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Languages of Europe

  • Countries in Europe:
    1. Eastern Europe: Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Ukraine.
    2. Northern Europe: Denmark, Estonia, Faeroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom
    3. Southern Europe: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Gibraltar, Greece, Holy See (Vatican City State), Italy, Macedonia, Malta, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia and Montenegro (former Yugoslavia), Slovenia, Spain.
    4. Western Europe: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Switzerland.
  • Source: http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/europe.htm
  • Map: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/europe.html

Russian

Russian is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, which includes English and the other Germanic languages, the Romance languages and other languages of Europe, the Middle East, and the Asian subcontinent. Russian belongs to the Slavic group of languages, which is divided into West Slavic (Czech, Slovak, Polish and Sorbian), South Slavic (Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Serbian and Slovenian), and East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian).

Russian is the native language of some 150 million citizens of the Russian Federal Republic. It is one of the five official languages of the United Nations, and ranks with English, Chinese, Hindi, Urdu and Spanish as a major world language. Russian remains the unofficial lingua franca of the former Soviet republics, an indispensable communications tool across all of the Caucasus and Central Asia. Russian is a major language for scientific publication, and it is an increasingly important language for business and trade as Russian institutions, both public and private, integrate with their European and American counterparts. Although for the moment the country is not an economic or military superpower, Russia still exerts considerable political influence around the world, and there will always be a need for American specialists in Russian affairs.

RUSSIAN: a language of Russia (Europe)

Speakers 167 million first-language speakers; additional 110 million second-language speakers.
Region Also spoken in 30 other countries including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova.
Classification Indo-European, Slavic, East.
Order OCLC Language Sets

Spanish

  • Between 322 and 358 million people in the world speak Spanish as their first language.
  • Spanish is the official language in 21 countries.
  • Approximately another 59-95 million people speak Spanish as a second language.
  • In the United States 13% of the population speak Spanish as their first language.
  • In the United States and Canada, Spanish is the most popular foreign language to learn.
  • The Latin-American countries are experiencing constant economic growth and because of that, are becoming more important as trading partners. A number of large Latin-American countries are on the verge of signing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), set up by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

SPANISH: the primary language of Spain, Mexico, Central and Latin America

Speakers 322 to 358 million first language speakers. Between 59 and 95 million people speak Spanish as second language.
Region Spoken in over 40 countries including Andorra, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Spain.
Classification Indo-European
Order OCLC Language Sets