EUROPEAN DAY OF
LANGUAGES
How did the European Day of Languages start?
The Council of Europe and the European Union jointly
organised the European Year of Languages in 2001.
Millions of people from 45 countries participated in
activities to promote language learning and the
preservation of cultural diversity.
The European Year of Languages was so successful that
the Council of Europe declared that the European Day of
Languages should be celebrated every year from then on.
Fun Facts about European Languages
● There are more than 225 languages spoken in Europe,
representing around 3% of the world’s total languages.
● If you only count native speakers, Russian is the most
spoken language in Europe. However, English comes out on
top if you include second-language speakers.
● Languages are sometimes related to each other if they
come from similar roots. These are known as ‘language
families’. The three main language families in Europe are
Germanic, Romance and Slavic.
● Most European languages use the Latin
alphabet, and some Slavic languages use
the Cyrillic alphabet. Armenian, Georgian,
Greek and Yiddish have their own alphabet.
● London is the most linguistically diverse city
in the world, as over 250 languages are
spoken there.
Interesting Facts about the European Day of
Languages
● The European Day of Languages is celebrated annually on
the 26th of September.
● The very first European Day of Languages was held in
2001.
● It was started by the European Commission and Council of
Europe.
● The European Union has 24 official languages.
● There are events and celebrations taking place all over
Europe on the day.
● There are even high profile conferences about languages
and how people around the continent can be encouraged
How many languages are spoken in Europe?
The European Union has 24 official languages.
These are Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Danish,
Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French,
German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Irish,
Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish,
Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene,
Spanish and Swedish.
However, there are many, many more languages
spoken in Europe that aren't official languages of
the EU, such as Luxembourgish. It's estimated
that there are over 225 languages spoken
altogether.
That leaves you an awful lot to choose from
when it comes to picking what to research on
your European Languages Day of Learning!
What is the newest European language?
The language which has most recently become
an official language of the European Union is
Croatian, which took the total official EU
languages up to 24 in 2013.
