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Official and Regional Languages of Europe on a Map

While the most important language (or languages) of a country are typically official at the national level, many countries also recognise smaller and/or historically important languages at the regional level. Can you name all 73 languages shown on the map below?
Includes de facto national languages
Dialects are grouped together, although (mostly historical) dialect divisions are specified on the map
Figures for the total speakers of each language family should be taken as estimations and do not include immigrant/'non-European' languages
Quiz by Jiaozira
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Last updated: September 30, 2021
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First submittedJanuary 27, 2021
Times taken65,805
Average score54.8%
Rating5.00
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Slavic
226 mil speakers
 
L1
Language
106 mil
Russian
38 mil
Polish
32 mil
Ukrainian
21 mil
Serbo-Croatian
10 mil
Czech
7.8 mil
Bulgarian
5.2 mil
Slovak
3.3 mil
Belarusian
2.1 mil
Slovene
1.4 mil
Macedonian
70 k
Rusyn
50 k
Kashubian
20 k
Sorbian
 
 
 
Romance
216 mil speakers
 
L1
Language
71 mil
French
65 mil
Italian
38 mil
Spanish
24 mil
Romanian
10 mil
Portuguese
4.0 mil
Catalan
2.4 mil
Galician
1.3 mil
Sardinian
44 k
Romansh
41 k
Ladin
30 k
Corsican
15 k
Mirandese
1.9 k
Jèrriais
200
Guernésiais
Germanic
205 mil speakers
 
L1
Language
97 mil
German
63 mil
English
22 mil
Dutch
11 mil
Swedish
5.5 mil
Danish
5.2 mil
Norwegian
470 k
West Frisian
336 k
Luxembourgish
330 k
Icelandic
66 k
Faroese
3.5 k
North Frisian
 
 
 
Uralic
21 mil speakers
 
L1
Language
13 mil
Hungarian
5.4 mil
Finnish
1.1 mil
Estonian
500 k
Hill/Meadow Mari
340 k
Udmurt
220 k
Komi-Zyrian
120 k
Erzya
23 k
Sami
2.0 k
Moksha
 
 
 
Turkic
20 mil speakers
 
L1
Language
12 mil
Turkish
4.3 mil
Tatar
1.2 mil
Bashkir
1.1 mil
Chuvash
480 k
Crimean Tatar
300 k
Karachay-Balkar
140 k
Gagauz
87 k
Nogai
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hellenic
11 mil speakers
 
L1
Language
11 mil
Greek
 
 
 
Other Indo-European
5.8 mil speakers
 
L1
Language
5.8 mil
Albanian
 
 
 
Baltic
4.7 mil speakers
 
L1
Language
3.0 mil
Lithuanian
1.7 mil
Latvian
 
 
 
Northeast Caucasian
1.7 mil speakers
 
L1
Language
1.4 mil
Chechen
300 k
Ingush
 
 
 
Language isolate
750 k speakers
 
L1
Language
750 k
Basque
 
 
 
Indo-Iranian
4.1 mil speakers
 
L1
Language
3.5 mil
Romani
597 k
Ossetian
 
 
 
Celtic
850 k speakers
 
L1
Language
562 k
Welsh
240 k
Irish
57 k
Scottish Gaelic
557
Cornish
230
Manx
 
 
 
Northwest Caucasian
700 k speakers
 
L1
Language
530 k
Kabardian
117 k
Adyghe
49 k
Abaza
 
 
 
Semitic
520 k speakers
 
L1
Language
520 k
Maltese
 
 
 
Mongolic
80 k speakers
 
L1
Language
80 k
Kalmyk
+7
Level 70
Mar 20, 2021
The Asian version has been released :)
+3
Level 71
Mar 19, 2021
Great quiz and really cool map! I never realized that Europe (particularly Russia) had that many languages, but I guess it makes sense given Russia's ethnic diversity.

Also, can you please accept "Circassian" for Adyghe? I tried it and it doesn't work, but Wikipedia says that Adyghe is often called "West Circassian" so I think it would make sense to have it as a type-in.

+3
Level 70
Mar 19, 2021
Sure, both West Circassian and Circassian have been added as type-ins.

The languages of Russia are fascinating, and I hope that more people can learn about them. You can find Finnish's cousin Karelian and the Inuit language of Yupik in the same country, but only 35 languages are official at the regional level. Glad you enjoyed the quiz and thanks for playing!

+2
Level 71
Mar 19, 2021
Monegasque?
+2
Level 70
Mar 19, 2021
It's not an official language of Monaco and had 20 speakers as of 1950, sadly. If it were official it would be considered an Italian dialect.
+2
Level 69
Mar 20, 2021
I wonder. I know that's the data found on Wikipedia, but I still wonder.

I'm doing the "reading the world" challenge, and I wanted a Monégasque classic. I asked for help at cultural institutions of Monaco, and the e-mail I received in return was written in French (my French is pretty good, at least in reading), clearly by someone whose mother tongue is not French, and yet is definitely a citizen of Monaco. When he sent me the book (bilingual, Monégasque and French), he added a bilingual calendar, a bilingual collection of local recipes and such stuff. It appears to be in use.

The fact that very few people speak it as their mother tongue doesn't mean that it cannot be spoken by lots of others as a language learnt later and used every day. This website mentions 5100 speakers:

https://omniglot.com/writing/monegasque.htm

So I wonder.

Otherwise thank you for this great quiz! :) It's absolutely fascinating, I love language quizzes, especially if they include regional languages, too.

+3
Level 69
Mar 21, 2021
Another thing, about Monégasque being an Italian dialect: Luxembourgish IS actually a dialect of German (Moselfränkisch), and it is only considered a separate language because it is the official language of Luxembourg. I know Monégasque is not official, but the case is still the same. The distinction between dialect and language is often political only.
+4
Level 70
Mar 21, 2021
I heard that Monégasque is still taught as a heritage language, but its good to hear that people still use the language today! Maybe it has to do with the work that has been published in the language before, or the fact that it's close to French and Italian.

And you're right, I hadn't realised how much of a dialect Luxembourgish truly is until recent. I've used this quote on another quiz before, but with risk of overwearing it, a student in sociolinguist Max Weinreich's class once remarked that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy" and I find this very fitting.

Thanks for playing and I'm glad you liked the quiz :)

+2
Level 61
Mar 19, 2021
Sorbian is devided in Upper and Lower Sorbian.
+3
Level 70
Mar 19, 2021
Yes but Germany groups them together in its recognition.
+3
Level 36
Mar 19, 2021
Serbo-Croatian is not an official language anywhere.
+3
Level 70
Mar 19, 2021
I have used political definitions in other parts of this quiz, however I cannot deny that Serbo-Croatian is a single language in every way besides the politics. They are even based on the same dialect of Shtokavian. Apologies for any inconsistency.
+4
Level 69
Mar 21, 2021
You don't need to apologise at all, you've done a great job, truly! :)

It's very hard to judge whether Serbo-Croatian is one language or several, though. I have a few friends from that region. I asked them once if they needed to translate from one language to another. They said people who had grown up in the former Yugoslavia could perfectly understand one another, but for young people it was increasingly difficult.

I thought it was because of rapid changes; they said it wasn't, it was because Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin had been separate languages for a while, but no one had noticed back in Yugoslavia, because every TV channel and radio station had broadcast programmes in every language. People at that time were actually multilingual without even noticing it. Now that they don't have the same stations and channels and more, the languages appear to be more and more different.

Of course if you're from that area, you know better. I don't know where you're from.

+3
Level 70
Mar 21, 2021
That is an interesting insight, thank you!

It is a very interesting dilemma, and I can see how the line becomes very unclear. Without exposure I have heard that speakers of High German in Berlin have a hard time understanding people who speak Swiss German or Austro-Bavarian German, yet those are commonly considered the same language. In this case, I saved myself from a difficult decision and went with Serbo-Croatian, as it is most common on other Jetpunk quizzes. If not for the quiz format.

I try and listen to the opinions of people from the locale, but I also take perspectives into account. For example a Portuguese speaker is likely to claim that Galician is a Portuguese dialect, while Galician speakers are likely to claim that Galician is a completely different language.

+3
Level 69
Mar 21, 2021
Yes, you're right. And Norwegian and Swedish are definitely considered two different languages (Norwegian is, in fact, not one language but two), and yet they are mutually intelligible, at least that's what a Norwegian colleague has told me.
+3
Level 70
Mar 21, 2021
Indeed they are (at least when written for Norwegian), and while most people write in Bokmål, in a professional setting I hear it is polite to respond to people in Nynorsk, if, say they send you an email using that written standard.
+2
Level 71
Mar 19, 2021
What a great quiz! Shows me how much I don't know!
+2
Level 70
Mar 19, 2021
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it :)
+1
Level 38
Mar 19, 2021
Today I learned Irish is an extremely overrated language, it's so small!
+4
Level 70
Mar 19, 2021
Irish has many more L2 speakers and learners, with over a million able to speak it (to some degree). The Gaeltacht, or the area in which the majority speaks Irish as a first language, is depressingly small though.
+2
Level 39
Mar 19, 2021
Absolutely loving this quiz! Such a lot of effort has obviously gone into both the research and the map.

I got 51 on my first try, which I'm fairly happy with. After looking at the answers I missed, there are only another four that I've heard of (and only one of them, Maltese, was particularly silly to forget), so I probably couldn't have gotten much better.

Well done on a great quiz.

+3
Level 70
Mar 19, 2021
Thank you for the kind words! I enjoy sharing my interests through quizzes like these. 51 is a great score indeed, especially considering all the obscure languages here :)
+1
Level 51
Mar 20, 2021
change the Polish flag pls fam
+3
Level 70
Mar 20, 2021
If it has some connotation behind it then I have no problem changing it, although from my end it looks simply like the variant flag of Poland. I don't want to claim to support anything, through what otherwise is a fun visual display.
+1
Level 49
Mar 20, 2021
West Frisian is incorrect for the Dutch province Friesland.

They speak in Friesland Frisian.

There is a dialect called "West-Fries" (West Frisian) which is spoken in the region West-Friesland, which is in the province North-Holland. This dialect is complete different from Frisian.

+3
Level 70
Mar 20, 2021
Outside of the Netherlands, West Frisian is the correct name of the language, although within the Netherlands what you say is correct.
+2
Level 55
Mar 20, 2021
The alternative spelling of Faeroese could be useful, as it accepted and widely used.

Also curious as to why Breton is not listed.

+5
Level 70
Mar 20, 2021
Sure, I try and be flexible with type-ins (within reason) but since it's difficult to predict what type-ins are needed I appreciate the suggestions.

Breton lacks much recognition in its native Brittany, so it is not included. Same goes for Friulian, perhaps the most significant language left out.

+1
Level 83
Jan 31, 2023
The French government is incredibly stubborn about French being the only official language - a supposedly unifying policy that has its roots in the Revolution, but which has caused a lot of fallout since.
+4
Level 59
Mar 21, 2021
Please accept Jerrais for Jerriais. Thanks!
+5
Level 70
Mar 21, 2021
Sure, I can emphasise with you because I cannot spell that one for the life of me!
+2
Level 75
Mar 21, 2021
Super quiz and amazing presentation, thank you!
+2
Level 70
Mar 21, 2021
Thank you very much!
+2
Level 80
Mar 21, 2021
Great quiz and map, well done with this. I'm curious why Welsh is shown only for the north west of Wales though it's an official language for the whole of Wales.
+2
Level 70
Mar 21, 2021
Thank you! Welsh is shown only in the area where it is spoken by a majority of the population.
+2
Level 46
Mar 21, 2021
Aren't Kabardian and Abaza both considered dialects of Adyghe?
+2
Level 70
Mar 21, 2021
Some people consider Kabardian to be a dialect of Adyghe but it's not determined the level of mutual intelligibility they share. They are both Circassian languages. Abaza, on the other hand, is closer to Abkhaz.
+3
Level 46
Mar 22, 2021
Among Circassians (myself one), Kabardian is usually considered a dialect of the main language since it is one of the 12 tribes. I just wasn't sure about overall recognition.
+2
Level 70
Mar 22, 2021
Interesting. While Russia recognises them as distinct, with language it is all grey space, language and dialects are just terms we invented to organise them, after all (since you were thinking about recognition). Thank you for bringing this to my attention, and it is nice to hear your thoughts as someone with connection to the language. I hadn't stopped to consider it before, and I am happy to learn more about the languages of the Caucasus :)
+3
Level 56
Mar 22, 2021
Love it! So interesting! I'm learning a lot from this quiz.
+2
Level 70
Mar 22, 2021
I'm glad to hear that, thanks for playing :)
+2
Level 44
Mar 24, 2021
59/73 very cool quiz, I was wondering where Karelian was though.
+2
Level 44
Mar 24, 2021
does it count as a dialect of Finnish in this quiz?
+2
Level 70
Mar 24, 2021
Thanks! Karelian is not official in Karelia and that is why it wasn't included. I get the feeling it would be considered a dialect of Finnish if it were eligible anyhow.
+3
Level 79
Mar 26, 2021
Random realization: Bolivia alone has over half the official languages of Europe (37) if I'm basing it off this quiz. Though it is a bit cheaty since at least 1 is extinct and 2 are getting close.
+3
Level 70
Mar 26, 2021
It is a little crazy to think of, although it makes sense considering that the country has been giving more recognition to its majority Indigenous population (such as making the second national flag the Wiphala). Be sure to revise them before the South American quiz comes out :)
+2
Level 79
Mar 27, 2021
Oh no

(Joking. I'm excited for the next one, South America or otherwise)

+2
Level 70
Mar 27, 2021
North America. Not many languages, but Alaska is going to make things challenging!
+2
Level 28
Apr 6, 2021
I love this quiz. Also I had 3:00 minutes left. I thought i was done and almost missed Maltese cause I did not go look at the flags.
+1
Level 70
Apr 6, 2021
I'm really glad you enjoyed it, thanks for playing :)
+1
Level 39
Apr 12, 2021
I got Ossetian but not Basque
+2
Level 46
May 18, 2021
This is cool! Could I have the source?
+1
Level 70
May 18, 2021
Thank you! My primary source is this Wikipedia article however I did more research too, just that the article was the backbone of the quiz. Wikipedia was a huge help :)
+1
Level 27
Jun 7, 2021
great quiz i personally love language quizzes darn Dagestani languages always get me nominated quiz
+2
Level 89
Jul 24, 2021
Chuvashia has a gorgeous flag.
+1
Level 70
Jul 24, 2021
I love the flags of Russia! :D
+1
Level 31
Jul 25, 2021
Why is Occitan not included?
+1
Level 70
Jul 25, 2021
It is a dialect.
+2
Level 71
Jul 27, 2021
I'd like to point out that besides Finnish, Sami and Romani, Meänkieli and Yiddish also have official minority language status in Sweden. And Scots has official status in Scotland.
+1
Level 70
Jul 27, 2021
I did not include so-called dialects, and so that changes the landscape entirely. Also, it is about languages official in specific regions rather than recognised minority languages. Otherwise, Vietnamese would be on this quiz because of the Czech Republic (and something about that just doesn't feel right!)
+1
Level 42
Mar 28, 2023
Scots is not a 'so-called dialect,' it is an official language in Scotland and also spoken in Northern Ireland. The language has about 2 million speakers total in the UK.
+1
Level 70
Mar 28, 2023
I have to be restrictive, unfortunately. If I don't put a limit somewhere, then this quiz could have hundreds and hundreds of answers.
+2
Level 66
Aug 2, 2021
Could you accept Lemko for Rusyn?
+1
Level 70
Aug 19, 2021
I will consider it, although Lemko is only one dialect of the Rusyn Language.
+2
Level 87
Aug 19, 2021
Banging quiz, extremely informative, lovely layou

10/10

+1
Level 70
Aug 19, 2021
Thank you! I'm really happy to hear :)
+2
Level 53
Sep 1, 2021
Great quiz! But, I think you should add Karelian since it's the official language of the Republic of Karelia.
+1
Level 70
Sep 3, 2021
Thank you! Only Russian is official in Karelia, unfortunately, although I'm considering starting a Uralic Languages quiz and Karelian will feature in that one for sure :)
+1
Level 53
Sep 6, 2021
English should have the flag of England, not the UK as Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have their own languages.
+2
Level 70
Sep 6, 2021
I think the Union Jack is appropriate here, given that it is the most common symbol used for the English Language (and that the English language has a strong majority across the UK).
+2
Level 64
Sep 7, 2021
Nice quiz! I put Viking for the region in north Scandinavia haha
+2
Level 69
Sep 29, 2021
Please accept jersiais (legitimate spelling) and guernsiais (easy misspelling) for jerriais and guernesiais
+1
Level 70
Sep 29, 2021
Okay thanks for the suggestions! I can emphasise, I always mispell those ones...!
+2
Level 68
Nov 22, 2021
Have just found this delightful quiz again and managed a tiny improvement :) - thank you.

Particlarly enjoyed reading the comments, interesting and nearly all constructive, unlike the carping, points-scoring mentality one gets on many of the other chats.

Linguists must be a particularly nice bunch of people!

+3
Level 70
Nov 22, 2021
Glad to hear you enjoyed the quiz on your second go!

One thing I noticed on Jetpunk is that my larger projects like this one tend to bring out a lot more passion in other quiztakers too. Linguists can talk about their hobbies here and non-linguists may be inspired to talk about their local minority languages as well. I like doing big projects here for that reason.

It's usually my smaller projects where I see more nitpicking in the comments. I still appreciate nitpickers though, I cannot imagine Jetpunk without that aspect, haha :)

+1
Level 69
Dec 18, 2021
could you accept tartar for tatar?
+1
Level 64
Apr 2, 2022
Great quiz, Jiaozira, but I'm afraid I gave up when Breton was not recognized. I don't see that this is not a recognized language; it's taught in schools, just as Scottish Gaelic is, even though, like Gaelic, there are fewer and fewer native speakers. I'm sure I will come back to your quiz though, and love the time and research you have spent on it.
+2
Level 70
Apr 2, 2022
Thank you, I wish you luck when you return. The reason Breton is not accepted, is because it is not recognised by the governments of France or Bretagne, to the same degree that Scottish Gaelic is recognised by the government of Scotland. For me, it is the biggest loss of all the languages I didn't include, although unfortunately I cannot add it until either government changes their policy (I have to set certain limits because otherwise the quiz will be at least 200 languages).
+2
Level 67
May 4, 2022
I Love this quiz! It's my favorite quiz on the site. I've done it dozens of times, I would love an african or american one, This quiz is one of the reasons i subscribed to you, I love your language quizzes!
+1
Level 70
May 5, 2022
Thank you so much broomhead, this makes me happy to hear!

I would love to do an African version someday soon, and I'd be happy to finish my American quiz too. I've been pretty busy these days but it's only a matter of when rather than if :)

+1
Level 65
Aug 16, 2022
what is your source? 12 million Turkish speakers from an 80 million population and a weirdly split Turkish map is certainly random and odd. So I am curious how you came to this conclusion?
+1
Level 70
Aug 17, 2022
12 million Turkish speakers on the European continent, the rest are in Asia. I made the decision to highlight the Asian portion of Turkey so that the language was more visible, although of course this is inconsistent with how I drew the Russian language stopping at the Ural divide.

As for the division in Turkey, it is because of the spread of the Kurdish language. The area is almost certainly exaggerated, and I believe the majority Kurdish areas are much smaller, but I have struggled to find more realistic maps for a long time now.

+2
Level 67
Sep 8, 2022
Can I use this as a template for another quiz I wanna make?
+1
Level 70
Sep 9, 2022
Go ahead :)
+1
Level 67
Nov 15, 2022
I tried ruthenian instead of Rusyn, never heard that name :(
+1
Level 47
Jan 5, 2023
Turkish in Bulgaria seems wrong, turkish is mostly spoken in western thrace and dobruja but I don't think that anybody speaks turkish in the southern black sea coast of bulgaria
+1
Level 59
Apr 18, 2023
Cyprus?
+1
Level 67
Jul 2, 2023
Cyprus is considered an asian country in JetPunk.
+1
Level 70
Jul 3, 2023
I chose to draw the maximum extent of the languages (except for Russia which is more neatly divided into European and Asian portions). This means that Cyprus is covered by Greek and Turkish.
+1
Level 64
Apr 26, 2023
While "Mirandese" is correct, it would be better to refer to the wider name of "Asturleonese" (which includes the linguonyms "Mirandese", "Asturian", and "Leonese", all of them with different degrees of official recognition).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asturleonese_language

+1
Level 34
May 22, 2023
Nice map. Would have liked to have seen: Karelian Upper/Lower Sorbian and Scots on the map though.
+1
Level 49
Jun 18, 2023
Where is Bosnian language here?????
+2
Level 67
Jul 2, 2023
Included in serbo-croatian.
+1
Level 43
Jul 12, 2023
Where are Italian regional languages?
+1
Level 48
Sep 8, 2023
What is Ladin???
+1
Level 72
Nov 9, 2023
I can understand the exclusion of Kazakh (albeit a bit dubious if Turkish is also considered) but why are bits of Dagestan greyed out? I did some digging on Wikipedia and found a list of commonly considered official languages and a language map of the region. I'm not seeing anything in the caveats that would fully warrant their omission.
+1
Level 70
Dec 19, 2023
For some reason, my source suggested that Russia had several fewer official languages at the regional level. Dagestani languages should be filled in + a couple others soon.
+1
Level 27
Dec 19, 2023
Komi?
+1
Level 26
Feb 12, 2024
can you maybe add Breton?
+1
Level 70
Feb 12, 2024
It's not recognised as of the last time I checked, France has a bad track record with recognising minority languages.