Languages of Europe

The scientific study of European languages ​​is the subject of euro linguistics. Europe is understood depending on the author on one of three ways:

• Geographically ( from the Atlantic to the Urals, eg Haarmann 1993, Brendler / Brendler 2007, Abbe et al. 2011)
• Cultural anthropology (Languages ​​of the Cultural Committee, which is based largely on the Greek-Roman and Christian heritage, is primarily thought of the use of the Latin alphabet, the Western Roman version of Christianity, including its development in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation process of the separation of state and church, the legal system, the common history of the arts and education, such as the University - this definition is about Samuel Huntington ( 1996: 45 ff ): used as a basis ) and Helmut Schmidt (207 ff 2000)

The decision for one of these Europe - definitions has an impact on the number of on the subject matter to be counted languages. In particular, the anthropological definition excludes a large part of South Eastern and Eastern Europe, predominantly Slavic languages ​​, leading to purely linguistic difficult to justifying hard cuts through Dialektkontinua example, on the eastern border of Poland or the former Yugoslavia. Nevertheless, relevant Euro linguistic publications oriented (eg Grzega 2006) on the cultural anthropology Europe definition, which is why this is also addressed in the present article.

• 3.1 Traffic languages
• 3.2 dictionaries
• 3.3 Language and Identity, Language

List of European languages

See list of languages ​​in Europe ( in the geographical sense ), the official languages ​​of the European Union.

Characteristics of European languages

The following notes relate to Europe in the anthropological sense.

Phonetic features

The sound systems of individual European languages ​​are very different. They can be better characterized by the absence of features in common, for example, by the lack of click sounds.

Grammatical Features

Historically go the European languages ​​in two main language families back, namely the Indo-European languages ​​and Uralic languages. From our perspective today, it can be seen the concentration of certain language features at a Sprachbund when comparing the European languages. This Sprachbund is called Standard Average European and includes the following features:

• Distinguishing between a specific and an indefinite article
• The possibility of a past tense with 'have'
• The formation of the passive voice by auxiliary word and past participle, with the object of the action to the subject of the passive sentence is
• The possibility of suffixation to the formation of the comparative
• The possibility of the formation of relative clauses with a flexible relative

Vocabulary Features

The three vehicular languages ​​in European Language History - Latin, French, English - have left their mark on the vocabulary of European languages ​​.

See also internationalism (language).

Communication patterns

Typical common communication patterns of European languages ​​are the following:

Language and cultural history

The following notes relate to Europe in the anthropological sense.

Traffic languages

Europe's history is characterized by three vehicular languages ​​or Linguae francae: Latin ( decreasing since the late Middle Ages until 1867, when Hungary abandons the last country in Latin as the official language ), French ( from the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648 until the Treaty of Versailles, 1918), English ( since 1918).

Dictionaries

In the Middle Ages there were no strict alphabetical dictionaries; this begins only in the late 15th century after the introduction of the printing press.

Language and identity, language policy

The Western Europe defined itself in the Middle Ages about the terms Christianitas and Latinitas. Only with the advent of a national sentiment is one also deals with the various national languages ​​. This led to standardization and normalization discussions and establishing a set of language academies: Accademia della Crusca in Florence in 1582, 1617 Fruitful Society, 1635 Académie française in Paris, in 1713 the Real Academia de la Lengua in Madrid.

In some countries, language laws have been preached over time, eg in France, the Edict of Villers -Cotterets 1239, the particular French for the sole instrument of language, and the Loi Toubon 1991 turns against anglicisms.

In the European Union ( EU) today are all national languages ​​and official EU languages. You should be able to be equally learned as foreign languages ​​in the EU and used to communicate with the EU institutions. In addition strengthens the Charter of Regional and Minority Languages ​​without official status.

See also the official languages ​​of the European Union and regional and minority languages ​​in Europe