Spot that language

and tell it apart

from others

A field guide
to the main languages
in Europe

Translation
Languages covered in this guide
Albanian, Armenian, Azeri, Basque,
Belarusian, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian,
Castilian Spanish, Catalan, Croatian,
Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian,
Faroese, Finnish, French, Galician,
Georgian, German, Greek, Hungarian,
Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Latvian,
Luxembourgish, Lithuanian, Macedonian,
Maltese, Montenegrin, Norwegian,
Polish, Portuguese, Romani, Romanian,
Russian, Sámi, Scots Gaelic, Serbian,
Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Turkish,
Ukrainian, Welsh, Yiddish
 1

Introduction

When this guide to the main languages in Europe was first put together in 2007, the
European Union’s policy for multilingualism had just moved closer to the forefront of
the political scene. However, long before the European project was born, languages
had provided the cement for Europeans wanting to live and work together peacefully.
Mutual respect for each other’s languages is at the very heart of the ‘unity in diversity’
principle, opening the door to cultural pluralism, one of the core values of the EU.
Languages are never static, and certainly not those of a rapidly integrating Europe.
Political and scientific developments such as further enlargements of the European
Union and spectacular advances in information and communication technologies, as
well as the increasing recognition of the importance of regional cultures and the steady
flow of migrants are continuously reshaping our linguistic landscape.
It is not always easy for the citizens of the EU to cope with these changes; but it is
certainly worth the effort since the knowledge of languages promoted by the EU’s
multilingualism policy unites the people of Europe, removing the linguistic barriers
that still hinder mobility and mutual understanding. Language learning helps us to
discover the culture and traditions of our neighbours and opens up new worlds and
opportunities — and can be real fun. The first step, of course, is recognising the many
languages that surround us today.
This guide therefore has three aims: it is a summary by language family of the main
languages of Europe, it gives practical hints on how to recognise these languages and
how to distinguish between them, and it is meant to encourage you to explore these
languages further.
The definition of ‘Europe’ used in this guide extends as far as the Caucasus in order to
also include some languages such as Armenian, Georgian and Azeri. However, the local
languages of overseas territories of the EU Member States are not covered, nor are
the languages of the Asian and African communities in Europe, of which the main ones
are Arabic, Bengali, various forms of Chinese, Gujarati, Indonesian and Vietnamese. We
have also decided to leave out regional languages that the European Commission is *
not asked to translate, such as Frisian or Corsican, while retaining those from which the There are about
Commission does translate occasionally or that are covered by specific administrative 50 languages
arrangements, like Galician. This is a purely practical decision and no discrimination is in the French
intended. overseas
departments and
territories alone.

How to use this guide

The guide is designed for those who do not know any of the languages in a
given family group and it therefore concentrates on just the one or two essential
distinguishing features which such a person will need in order to tell the different
languages apart. It does not attempt to list exhaustively all the distinguishing marks of
each language.
2

For example, if you can already read Danish you are likely to immediately spot
the ‘unusual-looking’ vocabulary, spellings and syntax which give away a text as
Norwegian, even though you do not ‘know’ Norwegian.
However, someone who does not know any of the Scandinavian languages will have
great difficulty in separating Danish from Norwegian just by looking at them.
Apart from the difficulty of distinguishing, for example, Danish from Norwegian in
language terms, another problem that can arise is the misidentification of a text
because of the country in which it originates. For instance, documents in Swedish
concerning the Åland Islands are often marked erroneously as Finnish, while texts in
Galician can be marked as Spanish.

What next?
The following general websites are worth investigating.
‣‣ For a comprehensive survey of world languages:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing
‣‣ For the languages of Europe and where they are used:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_languages
‣‣ For characters needed to write specific languages: http://www.eki.ee/letter/
‣‣ For the EU official languages, you can see a text in each one and hear it being read
at: http://europa.eu/abc/european_countries/languages/index_en.htm
If you want to explore some of these languages further, you can investigate one of
the many phrasebooks for travellers produced by various publishers and which cover a
large number of the languages dealt with here.
Hopefully, this little guide gives you some insight into European languages and arouses
your curiosity sufficiently to take a closer interest in the fascinating issue of languages.
 3

Contents
Section I Section I
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script

Section II Section II
Romance Romance
overview Language family finder 4 languages languages
section i Slavic languages with Latin script 7
section ii Romance languages 9 Section III Section III
Germanic Germanic
section iii Germanic languages 11 languages languages

section iv Baltic languages 13

Section IV Section IV
section v Celtic languages 14
Baltic Baltic
section vi Albanian 15 languages languages

section vii Uralic languages 16

Section V Section V
section viii Semitic: Maltese 17 Celtic Celtic
languages languages
section ix Turkic languages 18
section x Slavic languages with Cyrillic script 19
Section VI Section VI
section xi Greek 20 Albanian Albanian

section xii Armenian, Georgian, Yiddish 21

section xiii Indic, Basque 22 Section VII Section VII
Uralic Uralic
languages languages

Section VIII Section VIII

Semitic: Semitic:
Maltese Maltese

Section IX Section IX
Turkic Turkic
languages languages

Section X Section X
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 4

Language family finder

Section I Use distinguishing
Section I features in your text to identify the group of languages
Slavic languages andlanguages
Slavic refer to the relevant section.
with Latin script with Latin script

Section II Section II
Romance Romance
languages languages

Section III Section III

Germanic Germanic
languages languages

Section IV Section IV
Baltic Baltic
languages languages

Section V Section V
Celtic Celtic
languages languages

Section VI Section VI
Albanian Albanian

Section VII Section VII

Uralic Uralic
languages languages

Section VIII Section VIII

Semitic: Semitic:
Maltese Maltese

Section IX Section IX
Turkic Turkic
languages languages

Section X Section X
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 5

Latin script? or another script?

▼ ▶ Cyrillic or ▶ Other
đ, č, š, ž South Slavic ъ, ќ, љ, њ, џ α, ά, β, δ, η, ф, ή
Bosnian South Slavic Greek
Croatian Bulgarian (Indo-European)
Slovenian Macedonian See section XI
(Serbian, Montenegrin) Serbian
See section I See section X
ą, ł , ř, ů, ž West Slavic я, д, э ,й, ф, Ы, ґ, ў, ї Ամբողջ երկիրը
Czech East Slavic Armenian or
Polish Belarusian Hayeren
Slovak Russian (Indo-European)
See section I Ukrainian See section XII
See section X

â, ê, ç, ã, õ, ñ, nh Ibero-Romance î, ç, ş Other Romance ყოველი საიდუმლოჲ

Spanish è, à, ò French Georgian
Catalan Italian (non-Indo-European)
Galician Romanian See section XII
Portuguese See section II
See section II
æ, å, ä, ø, ð, þ North Germanic ä, ö, ü, West Germanic ‫תברו תינופצמ‬
Danish ë, ee, Dutch ‫הארשה‬
Faroese English Hebrew script, often
Icelandic
éé German used for writing
Norwegian Luxembourgish Yiddish
Swedish See section III (Indo-European)
See section III See section XII
ā, ū, ą, ė, ķ, ņ Baltic
Latvian
Lithuanian
See section IV
ò, í, bh, mh, c’h, ŷ Celtic ë, xh, Other Indo-European
Breton shp, Albanian
Irish See section VI
Scots Gaelic
shq
Welsh
See section V
ä, õ, ő, ű, đ, á Uralic ġ, ħ, ż Semitic
Estonian Maltese
Finnish See section VIII
Hungarian
Sámi
See section VII
ç, ş, ğ, ü, ə Turkic
Azeri
Turkish
See section IX
â, î Indic il, in, ts, Family not clarified
Romani tx, tz Basque
See section XIII See section XIII
 7

Section I

South Slavic Section I Section I

Bosnian / Croatian / Serbian / Montenegrin / Slovenian Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script


Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian used to be known collectively as
Serbo-Croat but are changing all the time since the break-up of Section II
Possible confusion Section II
the former Yugoslavia. Romance
of Serbian and Romance
Croatian iflanguages
the languages
While Croatian is written almost exclusively in the Latin former is written
alphabet, Serbian is just as likely to be written in Cyrillic script in Latin script.
Section III Section III
(see Section X) as in Latin characters. When written in Latin
Germanic Germanic
script, Serbian uses the same accented characters as Croatian languages languages
but is distinguishable from it by certain grammatical and lexical

šžč
features.
Section IV Section IV
Bosnian used at one time to be written in Arabic script but now Baltic Baltic
appears in either Latin or Cyrillic script. languages languages
A dialect of Serbian has become the national language of
Montenegro (referred to as ‘Montenegrin’ in Article 13 of its háček (upside-down
Section V Section V
Constitution) following its independence in June 2006. circumflex) Celtic Celtic
languages languages
For more details on the differences between four of these
five languages, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differences_in_
official_languages_in_Serbia %2C_Croatia_and_Bosnia. Section VI Section VI
Albanian Albanian
In general, the South Slavic languages have fewer accents and
diacritics than the West Slavic languages (Czech, Polish and Slovak).

{ đ / Ð, Section š,VIIž
Croatian has a characteristic barred d: Section VII
ć, č,Uralic Uralic
đ / Ð as well as ć, č, š and ž.
hl, hr, languages
hv languages
Another notable feature is h in combination with other
consonants, as in hl, hr and hv (e.g. the name of the country:
Hrvatska). Section VIII Section VIII
Semitic: Semitic:
Bosnian also uses the barred đ and ć, č, š, ž. Maltese Maltese
Slovenian has a háček (upside-down circumflex) on č, š and
ž only, with the absence of ć and đ (except in proper names,
{ č, š, ž
NO: đ Section
/ Ð, ć IX
Turkic
Section IX
Turkic
which will always begin with a capital letter).


languages languages

Documents in
Section X Section X
Slovenian and Slovak
Slavic languages Slavic languages
are with
sometimes
Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script
confused because
the Slovak name
for SlovakiaSection XI Section XI
is ‘Slovensko’, Greek Greek
reminiscent of
‘Slovenia’.
Section XII Section XII
Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 8

Section I

Section I
West Slavic
Section I
Slavic languages
Czech / Slovac / Polish
Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script

Czech and Slovak: both make use of many accents and

Section II Section II(as compared, for example, to Slovenian or Croatian).
diacritics
Romance Romance
The upside-down circumflex, called háček in Czech and mäkčeň
languages languages
in Slovak, is perhaps the most noticeable feature of Czech
and Slovak. On t and d the háček is printed as an apostrophe
Section III Section
very closeIIIto the letter in lower case, but as an upside-down
Germanic Germanic when in upper case.
circumflex
languages languages
Because of different spelling rules in the two languages, a Czech
text will typically have more accents than a Slovak one. In both
Section IV Section IVit is common to find words containing many accents
languages
Baltic Baltic příště) and unusual-looking words with no apparent
(väčší,
languages languages
vowels (prst, dlh, stĺp, tŕň, tĺcť, krb, štvrť). Characters
common to Czech
Czech: the main distinguishing character is ů, unique to Czech. and Slovak
Section V Section V
Celtic Slovak
Celtic also has l with a mäkčeň, printed as an apostrophe in Characters used
languages languages
upper and lower case. In Slovak, but not in Czech, syllabic r and l in Slovak but not
can also be long and have an acute accent. in Czech

Section VI Section VI
Albanian Albanian
З
Characters used
Section VII Section VII in Czech but not
Uralic Uralic in Slovak
languages languages

Section VIII Section VIII

Semitic:
Maltese
Semitic:
Polish:
Maltese
ч
a. has no háček at all, but characteristic digraphs and consonant Accented letters and
Section IX Section
clustersIXinstead, for example cz, dz, rz (common ending for common combinations
Turkic Turkic used in Polish:
masculine nouns), sz and szcz;
languages languages
b. has neither ‘ů’ nor ‘ä’;
Section X c. has
SectiontheX crossed or barred ‘Ł’ (capital or small), which is
Slavic languages unique
Slavic to the language;
languages
with Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script
d. uses w where other Slavic languages with Latin script use v.


Section XI Section XI Polish is also

Greek Greek
an important
regional language
in Lithuania.
Section XII Section XII
Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 9

Section II

Ibero-Romance Section I Section I

Castilian Spanish / Catalan / Galician / Portuguese Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script

Castilian: has y as a single word — frequent use of final –d


Section II Section II
Catalan: has i as a single word — frequent use of final –t Romance Romance
Castilian and Catalan: both use ll to represent the sound [λ]. Catalan is languages
the languages
official language of
However, in Catalan a very distinctive mid-height stop is used Andorra, which is
Section III Section III
to identify a double ‘l’ pronounced as two ‘l’s (e.g. excel·lents). not a member of the
Germanic Germanic
European Union.
languages languages
Castilian has a tilde on ñ but not on vowels, in contrast to
Portuguese.
Where Castilian has ñ, Catalan has ny. Section IV Section IV
Baltic Baltic
Both Castilian and Catalan make use of ¡…! and ¿….? for

{
languages languages
emphasis and questions, though this is optional in Catalan. à, è, ï, ç, l.l
Catalan has grave accents, and makes use of dieresis on i (e.g. gü: aigüesSection V Section V
reïna = resin) and on u following g and q (e.g. eloqüència) to qü: eloqüencia Celtic Celtic

{
show that the vowel is pronounced separately. languages languages
ê, â, ô, ã, õ
Portuguese: common use of final m (unlike Castilian) — no: II Section VI
circumflex accents ê, â, ô — no double l — tilde on the vowels Section VI
ã and õ — the equivalent sound to ñ in Spanish is written nh in
-m: bom Albanian Albanian
Portuguese, while Galician has both ñ and nh.


Galician (or Galego): looks at first sight like Portuguese, but is Section VII Section VII
a Spanish regional language ― frequent use of ‘x’ for a soft ‘g’ Brazilian Portuguese
Uralic Uralic
sound ― use of ll (unlike Portuguese) ― use of ñ alongside nh differs slightly
languages languages
(unlike Portuguese). in spelling and
grammar from
EuropeanSection
Portuguese.
VIII Section VIII
Semitic: Semitic:
Maltese Maltese


Section IX Section IX
Documents in Galego
Turkic Turkic
are sometimes
languages languages
misidentified as
Spanish because
Section X Section X
of the Member
Slavic languages Slavic languages
State ofCyrillic
with origin.script with Cyrillic script

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 10

Section II

Section I
Other Romance languages
Section I
French / Italian / Romanian
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script

Section II Section II
Romance Romance


languages French: the most obvious feature of French texts is the large
languages
number of apostrophes, marking the elision of vowels. The most
common are l’, d’ and s’ at the start of a word. In Europe, French is
Section III Section III an official language
Germanic Accents and diacritics used are: é, è, à, ç, ù, ê, î, û, ï, ë — and
Germanic
in France, Belgium,
languages languages
note that à can be a single word. Luxembourg, Monaco
and Switzerland, and
Section IV Section IV for certain purposes
Baltic Baltic also in Jersey/
languages languages Channel Islands.


Section V Section V
Celtic Italian:
Celtic almost all Italian words end in a vowel. Most typical
languages languages ò at the end of words (not found in French at all)
characters: Italian is also an
and è as a single word (also not found in French). Another official language
noteworthy feature is initial capitals for the forms of the polite of Switzerland.
Section VI Section VI
Albanian ‘you’ even when in the middle of a sentence, e.g. Lei, Loro.
Albanian

Section VII Section VII

Uralic Uralic
languages languages
Romanian has no ç (unlike French) but does put a comma
under ș and ț. It also frequently uses a circumflex on î and â
Section VIII Section
and VIII on ă.
a breve

{
Semitic: Semitic:
Maltese Maltese characters used in Romanian: â, ă, î, ș, ț.
Accented ș, ţ,
Romanian is also the official language of Moldova, although î, â, ă
Section IX Section
its officialIXname there is ‘Moldovan’ (limbă moldovenească,
Turkic Turkic
sometimes also translated as ‘Moldavian’) according to its
languages languages It uses Romanian spelling.
Constitution.
Russian is also a major language in Moldova. In the self-
Section X Section X
Slavic languages
declared Republic of Transdniestria, Romanian is still written
Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script inwith
theCyrillic
Cyrillicscript
script as in Soviet times and has official status
alongside Russian and Ukrainian.

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 11

Section III

North Germanic (Scandinavian) Section I Section I

Danish / Norwegian / Swedish / Icelandic / Faroese Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script

Section II Section II
Romance Romance
Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all use å. languages languages
Danish and Norwegian both have æ and ø, while Swedish
instead uses ä and ö. Section III Section III
Germanic Germanic
Danish and Norwegian use og (English ‘and’), while Swedish has Norwegian languages
and languages
och. Swedish all use å
Danish uses af (English ‘from’, ‘of’), while Norwegian and


Section IV Section IV
Swedish have av.
Baltic Baltic
Danish uses at (English infinitive ‘to’), while Norwegian has å Norwegianlanguages
exists in languages
and Swedish has att. two variants: Bokmål
(BM) and Nynorsk,
Section V Section V
Under the Åland Autonomy Act, Swedish is the sole official
but BM is used Celtic
by Celtic
language in Finland’s Åland Islands.
at least 80languages
% of the languages
population and in
almost 100 %
Danish Norwegian Swedish Section VI Section VI
of the media.Albanian Albanian
æ ä
ø ö
Section VII Section VII
og och
Uralic Uralic
af av languages languages
at å att
Section VIII Section VIII
Semitic: Semitic:
Maltese Maltese
Icelandic / Faroese
Both languages use ð and are the only modern languages to do the only two modern
Section IX Section IX
so. languages withTurkic
this Turkic
Both languages have an acute accent on vowels: á, é, í, ó, ú character languages languages
and ý.
Section X Section X
Icelandic has þ and æ, while Faroese does not use either of
Slavic languages Slavic languages
these. with Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script
Faroese has ø, while Icelandic uses ö instead. No other
Icelandic vowel takes an umlaut.
Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 12

Section III

Section I
West Germanic
Section I
Slavic languages English / German / Dutch / Luxembourgish
Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script


English: the most noteworthy feature of English is the many
Section II Sectionvowels
digraph II such as ee, ea, ie, ei, ay, eu, ey.
Romance Romance English in Europe
languages English spelling has two main variants, US and British, but
languages has official status
given the status of English as a first, second or third language in the Isle of Man,
Section III
for large numbers of users around the globe, spelling is
Section III the Channel Islands
Germanic becoming
Germanic very fluid. British English spelling is preferred for EU and Gibraltar,
languages texts.
languages Ireland (alongside
More generally, it is becoming essential to preface ‘English’ Irish) and Malta
with a qualifier like ‘American’, ‘Australian’, ‘British’, ‘Indian’, (alongside Maltese).
Section IV Section IV
Baltic ‘International’,
Baltic etc. and to speak of ‘Englishes’ in the plural.
languages languages
German: the most striking feature of German is its initial capital
letters within a sentence to mark all nouns.
Section V Section V
German has umlaut accents on a, o and u only (ä, ö, ü).
Celtic Celtic
languages
However,
languages
the umlauts may be replaced by ‘ae’ (NB: not the same
as Scandinavian ligature æ), ‘oe’ and ‘ue’, e.g. in proper names,
in emails and in other cases where the character set is restricted
Section VI —Section VI noteworthy is the character ß, unique to German
but most
Albanian Albanianno longer used in Swiss German), representing a sibilant
(though represents a sibilant
‘s’ sound. ‘s’ sound

Section VII German

Section makes
VII frequent use of abbreviations in running text:

Uralic common
Uralic examples are bzw. and usw.
languages languages
Dutch: a notable feature is the combination ij, including at the
German is an official
start of words. At the start of a sentence the double character
language in Germany,
Section VIII isSection VIII IJ. Note the use of ë in some plurals. Dutch makes
upper case
Austria, Switzerland,
Semitic: Semitic: use of double vowels aa, ee, oo — also éé and óó
frequent
Belgium, Luxembourg
Maltese Maltese
with accents for emphasis. Nouns are not capitalised, unlike in
and Liechtenstein,
German, and there are no umlaut accents on a, o or u.
with regional status
Section IX Section
Dutch, IX German, also makes use of many abbreviations in
like also in Poland,
Turkic Turkic
running text: examples are dmv, dwz, enz, tgv. Denmark and Italy.
languages languages
Luxembourgish (Lëtzebuergesch) is recognised as a national


Section X
language
Section X
of Luxembourg alongside French and German for
Slavic languages use in the
Slavic administration and judiciary — though all legislation
languages
iswith
published In Europe, Dutch is
with Cyrillic script Cyrillic in French only. The most noteworthy features of
script
Luxembourgish are its very frequent use of ë (almost non- an official language
existent in German and quite rare in Dutch) as well as of the in the Netherlands
single é (quite rare in German and Dutch, where it is used and Belgium. Flemish
Section XI Section XI
almost exclusively in foreign loan words). (Vlaams) is a dialect
Greek Greek
of Dutch spoken
in Belgium and
northern France.
Section XII Section XII
Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 13

Section IV

Baltic languages Section I Section I

Lithuanian / Latvian Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script

These languages are the sole survivors of a separate family

of Indo-European origin. They are not related to Estonian (see Section II Section II
Romance Romance
Section VII).
languages languages
Lithuanian: all the vowels except ‘o’ can also take a right-
bending cedilla below: ą, ę, į, ų. Section III Section III
Only Lithuanian has ė. There is a high frequency of endings in Germanic Germanic
–os. languages
All the vowels ― languages
except ‘o’ ― can
Latvian: the consonants ‘k’, ‘l’ and ‘n’ can take a left-bending have a cedilla
cedilla: ķ, ļ, ņ, but never the vowels. When g takes the cedilla, it Section IV Section IV
in Lithuanian Baltic Baltic
is placed above the letter: ģ.
languages languages
There is a high frequency of endings in –as.
Both languages have ū, but ā, ē and ī are found only in Latvian. Section V Section V
Celtic Celtic
languages languages
Consonants with a
cedilla in Latvian ―
Section
in g, the cedilla is VI Section VI
placed aboveAlbanian
the Albanian
letter

Section VII Section VII

Uralic Uralic
languages languages

Section VIII Section VIII

Semitic: Semitic:
Maltese Maltese

Section IX Section IX
Turkic Turkic
languages languages

Section X Section X
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 14

Section V

Section I
Celtic languages
Section I
Slavic languages Irish
Slavic / Scots Gaelic / Welsh / Breton
languages
with Latin script with Latin script

The most striking feature of the Celtic languages is the mutation

Section II Section
of theII initial sounds of words following certain prepositions and
Romance Romance
in oblique cases.
languages languages
Q-Celtic: Irish and Scots Gaelic Both languages
Section III Section III
In Irish and Scots Gaelic, the mutation is marked by adding a have capital letters
Germanic Germanic
languages letter, so that characteristic initial consonant clusters in Irish are:
languages within words:
gc–, bhf–, mb–, ng–, bp–, and in Scots Gaelic , they are ch–, Gaeilge na
fh–, mh–, bh–.
Section IV Section IV hÉireann
Baltic Irish has acute accents only: mé, tú, sé, sí, etc., whereas Scots
Baltic ‘Irish Gaelic’ with
languages Gaelic traditionally had a ‘grave’ accent as well: òg (Irish óg), sgìth
languages no separator
(Irish scíth). However, a spelling reform for Scots Gaelic in 1981
Section V
recommended acute accents only and its practice is no longer
Section V In other words, any ‘grave’ accent betrays Scots Gaelic.
Gàidhlig na
uniform.
Celtic Celtic h-Alba
languages languages
The most striking feature of both languages, but also one that ‘Scots Gaelic’ with
enables a distinction to be readily made between them, is a hyphen
Section VI the appearance
Section VI of capital letters within words, which in Irish
Albanian gives, for example, Gaeilge na hÉireann (‘Irish Gaelic’) with
Albanian
no separator, while Scots Gaelic inserts a hyphen: Gàidhlig na
h-Alba (‘Scots Gaelic’).
Section VII Section VII
Uralic P-Celtic:
Uralic Welsh and Breton
languages languages
In Welsh and Breton, the initial mutation is less evident
because often one letter replaces another rather than a letter
Section VIII Section added. In Welsh, for example, c becomes g, ci becomes gi,
beingVIII
Semitic: m becomes f.
Semitic:
Maltese Maltese
Welsh has a distinctive double l, including at the start of words,
and makes wide use of y and ŷ and w and ŵ for vowel sounds.
Section IX Section IX
Turkic Breton represents the same sound as the Welsh hard ‘c’ with
Turkic
languages ‘k’. It also has a distinctive tilde on ñ to indicate nasalisation.
languages
One very characteristic final cluster is –añv. There is also a
typical c’h, when ki (see ci in Welsh) mutates to, for example,
Section X Section X
Slavic languages
ur c’hi. Another frequent pattern is the final –ou or –où. The
Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script withcluster
Cyrillic‘zh’ is also common.
script

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 15

Section VI

Albanian Section I Section I

Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script


Albanian is an Indo-European language which forms its own
Section II Section II
branch in the Indo-European family and has no close living
relatives. It has been written in a standardised Latin script Albanian is Romance
also Romance
since 1909. There are very few distinguishing characters, the one of thelanguages
two languages

main one being ë. However, a striking feature is the consonant official languages
clusters such as shq (e.g. the name of the language itself: of Kosovo,Section
the other
III Section III
Shqip), shp and sht. Other distinguishing letters are ç (c with Germanic
being Serbian. Germanic
cedilla) and the letter q when not followed by u. languages languages

Standard Albanian is a conflation of the two major dialects, Tosk

and Gheg. Section IV Section IV
Baltic Baltic
languages languages

Section V Section V
Celtic Celtic
languages languages

Section VI Section VI
The name ofAlbanian
the Albanian
language itself,
‘Shqip’ contains one
Section VII
of its typical Section VII
consonant clustersUralic Uralic
‘shq’ languages languages

Section VIII Section VIII

Semitic: Semitic:
Maltese Maltese

Section IX Section IX
Turkic Turkic
languages languages

Section X Section X
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 16

Section VII

Section I
Uralic languages
Section I
Slavic languages
Estonian / Finnish / Hungarian / Sámi
Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script

The Uralic languages are often referred to as ‘Finno-Ugric’,

Section II Section II in strict use this excludes one branch of the language
although
Romance Romance
family. This language family is comprised of several groups and
languages languages
subgroups with only distant ties between many of them. Several
indigenous languages of Russia are also members of this family.
Section III Section III in Estonian,
Germanic Estonian
Germanic / Finnish corresponds to
languages languages
Estonian and Finnish can look very similar at first sight to the
uninitiated.
Section IV Section IV
Baltic Estonian: ü and üü, corresponding to Finnish y and yy.
Baltic in Finnish
languages languages
Both languages have ä and ö and frequent double vowels, but õ
and ü occur only in Estonian.
Section V Section V
Generally speaking, in contrast to Finnish, Estonian has more
Celtic Celtic
words ending in consonants (–d, the plural ending, and –b,
languages languages
the third person singular verb ending, are both common)
and consonant clusters (such as –st, –lt and –ks), whereas


Section VI Section VI typically has no word-final consonant clusters and
Finnish
Albanian Albanian
the only common single final consonants are n and t (and less
frequently, s, r and l). Hungarian
has about 10
Section VII Section VII
Hungarian million speakers
Uralic Uralic in Hungary
languages The most striking feature of Hungarian is the lengthened
languages itself and more
double stroke above ő and ű. Hungarian also has both ö and ü than 3 million
as in German (by contrast, German has no lengthened strokes in Slovakia,
Section VIII Section VIII capitalised nouns and umlaut ä as well). Hungarian
and has
Semitic: Semitic: Romania, Serbia
can take an acute accent on all vowels: á, é, í, ó, ú. Typical and Ukraine.
Maltese Maltese
consonant clusters are sz, gy and ty.

Section IX Sámi
Section IX
Turkic Turkic
languages Sámi is a group of languages of a people with nomadic
languages
traditions in Northern Europe whose biggest population is found
in Norway, followed in declining order by Sweden, Finland and
Section X Section X
Russia. The status of the Sámi languages has slowly become
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script withmore important
Cyrillic script in the late 20th century.
Typical characters in Sámi: č, š and á, also a barred đ, which can
be doubled as đđ.
Section XI Section XI
Greek Confusion is possible between Sámi languages and
Greek
Scandinavian languages, especially Icelandic and Faroese,
because of the similarity of đ to ð and the fairly large number
Section XII
of Scandinavian loan words in Sámi.
Section XII
Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish
Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish  Sámi has given us the word ‘tundra’.

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 17

Section VIII

Semitic languages Section I Section I

Maltese Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script

The crossed ‘h’ is the most obvious distinguishing mark: ħ, Ħ,

għ.
Maltese also has ċ, ġ and ż, and uses many hyphens.
{
ħ, Ħ, għ,Section II
ċ, ġ, ż Romance
languages
Section II
Romance
languages

Maltese developed in the Middle Ages out of Arabic, overlaid

with Romance family elements. In 1921, Italian and English Section III Section III
were declared the official languages of Malta. Maltese then Germanic Germanic
replaced Italian in 1934. Today, Maltese is used in most sectors languages languages
of public life, including parliament, the church, the press and
other media as well as in general conversation. English is the Section IV Section IV
preferred medium of instruction in schools, especially at the Baltic Baltic
higher levels of the education system. languages languages

Section V Section V
Celtic Celtic
languages languages

Section VI Section VI
Albanian Albanian

Section VII Section VII

Uralic Uralic
languages languages

Section VIII Section VIII

Semitic: Semitic:
Maltese Maltese

Section IX Section IX
Turkic Turkic
languages languages

Section X Section X
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 18

Section IX

Section I
Turkic languages
Section I
Turkish / Azeri
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script


Section II Section II
Romance Romance
languages Turkish: in addition to ç, Turkish also puts a cedilla under ş
languages Turkish is one
but not t — its most characteristic letter is ğ. Turkish uses the of the official
letter i both with and without a dot in upper and lower case languages of
Section III Section III
(representing two separate vowel sounds), with occasional current EU
Germanic Germanic
circumflex on a, i and u. Member State
languages languages
Cyprus.
Characteristic letters of Turkish: â, ç, ğ, ı/I, i/İ, î, ö, ş, û, ü.
Section IV Section IV
Baltic Baltic
languages Azeri (Azerbaijani), which is very similar to Turkish, is written
languages
with the same accented characters as Turkish, except without
the circumflex and with the addition of a very characteristic
Section V Section
schwaV = ə (a back-to-front, upside-down ‘e’), which, for
Celtic Celtic
typographical reasons, may sometimes be replaced with ä. Azeri
languages languages
also uses q and x, which Turkish does not.
Turkish was written in Arabic script until the 1920s. Azeri was
Section VI Section VI This characteristic
also written in Arabic script up to the 1920s, before Cyrillic was
Albanian Albanian letter of azeri is
imposed from the 1930s until 1991. Azeri is also a minority
language in Georgia and Iran. called schwa

Section VII Section VII the languages of the other Turkic-speaking former
Although
Uralic Uralic
Soviet Republics (Turkmen, Kazakh, Uzbek and Kyrgyz) are
languages languages
currently in the process of converting from the Cyrillic to the
Latin alphabet, when written in Cyrillic they could potentially be
Section VIII mistaken
Section VIII for Russian, even if there are some distinctive non-
Semitic: Russian characters.
Semitic:
Maltese Maltese
See http://www.omniglot.com/writing/cyrillic.htm for details.

Section IX Section IX
Turkic Turkic
languages languages

Section X Section X
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 19

Section X

Slavic languages Section I Section I

with Cyrillic script Slavic languages

with Latin script
Slavic languages
with Latin script
Bulgarian / Macedonian / Serbian / Russian / Belarusian / Ukrainian
Section II Section II
Romance Romance
The Cyrillic script exists in printed and hand-written versions languages languages
which differ considerably. A normalised version of hand-written
Cyrillic is often used for printing ‘italics’, e.g. in Russian год =
год. Here, we consider only the non-cursive printed versions. Section III Section III
Germanic Germanic
languages languages
South Slavic
Bulgarian / Macedonian / Serbian
Section IV Section IV
Bulgarian is not easy to distinguish from Russian, an East Slavic Baltic Baltic
language. languages languages

Bulgarian does not have the letters ё or э (which are found in

Russian). Section V Section V
Celtic Celtic
The ‘hard sign’ ъ, rather rare in Russian, is frequently used as languages languages
a full vowel in Bulgarian, for example, the second letter in the
name of the country: България.
Section VI Section VI
Frequent endings in Bulgarian are –ът, –та, –то and –те (post- Albanian Albanian
positive articles).
The official language of the former Yugoslav Republic of
Section VII Section VII
Macedonia, which is mentioned as Macedonian in the Uralic Uralic
Constitution of the country, has several special characters languages languages
distinguishing it from Bulgarian: ѓ, ѕ, ј, љ, њ, ќ, џ.
Serbian has its characteristic ђ and ћ, but shares ј, љ, њ and Section VIII Section VIII
џ with Macedonian. Note that Serbian is not always written in Semitic: Semitic:
Cyrillic but can be found in Latin script too. Maltese Maltese


East Slavic
Section IX Section IX
Russian / Belarusian / Ukrainian The EU has Turkic Turkic

The following distinguishing letters do not occur in Russian: substantiallanguages

Russian- languages
speaking minorities
Belarusian: ґ, і, ў in Latvia —Section X Section X
Slavic languages
especially in Riga Slavic languages
Ukrainian: ґ, є, і, ї
andwith Cyrillic script
Estonia. with Cyrillic script
Unique distinguishing characters: only Belarusian has ў — only
Ukrainian has ї.
Section XI Section XI
Both also make use of an apostrophe, which Russian does not. Greek Greek
Belarusian has occasionally been written in the Latin alphabet
(with various spelling conventions), although this is extremely
rare in Belarus today. However it is written, Belarusian words will Section XII Section XII
never contain the letter o (Cyrillic о or ё) more than once, since Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
this sound only occurs in stressed syllables. Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 20

Section XI

Section I
Greek
Section I
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script


The Greek script has a rounded and cursive look (e.g. α, β, δ, η,
Section II Section II
ϕ) compared to Cyrillic, which is more straight-lined and up-and-
Romance Romance Cyrillic was
down (e.g. я, в, д, й, ф). Hand-written Cyrillic is a bit closer to
languages languages originally
Greek but not all that much.
adapted from
Section III GreekIIIcan have accents on some letters, e.g. ά, ή.
Section the Greek script
Germanic Germanic in 10th century
The Greek used in Cyprus is virtually identical to that used in
languages languages Macedonia.
Greece.
In Greece, the military dictatorship (1967-1974) tried to impose
Section IV Section IV form of literary Greek, katharevousa, over the form
a purist
Baltic Baltic
of Greek which, up until then, had come to be predominant,
languages languages
dhimotiki. The latter was re-established after the regime of the
colonels and further simplified in 1981. However, katharevousa
Section V is stillVtheoretically in use, especially in the Orthodox Church
Section
Celtic Celtic
and some professional circles (e.g. some legal documents).
languages languages
In general, dhimotiki has fewer accents and diacritics than
katharevousa, and while dhimotiki has only an acute accent,
Section VI katharevousa
Section VI has a grave and tilde as well.
Albanian Albanian

α, β, я, в,
δ, η, д, й,
Section VII Section VII
Uralic Uralic
languages languages

Section VIII
Semitic:
Maltese
Section VIII
Semitic:
Maltese
ϕ ф
Cyrillic script is more
The Greek script has
Section IX Section IX straight-lined, up-and-
a rounded and cursive
Turkic Turkic down
look
languages languages

Section X Section X
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 21

Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Section I Section I

Yiddish Slavic languages

with Latin script
Slavic languages
with Latin script

These languages are grouped here solely because of their non-

Section II Section II
Latin scripts.
Romance Romance
Armenian is an Indo-European language with remote links to languages languages
the Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian language groups. It is also
referred to as Hayeren. Section III Section III
Sample: Ամբողջ երկիրը Germanic Germanic
languages languages

Georgian is a Caucasian language, i.e. belongs to a group or Section IV Section IV

family not otherwise represented in this field guide. Baltic Baltic
languages languages
Sample: ×ÍÅÄÊÈ ÑaÈÃÓËÊRi
Section V Section V
Yiddish is essentially a Germanic language with much Slavic Celtic Celtic
and Hebrew vocabulary. It classically uses Hebrew script but is languages languages
also regularly written in Latin script.
Sample: ‫הארשה תברו תינופצמ‬ Section VI Section VI
Albanian Albanian

Section VII Section VII

Uralic Uralic
languages languages

Section VIII Section VIII

Semitic: Semitic:
Maltese Maltese

Section IX Section IX
Turkic Turkic
languages languages

Section X Section X
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 22

Section XIII

Section I
Indic, Basque
Section I
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Latin script with Latin script

Romani is Indic by origin but is sometimes described as

Section II Section II
‘Balkanised’ Indo-Aryan, that is, consisting of mainly Aryan
Romance Romance
grammar with heavily Balkan vocabulary, especially Greek
languages languages
from the Byzantine period. It is the language of the Roma who
represent important minorities in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic,
Section III Section III Hungary, Poland, Romania, Moldova and Russia. In
Slovakia,
Germanic Germanic
most cases it is written with the script and spelling conventions
languages languages
of the host community and has enjoyed a considerable boost in
recognition since 1990.
Section IV Section IV
Baltic Baltic
languages Basque (or Euskara) is the language of the Basque Country
languages
(Euskadi), straddling the French-Spanish frontier. The origins
of Basque are very obscure, with no apparent relationship to
Section V Section V
other European languages. It has full regional status alongside
Celtic Celtic
Castilian Spanish in Spain’s País Vasco, as well as regional status
languages languages
in Navarre, but in France it is recognised only as a teaching
medium in schools.
Section VI Section VI
Albanian Basque can use ñ and ll as in Spanish, but these sounds are
Albanian
more commonly written as in and il, otherwise typical digraphs
are: rr, ts, tx, tz.
{ rr, ts,
tx, tz
Section VII Section VII Spanish also has rr and Catalan has tx.
However,
Uralic Uralic
languages languages

Section VIII Section VIII

Semitic: Semitic:
Maltese Maltese

Section IX Section IX
Turkic Turkic
languages languages

Section X Section X
Slavic languages Slavic languages
with Cyrillic script with Cyrillic script

Section XI Section XI
Greek Greek

Section XII Section XII

Armenian, Georgian, Armenian, Georgian,
Yiddish Yiddish

Section XIII Section XIII

Indic, Basque Indic, Basque
 Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers
to your questions about the European Union.

Freephone number (*):

00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11
(*) Certain mobile telephone operators do not allow access to 00 800 numbers or these calls
may be billed.

More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu).

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2016

ISBN 978-92-79-54692-1
doi:10.2782/104354

© European Union, 2016

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

Printed in Luxembourg
HC-01-15-208-EN-N