Rick Steves Europe Through the Back Door 2018 by Rick Steves

Author:Rick Steves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avalon Travel
Published: 2017-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Romance Countries (Italy, France, Spain, Portugal): The Romance family evolved from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire (“Romance” comes from “Roman”). Few of us know Latin, but being familiar with any of the modern Romance languages helps with the others. For example, your high school Spanish will help you learn some Italian.

Germanic Countries (British Isles, Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavia): The Germanic languages, though influenced by Latin, are a product of the tribes of northern Europe (including the Angles and Saxons)—people the ancient Romans called “barbarians” because they didn’t speak Latin. German is spoken by all Germans and Austrians, and by most Swiss. The people of Holland and northern Belgium speak Dutch, a close relative to German. While Dutch is not Deutsch, a Hamburger or Frankfurter can almost understand an Amsterdam newspaper. The Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes can read each other’s magazines and enjoy their neighbors’ TV shows.

Slavic Countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, etc.): Most Eastern European countries (except Hungary, Romania, and the Baltics) speak Slavic languages. While these languages are more or less mutually intelligible, spellings change as you cross borders; for example, Czech hrad, or castle, becomes Croatian grad. Farther east—in Serbia, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and elsewhere—the language sounds similar, but is written with the Cyrillic alphabet. The Baltic languages, Latvian and Lithuanian, are distantly related to Slavic tongues.

Finno-Ugric Countries (Hungary, Finland, Estonia): Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian are more closely related to Asian languages than to European ones—likely hinting that the Hungarians, Finns, and Estonians share ancestors from Central Asia.

Multilingual Countries and Regions: Switzerland has four official languages—German, French, Italian, and Romansh (an obscure Romance tongue)—and most Swiss are at least bilingual. Because the region of Alsace, on the French-German border, has been dragged through the mud during several tugs-of-war, most residents speak both languages. Belgium waffles (linguistically), with the southern half (the Walloons) speaking French and the rest speaking Dutch.

Europe’s Underdog Languages: Every year on this planet, a dozen or so languages go extinct. But thanks to Europe’s determination to celebrate diversity, its underdog languages—once endangered—are thriving once more. The Basques, who live where Spain, France, and the Atlantic all touch, speak Euskara—mysteriously unrelated to any other European language. England is surrounded by a “Celtic Crescent.” In Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Brittany (northwestern France), the old Celtic language survives. Seek out these die-hard remnants in proud gift shops and bookstores, Gaelic pubs, and the Gaeltachts (districts, mostly in western Ireland, where the old culture is preserved by the government).

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