The Languages of Europe

Finding out the best places for tasty food, where you can hang out, or just get a huge smile from the locals, is easy to do when you have a bash at speaking another language. Even learning only a handful of words or phrases can go a long way to making your holiday even better.

Originally the European Union had eleven official languages. These were:

English - French - German - Italian - Spanish - Portuguese - Swedish - Finnish - Danish - Greek - Dutch

Add Twelve...

Then ten countries joined on 1st May 2004, throw in the Irish language (became the 21st official language of the EU), and then Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007, and so all these languages have been added to the mix!

Slovene - Estonian - Czech - Latvian - Lithuanian - Slovak - Hungarian - Maltese - Polish - Irish - Bulgarian - Romanian

To find out more about each of these languages, click on the links to the right.

Other countries are applying to join the EU, and if they're successful then these languages will also be added to the increasingly exotic list!

To find out more about these languages, go to our 'More' section and select the language you want to know more about.

Last modified: 23/10/2008 16:49:04