European Day of Languages

Which of these languages it is considered to be the oldest?

• Galician

• Arabic

• Greek

• Basque

How many indigenous languages are there estimated to be in Europe?

• 100-200

• 220-300

• 300-400

• 400-600

How many languages do you estimate to be in the world?

• around 500

• around 2000

• around 4000

• around 6000

Which is the most widely spoken language in the world?

• Chinese

• Russian

• English

• Spanish

Answer explanation

English is spoken by 1.8 billion people in the world, Chinese is the second spoken.

What proportion of all languages in the world are African languages?

• approx. one third of all languages

• approx. half of all languages

• approx. one fifth of all languages

• approx. ten percent of all languages

Answer explanation

About one third of all languages in the world are African languages. It is assumed that about half of all African languages, which means about 1000 languages (!), will die out within the next 50 years!

Which of the following languages are written from right to left?

• Hebrew

• Maltese

• Japanese

• Arabic

With what can you compare your native language?

Which is the newest European language?

Answer explanation

The language which has most recently become an official language of the European Union is Croatian, which took the total official EU languages up to 24 in 2013.

Which is the most linguistically diverse city in the world?

• New York

• Moscow

• Paris

• London

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