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Top European Languages on a Map

Can you name all of the European languages with over a million native speakers with the aid of a map?
Many of these are considered dialects by some people. The line is blurry.
For transcontinental countries only the population inside Europe is counted
Source: Wikipedia
Quiz by Jiaozira
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Last updated: April 21, 2024
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First submittedJanuary 2, 2018
Times taken118,020
Average score78.9%
Rating4.76
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Pop
Languages
106 mil
Russian
97 mil
German
66 mil
French
65 mil
Italian
60 mil
English
39 mil
Polish
38 mil
Spanish
32 mil
Ukrainian
24 mil
Romanian
22 mil
Dutch
Pop
Languages
21 mil
Serbo-Croatian
13 mil
Hungarian
12 mil
Turkish
11 mil
Greek
10 mil
Czech
10 mil
Portuguese
9.1 mil
Swedish
7.8 mil
Bulgarian
5.5 mil
Danish
5.4 mil
Albanian
Pop
Languages
5.4 mil
Finnish
5.2 mil
Slovak
4.7 mil
Norwegian
4.3 mil
Tatar
4.0 mil
Catalan
3.3 mil
Belarusian
3.0 mil
Lithuanian
2.4 mil
Galician
2.1 mil
Slovene
Pop
Languages
1.7 mil
Latvian
1.5 mil
Romani
1.4 mil
Chechen
1.4 mil
Macedonian
1.3 mil
Sardinian
1.2 mil
Bashkir
1.1 mil
Estonian
1.1 mil
Chuvash
1.0 mil
Kazakh
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100 Recent Comments
Jiaozira
+33
Level 71
Jul 22, 2020

Please consider that all figures presented are for native speakers!

- Languages such as Irish have smaller communities of native speakers, but many people learn some of it as a second language.

- Yes, Catalan has only 4.1 million native speakers. Half of Catalonia speaks Spanish as a native language and the number is larger is Valencia.

- Yes, Romanian and Romani are different languages and no, they are not closely related.

- I've updated this quiz to remove dialects, although I can think of at least one language which may be controversial.

- I will add Tatar and Bashkir in future, right now they are off the map so I will have to redo the entire map first in order to add them :(

Jiaozira
+18
Level 71
Jul 23, 2020
Edit: Added Tatar and Bashkir, as well as extended the map. Thank you everyone for playing/leaving suggestions for me.
maggieemiller
+7
Level 53
Aug 28, 2018
I wish you would accept Gallego for Galician. I know it's the translation for it, but I had to really wrack my brain for the English word :P
coxbury
+1
Level 57
Aug 31, 2018
Switzerdeutsch ?

It is as valid as some of the Italian 'languages'.

Gassu
+6
Level 70
Sep 14, 2018
Schwyzerdütsch isch nur ä Dialekt und zeut nid würklech aus Spraach wüus soviu vrschidnigi Mundarte ir Schwiiz git (Züritütsch, Wallisertiitsch etc.)
brandybuck96
+2
Level 83
Apr 26, 2023
idk if it's the same in German but 'dialect' and 'language' are more political than linguistic terms and have very permeable borders
Gassu
+4
Level 70
Sep 14, 2018
Hehe. Who can understand it?
Antimatter
+1
Level 45
May 16, 2019
Ich - überhaupt nicht! Ich schreibe jetzt auf Hochdeutsch, es sieht total anders als dieses Schweizerdeutsch da oben, oder? ;)
Sifhraven
+1
Level 73
Mar 16, 2020
It looks slightly different, but question is, does it sóund different. I have no further knowledge about swiss-german, so no opinion about the particular case. But often dialects written down look very different (I would have a hard time deciphering the dialect from 20 km from here written down). Spoken the difference is often allready a lot less, and most of the time the biggest difference is the sound and length of the vowels.

Sort of like between all the different germanic languages; good, goed, gut, god, góð (english, dutch, german, danish, icelandic) etc

Sifhraven
+1
Level 73
Mar 16, 2020
Btw, I am dutch and understand german reasonably well (don't ask me to write in german though..) and I think I could understand most of it. First part was easy, "zeut" was extremely hard!. "wüus" I got, but might not have when only give as a single word. And "soviu" was a slight guess for so viele.

I think it is something like: Swiss-German is just a dialect and does not really count as a language, because there are so many different dialects in Swiss. (Zürich-german Wallis-German etc.)

My geography isnt great I am assuming the last word (first part) is a region but I dont know it so wouldn't know the english version, made an educated guess and englified it ;).

Sifhraven
+1
Level 73
Mar 16, 2020
Omg! I was looking up wallissinger thingy, and sheep!! Omg they are too adorable!!! Walliser schwarznasen (blacknose).

Some pictures they do not even look real but made out of felt! (Yes I know where it comes from) (needle felted, not the flat pieces)

Djilas
+1
Level 84
Mar 16, 2020
Spoken Swiss German is a lot worse than written.
camus
+2
Level 79
Oct 5, 2020
Swiss German is subtitled in Germany when it's on TV, and for a good reason.
richiesyxx
+1
Level 73
Jan 25, 2024
I Stayed in a hotel in Switzerland only a few months ago and spoke German with the hotel staff and, to me, it all sounded like German. I have heard though that Austrian German sounds like the ‘country bumpkin’ version of German? I hear, from sources I can’t remember, that when Arnold Schwarzenegger made the Terminator movies, he expected to record the dubbing voiceovers for the German language releases of the film. However, studio bosses had to hire a German actor after feedback from German audiences said that the Terminator sounded like a peasant farmer, to a German ear.
brandybuck96
+1
Level 83
Mar 7, 2025
I went to Basel last year and heard Swiss German spoken and couldn't understand a word of it... I've also seen videos where native German speakers fail to understand it. However most people in Basel also spoke standard German, so that's probably what you were hearing.
TitanJazza
+1
Level 23
Jan 8, 2019
Where is basqe?
Sifhraven
+7
Level 73
Jan 15, 2019
750k see source
elgrancazador
+4
Level 48
May 16, 2019
Great quiz! Perhaps Bashkir is not strictly located in Europe as Bashkortostan is in the Urals (It's close enough so perhaps it should be on the map)

Tatar should definitely be included as it is firmly west of the Urals and most speakers are in Europe (Kazan)

Also, please accept Slovenian and not just Slovene. Both are equally accepted in the dictionary.

Last, if we are to include the Serbo-Croatian languages and Italian languages as distinct, we should also include Valencian as separate from Catalan. The Spanish Constitution makes this distinction as does basically everyone in the Valencian Community.

Djilas
+4
Level 84
Mar 16, 2020
I see Serbo-Croatian is now together, as it should be. Valencian is really just a dialect, constitution isn't very relevant here. Same with Serbian, Bosnian etc.
markasol
+3
Level 77
Jul 22, 2020
The separateness of Valencian is an internal Spanish political question only. The language is the same in practice, officially too. Spain declares 'Catalan-Valencian' as a language spoken in the country to the EU - one single language, not two
NorwegianQMaster
+1
Level 53
Jun 9, 2019
Just types in neapolitan 1 sec before timer hit zero. Second time. Born two weeks ago. Hahaha
MindBlank
+1
Level 49
Aug 15, 2019
Cool Quiz! Accidentally misspelled Norwegian at the last second. ):
Algernon
+2
Level 73
Mar 16, 2020
A bit more generosity and flexibility in the type ins would be nice.

“kazak” is surely close enough? “Slovenian” like wise.

promastermage
+2
Level 63
Mar 16, 2020
Why there is no Tatar language? It has more speakers than Chuvash
toowise
+1
Level 80
Mar 16, 2020
Irish and Welsh cant be far off a million speakers each ?
Jiaozira
+8
Level 71
Mar 16, 2020
Welsh has around 500-600 thousand level one speakers. Irish is a little far behind with a little under 100 thousand. Over a million people can speak each language however.
Zefyrinus
+2
Level 72
Aug 17, 2020
Psst, the L stands for language, not level.
sillie
+1
Level 76
Mar 16, 2020
No distinction between Nynorsk and Bokmål? (The two Norwegian languages.)
Geografen
+6
Level 69
Mar 16, 2020
It's not two different languages; it's two written standars of the same language.
Geografen
+2
Level 69
Mar 16, 2020
What about Low German?
Jiaozira
+2
Level 71
Mar 16, 2020
I'm counting it as a dialect. Actually the update was to remove/group dialects. I do understand that High German is greatly unintelligible from Plattdeutsch however.
Geografen
+1
Level 69
Mar 17, 2020
Low German is official language in several german states.
Djilas
+4
Level 84
Mar 16, 2020
Bosnian should be accepted, and Tatar and Bashkir are still missing.
xyzzy
+1
Level 71
Mar 17, 2020
A lot are missing, lumped together as "dialects"
1MoloT1xD
+1
Level 50
Mar 19, 2020
If you include Chechen and Chuvash, you have to also include Tatar and Bashkir (both Turkic languages, both spoken natively in Europe west of main Ural mountains ridge, with Tatar having over 5 million native speakers and Bashkir having about 1,5 million native speakers). And both of them have more native speakers than either Chuvash or Chechen.
Sifhraven
+1
Level 73
Mar 21, 2020
havent heard of chechen of chuvash before, only two I missed.
QORQUT2003
+1
Level 97
Apr 21, 2020
where is azerbaijani
Jiaozira
+7
Level 71
Apr 21, 2020
In the Asian version of this quiz.
MichaelT
+1
Level 24
May 5, 2020
Why is there chuvash and trade are not Tatar, bashkir?
PrettyTiedUp
+2
Level 70
May 6, 2020
It saddens me that Welsh, Gaelic and other languages of the British Isles are dying out. Not one on this quiz as not enough speakers anymore.
Jiaozira
+3
Level 71
May 6, 2020
I agree it is sad. There is reason to be optimistic about tge future of Welsh though, as a growing amount of native speakers are young people. Irish, Breton and Scottish Gaelic are still on the decline however.
PanSerbia7
+2
Level 23
May 7, 2020
Can you do an answer ''Catalonian'' and you ''spelled'' ''Belarussian'' wrong, because you said ''Belarusian''. Sorry for bad gramatics.
Jiaozira
+2
Level 71
May 7, 2020
Don't worry about it, I understood just fine! In English it is spelled Belarusian. And for this quiz I'm using standard Jetpunk type-ins which doesn't include Catalonian for Catalan. I will keep the type-ins the way they are due to this quiz being featured and my belief that standardisation is important among featured quizzes.
NV1
+2
Level 53
Jun 20, 2020
How about Esperanto?
Jiaozira
+4
Level 71
Jun 20, 2020
It's based on native speakers. There are a number of people who have become fluent in Esperanto, but it's still a really niche language.
NV1
+1
Level 53
Jul 16, 2020
Oh and maybe you would like to make the part of Kazakhstan yellow!
Splodgylodgyy
+1
Level 64
Jul 4, 2020
Their are 1.7 million irish speakers so it should be in
Jiaozira
+3
Level 71
Jul 4, 2020
And there are only 170,000 level one speakers, which is all that matters on this quiz.
markasol
+2
Level 77
Jul 22, 2020
English only has 60 million?? The population of the UK is 66 or 67 million to start with, to which should be added the population of Ireland and Malta and Gibraltar...the Catalan figure is low - that 4 million only includes Catalonia, while the language is spoken in Valencia, the Balearic Islands and a bit of Sardinia. OK they are dialects but still the same basic language
Jiaozira
+2
Level 71
Jul 22, 2020

These are Level 1 (native speakers) that we are looking for. The UK has several immigrant languages as well as Welsh/Scots which my source considers a language not a dialect. Ireland only has 4.8 million people to add to that, some of whom are speakers of various immigrant languages too (and a sizeable native Irish-speaking community).

Most Catalan speakers speak it as a second language, and there are tons of native Spanish speakers even in Catalonia. Everyone who speaks a language as their second or third toungue is discounted, for it becomes subjective when deciding how fluent someone must be in a language in order to be called a speaker of said language.

markasol
+1
Level 77
Jul 22, 2020
The population of Spain is 46 million not 38. All Spaniards speak Spanish perfectly. They might also speak or even predominantly speak a regional language but they still all speak Spanish perfectly. It is not simply a question of deducting the Catalan, Basque, Galician, Asturian and Aragonese speakers from the total population. The French figure is low too, given it is spoken by a third of Belgium's population, a third of Switzerland's as well as all of France and most of Luxembourg - that's over 70 million easily
Jiaozira
+3
Level 71
Jul 22, 2020
Again L1 for Spain is 38 million. Native speakers of Catalan, Galician, Aragonese, etc. are excluded from the total number for Spanish. And there are only 76 million native French speakers worldwide, let alone in Europe.
blizzrd33
+1
Level 80
Jul 23, 2020
Got stuck for a while trying to enter Galatian by mistake, eventually worked through it to get it correct with a few seconds to spare!
Tramp
+1
Level 77
Jul 23, 2020
Just curious, but why aren't the three Caucasus countries included? Not enough speakers actually in Europe?
Jiaozira
+3
Level 71
Jul 24, 2020
It is because they are not considered European countries here on Jetpunk.
Djilas
+2
Level 84
Jul 24, 2020
Thank you very much for your efforts, it's really a great quiz now. I'm still a bit surprised that Arabic doesn't make it to one million. Possibly refugees aren't counted completely, and immigrants might underreport it
Jiaozira
+3
Level 71
Jul 24, 2020
Only languages with European background are included here. Romani is technically of Indian origin but the modern tongues of the different Gypsy groups developed in Europe.
Malbaby
+3
Level 70
Jul 30, 2020
I was under the impression that all European languages had their background in Anatolia, which really is in Asia anyway.
Jiaozira
+4
Level 71
Jul 30, 2020
Indo-European languanges technically come from West Asia. However this does not include Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and Basque (the first three being Uralic languages, while Basque is a language isolate). Although it is worth mentioning that a language such as English didn't exist back then, and is developed from proto-Germanic (which was in turn developed in Europe).
TheRealGrantma
+2
Level 55
Aug 15, 2020
Why is the Romani dot in Iran?
ChineseChen
+1
Level 67
Aug 17, 2020
Because that’s where the most native speakers are ig...
richiesyxx
+2
Level 73
Jan 25, 2024
Because Romani Gypsies have historically been a nomadic people (not always out of choice), having originated in Rajasthan and migrated through the Persian and old Byzantine empires before arriving in Europe in the 13th century, then dispersed themselves over a vast area. I would imagine that the dot’s size is representative of the relative size of the Romani speaking population, and it’s placement is roughly at the centre of the geographical area over which they are spread.
tzhg
+2
Level 59
Aug 17, 2020
Only missed Bashkir and Chuvash.
bn91
+1
Level 70
Aug 17, 2020
There are 1,5m native-speaker Hungarians in Romania, there should be a smaller point in Romania as well.

Their first language is Hungarian, and only after Romanian.

JackintheBox
+3
Level 80
Aug 17, 2020
Dash it, I typed 'Rumanian' for Romanian, so I missed Romani. Bah, humbug!
Galeag
+1
Level 65
Aug 17, 2020
I knew Chuvash but that's completely not how we spell it in French (Tchouvache), I got lost x)
stalintime
+3
Level 78
Aug 17, 2020
let's be real, we all got romani while trying to type romanian
lilyberlin
+2
Level 21
Aug 18, 2020
I love this quiz, it is hard but you are always learning something new. Nice Job 🙂🙂
Yoshimano
+2
Level 65
Aug 18, 2020
Damn, didn't know Chuvashia and Bashkiria were ethnies and had their own languages..

Missed 2 then :(

Great quiz, thanks!

UltraEl1te
+2
Level 37
Sep 15, 2020
Why not Creating Languages of South America?
Jiaozira
+2
Level 71
Sep 15, 2020
I am considering making a quiz for the Americas, about the most spoken official/indigenous languages so long as I find a good source. Stay tuned!
Abstrakt110
+2
Level 35
Jan 21, 2021
very easy as most country's languages have "an" at the ned
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
Jan 21, 2021
Very true, Europe has made things easy for us by dividing largely based on ethnolinguistic lines.
3Timi3
+1
Level 28
Jan 29, 2021
missed Chechen and Bashkir :/
lilpick
+1
Level 62
Mar 3, 2021
Got them all but why does Russia have so many little ones?
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
Mar 3, 2021
Russia is home to a great number of languages, there are many more Turkic, Uralic, Mongolic, Tungustic and Caucasian languages spoken in Russia but I've only included those with at least a million speakers.
Finland1940
+2
Level 28
Mar 13, 2021
It's a good quiz, I like how you included the European part of Kazakhstan. I have one question though. Why is Romani included as a European language. Just asking.
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
Mar 13, 2021
Thanks! European Kazakhstan was a recent addition to the map. The Romani language(s) are included since they (and their speakers) have a fairly extensive history in the European continent. Also, the Romani spoken in Europe is different to its sister languages spoken today in other continents.
Guam
+2
Level 60
May 16, 2021
People who didn't type British and Portugan are really missing out on life.
Larsj
+1
Level 18
Oct 16, 2021
Shouldn't norse work for germany?
GeneralZ
+5
Level 41
Nov 26, 2021
What? Why?
DukeOfLorraine
+4
Level 65
Jan 28, 2022
If for some strange warp of time and space, some people in Germany speak old norse (icelandic is the closest existing language to it) as their mother tongue, there is most likely fewer than one million of them.
Twna
+1
Level 50
Jan 17, 2023
Easy quiz chuvash was a little bit hard
BushYT
+1
Level 28
Feb 9, 2023
I got Chuvash and Bashkir but not Chechen
goofycritter
+1
Level 29
Mar 27, 2023
i missed chuvash and bashkir
Weslet
+1
Level 58
Mar 27, 2023
I wonder how many people would actually get Romani if it wasn’t just a type-in for Romanian
wiifly
+3
Level 60
Apr 12, 2023
I understand there are probably a million questions asking this, but why are some languages not included such as the various italian languages. They are not dialects and developed independently, and even the ones that are dialects certainly have enough to also be considered unique languages. Dialect and Language are not mutually exclusive. Just my two cents in the pile of change that is these comments.
Jiaozira
+3
Level 71
Apr 12, 2023
What you say is correct, the distinction between 'language and dialect' is more of a social or political distinction and not one that is linguistically sound. The reason I make this distiction is that for the sake of my languages quizzes I must draw a line and be consistent. Additionally, I see that it's important to value the social aspect since this quiz is for a popular audience, and if the majority of Italian speakers see Venetian as part of Italian, then this is a factor I should consider in order to make the quiz more broad and accessible, for example. When quantifying languages, nothing is simple and there are fuzzy lines everywhere.

Thank you for the question, it is a good question and I hope my answer makes sense!

Jonney
+2
Level 58
Apr 26, 2023
Sardo should be accepted for Sardinian
prosaik
+2
Level 32
Aug 26, 2023
Here a Galician speaker :)
Woozie121
+1
Level 52
Apr 9, 2024
Finally! Someone who knows that Kazakhstan is transcontinental.
AbiA
+2
Level 86
Apr 21, 2024
Tartar is a previously valid spelling of Tatar and so you might consider accepting it.
Jiaozira
+2
Level 71
Apr 21, 2024
You're right about that, I've added it as a type-in.
PetJunk001
+1
Level 59
Jun 5, 2024
I accidentally stumbled upon Romani while typing romanian. anyone else do the same?
PetJunk001
+1
Level 59
Jun 5, 2024
also Romani appears to be in the non yellow shaded portion. what does that mean?
Jiaozira
+2
Level 71
Jun 20, 2024
It means the language originated outside of Europe, Romani people migrated from Asia centuries ago.
kephalos5
+1
Level 35
Jul 6, 2024
Scots has about 2.5 million speakers according to the last census, if your source considers it a language then why is it not included on this list if the least spoken language only has 1 million, even if you only include fluent speakers it has more than kazakh does which is still on this list.

You even mentioned Scots in the comments section of this quiz and as a Scot who speaks Scots it is quite disheartening to see it missing.

DenizYaman
+1
Level 55
Oct 7, 2024
Turkish more than 12m
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
Oct 8, 2024
See caveats above. Only part of Turkey is in Europe.
xash
+1
Level 58
Jan 21, 2025
not me typing in british instead of english 😭
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