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== Number of speakers ==
== Number of speakers ==
The following is a table displaying the number of speakers of a given European language in Europe only. See the languages' individual page for a more detailed summary and for sources. Some figures are approximate and may come from sources that are several years old. Dialects, or languages that have been labelled or contested as dialects by linguists, are not included in the table.
The following is a table displaying the number of speakers of a given European language in Europe only. See the languages' individual page for a more detailed summary and for sources. Some figures are approximate and may come from sources that are several years old. Dialects, or languages that have been labelled or contested as dialects by linguists, are not included in the table.

{{Original research|table|date=July 2014}}{{Refimprove|table|date=July 2014}}
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Revision as of 09:04, 22 July 2014

Not to be confused with Indo-European languages.

Map of major European languages

Most of the languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. This family is divided into a number of branches, including Romance, Germanic, Baltic, Slavic, Albanian, Celtic, Armenian and Hellenic (Greek). The Uralic languages, which include Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian, also have a significant presence in Europe. The Turkic and Mongolic families also have several European members, while the North Caucasian and Kartvelian families are important in the southeastern extremity of geographical Europe. The Basque language of the western Pyrenees is an isolate unrelated to any other group, while Maltese is the only Semitic language in Europe with national language status.

Indo-European languages

The Indo-European language family descended from Proto-Indo-European, believed to have been spoken thousands of years ago. Indo-European languages are spoken throughout Europe, but particularly dominate Western Europe.

Distribution of the Baltic languages in the Baltic (simplified).

Albanian

Albanian has two major dialects, Gheg and Tosk. It is spoken in Albania, Kosovo (Kosovar Albanians) and parts of Montenegro (Albanians in Montenegro), Serbia (mainly in Preševo Valley), Turkey, southern Italy (Arbëresh), western parts of Macedonia, Greece (Arvanitika and Cham Albanians) and Albanian diaspora.

Armenian

Armenian has two major dialects, Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian. It is spoken in Armenia, where it has sole official status, and is also spoken in neighboring Georgia, Iran, and Azerbaijan (mainly in Nagorno-Karabakh Republic). It is also spoken in Turkey by a very small minority (Western Armenian and Homshetsi), and by small minorities in many other countries where members of the widely dispersed Armenian diaspora reside.

Baltic languages

The Baltic languages are spoken in Lithuania (Lithuanian, Samogitian) and Latvia (Latvian, Latgalian). Samogitian and Latgalian are usually considered to be dialects of Lithuanian and Latvian respectively.

New Curonian[citation needed] is nearly extinct: it was spoken in the Curonian Spit which is now divided between Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Oblast. There are also several extinct Baltic languages, including Old Prussian and Sudovian.

Celtic

The Celtic nations, where most Celtic speakers are now concentrated

There are six more or less living Celtic languages, spoken in areas of northwestern Europe dubbed the "Celtic nations". All six are members of the Insular Celtic family, which in turn is divided into:

Continental Celtic languages had previously been spoken across Europe from Iberia and Gaul to Asia Minor, but became extinct in the first millennium AD.

Germanic

The present-day distribution of the Germanic languages in Europe:
North Germanic languages
  Danish
West Germanic languages
  Scots
  Dutch
  German
Dots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.

The Germanic languages make up the predominant language family in northwestern Europe, reaching from Iceland to Sweden and from parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland to Austria. There are two extant major sub-divisions: West Germanic and North Germanic. A third group, East Germanic, is now extinct; the only known surviving East Germanic texts are written in the Gothic language.

West Germanic

There are three major groupings of West Germanic languages: Anglo-Frisian, Low Franconian (now primarily modern Dutch) and High German.

Anglo-Frisian

The Anglo-Frisian language family has two major groups:

High German

German is spoken throughout Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the East Cantons of Belgium, much of Switzerland (including the northeast areas bordering on Germany and Austria) and northern Italy (South Tyrol).

There are several groups of German dialects:

Low German

Low German is a separate language group from High German, but is still considered a dialect. It is spoken in various regions throughout Northern Germany, but has no official status, as the official language is Standard German.

Low Franconian

North Germanic

The North Germanic languages are spoken in Scandinavian countries and include Danish (Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Norwegian (Norway), Swedish (Sweden and parts of Finland), Elfdalian or Övdalian (in a small part of central Sweden), Faroese (Faroe Islands), and Icelandic (Iceland).

Greek

Indo-Iranian languages

The Indo-Iranian languages have two major groupings, Indo-Aryan languages including Romani, and Iranian languages, which include Kurdish, Persian, and Ossetian.

Romance languages

Romance languages, 20th century

The Romance languages descended from the Vulgar Latin spoken across most of the lands of the Roman Empire. Some of the Romance languages are official in the European Union and the Latin Union and the more prominent ones are studied in many educational institutions worldwide. Three of the Romance languages (Spanish, French, and Portuguese) are spoken by one billion speakers worldwide. Many other Romance languages and their local varieties are spoken throughout Europe, and some are recognized as regional languages.

The list below is a summary of Romance languages commonly encountered in Europe:

Slavic

Slavic languages in Europe

Slavic languages are spoken in large areas of Central Europe, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe including Russia.

Languages not from the Indo-European family

Basque

The Basque language (or Euskara) is a language isolate and the ancestral language of the Basque people who inhabit the Basque Country, a region in the western Pyrenees mountains mostly in northeastern Spain and partly in southwestern France of about 3 million inhabitants, where it is spoken fluently by about 750,000 and understood by more than 1.5 million people.

Basque is directly related to ancient Aquitanian, and it is likely that an early form of the Basque language was present in Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European languages in the area. The language may have been spoken since Paleolithic times.

Basque is also spoken by immigrants in Australia, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Philippines and the United States, especially in the states of Nevada, Idaho, and California.[2]

Kartvelian languages

Ethnolinguistic groups in the Caucasus region

The Kartvelian language family consists of Georgian and the related languages of Svan, Mingrelian, and Laz. Proto-Kartvelian is believed to be a common ancestor language of all Kartvelian languages, with the earliest split occurring in the second millennium BC or earlier when Svan was separated. Megrelian and Laz split from Georgian roughly a thousand years later, roughly at the beginning of the first millennium BC (e.g., Klimov, T. Gamkrelidze, G. Machavariani).

The group is considered as isolated, and although for simplicity it is at times grouped with North Caucasian languages, no linguistic relationship exists between the two language families.

North Caucasian

North Caucasian languages (sometimes called simply "Caucasic", as opposed to Kartvelian, and to avoid confusion with the concept of the "Caucasian race") is a blanket term for two language families spoken chiefly in the north Caucasus and Turkey—the Northwest Caucasian family (including Abkhaz, spoken in Abkhazia, and Circassian) and the Northeast Caucasian family, spoken mainly in the border area of the southern Russian Federation (including Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia).

Many linguists, notably Sergei Starostin and Sergei Nikolayev, believe that the two groups sprang from a common ancestor about 5,000 years ago.[3] However this view is difficult to evaluate, and remains controversial.

Uralic

Distribution of Uralic languages

Europe has a number of Uralic languages and language families, including Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian.

Turkic

Turkic languages

Mongolic

The Mongolic languages originated in Asia, and most did not proliferate west to Europe. Kalmyk is spoken in the Republic of Kalmykia, part of the Russian Federation, and is thus the only native Mongolic language spoken in Europe.

Semitic

Cypriot Maronite Arabic

Cypriot Maronite Arabic (also known as Cypriot Arabic) is a variety of Arabic spoken by Maronites in Cyprus. Most speakers live in Nicosia, but others are in the communities of Kormakiti and Lemesos. Brought to the island by Maronites fleeing Lebanon over 700 years ago, this variety of Arabic has been influenced by Greek in both phonology and vocabulary, while retaining certain unusually archaic features in other respects.

Hebrew

Hebrew has been written and spoken by the Jewish communities of all of Europe in liturgical, educational, and often conversational contexts since the entry of the Jews into Europe some time during the late antiquity. Its restoration as the official language of Israel has accelerated its secular use. It also has been used in educational and liturgical contexts by some segments of the Christian population. Hebrew has its own consonantal alphabet, in which the vowels may be marked by diacritical marks termed pointing in English and Niqqud in Hebrew. The Hebrew alphabet was also used to write Yiddish, a West Germanic language, and Ladino, a Romance language, formerly spoken by Jews in northern and southern Europe respectively, but now nearly extinct in Europe itself.

Maltese

Maltese is a Semitic language with Romance and Germanic influences, spoken in Malta.[4][5][6][7] It is based on Sicilian Arabic, with influences from Italian (particularly Sicilian), French, and, more recently, English.

It is unique in that it is the only Semitic language whose standard form is written in the Latin alphabet. It is also the smallest official language of the EU in terms of speakers, and the only official Semitic language within the EU.

General issues

Lingua Franca—past and present

Europe has had a number of languages that were considered linguae francae over some ranges for some periods according to some historians. Typically in the rise of a national language the new language becomes a lingua franca to peoples in the range of the future nation until the consolidation and unification phases. If the nation becomes internationally influential, its language may become a lingua franca among nations that speak their own national languages. Europe has had no lingua franca ranging over its entire territory spoken by all or most of its populations during any historical period. Some linguae francae of past and present over some of its regions for some of its populations are:

First dictionaries and grammars

The earliest dictionaries were glossaries, i.e., more or less structured lists of lexical pairs (in alphabetical order or according to conceptual fields). The Latin-German (Latin-Bavarian) Abrogans was among the first. A new wave of lexicography can be seen from the late 15th century onwards (after the introduction of the printing press, with the growing interest in standardizing languages).

Language and identity, standardization processes

In the Middle Ages the two most important defining elements of Europe were Christianitas and Latinitas. Thus language—at least the supranational language—played an elementary role[clarification needed]. The concept of the nation state became increasingly important. Nations adopted particular dialects as their national language. This, together with improved communications, led to official efforts to standardise the national language, and a number of language academies were established (e.g., 1582 Accademia della Crusca in Florence, 1617 Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft in Weimar, 1635 Académie française in Paris, 1713 Real Academia Española in Madrid). Language became increasingly linked to nation as opposed to culture, and was also used to promote religious and ethnic identity (e.g., different Bible translations in the same language for Catholics and Protestants).

The first languages for which standardisation was promoted included Italian (questione della lingua: Modern Tuscan/Florentine vs. Old Tuscan/Florentine vs. Venetian → Modern Florentine + archaic Tuscan + Upper Italian), French (the standard is based on Parisian), English (the standard is based on the London dialect) and (High) German (based on the dialects of the chancellery of Meissen in Saxony, Middle German, and the chancellery of Prague in Bohemia ("Common German")). But several other nations also began to develop a standard variety in the 16th century.

Scripts

Alphabets used in national languages in Europe:
  Greek
  Greek & Latin
  Latin
Main alphabets used in Europe around 1900:
  Latin script: Fraktur variant
  Latin script: Antiqua variant
  KalmykMongolian script

The main scripts used in Europe today are the Latin and Cyrillic; Greek also has its own script. All of the aforementioned are alphabets.

History

The Greek alphabet was derived from the Phoenician and Latin was derived from the Greek via the Old Italic alphabet.

In the Early Middle Ages, Ogham was used in Ireland and runes (derived the Old Italic script) in Scandinavia. Both were replaced in general use by the Latin alphabet by the Late Middle Ages. The Cyrillic script was derived from the Greek with the first texts appearing around 940 AD.

Around 1900 there were mainly two typeface variants of the Latin alphabet used in Europe: Antiqua and Fraktur. Fraktur was used most for German, Estonian, Latvian, Norwegian and Danish whereas Antiqua was used for Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, English, Romanian, Swedish and Finnish. The Fraktur variant was banned by Hitler in 1941, having been described as "Schwabacher Jewish letters".[13] Other scripts have historically been in use in Europe, including Arabic during the era of the Ottoman Empire, Phoenician, from which modern Latin letters descend, Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on Egyptian artefacts traded during Antiquity, and various runic systems used in Northern Europe preceding Christianisation.

Language and the Council of Europe

The most ancient historical social structure of Europe is that of politically independent tribes, each with its own ethnic identity, based among other cultural factors on its language. For example, the Latini speaking Latin in Latium. A Linguistic conflict has been important in European history. Historical attitudes towards linguistic diversity are illustrated by two French laws: the Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts (1539), which said that every document in France should be written in French (i.e., neither in Latin nor in Occitan) and the Loi Toubon (1994), which aimed to eliminate Anglicisms from official documents. States and populations within a state have often resorted to war to settle their differences. Attempts have been made to prevent such hostilities: one such initiative was the Council of Europe, founded in 1949, whose membership is affirms the right of minority language speakers to use their language fully and freely.[14] The Council of Europe is committed to protecting linguistic diversity. Currently all European countries except France, Andorra and Turkey have signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, while Greece, Iceland and Luxembourg have signed it, but have not ratified it. This framework entered into force in 1998.

Language and the European Union

Official status

The European Union designates one or more languages as "official and working" with regard to any member state if they are the official languages of that state. The decision as to whether they are and their use by the EU as such is entirely up to the laws and policies of the member states. In the case of multiple official languages the member state must designate which one is to be the working language.[15]

As the EU is an entirely voluntary association established by treaty — a member state may withdraw at any time — each member retains its sovereignty in deciding what use to make of its own languages; it must agree to legislate any EU acceptance criteria before membership. The EU designation as official and working is only an agreement concerning the languages to be used in transacting official business between the member state and the EU, especially in the translation of documents passed between the EU and the member state. The EU does not attempt in any way to govern language use in a member state.

Currently the EU has designated by agreement with the member states 24 languages as "official and working:" Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.[15] This designation provides member states with two "entitlements:" the member state may communicate with the EU in the designated one of those languages and view "EU regulations and other legislative documents" in that language.[16]

Proficiency

The European Union and the Council of Europe have been collaborating in a number of tasks, among which is the education of member populations in languages for "the promotion of plurilingualism" among EU member states,[17] The joint document, "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR)", is an educational standard defining "the competencies necessary for communication" and related knowledge for the benefit of educators in setting up educational programs. That document defines three general levels of knowledge: A Basic User, B Independent User and C Proficient User.[18] The ability to speak the language falls under competencies B and C ranging from "can keep going comprehensibly" to "can express him/herself at length with a natural, effortless, unhesitating flow."[19]

These distinctions were simplified in a 2005 independent survey requested by the EU's Directorate-General for Education and Culture regarding the extent to which major European languages were spoken in member states. The results were published in a 2006 document, "Europeans and Their Languages", or "Eurobarometer 243", which is disavowed as official by the European Commission, but does supply some scientific data concerning language use in the EU. In this study, statistically relevant samples of the population in each country were asked to fill out a survey form concerning the languages that they spoke with sufficient competency "to be able to have a conversation".[20] Some of the results showing the distribution of major languages are shown in the maps below. The darkest colors report the highest proportion of speakers. Only EU members were studied. Thus data on Russian speakers were gathered, but Russia is not an EU member and so Russian does not appear in Russia on the maps. It does appear as spoken to the greatest extent in the Baltic countries, which are EU members that were formerly under Soviet rule; followed by former Eastern bloc countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, and the northeastern part of Germany (former socialist East Germany).

Number of speakers

The following is a table displaying the number of speakers of a given European language in Europe only. See the languages' individual page for a more detailed summary and for sources. Some figures are approximate and may come from sources that are several years old. Dialects, or languages that have been labelled or contested as dialects by linguists, are not included in the table.

Language Speakers[nb 1] Official Status in a Country[nb 2] Official Status in a Region[nb 3]
Adyghe 128,000-300,000  Adygea
Albanian 7,400,000  Albania,  Kosovo
Aragonese 10,000  Aragon
Armenian 5,902,970
(at crossroads of Europe and Asia)
 Armenia  Nagorno-Karabakh
Aromanian 250,000
Avar 760,000  Dagestan
Azerbaijani 7,324,060
(at crossroads of Europe and Asia)
 Azerbaijan  Dagestan
Arpitan 140,000
Asturian 500,000  Asturias
Bashkir 1,200,000  Bashkortostan
Basque 720,000  Basque Autonomous Community,  Navarre
Belarusian 9,000,000  Belarus
Bosnian 3,000,000  Bosnia Sandžak
Breton 210,000
Bulgarian 10,000,000  Bulgaria
Catalan 9,000,000  Andorra  Balearic Islands,  Catalonia,  Valencian Community
Chechen 1,400,000  Chechnya  Dagestan
Chuvash 1,600,000  Chuvashia
Cornish 2,000
Corsican 230,000
Crimean Tatar 480,000  Crimea,  Sevastopol
Croatian 5,500,000  Croatia  Burgenland,  Bosnia,  Vojvodina
Czech 10,000,000  Czech Republic
Danish 5,600,000  Denmark  Faroe Islands
Dutch 23,000,000  Belgium,  Netherlands
English 67,000,000  Ireland,  Malta,  United Kingdom
Estonian 1,100,000  Estonia
Erzya 430,000  Mordovia
Faroese 66,000  Faroe Islands
Finnish 5,500,000  Finland
French 80,000,000  Belgium,  France,  Luxembourg,   Switzerland  Valle d'Aosta[21]
Frisian 480,000  Friesland
Gagauz 170,000  Gagauzia
Galician 3,000,000  Galicia
Gallo 28,000
Georgian 4,200,000
(at crossroads of Europe and Asia)
 Georgia
German 90,000,000  Austria,  Belgium,  Germany,  Liechtenstein,  Luxembourg,   Switzerland  South Tyrol[22]
Greek 11,000,000  Cyprus,  Greece
Hungarian 14,000,000  Hungary  Burgenland,  Vojvodina
Icelandic 330,000  Iceland
Ingrian 120
Irish 1,800,000  Ireland  Northern Ireland
Italian 60,000,000  Italy,  San Marino,   Switzerland,  Vatican City Croatia Istria County
Kabardian 1,600,000  Kabardino-Balkaria,  Karachay-Cherkessia
Kashubian 106,000
Kazakh 1,000,000 (in European Kazakhstan)  Kazakhstan
Ladin 20,000
Latin 30,000  Holy See
Latvian 1,900,000  Latvia
Laz 20,000
Livonian 300
Lithuanian 3,200,000  Lithuania
Luxembourgish 400,000  Luxembourg
Macedonian 2,000,000  Macedonia
Maltese 400,000  Malta
Manx 300  Isle of Man
Mari 400,000  Mari El
Mingrelian 400,000
Mirandese 15,000
Montenegrin 300,000  Montenegro
Norwegian 5,000,000  Norway
Occitan 300,000  Catalonia
Ossetian 580,000  South Ossetia
Picard 700,000
Polish 40,000,000  Poland
Portuguese 11,000,000  Portugal
Romani 3,000,000
Romanian 28,000,000  Moldova,  Romania  Vojvodina
Romansh 60,000   Switzerland
Russian 82,000,000 (in European Russia)
95,000,000 (in all of Europe)
 Belarus,  Kazakhstan,  Russia
Sami 20,000
Sardinian 1,000,000  Sardinia
Scots 1,540,000  Scotland,  Ulster,  England
Scottish Gaelic 58,000  Scotland
Serbian 9,700,000  Serbia  Bosnia
Silesian 510,000
Slovak 5,000,000  Czech Republic,  Slovakia  Vojvodina
Slovene 2,500,000  Slovenia
Sorbian 50,000
Spanish 51,000,000  Spain
Svan 27,000
Swedish 8,700,000  Finland,  Sweden
Tabasaran 130,000  Dagestan
Tatar 5,400,000  Tatarstan
Turkish 10,000,000 (in European Turkey)
19,000,000 (in all of Europe)
 Cyprus,  Northern Cyprus,  Turkey  Kosovo
Ukrainian 37,000,000  Ukraine
Vepsian 3,500
Wymysorys 70  Poland native to Wilamowice
Võro 75,000
Walloon 600,000  Wallonia
Welsh 720,000  Wales

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Both native and second language speakers residing in Europe only.
  2. ^ Country is defined as being one of the 193 members of the United Nations. 'Recognised minority language' status is not included.
  3. ^ Region is defined as being a subordinate constituent of a country, where a legitimate political entity has granted the language official status in that region.

References

  1. ^ Legge Regionale 15 ottobre 1997, n. 26
  2. ^ "Basque". UCLA Language Materials Project, UCLA International Institute. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
  3. ^ Nikolayev, S., and S. Starostin. 1994 North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary. Moscow: Asterisk Press. Available online.
  4. ^ Marie Alexander; et al. (2009). "2nd International Conference of Maltese Linguistics: Saturday, September 19 – Monday, September 21, 2009". International Association of Maltese Linguistics. Retrieved 2 November 2009. {{cite web}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)
  5. ^ Aquilina, J. (1958). "Maltese as a Mixed Language". Journal of Semitic Studies. 3 (1): 58–79. doi:10.1093/jss/3.1.58.
  6. ^ Aquilina, Joseph (July–September 1960). "The Structure of Maltese". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 80 (3): 267–68.
  7. ^ Werner, Louis; Calleja, Alan (November–December 2004). "Europe's New Arabic Connection". Saudi Aramco World.
  8. ^ Counelis, James Steve (March 1976). "Review [untitled] of Ariadna Camariano-Cioran, Les Academies Princieres de Bucarest et de Jassy et leur Professeurs". Church History. 45 (1): 115–116. doi:10.2307/3164593. ...Greek, the lingua franca of commerce and religion, provided a cultural unity to the Balkans...Greek penetrated Moldavian and Wallachian territories as early as the fourteenth century.... The heavy influence of Greek culture upon the intellectual and academic life of Bucharest and Jassy was longer termed than historians once believed.
  9. ^ Wansbrough, John E. (1996). "Chapter 3: Lingua Franca". Lingua Franca in the Mediterranean. Routledge.
  10. ^ a b Calvet, Louis Jean (1998). Language wars and linguistic politics. Oxford [England]; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 175–76.
  11. ^ Jones, Branwen Gruffydd (2006). Decolonizing international relations. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 98.
  12. ^ Darquennes, Jeroen; Nelde, Peter (2006). "German as a Lingua Franca". Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. 26: 61–77. doi:10.1017/s0267190506000043.
  13. ^ Facsimile of Bormann's Memorandum (in German)
    The memorandum itself is typed in Antiqua, but the NSDAP letterhead is printed in Fraktur.
    "For general attention, on behalf of the Führer, I make the following announcement:
    It is wrong to regard or to describe the so‑called Gothic script as a German script. In reality, the so‑called Gothic script consists of Schwabach Jew letters. Just as they later took control of the newspapers, upon the introduction of printing the Jews residing in Germany took control of the printing presses and thus in Germany the Schwabach Jew letters were forcefully introduced.
    Today the Führer, talking with Herr Reichsleiter Amann and Herr Book Publisher Adolf Müller, has decided that in the future the Antiqua script is to be described as normal script. All printed materials are to be gradually converted to this normal script. As soon as is feasible in terms of textbooks, only the normal script will be taught in village and state schools.
    The use of the Schwabach Jew letters by officials will in future cease; appointment certifications for functionaries, street signs, and so forth will in future be produced only in normal script.
    On behalf of the Führer, Herr Reichsleiter Amann will in future convert those newspapers and periodicals that already have foreign distribution, or whose foreign distribution is desired, to normal script".
  14. ^ "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Strasbourg, 5.XI.1992". Council of Europe. 1992.
  15. ^ a b "Regulation No. 1 determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community" (PDF). European Commission, European Union. 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
  16. ^ "Languages of Europe: Official EU languages". European Commission, European Union. 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2009.[dead link]
  17. ^ "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR)". Council of Europe. Retrieved 5 November 2009.[dead link]
  18. ^ Page 23.
  19. ^ Page 29.
  20. ^ "Europeans and Their Languages" (PDF). European Commission. 2006. p. 8. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
  21. ^ Le Statut spécial de la Vallée d'Aoste, Article 38, Title VI. Region Vallée d'Aoste. Retrieved 5-11-2012. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  22. ^ [1]