When you think of Europe in terms of its languages, you likely think of languages like: English; Spanish and French.
But there are also forgotten European languages, languages that didn’t conquer the new world. Languages that didn’t become famous for their trade-value.
What are the forgotten European languages?
15. Catalan
Catalan is the world’s most beautiful language in my opinion. Just like its older brother, Spanish, it is a romance language. Meaning it is highly mutually-intelligible with Vulgar Latin and other romance languages.
Catalan is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Catalonia and Andorra (where it is an official language). But it is also spoken in Valencia (disputed), the Balearic Islands, and Sardinia.
Catalan is one of the forgotten European languages due to the illegality of the language. During the Spanish Franco-dictatorship, the Catalan language was made illegal, which caused it to be forgotten by former Catalan speakers.
14. Occitan
Occitan is the younger brother of Catalan. It is remarkably similar to modern French, as well as being close to Catalan. Occitan is spoken in the south of France, Monaco, Italy’s Occitan Valley and Calabria.
Occitan is spoken by 1.5 million people. Occitan was once the language of poetry, which many of the great poets between the 10th century and 15th century.
Occitan is considered to be one of the forgotten European languages, as when France was centralising itself, there was an aim to centralise the language everyone spoke. This caused regional languages like Occitan and Breton, to come to the brink of extinction.
13. Basque
Basque is a favourite on this blog, having mentioned it countless times on our blog. Basque is known as a language isolate, meaning that no other modern language is part of the same language family.
Basque is spoken in the Basque Country, comprising of the land around the West Pyrenees, and around the Bay of Biscay, in both Spain and France. Basque has around 750,000 speakers, making it quite a small language compared to the rest on this list.
Basque is considered to be one of the forgotten European languages as it too suffered under the Francoist regime in Spain. Basque, much like Catalan, was ridiculed as a mere dialect of Spanish, and it too was made illegal to speak Basque in public.
12. Galician
Yet another language from the Iberian Peninsular, Galician is a language that is remarkably similar to Modern Portuguese. That is to be expected, when you discover that Galician and Portuguese are descended from the same root language. This language is creatively named Galician-Portuguese (wow, linguists truly are creative).
Galician is spoken in the Galicia region of Spain, with some in neighbouring Portugal and in Asturias. Galician currently has around 2.4 million speakers, mainly situated on the Iberian Peninsular. However, there are also speakers in the UK, due to the high levels of Portuguese migration there.
Galician is considered to be one of the forgotten European languages as it too suffered the same fate as Basque and Catalan. Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Galician too, was made illegal to be spoken in public. And, it was ridiculed, not as a dialect of Spanish, but as a dialect of Portuguese.
11. Tuscan
Finally one that is not from the Iberian Peninsular, Tuscan is another romance language, spoken in Tuscany.
Tuscan is largely the reason we have a standardised Italian language. Tuscan is the main basis of the standardised Italian language. This means that it has high levels of mutual intelligibility with modern Italian.
Tuscan is not considered to be one of the forgotten European languages due to a fascist dictator like Mussolini. Tuscan is considered to be one of the forgotten European languages due to it’s perceived uselessness.
Over the past 50 years, the amount of Tuscans learning Tuscan, has dropped significantly. This is because the younger generations, are beginning to favour standard Italian over the regional languages.
10. Maltese
Maltese is a language I am personally learning at the moment. As the name implies, Maltese is spoken in Malta.
Maltese is quite an interesting language in many ways: it is part of the same language family as Arabic. Yes, Arabic. Maltese is a semitic language. This means that the Maltese language is quite similar to both Hebrew and Arabic.
Malta is considered to be one of the forgotten European languages due to its current decline. Malta was once a subject to the British crown, meaning that it was controlled by English-speaking, British aristocrats.
They may have gone, but their language has remained. English is considered to be more useful than the native Maltese language. This has caused many in the Maltese middle-class to forgo learning Maltese.
9. Ossetic
Ossetic is quite an obscure language- unless you know a lot about Soviet history, you’ve likely never heard of it. But in fact, Ossetic is one of the forgotten European languages.
Despite this, Ossetic is not a typical European language. It is an Indo-Iranian language. Ossetic has many linguistic similartities to other European languages, but also many Asian languages such as Farsi and Persian.
Ossetic is considered one of the forgotten European languages as it saw a major decline due to the USSR. The USSR attempted to prevent nationalism by moving many families to other Soviet Socialist Republics. This caused the speakers of Ossetic to be cut off from one another, and the language to decline greatly.
8. Manx
Manx is likely a language you’ve never heard of, and it doesn’t come from the Iberian Peninsular. In fact, quite the opposite: it’s from the UK.
More precisely, the Isle of Man. Manx is a Celtic language, meaning it is highly mutually intelligible with languages such as Scots, Irish Gaelic and Welsh. Manx also has a huge array of vocabulary from both English and Old Norse.
Manx is considered to be one of the forgotten European languages, as it literally is forgotten. Manx became an extinct language in 1974 after the death of Ned Maddrell, who was the last native Manx speaker.
Although, since his death, there has been a revival in the Manx language, to the point where 1,800 speak the language.
7. Cornish
Cornish is quite a famous example of one of the forgotten European languages, as it too was forgotten by Europe. This was only until relatively recently, when the language saw a revival, after being dead for over 200 years!
Cornish is also a Celtic language which is actually quite similar to Manx, as they are part of the same language family.
Cornish is obviously spoken in Cornwall, but also a small amount in Devon, along the border with Cornwall.
6. Elfdalian
Elfdalian sounds completely made up, like something out of Game of Thrones or something. But it is a completely real language. Not fictitious whatsoever.
Elfdalian is a language spoken in the south of Sweden, and has around 2,000 speakers. It is rather difficult to learn, being both like modern Swedish, but also Old Norse.
Elfdalian is one of the forgotten European languages as it has been passed over many times. Not just by the native peoples, but by the Swedish government as a whole. Sweden continues to refuse to make Elfdalian an official minority language.
5. Faroese
Faroese… Faroese. You may have heard of this language, if you’ve ever tried to learn Norwegian, Swedish or Danish. Faroese is remarkably similar, but also drastically different from those languages.
Faroese is one of the forgotten European languages as it is a near-isolate. After the Norwegians founded a colony on the Faroe Islands, they left, and never really had much interaction with them again. This has led the language to not change in almost 600 years, which gives the language a character of its own.
4. Luxembourgish
Luxembourg is known for its corporation-friendly attitude and being the only Grand-Duchy remaining in Europe. But the actual Luxembourgish language itself is all but forgotten.
Luxembourgish is considered to be quite an easy language to learn, sharing much in common with both French and German. This therefore has the effect of being quite close to English as a result.
Luxembourgish has around 390,000 speakers, including the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
Luxembourgish is one of the forgotten European languages as it is just such a small language. Luxembourgish isn’t that well spoken as it is not seen to be particularly useful in the grand scheme of things.
Young Luxembourgers are routinely preferring to use either French or German as a substitute for learning Luxembourgish.
3. Asturians
The final Iberian language on this list. Asturians is once again another language spoken in a region of Spain. Asturians too is a romance language, making it quite similar to Catalan, Spanish and Galician.
Asturians is quite a unique language in many ways. It shares many roots with both romance languages and Germanic languages, which is quite peculiar given Asturias geographical location.
Asturians is one of the forgotten European languages due to a common theme: Franco. Franco too mocked Asturians as a mere dialect of Spanish and too made it illegal. This caused many Asturians to forgo learning the language in order to protect themselves from the government.
2. Sardinian
Sardinian is much like the other romance languages on this list. But it is especially close to Catalan. This is due to the heavy Catalan influence that was present during the Middle Ages.
Sardinian is also comprised of many other languages, including: Tuscan; French; Greek; and Latin. Sardinian is considered to be quite easy to learn, especially if you speak Italian and Catalan.
Sardinian is one of the forgotten European languages not because of Mussolini, but the very thing that made Sardinia so successful in the first place. Italy. Italian has caused the dip in Sardinian due to the reduction of exposure in the language.
Sardinian was once used in the media. Radio, certain TV stations and newspapers were in Sardinian. But now, this is not the case. Those same newspapers, radio and TV stations have now transformed into Italian-language.
1.Venetian
Venice was once a great trade city and trade empire. Now, Venice is part of Italy. But Venice’s prestige has not waned. But sadly their language has.
Venetian is spoken in Venice, but also parts of Croatia and Slovenia. Venetian was so widespread thanks to the Venetian Trade Empire, Venetian became the Lingua Franca of the Mediterranean.
Venetian was also quite widespread thanks to drama. Many drama students can tell you a lot about Commedia dell’Arte. But what they probably can’t tell you is: It was all done in one language- Venetian.
Venetian is one of the forgotten European languages due to the formation of Italy. Whilst many Venetians still speak Venetian, many older and younger generations have forgone learning Venetian. Instead, they have chosen to learn Italian as it is thought to be more useful in later life.