German
The German language is the mother tongue most spoken in the European Union. Furthermore, it is one of the world’s most important languages of business and science. 100 Million German speaking Europeans are not only to be found in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but also in Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, and parts of Italy and Belgium. Attention should also be paid to all those German emigrants nowadays living, for example, in the state of Pennsylvania.
Greek
The Greek language is spoken by about 15 million people living in Greece, Cyprus, or abroad. Its script is one of the oldest in the world, since the Greek alphabet was already adopted in 403 BC. Today’s Greek alphabet, having hardly been modified, consists of almost exactly those letters that once used to be carved in stone.
English
The English language is the most widespread language in the world. In about 60 states, English is the only official language or one of the official languages spoken. Thus, it is the official language of a third of the world’s population. By becoming more and more important as language of education, business, and communication (lingua franca), it has reached the status of a global language. After Chinese, English is the language most spoken in the world.
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