SS6G11 The student will describe the cultural

characteristics of Europe.

In the United States

English is the one

dominant language.In Europe

there are

over two

hundred

native

languages.

Most languages of Europe can be categorized by its origin or where it started.

Language Foldable Follow your teachers instructions to create your

languages foldable.

GERMANICExample. English and German

Largest group of native speakers

Northwest & Central Europe

Germanic languages use the

Roman alphabet. That’s the

alphabet you learned in

preschool.

Germanic 162 Million European native speakers

German phrases

GutenMorgen

goot-en mor-gen

Good Morning

Guten Tag

goot-en tahk

Hello/Good Day

ROMANCE Ex. French, Italian, and Spanish

Comes from Latin (the language of the Ancient Roman Empire)

South & West Europe

Romance languages use the

Roman alphabet.

Romance 130 Million European native speakers

Latin is no longer spoken as a native language

French greeting

Bonjour

Hello / Good day / Good morning

Italian greeting

Ciao

Hi / Hello / Bye

SLAVIC Ex. Russian

uses Cyrillic alphabet (not Roman alphabet)

Central & Eastern Europe

Slavic 140 Million European native speakers

Russian is the most common Slavic language

До свидания

duh-svee-dah-nya

Good Bye

Нет

Nyet

No

SIGNS USING THE CYRILLIC ALPHABET

For Europe, having so many languages can be a problem.

It makes it difficult to:

Work

Trade

Live

with people who cannot communicate with each other.

These are some of the things Europe is doing to try and solve the problem of having so many languages.

1. School children learn at least 2 languages.

2. The EU (European Union) has adopted 23 “official languages”.

3. There are special laws to protect all languages.

Write the question and correct answer underneath your language map in your composition notebook.

1. How are the languages of French and Italian similar?

A. The two countries are close to each other.

B. Both languages are Romance Languages.

C. They share roots of Germanic languages.

2. Which major European language origin has the largest number of speakers?

A. Germanic

B. Romance

C. Slavic

3. What have Europeans done to solve the problems presented by so many different languages?

A. They do not trade with people who do not speak the same language.B. Made laws that proclaim English is the only official language of the EU.C. Require students in school to learn at least two languages.

4. Which language(s) come from the ancient Roman Empire?

A. English and DutchB. Russian and PolishC. LatinD. French, Italian, Spanish

Languages Map Use the colors orange, yellow and green to color in

your map. Paste the map in your composition notebook.

Green-

Germanic

languages

Yellow-

Romance

languages

Orange-

Slavic

languages