26th September is European Day of Languages which recognises linguistic diversity across Europe and promotes language learning.
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, we’re sharing a few interesting facts about the languages of Europe:
- There are around 225 languages native to Europe.
- Sardinian, spoken on the island of Sardinia, is the oldest Romance language still in use, and it is believed to be the closest living language to Latin.
- Some European languages are based on genderless grammar systems, such as Turkish and English. Others have two or three genders, like German and Greek.
- The mother tongues spoken by most people in Europe are Russian, German, French, English and Turkish, in that order.
- Euskara, the Basque language, is believed to be one of the oldest European languages. Its origins are unknown.
- More than half of Europe is bilingual!
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