European Languages

Following is a European languages list. Europe is a continent of many different languages, cultures and sceneries – and this variation is of course partly what makes it so fascinating and enjoyable to visit and why so many people enjoy going there on holiday. However at the same time it can also make things difficult if you don’t know what the local customs are, or which language they speak – and this can be particularly challenging for travelers going between multiple European countries. Here is a European languages list to help you know which lingo to use no matter where you are in Europe.

European Languages List

Albania    Albanian (Shqip, Tosk (Toskë) is the official dialect)
Andorra    Catalan
Austria    German, Slovene (official in Carinthia), Croatian and Hungarian (official in Burgenland)
Belarus    Belarusian, Russian
Belgium    Dutch 60%, French 40%, German less than 1%
Bosnia & Herzegovina    Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian
Bulgaria    Bulgarian
Croatia    Croatian (hrvatski)
Cyprus    Greek, Turkish, English
Czech Republic    Czech (cestina)
Denmark    Danish (dansk)
Estonia    Estonian (eesti keel)
Faroe Islands    Faroese, Danish
Finland    Finnish (suomi) 93.4%, Swedish 5.9%
France    French (français)
Germany    German (Deutsch)
Gibraltar    English
Greece    Greek (elliniká, the Koine-Demotic version)
Greenland    Greenlandic Inuktitut (Kalaallisut), Danish
Hungary    Hungarian (magyar)
Iceland    Icelandic
Ireland    Irish (Gaeilge), English (generally used),
Italy    Italian (italiano)
Latvia    Latvian (latviesu valoda)
Liechtenstein    German
Lithuania    Lithuanian (lietuviu kalba)
Luxembourg    Luxembourgish (LÎtzebuergesch, the everyday spoken language), French (administrative language), German (administrative language)
Macedonia, Rep. of    Macedonian 68%, Albanian 25%
Malta    Maltese (Malti)
Moldova    Moldovan (virtually the same as the Romanian language),
Monaco    French
Montenegro    Serbo-Croatian (Ijekavian dialect – official)
Netherlands    Dutch (Nederlands, official language), Frisian (official language)
Norway    Norwegian (nynorsk and bokmal)
Poland    Polish (polski)
Portugal    Portuguese (português)
Romania    Romanian (romana)
Russian Federation    Russian
San Marino    Italian
Serbia    Serbian 95%, Albanian 5%
Slovakia    Slovak (slovensky jazyk)
Slovenia    Slovenian (slovenski jezik)
Spain    Spanish (español – the Castilian version) 74%, Catalan 17%, Galician 7%, Basque 2%
Sweden    Swedish (svenska)
Switzerland    German 63.7%, French 19.2%, Italian 7.6%, Romansch 0.6%
Turkey    Turkish (türkçe)
Ukraine    Ukrainian
United Kingdom    English
Vatican City State    Latin, Italian

European Languages List

Posted under Europe

French People

Being the second most taught language internationally after English, and having a readership and following which are commiserate with the number of its students, French is definitely the language to know these days. With English, French is the only other “international” language, being spoken in 5 continents. The international body supervising the following of French as a language is known as the International Organization of Francophonie, which has 51 countries as its member states and out of these 51 states, 28 countries have French as their official language.

The widespread use of French as a language can also be inferred from the fact that French, with English is the official language of many towering organizations of the world, such as the UN, NATO, UNESCO, the International Red Cross Association and IOC (The International Olympic Committee), to name a few. From a recent survey, it has been noted that almost 70% of jobs in the US require or prefer the aspirants who know French, other than English, which is a testimony to the importance of French.

The importance of French has demographic and economic consequences for major economies in the world, even the US. For example, French is the official global language of Canada, which caries out major trade deals with the US. The knowledge of French for traders to such countries becomes all the more important when you realize that Canada, for example, has provinces like Quebec, which trades more than 70 billion Dollars annually with the US, and the major international language being followed there is French.

Apart from the economic influence of French and France, there is a high degree of intellectual importance associated with French as a language and the French thought for modernism and secularism. French doctors and scientists have been the fore-runners of technology in the modern era. France has the largest R&D center on nuclear physics in the world and also boasts as being the site of the world’s first nuclear fusion reactor. The French doctors were the first to isolate the HIV virus from the body of an infected human being- a ground breaking attempt to find a cure for AIDS. In order to decipher all their findings and discoveries, to understand their intellect and to admire it, it has become inevitable for the intelligentsia and researchers of today to adopt French as a global language.

Posted under Europe