What type of language do europeans speak

If you map out the areas where the Romance languages are spoken today, they correlate pretty well to the territories held by the Western Roman Empire in its prime. They diverged and started to follow independent linguistic evolutions with the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

These territories splintered into many different independent states. The Latin in these areas became slowly differentiated. For example, they borrowed from the peoples that came to settle in the different territories after the fall. They all came from the Latin planeta. One can take advantage of their similarities in structure and vocabulary. So while learning French words, you may be inadvertently making yourself recognize Italian. But watch out, because although there are useful similarities between Romance languages, you can get easily tripped up with their differences.

French-feminine, Italian-masculine! Try French and Finnish for example. After some time, when your French becomes solid, only then should you begin Italian. There are 24 official languages in Europe… but there are actually more than languages spoken on the continent. Cases in point are the regional languages, like Basque, Catalan, Galician, Scottish, Gaelic and Welsh—languages that, owing to geographic, historical or social factors, have not been assimilated or subsumed by larger linguistic entities and have instead maintained their own rich presence.

Basque believed to be the oldest language originating in Europe , for example, is a language spoken in the Pyrenees—between Spain and France. The 60 million Italian native speakers in Europe are experts on la dolce vita. When you want to experience the authentic Italian way of life on your travels, then learning Italian is a must! You had to know this was coming, right? English, the global lingua franca, has million native speakers worldwide, with just under 60 million of those living in Europe.

As for second language speakers, about a third of older Europeans can speak English, while nearly half of to year-olds have a mastery of the language. That said, some scholars theorize that the political realities of Brexit may weaken the dominance of English in Europe in the future. All the more reason to add another language under your belt now.

That, along with the fact that 43 million Europeans claim Spanish as their mother tongue, is reason enough to start learning this language. By the way, did you know that Spanish is one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn? While perhaps not as well-known as the other languages on this list, there are 36 million Polish native speakers who live in Europe. Most of these individuals naturally live in Poland, but Polish is also widely spoken in Czechia, Hungary, Belarus and Ukraine.

Collectively, almost 6 percent of the European population speaks Polish as a first, second or third language. The national language of Ukraine is spoken by 27 million native speakers, with the majority residing in Europe. The last spot on our list goes to Dutch, narrowly beating out Romanian for a spot in the Top Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands but also enjoys co-official status in Belgium.

In total, 22 million Europeans speak Dutch as their mother tongue. While this may seem like a small number, this language is pretty easy to pick up for native English speakers, especially compared to the other Germanic languages! Why not add it to your repertoire for your next trip to Amsterdam? This article was originally published in It has been updated with more recent data and information.

Explore the latest strategic trends, research and analysis. There are currently 24 official languages in the European Union. How learning a language improves your brain Author: Donald Armbrecht is a freelance writer and social media producer. License and Republishing. Written by. More on Education, Skills and Learning View all. Victoria Masterson 12 Nov Why do bilingual speakers find switching languages so easy? Neuroscience has the answer Researchers have discovered that the brain doesn't differentiate between different languages in conversations between bilingual speakers.