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The languages of Europe may represent the history of ancient
migrations into the peninsula - and subsequent development. In the last 4000 years there have been a series of movements of peoples into Europe, probably from the general direction of Central Asia. Most of the languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European family. In the far west are the Celts (Kelts) whose languages may descend from the first Indo-European migrants - perhaps the ones who brought agriculture. These seem to have come in two waves, with the Irish group (Goidelic) the earlier and the Welsh (Brythonic) the later. The next invasion was of the Germanic peoples. Further east are the Slavs. There is another family, the Finno-Ugrian languages including:
The Indo-European family is represented in Europe by: the Germanic group of languages, including:
the Italic group is represented by the descendants of Latin:
The Kelts probably arrived in Europe before the Germans and are represented by:
The Slavic group is represented by:
Greek and Albanian form two groups on their own. Lithuanian and Latvian form the Baltic group with some very ancient Indo-European features. Each language has been influenced by other languages - this is because "descent" is not a simple process like that of plants and animals. All languages contain, from the very earliest texts, elements from other languages. Thus the earliest Anglo-Saxon has a few Latin words in it perhaps from the time their ancestors served as mercenaries in the Roman Empire, and even some Persian words, from the time their migrations took them past the Old Persian Empire. Modern languages show extensive adoption of words and concepts from other languages. English itself preserves the history of the peoples of Britain with words from the Welsh, Latin, French and other invaders. (see Daniel Nettle - Linguistic Diversity OUP 1999). Nowadays all European languages are heavily influenced by English. No country is composed entirely of speakers of one language, though many governments have tried to behave as though this were true. Nowadays it is uncommon in western Europe to forbid minority peoples to use their language, but this policy is still found in Greece (Turkish, Bulgarian and Vlach); and in Turkey (Kurds). Some countries, such as Italy, are more polyglot than appears from the official language, as there are many dialects which are not mutually comprehensible. The standardisation of languages only occurred after the invention of printing (see Burke and Ornstein). Before print there was a gradation of languages: for instance, the varieties of Germanic languages from Flanders to Denmark and eastward into what is now Germany faded into each other from village to village and fishermen from Friesland could understand fishermen from the east coast of England. France was also composed of a number of vernacular areas which gradually changed: Occitanian and Provencal-Catalan are the survivors. Radio and television have helped the process of standardisation to continue. Official languages If the linguistic minorities assert themselves there would be other languages to be considered: Catalan, Frisian, Breton, Welsh, Basque as well as many Italian dialects. In France Occitanian (the language of the Southwest) is often considered a language rather than an accent. Common languages Some commentators believe German will reassert itself in Central Europe, following probable German economic dominance in this area. However, others suspect that English will grow more rapidly, especially as freedom of migration from the latest wave of entry has so far been confined mainly to Britain and Ireland, rather than to France and Germany. Popular culture, as shown for example in the Eurovision Song Contest, shows that English is already the main language (to the annoyance of the French). It is reported that in multi-national companies, even those with no British or Americans on the board, English is the language spoken at Board meetings. See this BBC page European languages. European Union on Languages in Europe |
Daniel Nettle - Linguistic Diversity James Burke and Robert Ornstein - The Axemaker's Gift How technology has affected language and many other topics |
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