What are the Eastern European languages?
Russian –
this is one of the largest languages in the world. Russian is a Slavic language, comprising the East Slavic language group together with Ukrainian and Belarusian.
It is spoken in Russia and all countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. Approximately 145 million people speak Russian as a native language and approximately 110 million people speak it as a second language. Russian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Its present form has been used since 1918, when the alphabet was reformed. Because the language is spoken in so many different areas, Russian also has a wide range of dialects.
Polish –
this language belongs to the West Slavic language group. Polish has roughly 50 million speakers, most of whom live in Poland. Polish has been one of the official languages of the European Union since 2004.
Polish uses the Latin alphabet, but it has more letters than the other languages – 32 to be precise. The language features a number of extra letters with diacritical marks.
The language is rather complex, both with respect to grammar and spelling. Because it sounds so complicated and strange, it is often said that Chinese is the only language which is more difficult than Polish. Accordingly, companies often engage the services of official translators for Polish translations .
Czech –
this is one of the West Slavic languages. It is spoken by 12 million people, most of whom live in the Czech Republic.
There are also Czech-speaking minorities in Slovakia, Germany, Austria and the United States. The language has been an official language of the European Union since 1 May 2004. It is closely related to Slovak and is relatively easy for Polish-speakers to understand. Czech also uses the Latin alphabet, with a number of diacritical marks. Czech grammar is relatively complicated.
Slovak –
this language belongs to the West Slavic language group. It is the official language of Slovakia, but it is also spoken in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Ukraine.
Approximately 6 million people speak Slovak. It has been an official language of the European Union since 2004. Slovak is similar to Czech and is also fairly closely related to Polish. Its grammar is highly developed, featuring seven cases. The language is written in the Latin alphabet.
Hungarian –
though this language is spoken in an Eastern European country, it is not a Slavic language but a Finno-Ugric language. Hungarian is the largest language in this group, with approximately 14.5 million speakers.
In addition to Hungary, the language is also spoken by minority groups in Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Austria and Slovenia. Hungarian has been an official language of the EU since 2004. The language uses the Latin alphabet, with diacritical marks added to a number of letters.
Romanian –
this Romance language is spoken primarily in Romania and Moldavia. There are also minorities in Hungary and Serbia who use the language.
Romanian is strongly related to other Romance languages, such as Italian, Spanish and French. This relation is reflected mainly in the vocabulary.
Romanian has approximately 24 million native speakers and it is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. Nowadays, Romanian is written in the Latin alphabet. In the 19th century, and until 1991 in Moldavia, the language was written in the Cyrillic alphabet. The language is officially called Moldavian in Moldavia, but there are hardly any differences between the two.
Bulgarian –
this language, which has approximately 12 million speakers, belongs to the South Slavic language group. It is written in the Cyrillic alphabet and it is also an official language of the EU.
Outside of Bulgaria, the language is also spoken in Ukraine, Moldavia, Serbia and Greece. Though the features of Bulgarian are clearly Slavic, it has also been influenced by Turkish, Latin and German. Macedonian bears a strong resemblance to Bulgarian, which is why some linguists view Macedonian as merely a dialect of Bulgarian.
Ukrainian –
this language, like Russian, belongs to the East Slavic language group. It is a large language with approximately 39 million speakers.
Ukrainian is the official language in Ukraine and Transnistria. Transnistria is the region of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic – a nation recognised by almost no other country. When the Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, Russian was more recognised than Ukrainian. Only in 1991, when independence was declared, was Ukrainian declared the one official language. Just like Russian, it is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. However, Ukrainian uses letters which do not exist in Russian.
Croatian –
this language belongs to the South Slavic language group within the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Croatia, but is also spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Croatian has a total of 6.2 million native speakers. The language is closely related to Serbian and Bosnian. It is written in the Latin alphabet and uses diacritical marks. Štokavisch, Čakavisch and Kajkavisch are the three dialects of Croatian.
Serbian –
Srpski is a language in the South Slavic language group. It is closely related to Croatian.
The difference is that Serbian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, though it is also permitted to write in the Latin alphabet. Speakers of Serbian and Croatian can understand each other. The language is officially recognised in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Approximately 8 million people speak Serbian.
Slovenian –
Slovenian belongs to the South Slavic language group. It is the official language of Slovenia and, since 2004, the European Union.
Its 2.2 million speakers live in Slovenia, as well as in Austria and Italy. Slovenian is written in Latin and also uses a few diacritical marks. It has been influenced by German, particularly with respect to vocabulary.
Bosnian –
this language belongs to the South Slavic language group and is the official language in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It is a mixture of Serbian and Croatian, and is only considered a separate language due to political motives. The notion of the ‘Bosnian language’ has been used since 1995, when Bosnia became independent following the war in the former Yugoslavia. Bosnian contains loan words from Turkish and is written in the Latin alphabet. Bosnian has approximately 2.5 million speakers.
Lithuanian –
this language has been an official language of the European Union since May 2004. First and foremost, however, it is the official language of Lithuania.
It belongs to the Baltic language group and is related to Latvian. Lithuanian is one of oldest surviving languages in the Indo-European language family. Outside of Lithuania, the language is spoken in Poland and Belarus. It has a total of 4 million speakers. When Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union, the language was influenced by Russian. Lithuanian is written in the Latin alphabet and uses some diacritical marks.
Latvian –
this is an Indo-European language which, together with Lithuanian, belongs to the Baltic language group. Both languages are closely related to each other.
Latvian is the official language of Latvia and has also been one of the official languages of the EU since 1 May 2004. An important difference between Lithuanian and Latvian is that Latvian was heavily influenced by German and Finno-Ugric languages. During the time Latvia was part of the Soviet Union, the language was also heavily influenced by Russian. Nowadays, there are increasingly more words which are English in origin. Approximately 2 million people speak Latvian.
Estonian –
this language is one of the smallest in Europe. It has only 1 million speakers, most of whom live in Estonia.
Estonian belongs to the Finno-Ugric language group, which also includes Finnish. Speakers of both languages can understand each other without too much difficulty. Estonian is written in the Latin alphabet and uses some diacritical marks. It has been an official language of the EU since Estonia became a member.
Macedonian –
the Macedonian language belongs to the South Slavic language group and is distinct from Ancient Macedonian, which was spoken in antiquity and is related to Ancient Greek.
Macedonian is the official language of the Republic of Macedonia, but it is also spoken in Albania, Greece and Bulgaria. It has 2 million speakers. It is closely related to Bulgarian and for this reason some linguists consider it to be a variation of Bulgarian. Just like Bulgarian, Macedonian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
Albanian –
this is one of the most interesting languages spoken in Europe. Why?
Albanian does not belong to a language group and as such constitutes its own. Nonetheless, the language has a lot of loan words from Latin. It is spoken in Albanian, as well as by Albanians who live in Macedonia and Kosovo. The language has approximately 6 million speakers. Albanian is written in the Latin alphabet and uses a few diacritical marks. In the past, it was also written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
Georgian –
this language belongs to the South Caucasian language group.
It is an official language in Georgia, but it is also spoken in Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Greece, Iran and Russia. It has a total of 5 million speakers and who speak 18 different dialects. It is written in a unique Georgian alphabet. The language has been influenced by Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Russian.
Armenian –
this language constitutes its own branch within the Indo-European languages.
It is officially recognised in Armenia and Nagorno Karabach, and is also spoken in Russia, Georgia and Iran. Almost 7 million people speak the language. Armenian has its own unique alphabet.
Azeri –
Azeri belongs to the Oghuz language group within the Turkic language family and is an official language of Azerbaijan.
Other speakers of Azeri live in Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Georgia and Russia. This comprises a total of 30 million people. Azeri is written in the Arabic alphabet and the Latin alphabet.
Kazakh –
this language belongs to the Turkic language family.
It is the official language of Kazakhstan and has 12 million native speakers. When Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union, the language was undermined by the use of Russian, which was the official language at the time. Just like Russian, Kazakh is written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
Uzbek –
this language belongs to the East Turkic language group. It is officially recognised in the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The speakers of this language comprise a group of approximately 21 million people who live in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia. When Uzbekistan was part of the Soviet Union, Uzbek was written exclusively in the Cyrillic alphabet. Since 1992 Uzbek has also been written in the Latin alphabet.
Most people know that Russian is an Eastern European language, but what about Albanian or Hungarian? Below is a list of the Eastern European languages. You can come to us for translations in all of these languages.
Eastern European languages:
