European Day of Languages: 10 things you never knew about European languages

1. Most European languages belong to one of three major language families: the Germanic, Romance or Slavic languages.
2. Europe has about 225 indigenous languages – but this accounts for only three percent of the languages spoken in the world.
3. German is the only language in the world to capitalise nouns.
4. In French, there are 13 different spellings for the sound „o“.
5. French and English are the only languages taught everywhere in schools throughout the world.
6. Russia is thought to be home to speakers of over 100 languages. Alongside Russian, Chechen, Tatar and Bashkir are widely spoken.
7. Basque is thought to be the oldest language spoken in Europe. It is spoken in region straddling the French-Spanish border on the Atlantic coast.
8. Catalan, spoken by six million people, is the second most-spoken language in Spain. It is spoken in Catalonia on the east coast of the country.
9. Arabic, Chinese and Hindi are the most widely spoken non-European languages in Europe.
10. In London alone, about 300 languages are spoken.

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