In this series of articles we overview languages present in any given country. This time we are looking at the languages spoken in Austria

The biggest languages present in Austria include:

  • German
  • Croatian
  • Serbian

The sole official language of the country is German.

Below you will find summaries for the languages supported by our translation services.

German

German is a Indo-European language, distantly related to Croatian, Lithuanian, Bengali, Armenian, as well as a number of other languages. It is the sole official language of Austria.

German language summary
Number of speakers worldwide230 million
Language familyIndo-European
WritingGerman alphabet
Major German-speaking populations in:12 countries

Demographics and geographic distribution

There are major German-speaking populations in more than 10 countries of the world. Examples of countries, where German has a major presence, include:

  • Slovenia
  • Croatia
  • Switzerland
  • Netherlands

Around 90% of the population of Austria speak German.

Writing

German uses the Latin alphabet. It employs the extended version of the script, however, with 4 additional symbols. It is written from left to right.

Translation services

If you intend to expand to the Austrian market via the German language, you might be interested in the following services:

Croatian

Croatian is a Slavic language, which is a branch of the Indo-European language family. It has no country-wide official status in Austria.

Croatian language summary
Number of speakers worldwide6 million
Language familyIndo-European
WritingGaj’s alphabet
Major Croatian-speaking populations in:5 countries

Demographics and geographic distribution

Croatian is spoken by around 6 million people around the world. With regard to the number of speakers, the most notable 3 countries are Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.

Less than a quarter of the population speaks Croatian in Austria, 225 thousand people in total.

Writing

The Gaj’s alphabet is used for writing the Croatian language. Being a subset of the Gaj’s script, it uses some non-standard characters like č, ć, đ, š, overall 5 symbols.

Translation services

If you intend to expand to the Austrian market via the Croatian language, you might be interested in the following services:

Serbian

Serbian is a Indo-European language, distantly related to Greek, Urdu, Latvian, Flemish, as well as a number of other languages. It has no country-wide official status in Austria.

Serbian language summary
Number of speakers worldwide9.50 million
Language familyIndo-European
Writing
  • Gaj’s alphabet (based on the Latin script)
  • Serbian alphabet (based on the Cyrillic script)
Major Serbian-speaking populations in:5 countries

Demographics and geographic distribution

More than a million people use Serbian as their language of day-to-day communication. Austrian, German, and Montenegrin markets, for example, might be expected to use Serbian in business and daily communications, at least to some extent.

More than 225 thousand residents of Austria understand Serbian.

Writing

Serbian uses multiple writing systems, namely the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. For the translator to choose the correct script, it is important to indicate the target audience or the context in which it is going to be used, when ordering a translation.

Translation services

If you intend to expand to the Austrian market via the Serbian language, you might be interested in the following services:

Related services

We hope you have found the answers to the question “What languages are spoken in Austria“. If you wish to know more about these languages or would like to inquire about our translation services, please contact us at [email protected].

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Languages of Australia

22.05.2020
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