With an area of 10 million square meters, Europe is the second largest continent in the world. Approximately 750 million people live in 47 countries. Depending on your definition, Europeans speak between 150 and 200 different languages. Most of their languages belong to the Indo-European family.
Linguists do not always agree on the definition of whether a language is a real language or a linguistic dialect. This is primarily because large groups of the general population did not learn written language until the 13th century AD. Before that, there was only oral tradition, and of course there were regional differences. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the exact origins of some languages and dialects.
Today, some modern languages are spoken in many countries, while others are spoken only in a single country on a continent. The most spoken languages in Europe are:
5th place: Turkish
Approximately 70 million people in Europe speak Turkish. The majority of Turkish speakers live in Turkey, but also in Cyprus, Greece, and Macedonia. In technical terminology, Turkish is often referred to as Ottoman Turkish. Turkish is the most widely spoken Turkish language.
4th place: English
Although English has been spoken around the world since the 19th century, only about 70 million people in Europe speak it as their native language. It is an official language in the UK and Ireland. In other European countries, it is especially the younger generation who speak English fluently as a second language, as English is offered as a school subject in many countries.
3rd place: French
Approximately 80 million people speak French in Europe. Around the world, French is considered an official language in approximately 30 countries and in Europe outside of France. It is one of the official languages of Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg.
2nd place: German
Approximately 100 million people speak German in Europe. In addition to the German population of 80 million, German is also an official language in Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Belgium and Switzerland. German is the second language understood by most Europeans after English, and people who speak both German and English can live almost anywhere on the continent.
1st place: Russian
Approximately 120 million people speak Russian in Europe, and many speak Russian outside the continent's borders. Russian is often the mother tongue in Belarus and the Baltic states. The Cyrillic alphabet is so difficult that some people think that it is easier to learn to speak Russian than to write it.
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Questions and answers about the most spoken languages in Europe
The European Union has a total of 24 official languages. German is considered the only official language in Germany, but some countries have more than one.
It is difficult to say which language is the oldest language in Europe, as the oral tradition cannot be dated. However, Basque is considered the oldest language in Europe, although the first evidence of written language use dates back to the 15th century. It is still spoken in south Wales, western France and northern Spain.
The term lingua franca originates from Italy and literally means “Francian”. But today it means world language, or world language, and is of course used all over the world.
