Europe Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Languages=== {{Main|Languages of Europe}} [[File:Simplified Languages of Europe map.svg|thumb|right|Distribution of major [[languages of Europe]]|222x222px]]{{See also|List of European languages by number of speakers}} Europe has about 225 indigenous languages,<ref>[http://edl.ecml.at/LanguageFun/LanguageFacts/tabid/1859/Default.aspx Language facts – European day of languages] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002010444/http://edl.ecml.at/LanguageFun/LanguageFacts/tabid/1859/Default.aspx |date=2 October 2015 }}, Council of Europe. Retrieved 30 July 2015</ref> mostly falling within three [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] language groups: the [[Romance languages]], derived from the [[Latin language|Latin]] of the [[Roman Empire]]; the [[Germanic languages]], whose ancestor language came from southern Scandinavia; and the [[Slavic languages]].<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica"/> Slavic languages are mostly spoken in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. Romance languages are spoken primarily in Western and Southern Europe, as well as in [[Switzerland]] in Central Europe and [[Romania]] and [[Moldova]] in Eastern Europe. Germanic languages are spoken in Western, Northern and Central Europe as well as in [[Gibraltar]] and [[Malta]] in Southern Europe.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica"/> Languages in adjacent areas show significant overlaps (such as in [[English (language)|English]], for example). Other Indo-European languages outside the three main groups include the [[Baltic languages|Baltic]] group ([[Latvian language|Latvian]] and [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]), the [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] group ([[Irish language|Irish]], [[Scottish Gaelic]], [[Manx language|Manx]], [[Welsh language|Welsh]], [[Cornish language|Cornish]] and [[Breton language|Breton]]<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica"/>), [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Armenian language|Armenian]] and [[Albanian language|Albanian]]. A distinct non-Indo-European family of [[Uralic languages]] ([[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Erzya language|Erzya]], [[Komi language|Komi]], [[Mari language|Mari]], [[Moksha language|Moksha]] and [[Udmurt language|Udmurt]]) is spoken mainly in [[Estonia]], [[Finland]], [[Hungary]] and parts of Russia. [[Turkic languages]] include [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]] and [[Turkish language|Turkish]], in addition to smaller languages in Eastern and Southeast Europe ([[Balkan Gagauz Turkish]], [[Bashkir language|Bashkir]], [[Chuvash language|Chuvash]], [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]], [[Karachay-Balkar language|Karachay-Balkar]], [[Kumyk language|Kumyk]], [[Nogai language|Nogai]] and [[Tatar language|Tatar]]). [[Kartvelian languages]] ([[Georgian language|Georgian]], [[Mingrelian language|Mingrelian]] and [[Svan language|Svan]]) are spoken primarily in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]. Two other language families reside in the North Caucasus (termed [[Northeast Caucasian languages|Northeast Caucasian]], most notably including [[Chechen language|Chechen]], [[Avar language|Avar]] and [[Lezgian language|Lezgin]]; and [[Northwest Caucasian languages|Northwest Caucasian]], most notably including [[Adyghe language|Adyghe]]). [[Maltese language|Maltese]] is the only [[Semitic language]] that is official within the EU, while [[Basque language|Basque]] is the only European [[language isolate]]. Multilingualism and the protection of regional and minority languages are recognised political goals in Europe today. The [[Council of Europe]] [[Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities]] and the Council of Europe's [[European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]] set up a legal framework for language rights in Europe. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page