced by Greek in both phonology and vocabulary, while retaining certain unusually archaic features in other respects.

History of standardization

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

Language and identity, standardization processes

In the Middle Ages the two most important defining elements of Europe were Christianitas and Latinitas. Thus language—at least the supranational language—played an elementary role. The earliest dictionaries were glossaries, i.e., more or less structured lists of lexical pairs (in alphabetical order or according to conceptual fields). The Latin-German (Latin-Bavarian) Abrogans was among the first. A new wave of lexicography can be seen from the late 15th century onwards (after the introduction of the printing press, with the growing interest in standardizing languages).

The concept of the nation state begins to emerge in the early modern period. Nations adopted particular dialects as their national language. This, together with improved communications, led to official efforts to standardise the national language, and a number of language academies were established (e.g., 1582 Accademia della Crusca in Florence, 1617 Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft in Weimar, 1635 Académie française in Paris, 1713 Real Academia Española in Madrid). Language became increasingly linked to nation as opposed to culture, and was also used to promote religious and ethnic identity (e.g., different Bible translations in the same language for Catholics and Protestants).

The first languages for which standardisation was promoted included Italian (questione della lingua: Modern Tuscan/Florentine vs. Old Tuscan/Florentine vs. Venetian → Modern Florentine + archaic Tuscan + Upper Italian), French (the standard is based on Parisian), English (the standard is based on the London dialect) and (High) German (based on the dialects of the chancellery of Meissen in Saxony, Middle German, and the chancellery of Prague in Bohemia ("Common German")). But several other nations also began to develop a standard variety in the 16th century.

Lingua franca

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.
• Vulgar Latin and Late Latin among the uneducated and educated populations respectively of the Roman empire and the states that followed it in the same range no later than 900 AD; medieval Latin and Renaissance Latin among the educated populations of western, northern, central and part of eastern Europe until the rise of the national languages in that range, beginning with the first language academy in Italy in 1582/83; new Latin written only in scholarly and scientific contexts by a small minority of the educated population at scattered locations over all of Europe; ecclesiastical Latin, in spoken and written contexts of liturgy and church administration only, over the range of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Lingua Franca or Sabir, the original of the name, an Italian-based pidgin language of mixed origins used by maritime commercial interests around the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and early Modern Age.
• Old French in continental western European countries and in the Crusader states.
• Czech, mainly during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (14th century) but also during other periods of Bohemian control over the Holy Roman Empire.
• Middle Low German (14th–16th century, during the heyday of the Hanseatic League).
• Spanish as Castilian in Spain and New Spain from the times of the Catholic Monarchs and Columbus, c. 1492; that is, after the Reconquista, until established as a national language in the times of Louis XIV, c. 1648; subsequently multinational in all nations in or formerly in the Spanish Empire.
• Polish, due to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (16th–18th centuries).
• Italian due to the Renaissance, the opera, the Italian empire, the fashion industry and the influence of the Roman Catholic church.
• 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.
• English in Great Britain until its consolidation as a national language in the Renaissance and the rise of Modern English; subsequently internationally under the various states in or formerly in the British Empire; globally since the victories of the predominantly English speaking countries (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and others) and their allies in the two world wars ending in 1918 (World War I) and 1945 (World War II) and the subsequent rise of the United States as a superpower and major cultural influence.
• Russian in the former Soviet Union and Russian Empire including Northern and Central Asia.

Linguistic minorities

Historical attitudes towards linguistic diversity are illustrated by two French laws: the Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts (1539), which said that every document in France should be written in French (neither in Latin nor in Occitan) and the Loi Toubon (1994), which aimed to eliminate anglicisms from official documents. States and populations within a state have often resorted to war to settle their differences. There have been attempts to prevent such hostilities: two such initiatives were promoted by the Council of Europe, founded in 1949, which affirms the right of minority language speakers to use their language fully and freely. The Council of Europe is committed to protecting linguistic diversity. Currently all European countries except France, Andorra and Turkey have signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, while Greece, Iceland and Luxembourg have signed it, but have not ratified it; this framework entered into force in 1998. Another European treaty, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, was adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe: it entered into force in 1998, and while it is legally binding for 24 countries, France, Iceland, Italy, North Macedonia, Moldova and Russia have chosen to sign without ratifying the convention.

Scripts

Alphabets used in national languages in Europe:

  Greek

  Greek & Latin

  Latin

  Latin & Cyrillic

  Cyrillic

  Georgian

  Armenian

The main scripts used in Europe today are the Latin and Cyrillic.

The Greek alphabet was derived from the Phoenician alphabet, and Latin was derived from the Greek via the Old Italic alphabet. In the Early Middle Ages, Ogham was used in Ireland and runes (derived the Old Italic script) in Scandinavia. Both were replaced in general use by the Latin alphabet by the Late Middle Ages. The Cyrillic script was derived from the Greek with the first texts appearing around 940 AD.

See also: Antiqua–Fraktur dispute

Around 1900 there were mainly two typeface variants of the Latin alphabet used in Europe: Antiqua and Fraktur. Fraktur was used most for German, Estonian, Latvian, Norwegian and Danish whereas Antiqua was used for Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese, English, Romanian, Swedish and Finnish. The Fraktur variant was banned by Hitler in 1941, having been described as "Schwabacher Jewish letters". Other scripts have historically been in use in Europe, including Phoenician, from which modern Latin letters descend, Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on Egyptian artefacts traded during Antiquity various runic systems used in Northern Europe preceding Christianisation, and Arabic during the era of the Ottoman Empire.

Hungarian rovás was used by the Hungarian people in the early Middle Ages, but it was gradually replaced with the Latin-based Hungarian alphabet when Hungary became a kingdom, though it was revived in the 20th century and has certain marginal, but growing area of usage since then.

European Union

Main article: Languages of the European Union

The European Union (as of 2016) had 28 member states accounting for a population of 510 million, or about 69% of the population of Europe.

The European Union has designated by agreement with the member states 24 languages as "official and working:" Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish. This designation provides member states with two "entitlements": the member state may communicate with the EU in any of the designated and view "EU regulations and other legislative documents" in that language.

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, 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".

List of languages

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

The following is a table of European languages. The number of speakers as a first or second language (L1 and L2 speakers) listed are speakers in Europe only; see list of languages by number of native speakers and list of languages by total number of speakers for global estimates on numbers of speakers.

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

Name	ISO-639	Classification	L1 speakers (in Europe)	L1+L2 speakers (in Europe)	Official status (national)	Official status (regional)
Abkhaz	ab	Northwest Caucasian, Abazgi	113,000		Georgia
Adyghe	ady	Northwest Caucasian, Circassian	117,500			Adygea (Russia)
Albanian(Shqip) Arbëresh Arvanitika	sq	Indo-European	5,367,000 5,877,100 (Balkans)		Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia	Italy (Sicily, as Arbëresh), Montenegro (Ulcinj)
Arbëresh	aae	Indo-European, Albanian, Tosk	260,000 in 1976 100,000 native speakers in 2007	380,000		Sicily, Calabria, Apulia, Molise, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Campania, (Italy)
Arvanites	aat	Indo-European, Albanian, Tosk	200,000			Peloponnese, Attica and Boeotia
Aragonese	an	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	25,000	55,000		Aragon (Spain)
Armenian	hy	Indo-European, Armenian	5,902,970		Armenia	Republic of Artsakh
Aromanian	rup	Indo-European, Romance, Eastern	114,000			North Macedonia
Asturian (Astur-Leonese)	ast	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	351,791	641,502		Asturias
Austro-Bavarian	bar	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Bavarian	14,000,000		Austria (as German)
Avar	av	Northeast Caucasian, Avar–Andic	760,000			Dagestan (Russia)
Azerbaijani	az	Turkic, Oghuz	500,000		Azerbaijan	Dagestan (Russia)
Bashkir	ba	Turkic, Kipchak	1,221,000			Bashkortostan (Russia)
Basque	eu	Basque	750,000			Basque Country: Basque Autonomous Community (Spain, official), Navarre (Spain, official in the Basque-speaking and mixed parts of the region), French Basque Country (France, not official)
Belarusian	be	Indo-European, Slavic, East	3,300,000		Belarus
Bosnian	bs	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian	2,500,000		Bosnia and Herzegovina	Kosovo, Montenegro
Breton	br	Indo-European, Celtic, Brittonic	206,000			None, de facto status in Brittany (France)
Bulgarian	bg	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Eastern	7,800,000		Bulgaria	Mount Athos (Greece)
Catalan	ca	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Occitano-Romance	4,000,000	10,000,000	Andorra	Balearic Islands (Spain), Catalonia (Spain), Valencian Community (Spain), Aragon (Spain), Pyrénées-Orientales (France), Alghero (Italy)
Chechen	ce	Northeast Caucasian, Nakh	1,400,000			Chechnya & Dagestan (Russia)
Chuvash	cv	Turkic, Oghur	1,100,000			Chuvashia (Russia)
Cimbrian	cim	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Bavarian	400
Cornish	kw	Indo-European, Celtic, Brittonic	557			Cornwall (United Kingdom)
Corsican	co	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	30,000	125,000		Corsica (France), Sardinia (Italy)
Crimean Tatar	crh	Turkic, Kipchak	480,000			Crimea
Croatian	hr	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian	5,600,000		Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia	Burgenland (Austria)
Czech	cs	Indo-European, Slavic, West, Czech–Slovak	10,600,000		Czech Republic
Danish	da	Indo-European, Germanic, North	5,500,000		Denmark	Faroe Islands (Denmark), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)
Dutch	nl	Indo-European, Germanic, West	22,000,000		Belgium, Netherlands
English	en	Indo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian, Anglic	63,000,000	260,000,000	Ireland, Malta, United Kingdom
Erzya	myv	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Mordvinic	120,000			Mordovia (Russia)
Estonian	et	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	1,165,400		Estonia
Extremaduran	ext	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	200,000			Extremadura (Spain)
Faroese	fo	Indo-European, Germanic, North	66,150			Faroe Islands (Denmark)
Finnish	fi	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	5,400,000		Finland
Franco-Provençal (Arpitan)	arp	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance	140,000			Aosta Valley (Italy)
French	fr	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl	71,500,000	135,000,000	Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland	Aosta Valley (Italy), Jersey (United Kingdom), El Pas de la Casa (Andorra)
Frisian	fry frr stq	Indo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian	470,000			Friesland (Netherlands), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)
Gagauz	gag	Turkic, Oghuz	140,000			Gagauzia (Moldova)
Galician	gl	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	2,400,000			Galicia (Spain), Eo-Navia (Asturias), Bierzo (Province of León) and Western Sanabria (Province of Zamora)
German	de	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German	97,000,000	170,000,000	Austria, Belgium, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland	South Tyrol (Italy)
Georgian	ka	kartvelian	3700000		Georgia
Greek	el	Indo-European, Hellenic	11,000,000		Cyprus, Greece	Albania (Himara, Finiq, Dervican and other southern townships)
Hungarian	hu	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Ugric	13,000,000		Hungary	Burgenland (Austria), Vojvodina (Serbia), Romania
Icelandic	is	Indo-European, Germanic, North	330,000		Iceland
Ingrian	izh	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	120			Ingria (Russia)
Ingush	inh	Northeast Caucasian, Nakh	300,000			Ingushetia (Russia)
Irish	ga	Indo-European, Celtic, Goidelic	240,000	1,300,000	Republic of Ireland	Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)
Istriot	ist	Indo-European, Romance	900			Croatia
Istro-Romanian	ruo	Indo-European, Romance, Eastern	1,100			Croatia
Italian	it	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	65,000,000	82,000,000	Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, Vatican City	Istria County (Croatia), Slovenian Istria (Slovenia)
Italiot Greek	mis	Indo-European, Hellenic, Greek, Attic-Ionic	20,000 Native speakers in 1981	50,000		Calabria (Bovesia), Apulia (Salento), (Italy)
Judeo-Italian	itk	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	250			Italy, Corfu (Greece)
Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino)	lad	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	320,000	few		Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Turkey
Kabardian	kbd	Northwest Caucasian, Circassian	530,000			Kabardino-Balkaria & Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
Kalmyk	xal	Mongolic	80,500			Kalmykia (Russia)
Karelian	krl	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	36,000			Karelia (Russia)
Karachay-Balkar	krc	Turkic, Kipchak	300,000			Kabardino-Balkaria & Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
Kashubian	csb	Indo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic	50,000			Poland
Kazakh	kk	Turkic, Kipchak	1,000,000		Kazakhstan
Komi	kv	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Permic	220,000			Komi Republic (Russia)
Latin	la	Indo-European, Italic, Latino-Faliscan	extinct	few	Vatican City
Latvian	lv	Indo-European, Baltic	1,750,000		Latvia
Ligurian	lij	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic	500,000			Liguria (Italy)
Lithuanian	lt	Indo-European, Baltic	3,000,000		Lithuania
Lombard	lmo	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic	3,600,000			Lombardy (Italy)
Low German (Low Saxon)	nds wep	Indo-European, Germanic, West	1,000,000	2,600,000		Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)
Luxembourgish	lb	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German	336,000	386,000	Luxembourg	Wallonia (Belgium)
Macedonian	mk	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Eastern	1,400,000		North Macedonia
Mainfränkisch	vmf	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper	4,900,000			Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria & Thuringia (Germany)
Maltese	mt	Semitic, Arabic	520,000		Malta
Manx	gv	Indo-European, Celtic, Goidelic	230	2,300		Isle of Man
Mari	chm mhr	Uralic, Finno-Ugric	500,000			Mari El (Russia)
Megleno-Romanian	ruq	Indo-European, Romance, Eastern	3,000			Greek Macedonia (Greece), North Macedonia
Mirandese	mwl	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	15,000			Miranda do Douro (Portugal)
Moksha	mdf	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Mordvinic	2,000			Mordovia (Russia)
Montenegrin	cnr	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian	240,700		Montenegro
Neapolitan	nap	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	5,700,000			Campania (Italy)
Nenets	yrk	Uralic, Samoyedic	4,000			Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Russia)
Norman	nrf	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl	50,000			Normandy (France), Jersey (United Kingdom)
Norwegian	no	Indo-European, Germanic, North	5,200,000		Norway
Occitan	oc	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Occitano-Romance	500,000			Catalonia (Spain)
Ossetian	os	Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Eastern	450,000		Georgia	North Ossetia-Alania (Russia)
Palatinate German	pfl	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central	1,000,000			Germany
Picard	pcd	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl	200,000			Wallonia (Belgium)
Piedmontese	pms	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Italic	1,600,000			Piedmont (Italy)
Polish	pl	Indo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic	38,500,000		Poland
Portuguese	pt	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	10,000,000		Portugal
Rhaeto-Romance	fur lld roh	Indo-European, Romance, Western	370,000		Switzerland	Belluno, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, South Tyrol, & Trentino (Italy)
Ripuarian (Platt)	ksh	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central	900,000			Germany, Netherlands, Wallonia (Belgium)
Romani	rom	Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Western	1,500,000			Kosovo
Romanian	ro	Indo-European, Romance, Eastern	24,000,000	28,000,000	Moldova, Romania	Mount Athos (Greece), Vojvodina (Serbia)
Russian	ru	Indo-European, Slavic, East	106,000,000	160,000,000	Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia	Mount Athos (Greece), Gagauzia (Moldova), Transnistria (Moldova), Svalbard (Norway), Ukraine
Sami	se	Uralic, Finno-Ugric	23,000		Norway	Sweden, Finland
Sardinian	sc	Indo-European, Romance	1,350,000			Sardinia (Italy)
Scots	sco	Indo-European, Germanic, West, Anglo-Frisian, Anglic	110,000			Scotland (United Kingdom), Ulster (Ireland & United Kingdom)
Scottish Gaelic	gd	Indo-European, Celtic, Goidelic	57,000			Scotland (United Kingdom)
Serbian	sr	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western, Serbo-Croatian	9,000,000		Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia	Croatia, Mount Athos (Greece), North Macedonia, Montenegro
Sicilian	scn	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	4,700,000
Silesian	szl	Indo-European, Slavic, West, Lechitic	522,000			Upper Silesia (Poland, Czech Republic & Germany), Silesia (Poland)
Silesian German	sli	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central	11,000			Upper Silesia (Poland, Czech Republic & Germany), Silesia (Poland)
Slovak	sk	Indo-European, Slavic, West, Czech–Slovak	5,200,000		Slovakia	Vojvodina (Serbia), Czech Republic
Slovene	sl	Indo-European, Slavic, South, Western	2,100,000		Slovenia
Sorbian (Wendish)	wen	Indo-European, Slavic, West	20,000			Brandenburg & Sachsen (Germany)
Spanish (Castilian)	es	Indo-European, Romance, Western, West Iberian	38,000,000	76,000,000	Spain
Swabian German	swg	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic	820,000			Germany
Swedish	sv	Indo-European, Germanic, North	11,100,000	13,280,000	Finland, Sweden
Swiss German	gsw	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic	5,000,000		Switzerland (as German)
Tabasaran	tab	Northeast Caucasian, Lezgic	126,900			Dagestan (Russia)
Tat	ttt	Indo-European, Iranian, Western	30,000			Dagestan (Russia)
Tatar	tt	Turkic, Kipchak	4,300,000			Tatarstan (Russia)
Turkish	tr	Turkic, Oghuz	12,000,000		Turkey, Cyprus	Northern Cyprus
Udmurt	udm	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Permic	340,000			Udmurtia (Russia)
Ukrainian	uk	Indo-European, Slavic, East	32,600,000		Ukraine	Transnistria (Moldova)
Upper Saxon	sxu	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Central	2,000,000			Sachsen (Germany)
Vepsian	vep	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	1,640			Karelia (Russia)
Venetian	vec	Indo-European, Romance, Italo-Dalmatian	3,800,000			Veneto (Italy)
Võro	vro	Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finnic	87,000			Võru County (Estonia)
Walloon	wa	Indo-European, Romance, Western, Gallo-Romance, Oïl	600,000			Wallonia (Belgium)
Walser German	wae	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, Upper, Alemannic	20,000			Switzerland
Welsh	cy	Indo-European, Celtic, Brittonic	562,000	750,000		Wales (United Kingdom)
Wymysorys	wym	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German	70			Poland
Yenish	yec	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German	16,000			Switzerland
Yiddish	yi	Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German	600,000			Bosnia and Herzegovina, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine

Immigrant communities

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

List of the largest immigrant languages

Name	ISO 639	Classification	L1	Ethnic diaspora
Arabic	ar	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	> 4 million	c. 12 million
Turkish	tr	Turkic, Oghuz	c. 3 million	c. 7 million
Armenian	hy	Indo-European	c. 1 million	c. 2-3 million
Kurdish	ku	Indo-European, Iranian, Western	c. 0.6 million	c. 1 million
Bengali–Assamese	bn as syl	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	c. 0.6 million	c. 1 million
Azerbaijani	az	Turkic, Oghuz	c. 0.5 million	c. 0.7 million
Kabyle	kab	Afro-Asiatic, Berber	c. 0.5 million	c. 1 million
Chinese	zh	Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic	c. 0.3 million	c. 2 million
Urdu	ur	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	c. 0.3 million	c. 1.8 million
Uzbek	uz	Turkic, Karluk	c. 0.3 million	c. 1–2 million
Persian	fa	Indo-European, Iranian, Western	c. 0.3 million	c. 0.4 million
Punjabi	pa	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	c. 0.3 million	c. 0.7 million
Gujarati	gu	Indo-European, Indo-Aryan	c. 0.2 million	c. 0.6 million
Tamil	ta	Dravidian	c. 0.2 million	c. 0.5 million
Somali	so	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic	c. 0.2 million	c. 0.4 million

See also

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

External links

• Everson, Michael (2001). "The Alphabets of Europe". evertype.com. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
• Haarmann, Harald (2011). "Europe's Mosaic of Languages". Institute of European History. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
• Reissmann, Stefan; Argador, Urion (2006). "Luingoi in Europa" (in Esperanto, English, and German). Reissmann & Argador. Archived from the original on 22 June 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
• Map of Minorities & Regional and Minority Languages of Europe, Language Diversity (2017)
• Zikin, Mutur (2007). "Europako Mapa linguistikoa" (in Basque). muturzikin.com. Retrieved 2 November 2009.