2. Languages of Europe

3. Europe is slightly larger than the United States, but the population is more than double. We speak English in America, but there are over 200 languages spoken in Europe!

4. Most European languages fall into three main categories:
Germanic languages
Romance languages
Slavic languages

6. GERMANIC LANGUAGES Germanic languages have the most speakers.
They live mostly in northwest and central Europe.
20% of Europeans speak either English or German as their native language
Most Europeans learn to speak English even if they don’t speak it at home

7. Germanic Languages
Countries where a Germanic language is the first language of the majority of the population 
    
Countries where a Germanic language is an official but not primary language

8. ROMANCE LANGUAGES Includes French, Italian, and Spanish
Found in the south and west of Europe
Comes from Latin – language of the Roman Empire
We use the Roman alphabet

9. Romance Languages in dark blue

10. SLAVIC LANGUAGES
Includes Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, & Polish among many others
Found in central and eastern Europe
Do not use the Roman alphabet
They use a Cyrillic alphabet

11. Slavic Languages West Slavic East Slavic South Slavic

12. Having so many different languages in such a small space can present problems!
It’s hard to live, work, and trade with people who cannot communicate with each other! So to prevent language problems, most students learn one or two languages other than their home language.
The European Union has 23 “official” languages to ensure that people can understand laws and decisions made by the government
Europe even has special laws to protect their languages – they want to keep all their languages alive, even if only a few people speak it.

13. In what ways are the French and Italian languages alike
In what ways are the French and Italian languages alike? Which European language has the largest number of native speakers? Is English---Slavic, Romance, or Germanic?