People of Europe

Culture groups

Efforts have been made to characterize different “ethnic types” among European peoples, but these are merely selectively defined physical traits that, at best, have only a certain descriptive and statistical value. On the other hand, territorial differences in language and other cultural aspects are well known, and these have been of immense social and political import in Europe. These differences place Europe in sharp contrast to such relatively recently colonized lands as the United States, Canada, and Australia. Given the agelong habitation of its land and the minimal mobility of the peasantry—long the bulk of the population—Europe became the home of many linguistic and national “core areas,” separated by mountains, forests, and marshlands. Its many states, some long-established, introduced another divisive element that was augmented by modern nationalistic sentiments.

Efforts to associate groups of states for specific defense and trade functions, especially after World War II, created wider unitary associations but with fundamental east-west differences. Thus, there appeared two clear-cut, opposing units—one centred on the Soviet Union and the other on the countries of western Europe—as well as a number of relatively neutral states (Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, and Yugoslavia). This pattern was subsequently altered in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the dissolution of the Soviet bloc (including the Soviet Union itself), the rapprochement between east and west, and the creation and expansion of the European Union (EU).

There are some 160 culturally distinct groups in Europe, including a number of groups in the Caucasus region that have affinities with both Asia and Europe. Each of these large groups exhibits two significant features. First, each is characterized by a degree of self-recognition by its members, although the basis for such collective identity varies from group to group. Second, each group—except the Jews and the Roma (Gypsies)—tends to be concentrated and numerically dominant within a distinctive territorial homeland.

For a majority of groups the basis for collective identity is possession of a distinctive language or dialect. The Catalans and Galicians of Spain, for example, have languages notably different from the Castilian of the majority of Spaniards. On the other hand, some peoples may share a common language yet set each other apart because of differences in religion. In the Balkan region, for instance, the Eastern Orthodox Serbs, Muslim Bosnians (Bosniaks), and Roman Catholic Croats all speak a language that linguists refer to as Serbo-Croatian; however, each group generally prefers to designate its language as Serbian, Bosnian, or Croatian. Some groups may share a common language but remain separate from each other because of differing historical paths. Thus, the Walloons of southern Belgium and the Jurassiens of the Jura in Switzerland both speak French, yet they see themselves as quite different from the French because their groups have developed almost completely outside the boundaries of France. Even when coexisting within the same state, some groups may have similar languages and common religions but remain distinctive from each other because of separate past associations. During Czechoslovakia’s 74 years as a single state, the historical linkages of Slovaks with the Hungarian kingdom and Czechs with the Austrian Empire played a role in keeping the two groups apart; the country was divided into two separate states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in 1993.

The primary European cultural groups have been associated by ethnographers into some 21 culture areas. The groupings are based primarily on similarities of language and territorial proximity. Although individuals within a primary group generally are aware of their cultural bonds, the various groups within an ethnographically determined culture area do not necessarily share any self-recognition of their affinities to one another. This is particularly true in the Balkan culture area. Peoples in the Scandinavian and German (German-language) culture areas, by contrast, are much more aware of belonging to broader regional civilizations.

Languages

Romance, Germanic, and Slavic languages

Within the complex of European languages, three major divisions stand out: Romance, Germanic, and Slavic. All three are derived from a parent Indo-European language of the early migrants to Europe from southwestern Asia.

The Romance languages dominate western and Mediterranean Europe and include French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian, plus such lesser-known languages as Occitan (Provençal) in southern France, Catalan in northeastern Spain and Andorra, and Romansh in southern Switzerland. All are derived from the Latin language of the Roman Empire.

The Germanic languages are found in central, northern, and northwestern Europe. They are derived from a common tribal language that originated in southern Scandinavia, and they include German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic, as well as the minor Germanic tongue of Frisian in the northern Netherlands and northwestern Germany. English is a Germanic language, but about half its vocabulary has Romance origins.

The Slavic languages are characteristic of eastern and southeastern Europe and of Russia. These languages are usually divided into three branches: West, East, and South. Among the West Slavic languages are Polish, Czech and Slovak, Upper and Lower Sorbian of eastern Germany, and the Kashubian language of northern Poland. The East Slavic languages are Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. The South Slavic languages include Slovene, Serbo-Croatian (known as Serbian, Croatian, or Bosnian), Macedonian, and Bulgarian.