- •Variability of language situation in the european union
- •1. Types of languages spoken in Europe
- •2. The current situation of multilingualism
- •2A. Mother tongues
- •2B. Other Languages Known – Two is the Target
- •2C. Range of Languages Known
- •2D. The Level of Language Skills
- •47% Of eu citizens who know at least one language apart from their mother tongue indicate that they use foreign languages almost everyday.
- •3. How Europeans use languages
- •3A. Frequency of Use
- •3B. Situations of Use
- •3C. Usefulness of Language Skills
- •4. Public opinion on issues related to multilingualism
- •4A. Support for Principles
- •4B. Evaluation of language skills.
1. Types of languages spoken in Europe
State Languages Languages having an official status throughout a country. State languages are always official languages.
Official Languages Languages used for legal and public administration purposes within a specified area of a country or reaching over the whole state, such as Catalan in Spain.
Regional/Minority Languages Languages traditionally used by part of the population of a state that are not dialects, artificially created or migrant languages, such as
• Languages that are specific to a region like Breton in France;
• Languages that are spoken by a minority in a state but are official languages in other, usually bordering, country such as Hungarian in Slovakia;
• Non-territorial languages such as Yiddish and the language of Romani people.
Non-indigenous languages Languages from other parts of the world spoken by immigrant communities in the EU such as Turkish in Germany or Indian languages in the United Kingdom.
Official EU languages The official languages of the European Union are Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish. Irish became the 21st official language on 1 January 2007. After the accession of Bulgaria and Romania the Union operates in 23 official languages. Regional languages that have an official status in the EU are Catalan, Galician and Basque.
A foreign language is considered to be any language other than the respondent’s mother tongue even if it is a state language in the country of residence.
2. The current situation of multilingualism
First goes an overview of the current situation of multilingualism in Europe. It presents the results of what languages are spoken in Europe, at which level, how often, where foreign languages are used and how motivated.
During their lifetime Europeans are to learn languages the first of which is their mother tongue.
2A. Mother tongues
The spectrum of mother tongues spoken by Europeans is wide. As can be expected, the mother tongue of the majority of Europeans is one of the state languages of their country. 100% of Hungarians and the Portuguese as well as 99% of Greeks name their respective state languages as their native language. Nonetheless, a minority speaking either an official EU language other than the state language or a non-European language as their mother tongue is recorded in every country polled.
14% of respondents in Luxembourg state that they speak another EU language than one of the three state languages as their mother tongue. This can be attributed to a substantial Portuguese minority residing in the country (mother tongue of 9%) and the presence of international institutions there.
In the case of Slovakia, 10% of respondents speak Hungarian as their mother tongue.
When it comes to non-EU languages, in Latvia and Estonia a significant share of citizens speaks Russian as their mother tongue (26% and 17% respectively), which is understandable for historical and geographical reasons. This effect is also detected in Bulgaria, where 8% of respondents name Turkish as their mother tongue.
Finally, for some EU citizens their mother tongue is the language of their country of origin outside the EU. This is observed in countries with traditionally large immigrant populations such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
When the question about mother tongue is put to respondents, the mother tongues are pre-coded. In other words, respondents spontaneously state which languages they speak as their native language and their answers are coded in a ready-made list.
Around 1,4% of respondents announce that they speak a regional language or a language other than that mentioned in the pre-coded list as their mother tongue. This figure may include regional and minority languages such as Saami, Breton, Welsh or Romani.
German is the most widely spoken mother tongue in Europe. (18%) followed by English and Italian with a 13% share. 12% of respondents indicate that they speak French as their mother tongue.