Europe List of multilingual countries and regions

albania has 1 official language, albanian. other languages such greek , italian heavily spoken without official recognition, yet minority languages. albania recognises 6 minorities languages; serbo-croatian, macedonian, romanian, hungarian, greek , italian. majority albanians polyglots, speaking more 3 languages, due high amount of albanian immigrants in europe , elsewhere, political, socio-cultural relations neighbours. today, albanians considered 1 of linguistically diverse peoples in europe. italian spoken large amount of albanians have learnt language watching italian television. influx of greeks in country due euro crisis elevating status of greek in country. albania part of francophonie, 320,000 french speakers.
andorra has 1 official language, catalan. other languages (mainly spanish, portuguese , french) spoken without official recognition.
austria has 1 official language, german. has croatian , slovenian minorities, of languages protected under federal laws. functions guaranteed romany, hungarian, czech , slovakian in vienna , burgenland, under european charter regional or minority languages.
belarus has 2 official languages: belarusian , russian.
belgium has 3 official languages: dutch (59%) in north, french (31%) in south , small minority speaks german. bilingual capital, brussels (10%), french, dutch minority. these languages have status of official language in specified language areas defined constitution. in flanders, 59% , 53% of flemings know french or english respectively; in wallonia, 19% , 17% know dutch or english. in each region, belgium s third official language, german, notably less known dutch, french or english. wallonia recognises of vernacular dialect groups regional languages, flanders not.
cyprus has 2 official languages: greek & turkish. both languages spoken throughout island before 1974. after 1974, , partition of island, turkish became sole official language in turkish-cypriot-controlled north whereas - internationally recognized - republic of cyprus retains both languages official. english spoken , understood throughout island.
in czech republic, several municipalities of zaolzie area have official bilingualism (czech , polish). bilingual signs permitted if minority constitutes @ least 10% of population of municipality.
denmark has 1 official language, danish, in south jutland, use of german functions provided for. in greenland, greelandic principal language, while danish must thoroughly taught.
estonia has 1 official language, estonian, there sizeable russian-speaking community (around 30% in 2000) speak russian. russian , other minority languages can theoretically used in communication local government , state institutions within borders of constituencies permanent residents belong respective national minority (article 51 of constitution). citizens of estonia considered belong national minorities; thus, provision applicable in 3 parishes , 2 towns. many estonians can speak russian, many russians not fluent in estonian including estonian citizens, fluency varies considerably between age groups.
faroe islands has 2 official languages: faroese , danish. other scandinavian languages, norwegian , swedish, understood without difficulty. english taught in schools, third language.
finland constitutionally bilingual , has therefore 2 equally national languages, finnish , swedish, , minority languages sami (northern sami, inari sami , skolt sami), romani , finnish sign language recognized constitution. swedish spoken minority, 5.5% native speakers (swedes in finland) concentrated along coast , on Åland islands. municipalities bilingual if swedish or finnish minority @ least 6–8%. Åland monolingually swedish law. sami official language (besides finnish) in municipalities of northern finland.
france has strict monolingual policy republic conduct government business in french. there are, however, levels of fluency in regional languages: alsatian, basque, breton (the regional government of britanny adopted politics promote teaching breton), catalan (the department of pyrénées-orientales has particular charter supporting catalan), corsican (teaching in island s schools provided law)), flemish, franco-provençal, , occitan (sometimes called provençal). country whole dominated french linguistically.
germany has german official national language. low saxon (“low german”) recognized regional language in @ least 5 north german states. low rhenish recognized in northrhine-westphalia. lower sorbian official minority language in brandenburg, upper sorbian in saxony, sater frisian in part of lower saxony, , north frisian varieties , danish in schleswig-holstein. language without own territory, romany (including language of sinte people) official minority language well. germany home large numbers of people other regions, , of languages, such turkish, russian, , polish, used throughout country. however, languages considered foreign , given no official status.
gibraltar british overseas territory sole official language english. given gibraltar s size, of population fluent in spanish due vicinity spain. gibraltarians use llanito local vernacular.
hungary, official language hungarian. country recognizes beás, croatian, german, romani, romanian, serbian, slovak, slovene languages. use of languages functions provided law, applying localitites share of relevant minority exceeds 10% or, wider functions, 20%.
ireland, first official language of ireland irish, second being english. english first language of majority of population.
italy. official language overall italian. however, italian law n. 482/1999 recognizes , protects twelve minority languages, sardinian, friulian, occitan, greek, albanian , other linguistic minorities. bilingualism applied in territories:

in province of south tyrol german co-official.
in aosta valley region french co-official,
as slovene in municipalities of provinces of trieste , gorizia.
ladin municipalities of south tyrol trilingual (italian, ladin, , german).
in veneto, there regional law on venetian linguistic , cultural heritage. in 2016, additional law has been adopted, providing use of venetian in schools, public institutions , toponymical signs.
in calabria, there regional law on minority languages, greek, albanian , franco-provençal named
in piedmont, there regional law on promoting linguistic heritage, occitan, german, french , franco-provençal minorities named.


kosovo has 2 official languages, albanian , serbian. turkish, bosnian, , roma hold official status on regional level.
latvia has 1 official language, latvian. liv language recognized autochthonous (in livonian coast, allowed form toponyms in liv alongside latvian); others defined foreign in official language law, there sizeable minority russian native language - 37,3% of answering question on language used @ home named russian during census (2011).
lithuania has 1 official language, lithuanian. there small polish-speaking minority among ethnic poles. there large number of fluent russian speakers, among older generations because of soviet era.
luxembourg rare example of trilingual society, in not has 3 official languages – luxembourgish, french , german – has trilingual education system. first 4 years of school, luxembourgish medium of instruction, before giving way german, in turn gives way french. (in addition, children learn english , european language, spanish or italian.) in country s parliament, debates conducted in luxembourgish, draft legislation drafted in german, while statute laws in french.
malta has 2 official languages, maltese , english. italian spoken large percentage of population.
moldova

gagauzia — moldovan, gagauz, russian
transnistria — moldovan, russian, ukrainian


the netherlands has 4 official languages. dutch primary language, , west frisian recognized minority language , spoken between 300,000 , 700,000 people. west frisian spoken in province of fryslân, official first language. low saxon recognized regional language in northeast of country, , limburgish official regional language in netherlands limburg. in amsterdam, services provided in english; english official in dutch municipalities of saba , sint eustatius. fourth official language papiamento, spoken on bonaire.
norway - in 6 communes of troms , finnmark counties, sami used officially along norwegian
poland — 20 bilingual communes in poland (mostly polish-german) speak forms of german language. belarusian, czech, hebrew, yiddish, lithuanian, german, armenian, russian, slovak , ukrainian recognised national minorities languages while karaim, lemko, romani , tatar ethnic minorities languages.
portugal – although portuguese practically universal, mirandese, related leonese language, spoken in miranda douro, northeastern portugal , officially recognized (see: languages of portugal), , there familiarity spanish language in border towns neighboring spain.
in romania, official language romanian, significant minority languages recognized on local level, commitments made in respect of use of bulgarian, czech, croatian, german, hungarian, russian, serbian, slovak, turkish , ukrainian in areas share of speakers @ least 20%. biggest ethnic minority hungarian community of 1.4 million (6.6%).
ex-soviet republics , warsaw pact countries: many people fluently speak russian, in slavic countries within area of former ussr (typically in belarus , ukraine), along moldova, has slavic minority. however, few polish, slovak or czech people speak russian, despite huge expenditures in past.
republics of russia:

adygea — russian , adygean both official languages
bashkortostan — bashkir , russian co-official
ingushetia — russian , ingush co-official
kabardino-balkaria - russian, kabardian, balkar co-official
tatarstan — russian , tatar co-official
kalmykia — russian , kalmyk co-official
karachay-cherkessia — russian (also language of interethnic communication), abaza, cherkess, karachay , nogai official
mari el — russian , mari co-official
mordovia — russian , mordvin co-official
komi republic — russian , komi co-official
north ossetia–alania — russian , ossetian co-official
udmurtia — russian , udmurt co-official
chechen republic — russian , chechen co-official
chuvashia — russian , chuvash co-official


abkhazia. according georgian law, georgian , abkhazian co-official; according abkhazian law — abkhazian , russian. elder generation of abkhazis spoke georgian, russian , abkhazi.
serbia: there 7 officially used languages in vojvodina (serbian, croatian, romanian, ruthenian, hungarian, slovak , czech), , 4 in central serbia (serbian, bosnian, albanian , bulgarian). northern autonomous province of vojvodina has multi-ethnic, multi-cultural , multi-lingual identity, number of mechanisms promotion of minority rights; there more 26 ethnic groups in province. province has 6 official languages. serbs recognised fluent polyglot, many of them being able speak german, french , english, due huge amount of serbian immigrants in europe, in austria, germany , france, whilst english quite popular due large serbian immigrant community in australia , canada.
slovakia has hungarian minority of 520,000 (9.7%). bulgarian, croatian, czech, german, serbian, hungarian, polish, roma, russian, ruthenian , ukrainian languages recognized regional or minority languages, guarantees of use in municipalities slovak citizens belonging national minorities form @ least 20% of population.
slovenia. italian , hungarian recognized regional or minority languages. in coastal area (koper, izola , piran) italian official language, in addition slovene. in eastern part of prekmurje, hungarian used official language next slovene. in bilingual areas, children taught both languages.
spain, several autonomous communities have own official language, additional spanish (also known castilian), official on spain (see: languages of spain):

basque country , navarre: basque, language isolate.
balearic islands , valencian community: catalan (officially called valencian in valencia).
catalonia: catalan , aranese (occitan).
galicia: galician, considered variant of portuguese.
there number of languages have official recognition of kind not official:

aragonese , catalan in areas of aragon.
asturian and, in areas, galician in asturias.
leonese and, smaller degree, galician in castile , león.




sweden has swedish official language. finnish, meänkieli, romani, sami , yiddish recognized minority languages. meänkieli, variant of finnish, spoken in tornedalen , haparanda in north bothnia. meänkieli, finnish , sami have special status in areas speakers significant minorities.
switzerland has 4 national languages; german, french, italian , romansh. cantons valais, fribourg , bern bilingual (french , german), while canton graubünden trilingual (german, romansh , italian).
in countries of former socialist federal republic of yugoslavia, serbian, croatian, , bosnian understood 3 groups (see serbo-croatian) - , smaller languages in other republics of slovenia (slovenian), macedonia (macedonian) , (montenegro) montenegrin. other languages have co-official status in parts of these countries (e.g. italian in istria, hungarian in vojvodina).
in turkey, constitution of turkey defines turkish official language of country (art. 3) , explicitly prohibits educational institutions teach language other turkish mother tongue turkish citizens (art. 42). in 2013, ministry of education included kurdish, abkhaz, adyghe , laz languages academic programme of basic schools optional classes fifth year on.

in 2010, kurdish municipalities in southeast decided begin printing water bills, marriage certificates , construction , road signs, emergency, social , cultural notices in kurdish alongside turkish. friday sermons imams began delivered in language, , esnaf provided kurdish price tags. before august 2002, turkish government placed severe restrictions on use of kurdish language, prohibiting language in education , broadcast media. in march 2006, turkey allowed private television channels begin airing programming in kurdish. however, turkish government said must avoid showing children s cartoons, or educational programs teach kurdish, , broadcast 45 minutes day or 4 hours week. however, of these restrictions on private kurdish television channels relaxed in september 2009.


in ukraine, russian, hungarian , romanian granted status of regional language in areas (language policy in ukraine). carpathian ruthenia, ukraine, slovaks living near uzhhorod speak ukrainian , hungarian in addition mother tongue, slovakian. in villages near mukachevo germans (swabian dialect speakers) speak hungarian , ukrainian.
the national language of united kingdom english, there several regional languages recognised:

wales: 611,000 welsh speakers, including majority of population in parts of north , west wales. english used. across wales, both english , welsh have equal official status; priority given each, instance on road signs, determined each local authority.


ulster scots, variety of scots, spoken in northern ireland, again english far more commonly used , ulster scots less actively used in media. irish , ulster scots both have official status in northern ireland part of 1998 belfast agreement; functions granted 2 languages under european charter regional or minority languages.
scotland: 58,652 gaelic speakers, concentrated in highlands , hebrides, traditional heartland of gaelic culture. gaelic language (scotland) act 2005 provides status of gaelic language official language of scotland commanding equal respect english language. scots approximately 2 3 million speakers — germanic language closely related english.
cornwall: after 2 centuries of extinction, cornish revived in region in 20th century.
jersey: along english, use of french petitioning parliament provided standing orders.






^ state treaty re-establishment of independent , democratic austria article 7 (see pages 229, 231)
^ list of declarations made respect treaty no. 148 council of europe treaty office
^ constitution of belarus article 17
^ constitution of belgium article 4
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^ constitution of cyprus article 3
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^ constitution of ireland article 8
^ norme in materia di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche storiche(in italian)
^ statute of south tyrol articles 19, 99-102 etc.(in german)
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^ loi du 24 février 1984 sur le régime des langues(in french)
^ constitution of malta article 5
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^ sámi act see chapter 3
^ act on national , ethnic minorities , on regional language(in polish)
^ constitution of adygea art. 5(in russian)
^ constitution of bashkortostan art. 1(in russian)
^ constitution of ingushetia art. 14(in russian)
^ constitution of kabardino-balkaria art. 76(in russian)
^ constitution of tatarstan art. 8(in russian)
^ constitution of kalmykia article 17(in russian)
^ constitution of karachay-cherkessia article 11(in russian)
^ constitution of mari el article 15(in russian)
^ constitution of mordovia article 12(in russian)
^ constitution of komi republic article 67(in russian)
^ constitution of north ossetia–alania article 15(in russian)
^ constitution of udmurtia article 8(in russian)
^ constitution of chechen republic article 10(in russian)
^ constitution of chuvashia article 8(in russian)
^ constitution of georgia article 8
^ constitution of republic of abkhazia article 6(in russian)
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^ constitution of slovenia art. 64
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