Language and identity, standardization processes In the Middle Ages the two most important defining elements of Europe were
Christianitas and
Latinitas. The earliest dictionaries were glossaries: more or less structured lists of lexical pairs (in alphabetical order or according to conceptual fields). The Latin-German (Latin-Bavarian)
Abrogans was among the first. A new wave of
lexicography can be seen from the late 15th century onwards (after the introduction of the printing press, with the growing interest in standardization of languages). The concept of the
nation state began to emerge in the
early modern period. Nations adopted particular dialects as their national language. This, together with improved communications, led to official efforts to standardize the
national language, and a number of language academies were established: 1582
Accademia della Crusca in Florence, 1617
Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft in Weimar, 1635
Académie française in Paris, 1713
Real Academia Española in Madrid. Language became increasingly linked to nation as opposed to culture, and was also used to promote religious and ethnic identity: e.g. different
Bible translations in the same language for Catholics and Protestants. The first languages whose standardisation was promoted included Italian (
questione della lingua: Modern Tuscan/Florentine vs. Old Tuscan/Florentine vs. Venetian → Modern Florentine + archaic Tuscan + Upper Italian), French (the standard is based on Parisian), English (the standard is based on the London dialect) and (High) German (based on the dialects of the chancellery of Meissen in Saxony, Middle German, and the chancellery of Prague in Bohemia ("Common German")). But several other nations also began to develop a standard variety in the 16th century.
Lingua franca Europe has had a number of languages that were considered
linguae francae over some ranges for some periods according to some historians. Typically in the rise of a national language the new language becomes a lingua franca to peoples in the range of the future nation until the consolidation and unification phases. If the nation becomes internationally influential, its language may become a lingua franca among nations that speak their own national languages. Europe has had no lingua franca ranging over its entire territory spoken by all or most of its populations during any historical period. Some linguae francae of past and present over some of its regions for some of its populations are: •
Classical Greek and then
Koine Greek in the
Mediterranean Basin from the
Athenian Empire to the
Eastern Roman Empire, being replaced by
Modern Greek. •
Koine Greek and
Modern Greek, in the
Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire and other parts of the Balkans south of the
Jireček Line. •
Vulgar Latin and
Late Latin among the uneducated and educated populations respectively of the
Roman Empire and the states that followed it in the same range no later than 900 AD;
Medieval Latin and
Renaissance Latin among the educated populations of western, northern, central and part of eastern Europe until the rise of the national languages in that range, beginning with the first language academy in Italy in 1582/83;
Neo-Latin written only in scholarly and scientific contexts by a small minority of the educated population at scattered locations over all of Europe;
ecclesiastical Latin, in spoken and written contexts of liturgy and church administration only, over the range of the
Roman Catholic Church. •
Old Occitan in central and southern France, north-western Italy and the main territories of the
crown of Aragon (Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Aragon). •
Lingua Franca or Sabir, the original of the name, an Italian and Catalan-based
pidgin language of mixed origins used by maritime commercial interests around the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and early Modern Age. •
Old French in continental western European countries and in the
Crusader states. •
Czech, mainly during the reign of
Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (14th century) but also during other periods of Bohemian control over the Holy Roman Empire. •
Middle Low German, around the 14th–16th century, during the heyday of the
Hanseatic League, mainly in Northeastern Europe across the Baltic Sea. •
Spanish as Castilian in Spain and
New Spain from the times of
the Catholic Monarchs and
Columbus, c. 1492; that is, after the
Reconquista, until established as a national language in the times of
Louis XIV, c. 1648; subsequently multinational in all nations in or formerly in the
Spanish Empire. •
Polish, due to the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (16th–18th centuries). •
Italian due to the
Renaissance, the
opera, the
Italian Empire, the
fashion industry and the influence of the
Roman Catholic church. •
French from the golden age under
Cardinal Richelieu and
Louis XIV c. 1648; i.e., after the
Thirty Years' War, in France and the
French colonial empire, until established as the national language during the
French Revolution of 1789 and subsequently multinational in all nations in or formerly in the various
French Empires. •
English in
Great Britain until its consolidation as a national language in the
Renaissance and the rise of
Modern English; subsequently internationally under the various states in or formerly in the
British Empire; globally since the victories of the predominantly English speaking countries (
United States,
United Kingdom,
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand, and others) and their allies in the two world wars ending in 1918 (
World War I) and 1945 (
World War II) and the subsequent rise of the United States as a
superpower and major
cultural influence. •
Russian in the former
Soviet Union and
Russian Empire including
Northern and
Central Asia.
Linguistic minorities Historical attitudes towards linguistic diversity are illustrated by two French laws: the
Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts (1539), which said that every document in France should be written in French (neither in Latin nor in Occitan) and the
Loi Toubon (1994), which aimed to eliminate anglicisms from official documents. States and populations within a state have often resorted to war to settle their differences. There have been attempts to prevent such hostilities: two such initiatives were promoted by the
Council of Europe, founded in 1949, which affirms the right of minority language speakers to use their language fully and freely. The Council of Europe is committed to protecting linguistic diversity. Currently all European countries except
France,
Andorra and
Turkey have signed the
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, while
Greece,
Iceland and
Luxembourg have signed it, but have not ratified it; this framework entered into force in 1998. Another European treaty, the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, was adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the
Council of Europe: it entered into force in 1998, and while it is legally binding for 24 countries,
France,
Iceland,
Italy,
North Macedonia,
Moldova and
Russia have chosen to sign without ratifying the convention.
Scripts The main scripts used in Europe today are the
Latin and
Cyrillic. The
Greek alphabet was derived from the
Phoenician alphabet, and Latin was derived from the Greek via the
Old Italic alphabet. In the Early Middle Ages,
Ogham was used in Ireland and
runes (derived from Old Italic script) in Scandinavia. Both were replaced in general use by the Latin alphabet by the Late Middle Ages. The Cyrillic script was derived from the Greek with the first texts appearing around 940 AD. Around 1900 there were mainly two typeface variants of the
Latin alphabet used in Europe:
Antiqua and
Fraktur. Fraktur was used most for German, Estonian, Latvian, Norwegian and Danish whereas Antiqua was used for Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese, English, Romanian, Swedish and Finnish. The Fraktur variant was banned by
Hitler in 1941, having been described as "
Schwabacher Jewish letters". Other scripts have historically been in use in Europe, including Phoenician, from which modern Latin letters descend, Ancient
Egyptian hieroglyphs on Egyptian artefacts traded during Antiquity, various runic systems used in Northern Europe preceding Christianisation, and Arabic during the era of the Ottoman Empire.
Hungarian rovás was used by the Hungarian people in the early Middle Ages, but it was gradually replaced with the Latin-based Hungarian alphabet when Hungary became a kingdom, though it was revived in the 20th century and has certain marginal, but growing area of usage since then.
European Union The
European Union (as of 2021) had 27 member states accounting for a population of 447 million, or about 60% of the population of Europe. The European Union has designated by agreement with the member states 24 languages as "official and working": Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish. This designation provides member states with two "entitlements": the member state may communicate with the EU in any of the designated languages, and view "EU regulations and other legislative documents" in that language. The European Union and the
Council of Europe have been collaborating in education of member populations in languages for "the promotion of plurilingualism" among EU member states. The joint document, "
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR)", is an educational standard defining "the competencies necessary for communication" and related knowledge for the benefit of educators in setting up educational programs. In a 2005 independent survey requested by the EU's
Directorate-General for Education and Culture regarding the extent to which major European languages were spoken in member states. The results were published in a 2006 document, "Europeans and Their Languages", or "Eurobarometer 243". In this study, statistically relevant samples of the population in each country were asked to fill out a survey form concerning the languages that they spoke with sufficient competency "to be able to have a conversation". == List of languages ==