Western European Languages

The languages of Western Europe are all related, each sharing a common ancestry. All Western European languages have been influenced to some degree by Latin, Greek, ancient Celtic and ancient Germanic languages, but they can be roughly divided into the Romance languages such as Italian and Spanish that are more closely related to Latin and the Germanic languages such as German and English that are more closely related to ancient Germanic languages.

Though these differences exist, all Western European languages, except the Basque language used in northern Spain and southwest France, are all part of the wider Indo-European family of languages.

Most Western European languages share the Latin alphabet used in English, though some use accents and different letter combinations than English to convey their own vowel and consonant sounds.

European colonial history led to these languages spreading all over the world, becoming the main languages in countries in North America, South America, Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

The Western European languages are the cornerstone of the UK translation industry being important for commerce, trade and law.

These languages include the languages of the British Isles: English, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Welsh.

The other main languages in this group are:

• French
• Italian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Spanish
• Romanian
• German
• Dutch
• Greek
• Albanian
• Swedish
• Danish
• Norwegian
• Icelandic

Please note that links are only included for some of the specific languages above because these are most in demand at the present time. Further language pages will be added in the future.

If you would like further information about European language translations or would like to discuss your requirements with us, please contact us.