What is the European Day of Languages?

The European Year of Languages 2001, jointly organised by

the Council of Europe and the European Union, was successful
in involving millions of people across 45 participating countries.
Its activities celebrated linguistic diversity in Europe and
promoted language learning.
Following the success of the Year of Languages, the Council
of Europe declared a European Day of Languages to be
celebrated on 26th of September each year. The general
objectives of the European Day of Languages are:
Alerting the public to the importance of language learning
and diversifying the range of languages learnt in order to
increase plurilingualism and intercultural understanding;
Promoting the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe,
which must be preserved and fostered;
Encouraging lifelong language learning in and out of school,
whether for study purposes, for professional needs, for
purposes of mobility or for pleasure and exchanges.
26 September 2011 marked the 10th anniversary of the
European Day of Languages (EDL) celebrated at the Council of
Europe and throughout its 47 member states.

WHO IS THE EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES FOR?

The Council of Europe is hoping that this Day will be
celebrated both by authorities in its member states and
potential partners at the following levels:

among policy-makers (specific measures or discussions on

language policy issues, for instance)

among the general public (awareness-raising on the overall

objectives of the Day, including the importance of lifelong
language learning, starting at any age, in educational
establishments, at work, etc);

in the voluntary sector (specific actions by and/or for NGOs,

associations, companies, etc).

Its estimated that up to 7,000 different languages are

spoken around the world. 90% of these languages are used by
less than 100,000 people. Over a million people converse in
150-200 languages and 46 languages have just a single
speaker!

Languages are grouped into families that share a common

ancestry. For example, English is related to German and Dutch,
and they are all part of the Indo-European family of
languages. These also include Romance languages, such as
French, Spanish and Italian, which come from Latin.

2,200 of the worlds languages can be found in Asia, while

Europe has a mere 260.

Nearly every language uses a similar grammatical structure,

even though they may not be linked in vocabulary or origin.
Communities which are usually isolated from each other
because of mountainous geography may have developed
multiple languages. Papua New Guinea for instance, boasts
no less than 832 different languages!

Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World

Chinese tops the list of most popular world languages,

with over one billion speakers. English trails in third place,
with 335 million speakers. This data represents first-

language speakers.
Language

1. Chinese2

Approx. number
of speakers

1,197,000,000

2. Spanish

414,000,000

3. English

335,000,000

4. Hindi

260,000,000

5. Arabic3

237,000,000

6. Portuguese

203,000,000

7. Bengali

193,000,000

8. Russian

167,000,000

9. Japanese

122,000,000

10. Javanese

84,300,000