European Languages: German, English, Italian,

French and Russian

How do the languages of Europe contribute to diversity?

•Sharing a language is one of the strongest unifying forces for a culture.

European Languages

•People who speak the same language share the same or similar culture are usuallyin the the same:

Social groupEthnic groupReligious group

Language and Culture

•When people move they bringtheir language, customs, and traditions with them

Cultural diversity- when a nationor region has many differingraces, ethnic groups, languages, and/or religions

German

•Official language of both Germany and Austria

•Many dialects of German are spoken in Germany and other nations in Europe

•Two basic groups formed because of geography▫Low German in the north▫High German in the south

Greek

•Greek was the major languageof the ancient world and evolvedinto the language spoken today

•Greek has a history that isthe longest of any of theEuropean languages

The Greek Alphabet

•Alpha 2. Beta 3. Gamma 4. Delta 5. Epsilon 6. Zeta 7. Eta 8. Theta 9. Iota 10. Kappa 11. Lambda 12. Mu 13. Nu 14. Xi 15. Omicron 16. Pi 17. Rho 18. Sigma 19. Tau 20. Upsilon 21. Phi 22. Chi 23. Psi 24. Omega

Slavonic Languages•Slavic people speak three different Slavonic

languages depending on where they live.•Eastern Slavonic languages are the basis of

three modern languages: Ukrainian Belarusian Russian

• Other Slavonic language people could speak to one another, but they did not have a written language

French and Italian Languages

•French and Italian both trace their roots to Latin

•“Romanica Loqui” – “means to speak in Roman fashion”

•This is whyFrench and Italianare referred toas Romancelanguages

French and Italian Languages cont.•Today:

oFrench is the official language of FranceAlso spoken widely in Belgium and Switzerland

o Italian is the official language of ItalySpoken in Switzerland, too