EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR

MODERN LANGUAGES

SUOMI
ÍSLENSK A CENTRE EUROPEEN POUR
LES LANGUES VIVANTES

ČEŠTINA TÜRK

БЪЛГАРСКИ GAEIL
SHQIP
PORTUGUÊS

HRVATSKI ՀԱՅԵՐԷՆ EN
EN
Ν Ι Κ Ά EESTI KEEL
Ε Λ Λ Η

L A R A' S LANGUAGE JOURNEY

ACROSS EUROPE
WELCOME TO A JOURNEY THROUGH EUROPE’S LANGUAGES!
The languages you will encounter over the following pages origin. There are also the languages of migration which do not
reflect the diversity of the cultures and traditions which originate from Europe but have been brought to the continent
exist side by side on our continent. Some of the around 225 by speakers moving from other parts of the world.
languages which are native to Europe are spoken by millions
and others, that are only spoken by a handful of people, are, On each language page there is a short introduction from
sadly, close to dying out. Lara, some key words, phrases and special characters from the
alphabet, as well as an estimated number of people around
During this short journey, you will discover lots of similarities. the world who use it as their first language.
European languages largely fall into three main categories:
Slavic, Romance and Germanic, with the languages in each We hope you will enjoy following our guide, Lara, on her trip
group having similar roots – however, over centuries they through some of Europe’s languages. It might prompt you to
have developed in their own distinct directions. You will also set off on a similar voyage of discovery with a lot of ‘oh really!’
find out about their differences: the variety of alphabets (such and ‘wow – I didn’t know that!’ moments, as you uncover
as Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Armenian and Georgian), often using some of the treasures hidden just beneath the surface of our
artistic scripts; how they deal with creating words for new everyday lives!
inventions and their sometimes mysterious origins. All have a
unique identity and their own story to tell!

We can only give you a brief glimpse of some of Europe’s

languages. There are many, many more we have not mentioned,
not because they are any less important or less interesting but
simply because we cannot cover them all on this short journey.

There are some examples of regional and minority languages

that are spoken in part of a country or areas of several countries
by a relatively small part of the population. There are the non-
territorial languages which are spoken by groups spread all
over Europe but not identifying with a specific country of
 SE
48

LANGUAGES LARA
IS
15 ENCOUNTERS ON
FI
20
HER JOURNEY
NO
47

SV
41
ET
16
RU
49
LV
46
DA
43
Language code LT
38
(ISO-639-1) BE
GA FY 4
35 6
EN PL
CY 5 NL 42
22 37
Page number
DE
23 CS
LB UK
29 18 9
SK
19
FR
8 HU
SL
RM 7 36
28 ROMANI ĆHIB 21 BG
HR 33
BS SR
24 26
EU 25
GL 13 IT
30 45 RO KA
39 17
MK 40
CA SQ 34
10 32
ES HY AS
50 EL 27 12
31 TR
PT 11
44

MT
14 3
 ▲

BE БЕЛАРУСКАЯ МОВА
5 000 000 так
не
Як справы? Hi! My name is Lara! Come
and join me on this fascinating
Добры journey across the beautiful 1 адзін
2 два
дзень! languages of Europe… We will
start this journey in “krasavik”…
Дзякуй! Wait. Where? “Krasavik” (April)
3 тры
is the most beautiful month in 4 чатыры
Belarus and that is why Belaru- 5 пяць
sians have literally named this
month “beautiful”. And who
6 шэсць
doesn’t love springtime? 7 сем
8 восем
9 дзевяць
10 дзесяць

ё
й э і
ў ь ю Паслухайце гучанне гэтых слоў >>>
4 ы я Photo: Park in Minsk, Belarus 4
▲

English is the most spoken lan-

guage in the world. There are
ENGLISH EN
almost 1.3 billion English speak- 400 000 000
ers, but only around one third
are native speakers. When we
speak the same language, we
understand each other and re- How are
alise how many things we share.
Then the world doesn’t seem so
you?
big after all. Hello! Thank
you!

1 one
2 two
3 three
4 four
5 five
yes 6
7
six
seven
no 8 eight
9 nine
10 ten
<<< Listen to the sound of these words
Photo: London eye and Big Ben, United Kingdom 5
 ▲

FY FRYSK Frisian is probably the most

similar living language to
500 000 ja English. "De sinne is waarm
nee en it ljocht fan de sinneskyn
fielt noflik mei de sêfte wyn."
Did you figure it out? See the
Hoe giet it English version: "The sun is
warm and the light from the
mei dy? sun-shining feels good with
Hoi! the soft wind."

Tank!

1 ien
2 twa
3 trije
4 fjouwer
5 fiif
6 seis
7 sân
8 acht
9
10
njoggen
tsien êé â
ûú ô Harkje nei it lûd fan dizze wurden >>>
6 Photo: Ljouwert, Netherlands
▲

SLOVENŠČINA SL
Kako si? 2 500 000
Živjo!
Hvala! 2 people are very special in Slo-
vene! Not only do you have a sin-
gular form and a plural form, but
also a form for exactly 2 people!
So if you want to say “me and you”
you could just say “midva” (we
two males or one male and one fe-
male), or “midve/medve” (we two
females). Talking of numbers…
1 ena next I want to show you a lan-
guage with an interesting count-
2 dve ing system…
3 tri
4 štiri
5 pet
6
7
šest
sedem
da
8 osem ne
9 devet
10 deset
č
š
<<< Prisluhnite zvoku teh besed ž
7 Photo: Triglav National Park, Slovenia 7
 ▲

FR FRANÇAIS Did you know that French has a

different way of counting between
76 800 000 70 and 99? So for the number 75
you literally say “60 plus 15”. In
addition to that, for the number
80 you say “4 times 20”! 96
therefore is “4 times 20 plus 16”.
oui French speakers have to be good
mathematicians! French is also
non considered to be one of the most
beautiful languages, together
with… want to take a guess?

1 un
2 deux
3 trois
Ça va ? 4 quatre
5 cinq
Bonjour ! 6 six
Merci ! 7 sept
8 huit
9 neuf
10 dix

ôö æ îï
ùûü
àâä ç œ
8
ÿ éèêë Écoutez le son de ces mots >>>
Photo: Dune du Pilat, France
▲

Як справи?
УКРАЇНСЬКА МОВА UK
35 000 000
Привіт!
Дякую! так Mirror, mirror on the wall –

ні
which is the most beautiful
language of them all? There is no
easy way to answer that question
and everyone has their favourites.
However, at a language beauty
contest in 1934 in Paris, Ukrainian
took third place right after French
and Persian. I am not aware of

й
any more recent language beauty

є
contests!

щ
ії ґ 1
2
один
два

ь 3 три

ю я 4
5
чотири
п’ять
6 шість
7 сім
8 вісім
9 дев’ять
10 десять
<<< Прослухайте звучання цих слів
Photo: Love tunnel created from trees along the railway in Klevan, Ukraine 9
 ▲

CA CATALÀ  Com estàs?

10 000 000
Hola!
Gràcies!
In Catalan, if you want to say
that only a few friends came
to your birthday party (which
hopefully never happens
to you!) you could just say
“quatre gats” or “four cats” and
everything would be clear. So 1 un
before complaining about your 2 dos
lame party, don’t forget to say
“Gràcies!” (thank you) to the 3 tres
four cats who did show up! 4 quatre
5 cinc
6 sis
7 set

ç
8 vuit
sí­ 9 nou
ŀl úü no 10 deu

à éè íï
óò Escolta el so d’aquestes paraules >>>
10 Photo: Park Guell in Barcelona, Spain 10
▲

Nasılsın?
Turkish is a language with no
gender! There’s a single word
TÜRKÇE TR
for "he", "she" and "it", or in fact 75 700 000
Merhaba! just a single letter – “o”. So it is
Teşekkür possible to describe a person
in Turkish without indicating
ederim! whether it is a boy or a girl.
Turn to the next page to see
which other language shares
this similarity with Turkish…

1 bir
2 iki
3 üç
4 dört
5 beş
6 altı
7
8
yedi
sekiz
evet
9 dokuz hayır
10 on

ğ ı
<<< Bu sözcüklerin sesini dinle ç ö ş ü
11 Photo: Cappadocia, Turkey 11
 ▲

AS AZƏRBAYCAN DILI
23 000 000
Necəsən?
Salam!
Azerbaijani also uses “o” for he, she
and it. But this is not the only thing
Turkish and Azerbaijani have in
common. Words like “with” or “for”
Təşəkkür
don’t come before the noun but after edirəm!
it: so in Azerbaijani “with my mother”
would be “anam ilə” or literally
“mother my with”. Another special
feature is that when Azerbaijani is
written in Latin or Cyrillic scripts, it is
written left-to-right. When written in
1 bir
2 iki
bəli
the Arabic script, it is written right-to-
left.
3 üç
xeyr 4 dörd
5 beş
6 altı
ı 7 yeddi
ö 8 səkkiz

ç ü 9
10
doqquz
on

ə
ğ
12
ş Bu sözlərin səsini dinləyin >>>
Photo: Three Flame Towers, Baku, Azerbaijan (Borka Kiss | Shutterstock.com)
▲

Generally languages belong to bai EUSKARA EU

language families and share many
characteristics with others, but ez 750 000
Basque is pretty much an only
child… It is believed to be one of the
oldest European languages and its
origins remain a mystery. So, if you
want to join an exclusive club and
become an “eskalduna” (a Basque
speaker) try this language!

1 bat
2 bi
3 hiru
4 lau
5 bost Zer moduz?
6 sei
7 zazpi Kaixo! Eskerrik
8 zortzi
9 bederatzi asko!
10 hamar

é ç
<<< Entzun hitz hauen soinua ü ñ
Photo: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain (Rudy Mareel | Shutterstock.com) 13
 ▲

MT MALTI Maltese is the smallest official EU

language in terms of speakers. It
520 000 sounds similar to the Phoenician
language that was spoken in areas
around the ancient Mediterranean
3000 years ago. Maltese is the only
language in Europe that belongs
to the Afro-Asiatic language family
Kif int? and also the only language from this
family that uses the Latin alphabet.
Turn to the next page and I’ll show

Bonġu! you a rather isolated language...

Grazzi!
1 wieħed
2 tnejn
3 tlieta
4 erbgħa
5 ħamsa
6 sitta
7 sebgħa
iva 8 tmienja
le 9 disgħa
10 għaxra

ċ ħ
ġ ż Isma’ l-ħoss ta’ dawn il-kelmiet >>>
14 Photo: Typical street in Ir-Rabat, Malta
▲

Iceland does not have close

neighbouring countries and the
ÍSLENSKA IS
language the Vikings brought in 314 000
the 9th and 10th centuries has not
changed as much as you might
imagine over the centuries. Icelandic Hvernig
avoids using foreign words and
prefers to form new words from hefurðu
ancient Viking words. So the word það?
Hæ!
for computer “tölva” is formed from
the old words “tala” (number) and
“völva” (prophetess). Þakka
þér fyrir!

1 einn
ð 2 tveir
3 þrír
4 fjórir
í á 5 fimm

þ 6 sex

æ 7 sjö

öó
8 átta
ý ú 9 níu

é
10 tíu

já
nei
<<< Hlustaðu á þessi orð
Photo: Goðafoss waterfall, Iceland 15
 ▲

ET EESTI KEEL Kuidas sul

1 100 000 läheb?
Tere!
Aitäh!

Estonian loves vowels! The role

of vowels in Estonian is among
the greatest in any European
language and there are many
words like “Jäääär” (the edge of
the ice), “Töö-öö” (working night) 1 üks
or “Õueaiaääre” (the edge of a
fence surrounding a yard)!
2 kaks
Now let me show you a language 3 kolm
that can make up a whole sentence 4 neli
containing only vowels…
5 viis
6 kuus
7 seitse
jah 8
9
kaheksa
üheksa
ei 10 kümme

õ ö
ä ü Kuula nende sõnade kõla >>>
16 Photo: Kitesurfing in Viimsi, Estonia
▲

The Romanian language is also

very fond of vowels. Romanian
LIMBA ROMÂNĂ RO
can even make up a meaningful 26 000 000
sentence consisting only of
vowels: “Oaia aia e a ei, eu i-o
iau” means “That sheep is hers,
I’m taking it”.
There are also some languages Ce faci?
that seem to try to completely
avoid vowels…
Bună ziua!
Mulțumesc!

1 unu
2 doi
3 trei
4 patru
5 cinci

î ț 6 șase

ș 7
8
șapte
opt

ăâ da
9
10
nouă
zece

<<< Ascultă cum sună aceste cuvinte

nu
Photo: Corvin Castle, Romania 17
 ▲

CS ČEŠTINA ano
If you are not keen on vowels, Czech
might be the language for you! Czech
loves consonants. Words made up
14 000 000
ne only of consonants like “krk” (neck),
“prst” (finger) or “smrk” (pine tree)
are very common. Try saying this
Czech tongue twister “Chrt pln skvrn
zdrhl z Brd“, meaning “A greyhound
Jak se full of spots escaped from the Brdy
(mountains)”.
máš? This love of consonants is also shared
Dobrý by a neighbour – can you guess which
one?
den! Děkuji!
1 jedna
2 dvě
3 tři
4 čtyři
5 pět

éě č 6
7
šest
sedm
ď í 8 osm

ó ř 9
10
devět
deset
úů á
ž ň
ý ť š Poslechni si, jak znějí tato slova >>>
18 Photo: Dancing House in Prague, Czech Republic (Vladimir Sazonov | Shutterstock.com) 18
▲

Ako sa SLOVENČINA SK
máš? áno 5 200 000
Ahoj! nie
Ďakujem! Yes, Slovak likes consonants, too!
Many Slovak words are formed
entirely or mostly of consonants,
such as the words “prst“ (finger),
“štvrť” (quarter) or “smrť” (death).
Slovak is also considered to be the
language that is easiest for the
speakers of other Slavic languages
1 jeden to understand. Flip over to the
next page to discover a rather
2 dva economical language…
3 tri
4 štyri
5 päť
6 šesť
7 sedem ľ ž
8 osem
9 deväť
10 desať
ĺ é ť
í č ď ý
ú óô
19
<<< Vypočujte si zvuk týchto slov
Photo: High Tatras, Slovak Republic
áä ň ŕ š 19
 ▲

FI SUOMI Finnish is one of the few national

languages in Europe that is not
Mitä
5 800 000 Indo-European. It belongs to a kuuluu?
family together with Estonian
and Hungarian. There are many
things you can say in Finnish with
Hei!
Kiitos!
kyllä
just one word. So “istun” would be
“I sit down”, “istahtaisin” “I would

ei sit down for a while”, “istahdan”

“I’ll sit down for a while” and
“istahtaisinkohan” “I wonder if
I should sit down for a while”.

1 yksi
2 kaksi
3 kolme
4 neljä
5 viisi
6 kuusi
7 seitsemän
8 kahdeksan
9 yhdeksän
10 kymmenen

ö åä Kuuntele nämä sanat >>>

20 Photo: Dog Sledding in Lapland, Finland
▲

1 in gea RUMANTSCH RM
2
3
dus
trais
na 60 000
4 quatter
5 tschintg Romansh is the least known
of Switzerland’s four official
6 sis languages. Its history begins
7 set before the birth of Christ: the Latin
of the Romans, who conquered
8 otg the area between the Rhaetian
9 nov Alps and the Danube, mixed with
the languages of the local people.
10 diesch Gradually Romansh developed
from this mixture – and still
continues to change today!

:
Co vai?
Chau!
<<< Taidla co ch'ils pleds tunan
Grazia! èé
Photo: Mountain view, Grisons, Switzerland 21
 ▲

CY CYMRAEG ie The Welsh "Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-

na
gogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio-
1 000 000 gogogoch" is the longest place name
in Europe and second longest in
the world. It approximately means
“St. Mary’s church in the hollow of
the white hazel near the rapid
Sut wyt ti? whirlpool of St Tysilio of the red cave”.
Flip over to discover a language which
can match Welsh place names in the
Shwmae! length of its words…

Diolch!
1 un
2 dau
ŵ 3 tri

ê ô 4
5
pedwar
pump

â ŷ
6
7
chwech
saith

î û
8
9
wyth
naw
10 deg
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
Llan-vire-pooll-guin-gill-go-ger-u-queern-drob-ooll-llandus-ilio-gogo-goch
Listen to the sound of these words >>>
22 Photo: Train station in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllantysiliogogogogogoch, Wales, UK
▲

German is one of the languages

with the longest words. To de- ja DEUTSCH DE
scribe things you simply combine
nein 95 000 000
different words so they become a
new one. So the word for a quali-
fying match for the football world
cup would be „Fußballweltmeister-
schaftsqualifikationsspiel“. Some can
be a bit confusing if you don’t know
which words were combined like
“Urinsekten” but I will let you work
that out!

1 eins
2 zwei
3 drei
4 vier
5 fünf
Wie geht’s? 6 sechs

ö
7 sieben
Hallo!
ü ä ß Danke!
8
9
acht
neun
10 zehn
<<< Hör dir an, wie diese Wörter klingen
Photo: Island Sylt, Germany 23
 ▲

HR HRVATSKI Together with Serbian and

Bosnian, Croatian is one of the
5 600 000 South Slavic languages that
have many things in common.
These languages are so similar
that their speakers can easily
understand each other. The
shortest Croatian words consist
Kako si? of just one letter – “a” (but, and),
“o” (about), “u” (in), “i” (and), “s”
Bok! (with, from) or “k” (to).

Hvala!
1 jedan
2 dva
3 tri
4 četiri
5 pet
6 šest
7 sedam
8 osam
9 devet
da 10 deset
ne
č ž
š đ
24
ć Poslušaj kako zvuče ove riječi >>>
Photo: National park Plitvice, Croatia
▲

Bosnian is very similar to Cro-

atian and Serbian but you can
BOSANSKI BS
tell it has a strong connection 3 000 000
to Turkish: for around 400 years
Bosnia was part of the Ottoman
Empire and therefore adopted
many loanwords from Turkish Kako
such as “minđuše” (earrings),
“bujrum” (go ahead) or “avlija”
si?
(inner yard). Ćao!
Hvala!

1 jedan
2 dva
3 tri

č
4 četiri
5 pet
6 šest

ž 7
8
sedam
osam
9 devet

ć đ da
10 deset

ne
<<< Poslušaj kako zvuče ove riječi
Photo: Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
š 25
 ▲

SR СРПСКИ Како си?

12 000 000
Здраво!
Хвала!
Serbian is one of the few
European languages that
uses both Cyrillic and Latin
alphabets. Speakers of Serbian
can use the two scripts equally well.
Among Slavic languages Serbian
uses one of the shortest Cyrillic
alphabets: it contains 30 letters. 1 један
Talking of alphabets… Let me 2 два
show you a language with a very
unique alphabet… 3 три
4 четири
5 пет
6 шест

ђ љ да
7
8
седам
осам
не 9 девет
10 десет
и
њ
ј џ
26
ћ Послушај како звуче ове речи >>>
Photo: Meanders of the Uvac River, Serbia
▲

Ոնց ես: ՀԱՅԵՐԵՆ HY

6 700 000
Ողջույն:
Շնորհակա-
լություն:
The Armenian language uses
an alphabet that is quite unique
compared to other European
languages. It was created around
2400  years ago! As Armenians
are very proud of their alphabet
they even created a monument
1 մեկ for their unique characters.
Armenia celebrates its own special
2 երկու language day, the Holy Translators
3 երեք Day, in October.
4 չորս
5 հինգ
6 վեց
7
8
յոթ
ութ այո
9 ինը ոչ
10 տասը
աբգդեզէըթժիլխծկհձղճմ

յնշոչպջռսվտրցուփքևօֆ
<<< Լսեք այս բառերը
Photo: Armenian Alphabet Monument (Arty Om | Shutterstock.com) 27
 ▲

ROM ROMANI ĆHIB Until recently Romani has

exclusively been passed down
3 500 000 to the next generation orally so
there is no generally accepted

Sar san? written standard. Individual

Romani varieties are written with
alphabets that are often based
Laśo ďes! on the surrounding dominant
language where a Roma group
Najis tuke! lives. Yet today it is possible to read
political texts, newspapers and
even Shakespeare in Romani!

1 jekh
2 duj
3 trin
4 štar
5 panź
6 šov
7 efta
8 oxto
va 9 iňa
na 10 deš

Ašun kadala svaturja >>>

28 Photo: Romani dance
▲

Wéi geet LËTZEBUERGESCH LB

et? 600 000
Moien!
Merci!
Luxembourgish received its writ-
ten form rather recently! Tradition-
ally, Luxembourgish was rarely
written, so there were no official
rules of spelling and grammar
until they were established by the
government around 40 years ago,
1 eent in 1984.
2 zwee And what about sign languages,
can you write those down? Flip
3 dräi over to the next page to find out.
4 véier
5 fënnef
6 sechs
7 siwen
8 aacht
9 néng
10 zéng jo
neen

<<< Lauschter wéi dës Wierder kléngen ä ëé 29

 ▲

INTERNATIONAL SIGN LANGUAGE

International Sign language is often

used among sign language users 5
from different countries, who don’t
have a common language – as the
name suggests it is an international 6
language. It can be written down in a
number of ways. For example, certain
symbols are used to describe the
handshape and movement of the sign
7
as well as the facial expressions.
Since we’ve talked so much about
alphabets… 8

10
30 Photo: Group of people using international sign language
▲

The word “alphabet” comes from

the first two letters of the Greek
ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΆ EL
alphabet: “alpha” and “beta'”.
Greeks currently write from left
13 500 000
to right, just like other European
languages but this wasn’t always
the case. In the beginning, it could
be written from right to left, and
even in alternating directions on
each line. On the next page, I’ll
Πώς είσαι;
show you a funny habit of Greeks’
neighbours… Γεια!
Ευχαριστώ!

ναι
όχι 1 ένα
2 δύο
3 τρία
4 τέσσερα
5 πέντε
αβγδεζηθικλμν 6 έξι
7 επτά
8 οχτώ
ξοπρστυφχψω 9 εννιά
10 δέκα
<<< Άκουσε τον ήχο αυτών των λέξεων
Photo: Colourful street in Oia, Greece 31
 ▲

SQ SHQIP When Albanians are shaking their

head from side to side it does not
7 500 000 mean “no” but quite the opposite
“right, I agree, I’m listening”.
Conversely, nodding one’s head up
and down does not mean “yes”. It
means “sorry, I’m afraid not” and
seems to accompany bad news.
So be particularly careful when
Si jeni? shaking your head in Albania – you
may have just agreed to something
you didn’t mean to!
Përshëndetje!
Faleminderit!
1 një
2 dy
3 tre
4 katër
5 pesë
6 gjashtë
7 shtatë
8 tetë
9 nëntë
10 dhjetë

po
jo
ç ë Dëgjoni tingullin e këtyre fjalëve >>>
32 Photo: Beach cafe in Ksamil, Albania
▲

Bulgarians also nod for “no”

and shake their heads for “yes”.
БЪЛГАРСКИ BG
Another uncommon character- 8 000 000
istic of Bulgarian is that it is one
of the few Slavic languages with
no cases. So it should be easier
to learn than Czech which has Как си?
7 cases! Bulgarian shares this
characteristic only with Mace-
donian. Здравей!
Благодаря!
1 едно
2 две
3 три
4 четири
5 пет
6 шест
7 седем
8 осем
9 девет

ю 10 десет

ий щ да
ъ не
<<< Чуйте как звучат тези думи я ь
Photo: Rila Monastery, Bulgaria 33
 ▲

MK МАКЕДОНСКИ We tend to express our reactions

with short phrases or words that
3 500 000 have no particular meaning.
Macedonian have one cool way of
doing this – with "lele"! “Lele” can
mean "Oh my god!" or "Oh wow!"
and you can add as much “lele” as
you want. So you could say "Lele
Како си? lele lele! What a pretty dog!".
Flip over to the next page to

Здраво! discover a language with no “yes”

or “no”…
Благодарам!

1 еден
2 два
3 три
4 четири
5 пет
6 шест
7 седум
да 8
9
осум
девет
не
ѓ 10 десет

и
ѕ љ џ
ј њ ќ Слушнете како звучат овие зборови >>>
34 Photo: Church of St. John at Kaneo, North Macedonia
▲

Irish has no words for “yes” or

“no”. To answer the question you
GAEILGE GA
use verb forms. So the answer to 170 000
“Did they sell the house?” would
be “(they) sold“ or “(they) didn’t
sell”. Or in Irish: "Ar dhíol siad
an teach? Dhíol. Níor dhíol."
Even though Irish has no words Conas
for “yes” and “no” it has many
unique words, just as the lan-
atá tú?
guage on the next page… Dia dhuit! Go raibh
maith agat!

ú ó 1
2
A hAon
A Dó
3 A Trí

á í 4
5
A Ceathair
A Cúig
é 6
7
A Sé
A Seacht
8 A hOcht
9 A Naoi
10 A Deich
<<< Éist le fuaim na bhfocal seo
Photo: Cliffs of Moher, Ireland 35
 ▲

HU MAGYAR Hungarian is one of the hardest

languages to learn due to its 18
13 000 000 gramatical cases and numerous
complex rules. But it is well
worth the effort as it is very good
at capturing special moments
Hogy with just one word. “Aranyhíd”
is literally "a golden bridge“ but
vagy? means a glistening reflection of

Szia! the sun on the surface of water.

Köszönöm!
1 egy
2 kettő
3 három
4 négy
5 öt
6 hat
7 hét
8 nyolc
igen 9 kilenc
nem 10 tíz

óöő í
á
úüű é Hallgasd meg, hogy hangzanak ezek a szavak >>>
36 Photo: Balaton Lake, Hungary
▲

ja
NEDERLANDS NL
24 000 000
nee
Dutch has a very special word:
“gezellig“. It’s one of the most used
Dutch words and depending on
the context it can be translated as
a feeling of cosiness, fun or nice
atmosphere. It can also indicate
a sense of belonging, time spent
with loved ones or seeing a friend
1 een after a long time. For example: “we
2 twee have spent a gezellige evening,
playing games and having fun…”.
3 drie
4 vier
5 vijf
6 zes
7 zev
8 acht Hoe gaat
9 negen het ermee?
10 tien
Hallo!
Dankjewel!

<<< Luister naar de klanken van deze woorden

Photo: Tulips and windmills in Zaanse Schans, Netherlands 37
 ▲

LT LIETUVIŲ KALBA Lithuanian is one of the oldest

spoken languages in the world
3 000 000 and even has words which are
similar to ancient Sanskrit, such
taip as "vyras" (man), "šuo" (dog),
ne "avis" (sheep). It means that
Lithuanians can recognize some
words while listening to this
Indian language.
I’m starting to get hungry, let
me grab something to eat…

Kaip
1 vienas sekasi?
2 du
3 trys Labas!
4 keturi Ačiū!
5 penki
6 šeši
7
8
septyni
aštuoni ž š
9
10
devyni
dešimt č ą
ųū ęė į Pasiklausykite šių žodžių >>>
38 Photo: Trakai Island Castle, Lithuania
▲

In the land of pizza, pasta and

cheese, it is no surprise when
ITALIANO IT
someone gets “abbioco”. There’s 67 000 000
no exact equivalent in English,
but abbiocco (pronounced
“ab-byok-ko”) refers to a feeling
you get after eating a large
quantity of food. Come stai?
Turn over to the next page to
discover another unique food-
related word… Ciao!
Grazie!
1 uno
2 due
3 tre
4 quattro
5 cinque
6 sei
7 sette
8 otto
9 nove sì
10 dieci
no
èé ì
<<< Ascolta il suono di queste parole
Photo: Riomaggiore, Italy
à ù òó 39
 ▲

KA ქართული როგორ ხარ?

The Georgian word “Shemo-
metchama” means “to eat even
3 700 000 though you’re full because the
food tastes so good”. It roughly
გამარჯობა! translates to “I accidentally ate the
whole thing“. Georgian also has
მადლობა! one of the world’s most impressive
looking scripts.
On the next page I’ll show you a
word that describes an amount
that we all want to express from
time to time…

1 ერთი
2 ორი
3 სამი
4 ოთხი
5 ხუთი
დიახ 6 ექვსი
არა 7 შვიდი
8 რვა
9 ცხრა
10 ათი
აბგდევზთიკლმნოპჟ

რსტუფქღყშჩცძწჭხჯჰ
მოუსმინეთ სიტყვების ჟღერადობას >>>
40 Photo: Ushguli with mount Shkhara, Georgia (Mehmet | Shutterstock.com)
▲

Swedish has invented a perfect

word for expressing balance
SVENSKA SV
and saying “not too little, not 10 000 000
too much… but just the right
amount” or in Swedish “lagom”.
So in Swedish you can nicely
say that you have just eaten
“lagom”! We talked a lot about Hur mår du?
unique words, so let’s also
take a look at some unique
expressions… Hej! Tack så
mycket!

1 ett
2 två
3 tre
4 fyra

äå ö 5
6
fem
sex
7 sju
ja 8 åtta
nej 9 nio
10 tio
<<< Lyssna på ljuden för dessa ord
Photo: Frozen lake in Upplands Vasby, Sweden (Per-Boge | Shutterstock.com) 41
 ▲

PL POLSKI Polish has many fun idioms. So

for example, if you say in Polish
45 000 000 “Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy”
it would literally mean “Not
my circus, not my monkeys”,
however, the phrase has
nothing to do with monkeys but
Jak się means “It’s not my problem”.
There’s another language that
masz? has an amusing way of saying
Cześć! something similar…

Dziękuję!
1 jeden
2 dwa
3 trzy
4 cztery
5 pięć
6 sześć
7 siedem
tak 8 osiem
nie 9 dziewięć
10 dziesięć
ć
ą ł ó
ę ń ś źż Posłuchaj brzmienia tych słów >>>
42 Photo: The Crooked Forest near Gryfino, Poland
▲

"Der er ingen ko på isen" is

Hvordan går
det? DANSK DA
Danish for "There is no cow on
Hej! 6 000 000
the ice" but its actual meaning
is "There is no problem". So
if you don’t see any cows on
Tak!
the ice, everything should be
fine. As you have probably
noticed, many languages like
to use animals in idioms!

1 en/et
2 to
3 tre
4 fire
5 fem
æ 6
7
seks
syv
å 8 otte
ø 9 ni
10 ti

ja
<<< Lyt til lyden af disse ord
nej
Photo: Tivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark 43
 ▲

PT PORTUGUÊS You might not consider

Portuguese as being a world
250 000 000 language. However, with the whole
of Brazil speaking it, there are
over 220 million native speakers
- it ranks as the 7th most spoken
language worldwide! Speakers of
Portuguese generally understand
Como Spanish, Galician and Italian as
these languages are very similar.
estás? Speaking of Galician…

Olá!
Obrigado/a! 1 um
2 dois
3 três
4 quatro
5 cinco
6 seis
7 sete

áàâã
8 oito
sim 9 nove
não 10 dez

úü
ç
44
óôõ éê í Ouça o som destas palavras >>>
Photo: Waves in Nazaré, Portugal (aleksey snezhinskij | Shutterstock.com)
▲

There are between 60 and

100  words referring to differ- Como GALEGO GL
ent types of rain in Galician. If
estás? 2 400 000
you have been to Galicia, you
will know why! For example,
"babuña" refers to a rain that Ola!
sounds like a small baby, "tor- Grazas!
bón" to a rain with thunder and
lighting and "ballón" to a heavy
but short-lasting rain that lasts
for several days…
si
non
ó
íï 1 un
á 2 dous
é 3
4
tres
catro

ñ 5
6
cinco
seis
7 sete
8 oito
9 nove
10 dez
<<< Escoita o son destas palabras
Photo: As Catedrais Beach, Spain 45
 ▲

LV LATVIEŠU VALODA Kā tev iet?

1 750 000

jā Sveiki!
Paldies!
Latvians love to sing! The “dainas”
nē
are Latvian folk songs that capture
ancient Latvian wisdom. Created
well over a thousand years ago,
“dainas” were part of celebrations
(like the yearly midsummer
celebration in the main image),
daily work, reflections on life 1 viens
preserved in oral form. There are
more than 1.2 million “dainas”
2 divi
altogether! 3 trīs
4 četri
5 pieci
6 seši
7 septiņi
ū 8
9
astoņi
deviņi
č ļ
10 desmit

š
ē
ā ž ķ ņ
ī ģ Klausies, kā skan šie vārdi >>>
46 Photo: Celebrating midsummer, Latvia (Raimonds Kalva LV | Shutterstock.com)
▲

Norwegian has many words

that have a ‘giant’ influence on
NORSK NO
other more widely spoken lan- 5 320 000
guages. Who hasn’t heard of
a “troll”? If trolls are a bit scary
for you (me too!), then think in-
stead of the beautiful Norwe-
gian “fjords” and if those whet ja
your appetite for travel don’t
forget the word “egg” which is nei
also of Norwegian origin.

1 én
2 to
3 tre
4 fire
Hvordan 5 fem
går det? 6 seks
7 syv
Hei!
å Takk!
8
9
åtte
ni
æ 10 ti

<<< Lytt til lyden av disse ordene ø

Photo: Reindeers in Tromsø, Norway 47
 ▲

SE SÁMEGIELLA Mo dat
manná?
30 000
Bures!
Giitu!
North Sámi is one of the Sami
languages and it is spoken in
the north European countries. jua
a-a
Therefore it is no wonder that
it has many words to describe
different types of snow and
ice. For example, "čahki” is a
hard snowball that is thrown in
serious snowball fights, "vahca" 1 okta
is a new or loose snow and 2 guokte
"soavli" is a slushy snow.
3 golbma
4 njeallje
5 vihtta
6 guhtta
7 čieža

ŋ 8 gávcci

đ 9
10
ovcci
logi

á
ŧ
ž
48
č š Guldal dáid sániid >>>
Photo: Aurora borealis, Norway 48
▲

Russian has one unique word

that describes a layer of ice, which
да РУССКИЙ RU
settles, then after the rise of tem-
peratures melts and then again
нет 150 000 000
freezes again: “Гололедица”
(gololedica), which roughly
translates a naked sheet of ice.
And did you know that there are
twice as many native speakers of
Russian as there are of English in
Europe?

Как дела?
1 один
2 два Привет!
3 три Спасибо!
4 четыре
5 пять
6 шесть
7 семь
8 восемь
9 девять
10 десять
ъ ё ь ий щ
э ю ы
<<< Послушайте, как звучат эти слова
Photo: Swimming in an ice hole, Russia
я 49
 ▲

ES ESPAÑOL sí
There is an expression in Spanish
"¡el mundo es un pañuelo!" (the world
489 000 000 is a handkerchief) to indicate our
no surprise when we meet someone by
chance in an unexpected place, there-
by showing that the world is much
smaller than we really thought. And

¿Cómo isn’t this what language learning

and learning about other cultures is
estás? all about anyway? Spanish is truly
a world language with 20 countries

¡Hola! having Spanish as an official lan-

guage – ¡Olé!
¡Gracias!

1 uno
2 dos
3 tres á
4 cuatro
5 cinco ñ é úü
í
6 seis
7 siete
8
9
ocho
nueve
ó
10 diez
Escucha cómo se pronuncian estas palabras >>>
50 Photo: Women dancing flamenco in Sevilla, Spain (leonov.o | Shutterstock.com)
 EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR
MODERN LANGUAGES

CENTRE EUROPEEN POUR

LES LANGUES VIVANTES

WEST GERMANIC
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LARA’S
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LANGUAGE JOURNEY Polish
Slovak
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Russian EASTERN ROMANCE

ACROSS EUROPE Ukrainian Italian

Romanian
SOUTH SLAVIC WESTERN ROMANCE
EDL.ECML.AT/LANGUAGEJOURNEY Bosnian Catalan
Bulgarian French
Croatian Galician
Macedonian Portuguese
These are the languages we Serbian Romansh
encountered on our short Slovene Spanish TURKIC
journey through Europe, but Azerbaijani

GERMANIC
there are many more lan- Turkish
BALTIC

BAL
E
guages both in Europe and Latvian A NC

TO
across the world! SEMITIC Lithuanian M

-
AV FINNIC

RO
SL
Maltese IC CELTIC Estonian
Irish Finnish
Albanian Welsh Northern Sami
UGRIC ALTAIC
Georgian Armenian
Greek Hungarian 210 000 000
Romani

Basque
AFROASIAN KARTVELIAN INDO-EUROPEAN URALIC
350 000 000 5 000 000 3 200 000 000 25 000 000
BE
BE EN FY SL FR UK edl.ecml.at/languagejourney
A language can open the door into a

CA
CA TR AS EU MT IS different world. A world where you can
discover treasures you would never have
known existed about countries and cultures
without having used the language as a key
to enter it. And one door can take you into a
ET
ET RO CS SK FI RM room with lots of other doors leading off it!
For some, foreign languages are a passion
and for others a necessity but wherever you
CY
CY DE HR BS SR HY go and whatever you do, you cannot avoid
encountering them. We hope that this
journey has given you an insight into just a
few of the many languages around us and
ROM
ROM
LB EL SQ BG encourages you to delve deeper.

For more information on the European Centre

for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe

MK
MK GA HU NL LT IT
and the European Day of languages see www.ecml.at.
For any adaptations or translations
please contact us at [email protected].
© 2021, Council of Europe

KA
KA SV PL DA PT GL EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR
MODERN LANGUAGES

CENTRE EUROPEEN POUR

LV NO
LV NO SE
SE RU
RU ES
ES
LES LANGUES VIVANTES