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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Answer

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the recognised and minority languages of the EU in order of their estimated number of speakers. [67432] Ms Quin: There is no system for formally recognising languages within the EU, beyond the 12 languages used for official business. A report prepared for the European Commission identified over 30 minority languages spoken within the EU. These are: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Language group Cluster/rank Size Economic In-migration Core-periphery Heartland diversity German--New Belgium A/1 68,000 High Low Core No Luxembourgish A/2 350,000 High High Core Yes Catalan A/2 4,065,000 High High Core Yes German (It) A/4 290,000 Medium Low Semi No Galician B/5 2,420,000 Medium Low Periphery Yes German (Fr) B/6 1,800,000 High Medium Core No Catalan (Valencia) B/6 1,909,000 High High Semi No Basque (BAC) B/6 544,000 High High Semi Yes Ladin B/6 56,000 Low Low Periphery Yes Occitan (Sp) B/10 3,700 Low Low Periphery No Welsh B/10 508,000 High High Semi Yes Catalan (Is Balearic) B/12 428,000 Medium High Semi No Irish C/13 1,095,000 High Low Periphery Yes Gaelic C/13 59,000 Low Low Periphery Yes Frisian C/13 400,000 High High Semi Yes Slovenian C/13 85,000 Medium High Semi No Frilulan C/13 400,000 Medium Medium Semi Yes Sorbian C/18 50,000 Low High Periphery Yes Danish (Ger) C/18 25,000 Low Low Semi No French (It) C18 50,000 Medium High Semi No Basque (Navare) C/18 53,000 Medium Low Semi No German (Denmark) C/22 15-20,000 Low Low Semi No Catalan (Aragon) C/24 48,000 Low Low Periphery No Catalan (Fr) C/24 150,000 Medium High Semi No Turkish C/24 {1}100,000 Low Low Periphery No Basque (Fr) D/26 86,000 Medium High Semi No Corsican D/26 125,000 Medium High Periphery Yes Catalan (It) D/28 15,000 Medium High Periphery No Occitan (It) D/28 35-80,000 Low Low Periphery No German (Old Belg.) D/30 42,000 Medium Low Semi No Occitan D/30 2,100,000 High Medium Semi Yes Breton D/30 180-250,000 Medium Low Semi Yes Albanian (It) D/30 80-135,000 Low Low Periphery No Mirandes E/34 15,000 Low Low Periphery No N. Frisian E/35 9,000 Medium Medium Semi No Croatian (It) E/35 1,700 Medium Medium Semi No Irish (UK) E/37 142,000 Medium Low Periphery No Berber E/38 25,000 Medium Low Periphery No Slavo-Macedonian E/38 {1}75,000 Low Low Periphery No Dutch (Fr) E/38 20-40,000 Medium Low Core No Bulgarian E/38 {1}30,000 Low Low Periphery No E. Frisian E/42 2,000 Medium Low Semi No Sardinian E/42 1,300,000 Medium Medium Periphery Yes Portuguese (Sp) E/44 3,600 Low Low Periphery No Albanian (Gr) E/44 {1}80,000 Low Low Periphery No Aroumanian E/44 {1}50,000 Low Low Periphery No Cornish E/47 1,000 Medium High Semi Yes Greek (It) E/47 7,500 Low Low Periphery No _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} ca

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

67432; 324 c596-8W;324 c653W

Session

1998-99

Subjects

EU countries Languages Ethnic groups EU nationals Minority groups

Contains statistics

Yes