File talk:Germanic languages in Europe.png

470 000 people live in Northern Norway, whilst Northern Sami (by far the largest Sami language) is spoken by only 21 000 people in total. I would guess the situation is similar in Sweden. Aren’t the dots representing Norwegian and Swedish too small? It looks like the majority of the people in Northern Scandinavia speak Sami, which is untrue. 83.109.101.68 (talk) 21:03, 28 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I'm Swedish and I completely agree with the above. Also, the dots in northern Norway, Lappland and Finland are hard too even notice for me. They tend to blend in with the background. Same goes for the low-german speaking parts of Germany, where the dotted language is hard to notice on the map. I think the dots should be much larger, and cover a larger portion of the background, and the color for low-german should stand out more from high-german. 46.239.104.78 (talk) 23:27, 8 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I have to agree with the OP. To be specific, the inland areas of Finnmark county (Kautokeino and Karasjok municipalities) could arguably be excluded entirely from the Norwegian language area, since less than 10% of people in those municipalities are first-language speakers of Norwegian (the vast majority are fluent in Norwegian or essentially bilingual, though). The rest of the dotted area in Northern Norway is overwhelmingly Norwegian-speaking, however (meaning more than 95% are first-language speakers). Sami is considered an official language alongside Norwegian in much of the area, but that reflects domestic politics and indigenous peoples' rights rather than linguistic realities. Maitreya (talk) 10:55, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Not that many people still speak Alsatian (a language which falls under the purview of the High German family) in Alsace anymore. According to the Wiki article on Alsatian language, only 39% of adults speak Alsatian, as do 1 in 4 children. French tends to be the bigger language there these days. Alsace-Lorraine should therefore be dotted green on a grey background, to reflect the bilingual nature of the region. 123.211.42.154 (talk) 14:14, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

I think Dutch Low Saxon dialects used in eastern provinces of Netherlands should be indicated as Low German. They are officially recognized minority languages in those states. HighVoltage 12:17, 26 October 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by HighVoltage (talk • contribs)

Danish speakers are a minority in northern Germany and German speakers a minority across the border. The region designated at Danish in Germany is unrealistic. The North Frisian area is too large and the East Frisian area should be further to the north. There are bi-lingual Romansh-German areas in Grison and bi-lingual Italian-German areas in the 3 major cities in South Tyrol. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.210.138.2 (talk) 00:21, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

Scotland and Wales
This image impies that a high number of Welsh and Scottish people speak a language other than English. The Scots Gaelic page states:
 * The 2001 UK Census showed that a total of 58,652 (1.2% of the Scottish population aged over three years old) in Scotland could speak Gaelic at that time, with the Outer Hebrides being the main stronghold of the language. The census results indicate a decline of 7,300 Gaelic speakers from 1991. Despite this decline, revival efforts exist and the number of younger speakers of the language has increased.

... the language other than Scots Gaelic is English. This means that the map is misleading. I would say the representation of Wales is similar. Francis Hannaway (talk) 10:12, 11 December 2012 (UTC)


 * The majority language in PRESENT-DAY Scotland is Scots? Really? (no...) —  SwedishPenguin  &#124; Talk 00:40, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

Agreed, the definition of Scots, is blurred from stronger Scottish English accents to Scots, however even the widest interpretation would not shoe majority Scots across s4lmost all Scotland. Likewise the only place Gaelic is in majority is the Western islands, the rest of North West Scotland speaks a Germanic language. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.164.38.184 (talk) 18:24, 1 August 2013 (UTC)
 * The whole of Scotland should be represented as English speaking, with multilingualism (Scots and English) in the area currently represented by Scots. Ireland should be all English with multilingualism (Scots and English) in small parts of Ulster. All of the British isles are Germanic language speaking with minority Celtic languages in some areas. The current map suggests large areas of Scotland, Wales and Ireland don't speak a Germanic language even though a Germanic language is spoken by the majority in all of the blank areas. Vanguard  Scot  12:43, 25 December 2013 (UTC)

Estonian Swedes
I would recommend "dotting" the Swedish-speaking areas of Estonia. This especially goes for Hiiumaa/Dagö, where Swedes were always a minority as far as I know. Also, since formerly German-speaking areas like East Prussia are not displayed in this map, it's somewhat inconsistent that the modern situation is not reflected for Swedish.

There are other problems (e.g the formerly monolingual Swedish Vormsi/Ormsö and Ruhnu/Runö islands are completely missing). Also I don't understand what the easternmost blue spot is supposed to be. User332572385 (talk) 07:36, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

bilingualism?
The map states Cornwall bilingual when the vast majority monolingual speakers of a Germanic language, lsnguage revivalism is a worthy and enriching cause, but we need to be realistic, it should be Orange and not dotted. There is a case to make much of wales including nominally grey areas as well as Orange dotted for bilingual. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.53.129.55 (talk) 09:44, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

Are there dots? I can hardly see them¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Perhaps diagonals are much better.'BeBoBong' ㊙  09:06, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

map colors
The difference between high and low German is almost impossible to see on many monitors.

The colors explanations on some referring pages do not match the map.

88.114.128.29 (talk) 02:19, 15 June 2013 (UTC)


 * I have the same issue!
 * IF: "The difference between Bavarian and Standard High German is larger than the difference between Danish and Norwegian or between Czech and Slovak" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavarian_language
 * this exists and the Linguists already told this openly to the Public but "German" still has only this green colour then we have a "serious" Problem!
 * Austria and Southtyrol should atleast be mentioned under "Bavarian"="Bai(!!)risch" (not Bayerisch, that is when something concerns the Land BAYERN)
 * https://bar.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Boarisch-mit-Flaggn.png for a MAP! 320luca (talk) 18:16, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

Germanic on the British Isles
As per discussion above about Scotland and Wales, I have updated the map. The only areas of Wales to have a majority of Welsh speakers are Anglesey and Gwynedd (|Welsh Speaking Regions) I have included the areas of Wales that have welsh speakers in the minority with grey dots. The only area of Scotland with a majority of Gaelic speakers is the outer Hebrides (|Gaelic Speaking Regions), but again the areas with a modern day minority of Gaelic speakers are included with grey dots. There are also few areas of Ireland with a majority of Irish speakers (|2007 Gaeltacht regions), but again the areas with a minority of Irish speakers have been included with grey dots depicting a non Germanic speaking minority. One thing I have not addressed is the Scots/English question asked above about what is the majority language spoken in the Scottish lowlands. Vanguard Scot  13:30, 25 December 2013 (UTC)

Multilingualism in Germany...but not in Regions where only Regional Language or "Dialect" (for you late comers) is used
Nordgermany is supposedly Multilingual according to this map? I cant stop smiling at this. Barely anyone even speaky anything expect artifical Standardgerman anymore!

Lands like Southtyrol speak supposedly just German? How can that be if some Experts like Rinderling call Bavarian (Southtyrolean is a part of Southbavarian) a seperate Language?

Southtyrol, Swiss, Austria and Bavaria (maybe Swabia) need to be changed to "Bavarian and Alemmanic".

Or change "German" in GERMANY to "Standardgerman"; leave "German" for the mentioned Lands. 320luca (talk) 12:15, 21 December 2022 (UTC)