List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Eurasia
Sovereign states -- United Nations Member States
Table:
Flag

Location

English short name

English long name

Domestic short name

Domestic long name

Capital

Afghanistan

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریتDa Afġānistān Islāmī Jomhoriyat

Persian: جمهوری اسلامی افغانستانJomhūrī-ye Eslāmī-ye Afġānistān

Kabul

Albania

Republic of Albania

Albanian: Shqipëria

Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë

Tirana
Albanian: Tiranë

Andorra

Principality of Andorra

Andorra

Catalan: Principat d'Andorra
French: Principauté d'Andorre
Spanish: Principado de Andorra

Andorra la Vella
Catalan: Andorra la Vella
French: Andorre-la-Vieille
Spanish: Andorra la Vieja

Armenia[n 1]

Republic of Armenia

Armenian: Հայաստան/ Հայք
Armenian Transliteration: Hayastan/ Hayq

Armenian: Հայաստանի ՀանրապետությունHayastani Hanrapetut’yun

Yerevan
Armenian: Երևան or Երեւան

Austria

Republic of Austria

German: Österreich

German: Republik Österreich

Vienna
German: Wien

Azerbaijan[n 1]

Republic of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan

Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Respublikası

Baku
Azerbaijani: Bakı

Bahrain

Kingdom of Bahrain

Arabic: مملكة البحرينMamlakat al-Baḥrayn

Manama

Bangladesh

People's Republic of Bangladesh

Bangla: গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ

Dhaka

Belarus

Republic of Belarus

Belarusian and Russian: Беларусь
Belarusian and Russian Transliteration: Byelarus

Belarusian: Рэспубліка Беларусь
Russian: Республика Беларусь
Belarusian and Russian Transliteration: Respublika Byelarus

Minsk
Belarusian: Мінск
Russian: Минск

Belgium

Kingdom of Belgium

Dutch: België
French: Belgique
German: Belgien

Dutch: Koninkrijk België
French: Royaume de Belgique
German: Königreich Belgien

Brussels
Dutch: Brussel
French: Bruxelles
German: Brüssel

Bhutan

Republic of Bhutan

Dzongkha: Brug rGyal-Khab

Thimphu

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnian, Serbian Latin, Croatian: BiH, Bosna
Serbian Cyrillic: БиХ, Босна

Bosnian, Serbian Latin, Croatian: Bosna i Hercegovina
Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина

Sarajevo
Bosnian, Serbian Latin, Croatian: Sarajevo
Serbian Cyrillic: Сарајево

Brunei

State of Brunei, Abode of Peace

Malay: بروني دارالسلامNegara Brunei Darussalam

Bandar Seri Begawan

Bulgaria

Republic of Bulgaria

Bulgarian: България

Bulgarian: Република България
Bulgarian Transliteration: Republika Balgariya

Sofia
Bulgarian: София
Bulgarian Transliteration: Sofiya

Cambodia

Kingdom of Cambodia

Khmer: Preăh Réachéa Nachâk Kâmpŭchéa

Phnom Penh

China[2]

People's Republic of China

Simplified Chinese: 中国

Traditional Chinese: 中國Zhōngguó

Simplified Chinese: 中华人民共和国

Traditional Chinese: 中華人民共和國Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó

Beijing
Chinese: 北京

Croatia

Republic of Croatia

Croatian: Hrvatska

Croatian: Republika Hrvatska

Zagreb

Cyprus

Republic of Cyprus

Greek: Κύπρος
Greek Transliteration: Kýpros
Turkish: Kıbrıs

Greek: Κυπριακή ΔημοκρατίαKypriakí Dimokratía

Turkish: Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti

Nicosia
Greek: Λευκωσία
Turkish: Lefkoşa

Czech Republic

Czech Republic

Czech: Česko

Czech: Česká republika

Prague
Czech: Praha

Denmark

Kingdom of Denmark

Danish: Danmark

Danish: Kongeriget Danmark

Copenhagen
Danish: København

Leveraging the accompanying table plus the textual context provided.

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Afghanistan ( /æfˈɡænɪstæn , æfˈɡɑːnɪstɑːn/ ( listen ) ; Pashto/Dari : افغانستان , Pashto : Afġānistān [ avɣɒnisˈtɒn , ab- ] , [ a ] Dari : Afġānestān [ avɣɒnesˈtɒn ] ) , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan , is a landlocked country in Asia . Afghanistan is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south ; [ b ] Iran to the west ; Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan , and Tajikistan to the north ; and China to the northeast . Occupying 652,000 square kilometers ( 252,000 sq mi ) , it is a mountainous country with plains in the north and southwest . Kabul is the capital and largest city . The population is 32 million , mostly composed of ethnic Pashtuns , Tajiks , Hazaras and Uzbeks . Human habitation in Afghanistan dates back to the Middle Paleolithic Era , and the country 's strategic location along the Silk Road connected it to the cultures of the Middle East and other parts of Asia . The land has historically been home to various peoples and has witnessed numerous military campaigns , including those by Alexander the Great , Mauryas , Muslim Arabs , Mongols , British , Soviets , and by the United States with allied countries . The land also served as the source from which the Kushans , Hephthalites , Samanids , Saffarids , Ghaznavids , Ghorids , Khaljis , Mughals , Hotaks , Durranis , and others have risen to form major empires . The political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century . In the late 19th century , Afghanistan became a buffer state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire . Its border with British India , the Durand Line , was formed in 1893 but it is not recognized by the Afghan government and it has led to strained relations with Pakistan since the latter 's independence in 1947 . Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919 the country was free of foreign influence , eventually becoming a monarchy under Amanullah Khan , until almost 50 years later when Zahir Shah was overthrown and a republic was established .
Pashto ( /ˈpʌʃtoʊ/ , rarely /ˈpæʃtoʊ/ ; [ Note 1 ] پښتو / Pax̌tō , [ ˈpəʂtoː ] ) , sometimes spelled Pukhto , [ Note 2 ] is a language in the Eastern Iranian group of the Indo-European family . It is known in Persian literature as Afghani ( افغانی , Afghāni ) , and in Hindustani literature as Paṭhānī . Speakers of the language are called Pashtuns or Pathans ( historically known as ethnic Afghans ) . Pashto and Dari ( Persian ) are the two official languages of Afghanistan . Pashto is also the second-largest regional language of Pakistan , mainly spoken in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern districts of Balochistan province in south-west . Pashto is the primary language of the Pashtun diaspora around the world . The total number of Pashto-speakers is at least 40 million , although some estimates place it as high as 60 million . Pashto belongs to the Northeastern Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian branch , but Ethnologue lists it as Southeastern Iranian . Pashto has two main dialect groups , soft and hard , the latter locally known as Pakhto or Paxto .
Persian ( /ˈpɜːrʒən , -ʃən/ ) , also known by its endonym Farsi ( فارسی , fārsi , [ fɒːɾˈsiː ] ( listen ) ) , is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages . It is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran , Afghanistan and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties , namely Iranian Persian , Dari Persian ( officially named Dari since 1958 ) and Tajiki Persian ( officially named Tajik since the Soviet era ) . It is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan , as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran . It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet , a derivation of the Arabic script , and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet , a derivation of Cyrillic . The Persian language is a continuation of Middle Persian , the official religious and literary language of the Sasanian Empire ( 224-651 CE ) , itself a continuation of Old Persian , which was used in the Achaemenid Empire ( 550-330 BC ) . It originated in the region of Fars ( Persia ) in southwestern Iran . Its grammar is similar to that of many European languages . Throughout history , Persian has been a prestigious cultural language used by various empires in Western Asia , Central Asia , and South Asia . Old Persian written works are attested in Old Persian cuneiform on several inscriptions from between the 6th and the 4th centuries BC , and Middle Persian literature is attested in Aramaic-derived scripts ( Pahlavi and Manichaean ) on inscriptions from the time of the Parthian Empire and in books centered in Zoroastrian and Manichaean scriptures from between the 3rd to the 10th century AD . New Persian literature began to flourish after the Arab conquest of Iran with its earliest records from the 9th century , since then adopting the Arabic script . Persian was the first language to break through the monopoly of Arabic on writing in the Muslim world , with the writing of Persian poetry developed as a court tradition in many eastern courts . Some of the famous works of medieval Persian literature are the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi , the works of Rumi , the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam , the Panj Ganj of Nizami Ganjavi , the Divān of Hafez , The Conference of the Birds by Attar of Nishapur , and the miscellanea of Gulistan and Bustan by Saadi Shirazi .
Kabul ( Persian : کابل , romanized : Kābol , Pashto : کابل , romanized : Kābəl ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan , located in the eastern section of the country . It is also a municipality , forming part of the greater Kabul Province , and divided into 22 districts . According to estimates in 2019 , the population of Kabul is 4.114 million , which includes all the major ethnic groups of Afghanistan . Afghanistan 's only city with a population of over 1 million , Kabul serves as its political , cultural and economical center . Rapid urbanization had made Kabul the world 's 75th largest city . Kabul is located high up in a narrow valley between the Hindu Kush mountains , with an elevation of 1,790 metres ( 5,873 ft ) making it one of the highest capitals in the world . The city is said to be over 3,500 years old , mentioned since at least the time of the Achaemenid Empire . Located at crossroads in Asia - roughly halfway between Istanbul in the west and Hanoi in the east - it is in a strategic location along the trade routes of South and Central Asia , and a key location of the ancient Silk Road . It has been part of the Achaemenids followed by the Seleucids , Mauryans , Kushans , Kabul Shahis , Saffarids , Samanids , Ghaznavids , Ghurids , Khwarazmians , Qarlughids , Khaljis , Timurids , Mughals , and Hotaks , until finally becoming part of the Durrani Empire ( also known as the Afghan Empire ) in 1747 . Kabul became the capital of Afghanistan in 1776 , during the reign of Timur Shah Durrani , the son of Ahmad Shah Durrani . In the early 19th century , the British occupied the city , but after establishing foreign relations , they were compelled to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan . The city was occupied by the Soviets in 1979 but they too abandoned it after the 1988 Geneva Accords were signed .
Albania ( /ælˈbeɪniə , ɔːl-/ ( listen ) a ( w ) l-BAY-nee-ə ; Albanian : Shqipëri or Shqipëria ; Gheg Albanian : Shqipni or Shqipnia also Shqypni or Shqypnia ) , officially the Republic of Albania ( Albanian : Republika e Shqipërisë , pronounced [ ɾɛpuˈblika ɛ ʃcipəˈɾiːsə ] ) , is a country in Southeast Europe on the Adriatic and Ionian Sea within the Mediterranean Sea . It shares land borders with Montenegro to the northwest , Kosovo [ a ] to the northeast , North Macedonia to the east , Greece to the south and maritime borders with Greece , Montenegro and Italy to the west . Geographically , the country displays varied climatic , geological , hydrological and morphological conditions , defined in an area of 28,748 km2 ( 11,100 sq mi ) . It possesses remarkable diversity with the landscape ranging from the snow-capped mountains in the Albanian Alps as well as the Korab , Skanderbeg , Pindus and Ceraunian Mountains to the hot and sunny coasts of the Albanian Adriatic and Ionian Sea along the Mediterranean Sea . Historically , the country has been inhabited by numerous civilisations such as the Illyrians , Thracians , Ancient Greeks , Romans , Byzantines , Venetians and Ottomans . The Albanians established the autonomous Principality of Arbër in the 12th century . The Kingdom of Albania and Principality of Albania formed between the 13th and 14th centuries . Prior to the Ottoman conquest of Albania in the 15th century , the Albanian resistance to Ottoman expansion into Europe led by Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg won them acclaim over most of Europe . Between the 18th and 19th centuries , Albanians gathered both spiritual and intellectual strength which conclusively led to the Albanian Renaissance . After the defeat of the Ottomans in the Balkan Wars , the modern nation state of Albania declared independence in 1912 . In the 20th century , the Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy which formed Greater Albania before becoming a protectorate of Nazi Germany . Enver Hoxha formed Communist Albania after the Second World War and launched the Albanians on a path of oppression and decades of isolation .
Albanian ( /ælˈbeɪniən/ ; shqip [ ʃc͡çip ] or gjuha shqipe [ ɟ͡ʝuha ˈʃc͡çipɛ ] ) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and the Albanian diaspora in the Americas , Europe and Oceania . With about 7.5 million speakers , it comprises an independent branch within the Indo-European languages and is not closely related to any other language . First attested in the 15th century , it is the last Indo-European branch to appear in written records . This is one of the reasons why its still-unknown origin has long been a matter of dispute among linguists and historians . Albanian is considered to be the descendant of one of the Paleo-Balkan languages of antiquity . For more historical and geographical reasons than specifically linguistic ones , there are various modern historians and linguists who believe that the Albanian language may have descended from a southern Illyrian dialect spoken in much the same region in classical times . Alternative hypotheses hold that Albanian may have descended from Thracian or Daco-Moesian , other ancient languages spoken farther east than Illyrian . Not enough is known of these languages to completely prove or disprove the various hypotheses . The two main Albanian dialects , Gheg and Tosk which are primarily distinguished by phonological differences , are mutually intelligible , with Gheg spoken in the north and Tosk spoken in the south of the Shkumbin river . Their characteristics in the treatment of the native and loanwords from other languages , have led to the conclusion that the dialectal split occurred after Christianisation of the region ( 4th century AD ) and at the time of the Slavic migration to the Balkans , with the historic boundary between Gheg and Tosk being the Shkumbin which straddled the Jireček line . Standard Albanian is a standardised form of spoken Albanian based on the Tosk dialect . It is the official language of Albania and Kosovo [ a ] and a co-official language in North Macedonia as well as a minority language of Italy , Montenegro , Romania and Serbia .
Tirana ( /tɪˈrɑːnə/ ( listen ) ; Albanian pronunciation : [ tiˈɾaːna ] ; Gheg Albanian : Tirona ) is the capital and largest city by area and population of the Republic of Albania . The city was awarded the title of the European Youth Capital of 2022 . Tirana is located in the center of Albania and is enclosed by mountains and hills with Mount Dajt elevating on the east and a slight valley on the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea in the distance . Due to its location within the Plain of Tirana and the close proximity to the Mediterranean Sea , the city is particularly influenced by a Mediterranean seasonal climate . It is among the wettest and sunniest cities in Europe , with 2,544 hours of sun per year . Tirana flourished as a city in 1614 but the region that today corresponds to the city 's territory has been continuously inhabited since the Iron Age . The city 's territory was inhabited by several Illyrian tribes but had no importance within Illyria . Indeed , it was annexed by Rome and became an integral part of the Roman Empire following the Illyrian Wars . The heritage of that period is still evident and represented by the Mosaics of Tirana . Later , in the 5th and 6th centuries , a Paleochristian basilica was built around this site . After the Roman Empire split into East and West in the 4th century , its successor the Byzantine Empire took control over most of Albania , and built the Petrelë Castle in the reign of Justinian I . The city was fairly unimportant until the 20th century , when the Congress of Lushnjë proclaimed it as Albania 's capital , after the Albanian Declaration of Independence in 1912 .
Andorra ( /ænˈdɔːrə/ ( listen ) , also UK : /ænˈdɒrə/ ; Catalan : [ ənˈdorə ] ) , officially the Principality of Andorra ( Catalan : Principat d'Andorra ) , also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra ( Catalan : Principat de les Valls d'Andorra ) , is a sovereign landlocked microstate on the Iberian Peninsula , in the eastern Pyrenees , bordered by France to the north and Spain to the south . Believed to have been created by Charlemagne , Andorra was ruled by the count of Urgell until 988 , when it was transferred to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Urgell . The present principality was formed by a charter in 1278 . It is known as a principality as it is a diarchy headed by two princes : the Catholic bishop of Urgell in Catalonia , Spain , and the president of the French Republic . Andorra is the sixth-smallest nation in Europe , having an area of 468 square kilometres ( 181 sq mi ) and a population of approximately 77,006 . The Andorran people are a Romance ethnic group of originally Catalan descent . Andorra is the 16th-smallest country in the world by land and the 11th-smallest by population . Its capital , Andorra la Vella , is the highest capital city in Europe , at an elevation of 1,023 metres ( 3,356 feet ) above sea level . The official language is Catalan , but Spanish , Portuguese , and French are also commonly spoken . Tourism in Andorra sees an estimated 10.2 million visitors annually . Andorra is not a member of the European Union , but the euro is its official currency . It has been a member of the United Nations since 1993 .
Catalan ( /ˈkætəlæn , -ən , ˌkætəˈlæn/ ; autonym : català ; Eastern Catalan : [ kətəˈla ] ) is a Western Romance language derived from Vulgar Latin and named after the medieval Principality of Catalonia , in northeastern modern Spain . It is the only official language of Andorra , and a co-official language of the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia , the Balearic Islands and Valencia ( where the language is known as Valencian ) . It also has semi-official status in the Italian comune of Alghero . It is also spoken in the eastern strip of Aragon , in some villages of the region of Murcia called Carche and in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France . These territories are often called Països Catalans or Catalan Countries . Catalan evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees . 19th-century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival , culminating in the early 1900s .
French ( le français [ lə fʁɑ̃sɛ ] or la langue française [ la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz ] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire , as did all Romance languages . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the spoken Latin in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul . Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl - languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium , which French ( Francien ) has largely supplanted . French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders . Today , owing to France 's past overseas expansion , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French . French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents , most of which are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie ( OIF ) , the community of 84 countries which share the official use or teaching of French . It is spoken as a first language ( in descending order of the number of speakers ) in France , the Canadian provinces of Quebec , Ontario and New Brunswick as well as other Francophone regions , Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ) , western Switzerland ( cantons of Bern , Fribourg , Geneva , Jura , Neuchâtel , Vaud , Valais ) , Monaco , partly in Luxembourg , the states of Louisiana , Maine , New Hampshire and Vermont in the United States , and in northwestern Italy ( region of Aosta Valley ) , and by various communities elsewhere . In 2015 , approximately 40% of the francophone population ( including L2 and partial speakers ) lived in Europe , 35% in sub-Saharan Africa , 15% in North Africa and the Middle East , 8% in the Americas , and 1% in Asia and Oceania . French is the fourth most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively , approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language .
Spanish ( /ˈspænɪʃ/ ( listen ) ; español ( help·info ) ) , or Castilian ( /kæˈstɪliən/ ( listen ) , castellano ( help·info ) ) , is a Romance language that originated in the Iberian Peninsula and today has over 483 million native speakers , mainly in Spain and the Americas . It is a global language , the world 's second-most spoken native language , after Mandarin Chinese , and the world 's fourth-most spoken language , after Mandarin Chinese , English and Hindi . Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages , which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century . The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century , and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo , a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile , in the 13th century . Beginning in 1492 , the Spanish language was taken to the viceroyalties of the Spanish Empire , most notably to the Americas , as well as territories in Africa , Oceania and the Philippines . A 1949 study by Italian-American linguist Mario Pei , analyzing the degree of difference from a language 's parent ( Latin , in the case of Romance languages ) by comparing phonology , inflection , syntax , vocabulary , and intonation , indicated the following percentages ( the higher the percentage , the greater the distance from Latin ) : In the case of Spanish , it is one of the closest Romance languages to Latin ( 20% distance ) , only behind Sardinian ( 8% distance ) and Italian ( 12% distance ) . Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is derived from Latin , including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek . Spanish vocabulary has been in contact with Arabic from an early date , having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula . With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin , this language makes up the second greatest vocabulary source after Latin itself . It has also been influenced by Basque , Iberian , Celtiberian , Visigothic , and by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages . Additionally , it has absorbed vocabulary from other languages , particularly other Romance languages - French , Italian , Andalusi Romance , Portuguese , Galician , Catalan , Occitan , and Sardinian - as well as from Quechua , Nahuatl , and other indigenous languages of the Americas . Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations .
Andorra la Vella ( UK : /ænˌdɔːrə lə ˈveɪjə/ , US : /- lɑː ˈveɪljə/ ; Catalan pronunciation : [ ənˈdorə lə ˈβeʎə ] , Spanish : Andorra la Vieja , French : Andorre-la-Vieille ) is the capital of the Principality of Andorra . It is located high in the east Pyrenees , between France and Spain . It is also the name of the parish that surrounds the capital . As of 2015 [ update ] , the city has a population of 22,886 , and the urban area , which includes Escaldes-Engordany plus satellite villages , has over 40,000 inhabitants . The principal industry is tourism , although the country also earns foreign income from being a tax haven . Furniture and brandies are local products . Being at an elevation of 1,023 m ( 3,356 ft ) , it is the highest capital city in Europe and a popular ski resort .
The original native Armenian name for the country was Հայք ( Hayk ) ; however , it is currently rarely used . The contemporary name Հայաստան ( Hayastan ) became popular in the Middle Ages by addition of the Persian suffix -stan ( place ) . [ citation needed ] . However the origins of the name Hayastan trace back to much earlier dates and were first attested in circa 5th century in the works of Agathangelos , Faustus of Byzantium , Ghazar Parpetsi , Koryun , and Sebeos . The name has traditionally been derived from Hayk ( Հայկ ) , the legendary patriarch of the Armenians and a great-great-grandson of Noah , who , according to the 5th-century AD author Moses of Chorene ( Movsis Khorenatsi ) , defeated the Babylonian king Bel in 2492 BC and established his nation in the Ararat region . The further origin of the name is uncertain . It is also further postulated that the name Hay comes from one of the two confederated , Hittite vassal states - the Ḫayaša-Azzi ( 1600-1200 BC ) . The exonym Armenia is attested in the Old Persian Behistun Inscription ( 515 BC ) as Armina ( ) . The Ancient Greek terms Ἀρμενία ( Armenía ) and Ἀρμένιοι ( Arménioi , Armenians ) are first mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus ( c. 550 BC - c. 476 BC ) . Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions , describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BC . Some scholars have linked the name Armenia with the Early Bronze Age state of Armani ( Armanum , Armi ) or the Late Bronze Age state of Arme ( Shupria ) . These connections are inconclusive as it is not known what languages were spoken in these kingdoms .
The Armenian language ( classical : հայերէն ; reformed : հայերեն [ hɑjɛˈɾɛn ] hayeren ) is an Indo-European language that is the only language in the Armenian branch . It is the official language of Armenia as well as the de facto Republic of Artsakh . Historically being spoken throughout the Armenian Highlands , today , Armenian is widely spoken throughout the Armenian diaspora . Armenian is written in its own writing system , the Armenian alphabet , introduced in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots .
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters ( thus trans- + liter- ) in predictable ways ( such as α → a , д → d , χ → ch , ն → n or æ → ae ) . For instance , for the Modern Greek term Ελληνική Δημοκρατία , which is usually translated as Hellenic Republic , the usual transliteration to Latin script is Ellēnikḗ Dēmokratía , and the name for Russia in Cyrillic script , Россия , is usually transliterated as Rossiya . Transliteration is not primarily concerned with representing the sounds of the original but rather with representing the characters , ideally accurately and unambiguously . Thus , in the above example , λλ is transliterated as 'll ' , but pronounced /l/ ; Δ is transliterated as 'D ' , but pronounced /ð/ ; and η is transliterated as ' ē ' , though it is pronounced /i/ ( exactly like ι ) and is not long . Conversely , transcription notes the sounds but not necessarily the spelling . So Ελληνική Δημοκρατία could be transcribed as elinikí ðimokratía , which does not specify which of the /i/ sounds are written as η and which as ι .
Yerevan ( UK : /ˌjɛrəˈvæn/ YERR-ə-VAN , US : /-ˈvɑːn/ -⁠VAHN ; Armenian : Երևան [ a ] [ jɛɾɛˈvɑn ] ( listen ) , sometimes spelled Erevan ) [ b ] is the capital and largest city of Armenia as well as one of the world 's oldest continuously inhabited cities . Situated along the Hrazdan River , Yerevan is the administrative , cultural , and industrial center of the country . It has been the capital since 1918 , the fourteenth in the history of Armenia and the seventh located in or around the Ararat plain . The city also serves as the seat of the Araratian Pontifical Diocese ; the largest diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and one of the oldest dioceses in the world . The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC , with the founding of the fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC by king Argishti I at the western extreme of the Ararat plain . Erebuni was designed as a great administrative and religious centre , a fully royal capital . By the late ancient Armenian Kingdom , new capital cities were established and Yerevan declined in importance . Under Iranian and Russian rule , it was the center of the Erivan Khanate from 1736 to 1828 and the Erivan Governorate from 1850 to 1917 , respectively . After World War I , Yerevan became the capital of the First Republic of Armenia as thousands of survivors of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire arrived in the area . The city expanded rapidly during the 20th century as Armenia became part of the Soviet Union . In a few decades , Yerevan was transformed from a provincial town within the Russian Empire to Armenia 's principal cultural , artistic , and industrial center , as well as becoming the seat of national government . With the growth of the Armenian economy , Yerevan has undergone major transformation .
Austria ( /ˈɒstriə/ ( listen ) , /ˈɔːs-/ ; German : Österreich [ ˈøːstɐʁaɪ̯ç ] ( listen ) ) , officially the Republic of Austria ( German : Republik Österreich , listen ( help·info ) ) , is a landlocked East Alpine country in the southern part of Central Europe . It is composed of nine federated states ( Bundesländer ) , one of which is Vienna , Austria 's capital and its largest city . It is bordered by Germany to the northwest , Czech Republic to the north , Slovakia to the northeast , Hungary to the east , Slovenia and Italy to the south , and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west . Austria occupies an area of 83,879 km2 ( 32,386 sq mi ) and has a population of nearly 9 million people . While German is the country 's official language , many Austrians communicate informally in a variety of Bavarian dialects . Austria initially emerged as a margraviate around 976 and developed into a duchy and archduchy . In the 16th century , Austria started serving as the heart of the Habsburg Monarchy and the junior branch of the House of Habsburg - one of the most influential royal dynasties in history . As an archduchy , it was a major component and administrative centre of the Holy Roman Empire . Early in the 19th century , Austria established its own empire , which became a great power and the leading force of the German Confederation but pursued its own course independently of the other German states . Following the Austro-Prussian War and the compromise with Hungary , the Dual Monarchy was established . Austria was involved in World War I under Emperor Franz Joseph following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand , the presumptive successor to the Austro-Hungarian throne . After the defeat and the dissolution of the Monarchy , the Republic of German-Austria was proclaimed with the intent of the union with Germany , which eventually failed because of the Allied Powers and the state remained unrecognized .
German ( Deutsch , pronounced [ dɔʏtʃ ] ( listen ) ) is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe . It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , South Tyrol in Italy , the German-speaking Community of Belgium and Liechtenstein . It is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland . The languages that are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch , including Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , Low German/Low Saxon , Luxembourgish , and Yiddish . There are strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish , Norwegian and Swedish , although those belong to the North Germanic group . German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language , after English . One of the major languages of the world , German is a native language to almost 100 million people worldwide and the most widely spoken native language in the European Union . German is the third most commonly spoken foreign language in the EU after English and French , making it the second biggest language in the EU in terms of overall speakers . German is also the second most widely taught foreign language in the EU after English at primary school level ( but third after English and French at lower secondary level ) , the fourth most widely taught non-English language in the US ( after Spanish , French and American Sign Language ) , and the second most commonly used scientific language as well as the third most widely used language on websites after English and Russian . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books , with one tenth of all books ( including e-books ) in the world being published in the German language . In the United Kingdom , German and French are the most sought-after foreign languages for businesses ( with 49% and 50% of businesses identifying these two languages as the most useful , respectively ) . German is an inflected language with four cases for nouns , pronouns and adjectives ( nominative , accusative , genitive , dative ) , three genders ( masculine , feminine , neuter ) , two numbers ( singular , plural ) , and strong and weak verbs .
Vienna ( /viˈɛnə/ ( listen ) ; German : Wien [ viːn ] ( listen ) ) is the national capital , largest city , and one of nine states of Austria . Vienna is Austria 's most populous city , with about 1.9 million inhabitants ( 2.6 million within the metropolitan area , nearly one third of the country 's population ) , and its cultural , economic , and political centre . It is the 6th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union . Until the beginning of the 20th century , it was the largest German-speaking city in the world , and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I , the city had 2 million inhabitants . Today , it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin . Vienna is host to many major international organizations , including the United Nations , OPEC , and the OSCE . The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of Czechia , Slovakia , and Hungary . These regions work together in a European Centrope border region . Along with nearby Bratislava , Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants . In 2001 , the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site . In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger . Additionally to being known as the City of Music due to its musical legacy , Vienna is also said to be the City of Dreams , because of it being home to the world 's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud .
Azerbaijan ( UK : /ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn , -ˈʒɑːn/ ( listen ) , US : /ˌɑːzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn , ˌæz-/ ; Azerbaijani : Azərbaycan [ ɑːzæɾbɑjˈd͡ʒɑn ] ) , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan ( Azerbaijani : Azərbaycan Respublikası [ ɑːzæɾbɑjˈd͡ʒɑn ɾespublikɑˈsɯ ] ) , is a landlocked country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Central Asia . It is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east , Russia to the north , Georgia to the northwest , Armenia to the west and Iran to the south . The exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east , Iran to the south and west , and has an 11 km ( 6.8 mi ) long border with Turkey in the northwest . The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first secular democratic Muslim-majority state . In 1920 the country was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic . The modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991 , shortly before the dissolution of the USSR in the same year . In September 1991 , the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Republic of Artsakh . The region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994 . These regions are internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh through negotiations facilitated by the OSCE . Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic . It is one of six independent Turkic states and an active member of the Turkic Council and the TÜRKSOY community . Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations , including the United Nations ( since 1992 ) , the Council of Europe , the Non-Aligned Movement , the OSCE , and the NATO Partnership for Peace ( PfP ) program .
Azerbaijani ( /ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒɑːni , ˌɑː- , -ˈʒɑːni/ ) or Azeri ( /æˈzɛəri , ɑː- , ə-/ ) , sometimes also Azeri Turkic , or Azeri Turkish , is a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Azerbaijanis , who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken , and in Iranian Azerbaijan where the South Azerbaijani variety is spoken . Although there is a very high degree of mutual intelligibility between both forms of Azerbaijani , there are some significant differences in phonology , lexicon , morphology , syntax , and sources of loanwords . North Azerbaijani has official status in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Dagestan ( a federal subject of Russia ) but South Azerbaijani does not have official status in Iran , where the majority of Azerbaijanis live . It is also spoken to lesser varying degrees in Azerbaijani communities of Georgia and Turkey and by diaspora communities , primarily in Europe and North America . Both Azerbaijani varieties are members of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages . The standardized form of North Azerbaijani ( spoken in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia ) is based on the Shirvani dialect , while Iranian Azerbaijani uses the Tabrizi dialect as its prestige variety . Azerbaijani is closely related to Gagauz , Qashqai , Crimean Tatar , Turkish and Turkmen , sharing varying degrees of mutual intelligibility with each of those languages . According to linguistic comparative studies , the closest relative of Azerbaijani is the Turkmen language .
Baku ( /bəˈkuː , bɑːˈkuː , ˈbɑːkuː , ˈbækuː/ ; Azerbaijani : Bakı , IPA : [ bɑˈcɯ ] ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan , as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region . Baku is located 28 metres ( 92 ft ) below sea level , which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level . Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula , alongside the Bay of Baku . At the beginning of 2009 , Baku 's urban population was estimated at just over two million people . Officially , about 25% of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku 's metropolitan area . Baku is the sole metropolis in Azerbaijan . Baku is divided into twelve administrative raions and 48 townships . Among these are the townships on the islands of the Baku Archipelago , and the town of Oil Rocks built on stilts in the Caspian Sea , 60 kilometres ( 37 miles ) away from Baku . The Inner City of Baku , along with the Shirvanshah 's Palace and Maiden Tower , were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000 . According to the Lonely Planet 's ranking , Baku is also among the world 's top ten destinations for urban nightlife . The city is the scientific , cultural , and industrial center of Azerbaijan . Many sizeable Azerbaijani institutions have their headquarters there .
Bahrain ( /bɑːˈreɪn/ ( listen ) ; Arabic : البحرين al-Baḥrayn Arabic pronunciation : [ al baħrajn ] ( listen ) ) , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain ( Arabic : مملكة البحرين Mamlakat al-Baḥrayn ) , is a sovereign state in the Persian Gulf . The island nation comprises a small archipelago centered around Bahrain Island , situated between the Qatar peninsula and the north eastern coast of Saudi Arabia , to which it is connected by the 25-kilometre ( 16 mi ) King Fahd Causeway . According to the most recent 2010 census , Bahrain 's population is over 1.2 million , of which around half are non-nationals . At 780 square kilometres ( 300 sq mi ) in size , it is the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore . The capital and largest city is Manama . Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilization . It has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries , which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century . Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to convert to Islam , in 628 AD . Following a period of Arab rule , Bahrain was occupied by the Portuguese in 1521 , who in turn were expelled in 1602 by Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty under the Persian Empire . In 1783 , the Bani Utbah clan captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur and it has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family , with Ahmed al Fateh as Bahrain 's first hakim . In the late 1800s , following successive treaties with the British , Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom . In 1971 , it declared independence .
Arabic ( Arabic : اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , al-ʿarabiyyah , [ al ʕaraˈbijːa ] ( listen ) or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , [ ˈʕarabiː ] ( listen ) or [ ʕaraˈbij ] ) is a Semitic language that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE . It is now the lingua franca of the Arab world . It is named after the Arabs , a term initially used to describe peoples living in the area bounded by Mesopotamia in the east and the Anti-Lebanon mountains in the west , in Northwestern Arabia and in the Sinai Peninsula . The ISO assigns language codes to thirty varieties of Arabic , including its standard form , Modern Standard Arabic , also referred to as Literary Arabic , which is modernized Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists ; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic , but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ , the purest Arabic ) or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ) . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities and is used to varying degrees in workplaces , government and the media . Arabic , in its standard form , is the official language of 26 states , as well as the liturgical language of the religion of Islam , since the Quran and Hadith were written in Arabic . During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe , especially in science , mathematics and philosophy . As a result , many European languages have also borrowed many words from it . Arabic influence , mainly in vocabulary , is seen in European languages - mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese and Catalan - owing to both the proximity of Christian European and Muslim Arab civilizations and almost 800 years of Arabic culture and language presence in the Iberian Peninsula , referred to in Arabic as al-Andalus . Sicilian has about 500 Arabic words , many of which relate to agriculture and related activities , [ full citation needed ] as a legacy of the Emirate of Sicily from the mid-9th to mid-10th centuries , while Maltese language is a Semitic language developed from a dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages , including Greek and Bulgarian , have also acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish .
Manama ( Arabic : المنامة al-Manāma Bahrani pronunciation : [ elmɐˈnɑːmɐ ] ) is the capital and second largest city of Bahrain , with an approximate population of 157,000 people . Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf , Manama is home to a very diverse population . After periods of Portuguese and Persian control and invasions from the ruling dynasties of Saudi Arabia and Oman , Bahrain established itself as an independent nation during the 19th century period of British hegemony . Although the current twin cities of Manama and Muharraq appear to have been founded simultaneously in the 1300s , Muharraq took prominence due to its defensive location and was thus the capital of Bahrain until 1337 . Manama became the mercantile capital and was the gateway to the main Bahrain Island . In the 20th century , Bahrain 's oil wealth helped spur fast growth and in the 1990s a concerted diversification effort led to expansion in other industries and helped transform Manama into an important financial hub in the Middle East . Manama was designated as the 2012 capital of Arab culture by the Arab League , and a beta global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network in 2018 .
Bangladesh ( Bengali : বাংলাদেশ ) pronounced /ˌbɑːŋlɑːˈdɛʃ/ ( bung-lah-desh ) or [ ˈbaŋladeʃ ] ( listen ) ; literally meaning The country of Bengal ; and officially called the People 's Republic of Bangladesh ( গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ Gônoprojatontri Bangladesh ) , is a country in South Asia . It is the world 's 8th-most populous country with nearly 163 million people , and is the 92nd-largest country in land area , spanning 147,570 square kilometres ( 56,980 sq mi ) , making it one of the most densely-populated countries in the world . Bangladesh shares land borders with India to the west , north , and east , Myanmar to the southeast , and the Bay of Bengal to the south . It is narrowly separated from Nepal and Bhutan by India 's Siliguri Corridor in the north and from China by the Indian state of Sikkim in the northeast . Dhaka , the capital and largest city , is the nation 's economic , political and cultural hub . Chittagong , the largest sea port , is the second largest city . The dominant geographic feature is the Ganges delta , which empties into the Bay of Bengal the combined waters of several river systems , including the Brahmaputra and the Ganges , with numerous criss-crossing rivers and inland waterways . Highlands with evergreen forests cover the northeastern and southeastern regions . The seacoast features the longest natural sea beach and most of the world 's largest mangrove forest . The country 's biodiversity includes a vast array of plants and wildlife , including the endangered Bengal tiger , the national animal . Bangladesh forms the largest and eastern part of the Bengal region . According to the ancient Indian epics , Ramayana and Mahabharata , the Vanga Kingdom , one of the namesakes of the Bengal region , was a strong naval ally of the legendary Ayodhya .
Bengali ( /bɛŋˈɡɔːli/ ) , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা [ ˈbaŋla ] ) , is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Bengalis in South Asia , specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent , presently divided between Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura , Assam 's Barak Valley . It is the official and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and second most widely spoken of the 22 scheduled languages of India , behind Hindi . With approximately 228 million native speakers and another 37 million as second language speakers , Bengali is the fifth most-spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by total number of speakers in the world . The official and de facto national language of Bangladesh is Modern Standard Bengali ( Literary Bengali ) . It serves as the lingua franca of the nation , with 98% of Bangladeshis being fluent in Bengali as their first language . Within India , Bengali is the official language of the states of West Bengal , Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including in Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Jharkhand , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland and Uttarakhand . Bengali is also spoken by the significant global Bengali diaspora ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis ) communities in Pakistan , the United Kingdom , the United States , and the Middle East . Bengali has developed over the course of more than 1,300 years . Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history , has extensively developed since the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia . The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding Bengali to be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 . In 1999 , UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement .
Dhaka City ( /ˈdɑːkə/ DAH-kə or /ˈdækə/ DAK-ə ; Bengali : ঢাকা , pronounced [ ɖʱaka ] ) , formerly known as Dacca , is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh . It is the sixth-largest and sixth-most densely populated city in the world , with a population of 20.2 million people in the Greater Dhaka Area . Dhaka is the economic , political and cultural center of Bangladesh . It is one of the major cities of South Asia , the largest city in Eastern South Asia and among the Bay of Bengal countries ; and one of the largest cities among OIC countries . As part of the Bengal plain , the city is bounded by the Buriganga River , Turag River , Dhaleshwari River and Shitalakshya River . The city is located in an eponymous district and division . The area of Dhaka has been inhabited since the first millennium . The city rose to prominence in the 17th century as a provincial capital and commercial center of the Mughal Empire in South Asia . Dhaka was the capital of Mughal Bengal for 75 years . As the center of the muslin trade in Bengal , it was one of the most prosperous cities in the Indian subcontinent . The medieval city was named Jahangirabad in honor of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir and hosted the seat of the Mughal Subahdar ( governor ) , Naib Nazims and Dewans ( prime ministers ) . Medieval Dhaka 's glory peaked in the 17th and 18th centuries , when it was home to merchants from across Eurasia .
Belarus ( /bɛləˈruːs/ ; Belarusian : Беларусь , IPA : [ bʲɛlaˈrusʲ ] ) , officially the Republic of Belarus ( Belarusian : Рэспубліка Беларусь , Russian : Республика Беларусь ) , formerly known by its Russian name Byelorussia or Belorussia ( Russian : Белоруссия ) , is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered by Russia to the northeast , Ukraine to the south , Poland to the west , and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest . Its capital and most populous city is Minsk . Over 40% of its 207,600 square kilometres ( 80,200 sq mi ) is forested . Its major economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing . Until the 20th century , different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus , including the Principality of Polotsk ( 11th to 14th centuries ) , the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , and the Russian Empire . In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution , Belarus declared independence as the Belarusian People 's Republic , which was conquered by Soviet Russia . The Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922 and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic ( Byelorussian SSR ) . Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921 . Much of the borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939 , when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were reintegrated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland , and were finalized after World War II . During WWII , military operations devastated Belarus , which lost about a quarter of its population and half of its economic resources . The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years . In 1945 the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations , along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR .
Belarusian ( /bɛləˈruːsiən , -ʒən , -ʃən/ ; беларуская мова biełaruskaja mova [ bʲelaˈruskaja ˈmova ] ) is an East Slavic language spoken by Belarusians . It is the official language of Belarus , along with the Russian language . It is additionally spoken in parts of Russia ( where it is known as Western Russian [ citation needed ] ) , Poland , and Ukraine by Belarusian minorities in those countries . Before Belarus gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 , the language was only known in English as Byelorussian or Belorussian , transliterating the Russian name , белорусский язык belorusskiy yazyk , or alternatively as White Ruthenian ( /ruːˈθiːniən/ ) or White Russian . Following independence , it has acquired the additional name Belarusian . As one of the East Slavic languages , Belarusian shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group . To some extent , Russian , Rusyn , Ukrainian , and Belarusian are all mutually intelligible , effectively forming a dialect continuum . Its predecessor stage is known as Ruthenian ( 14th to 17th centuries ) , in turn descended from Old East Slavic ( 10th to 13th centuries ) . In the first Belarus Census of 1999 , the Belarusian language was declared as a language spoken at home by about 3,686,000 Belarusian citizens ( 36.7% of the population ) . About 6,984,000 ( 85.6% ) of Belarusians declared it their mother tongue . Other sources , such as Ethnologue , put the figure at approximately 2.5 million active speakers . According to a study done by the Belarusian government in 2009 , 72% of Belarusians speak Russian at home , while Belarusian is actively used by only 11.9% of Belarusians .
Russian ( русский язык , tr . rússky yazýk ) is an East Slavic language , which is an official language in Russia , Belarus , Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan , as well as being widely used throughout Eastern Europe , the Baltic states , the Caucasus and Central Asia . It was the de facto language of the Soviet Union until its dissolution on 25 December 1991 . Although nearly three decades have passed since the breakup of the Soviet Union , Russian is used in official capacity or in public life in all the post-Soviet nation-states , as well as in Israel and Mongolia . Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages , one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages , and part of the larger Balto-Slavic branch . Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onward . Russian is the largest native language in Europe and the most geographically widespread language in Eurasia . It is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages , with 144 million speakers in Russia , Ukraine and Belarus . Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers and the seventh by total number of speakers . The language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations . Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet , after English . Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without , the so-called soft and hard sounds .
Minsk ( Belarusian : Мінск , pronounced [ mʲinsk ] , traditionally Belarusian : Менск , [ mʲensk ] ; Russian : Минск , Polish : Mińsk ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus , situated on the Svislač and the Nyamiha Rivers . As the capital , Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk Region ( voblasć ) and Minsk District ( rajon ) . The population in January 2018 was 1,982,444 , ( not including suburbs ) making Minsk the 11th most populous city in Europe . Minsk is the administrative capital of the Commonwealth of Independent States ( CIS ) and seat of its Executive Secretary . The earliest historical references to Minsk date to the 11th century ( 1067 ) , when it was noted as a provincial city within the Principality of Polotsk . The settlement developed on the rivers . In 1242 , Minsk became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . It received town privileges in 1499 . From 1569 , it was a capital of the Minsk Voivodeship , in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . It was part of a region annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793 , as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland . From 1919 to 1991 , after the Russian Revolution , Minsk was the capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic , in the Soviet Union . In June 2019 , Minsk hosted the 2019 European Games .
Belgium , [ A ] officially the Kingdom of Belgium , is a country in Western Europe . It is bordered by the Netherlands to the north , Germany to the east , Luxembourg to the southeast , France to the southwest , and the North Sea to the northwest . It covers an area of 30,689 km2 ( 11,849 sq mi ) and has a population of more than 11.5 million , making it the 22nd most densely populated country in the world and the 6th most densely populated country in Europe , with a density of 376 per square kilometre ( 970/sq mi ) . The capital and largest city is Brussels ; other major cities are Antwerp , Ghent , Charleroi and Liège . The sovereign state is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system . Its institutional organization is complex and is structured on both regional and linguistic grounds . It is divided into three highly autonomous regions : the Flemish Region in the north , Wallonia in the south , and the Brussels-Capital Region . Brussels is the smallest and most densely populated region , as well as the richest region in terms of GDP per capita . Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups or communities : the Dutch-speaking Flemish Community , which constitutes about 60 percent of the population , and the French-speaking Community , which comprises about 40 percent of all Belgians . A small German-speaking Community , numbering around one percent , exists in the East Cantons . The Brussels-Capital Region is officially bilingual ( French and Dutch ) , although French is the dominant language . Belgium 's linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance , made up of six different governments .
Dutch ( Nederlands ( help·info ) ) is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people as a first language and 5 million people as a second language , constituting the majority of people in the Netherlands ( where it is the sole official language countrywide ) and Belgium ( as one of three official languages ) . It is the third-most-widely spoken Germanic language , after its close relatives English and German . Outside the Low Countries , it is the native language of the majority of the population of Suriname where it also holds an official status , as it does in Aruba , Curaçao and Sint Maarten , which are constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean . Historical linguistic minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of France and Germany , and in Indonesia , [ n 1 ] while up to half a million native speakers may reside in the United States , Canada and Australia combined . [ n 2 ] The Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa have evolved into Afrikaans , a mutually intelligible daughter language [ n 3 ] which is spoken to some degree by at least 16 million people , mainly in South Africa and Namibia . [ n 4 ] Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English [ n 5 ] and is colloquially said to be roughly in between them . [ n 6 ] Dutch , like English , has not undergone the High German consonant shift , does not use Germanic umlaut as a grammatical marker , has largely abandoned the use of the subjunctive , and has levelled much of its morphology , including most of its case system . [ n 7 ] Features shared with German include the survival of two to three grammatical genders - albeit with few grammatical consequences [ n 8 ] - as well as the use of modal particles , final-obstruent devoicing , and a similar word order . [ n 9 ] Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates slightly more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English . [ n 10 ] As with German , the vocabulary of Dutch also has strong similarities with the continental Scandinavian languages , but is not mutually intelligible in text or speech with any of them .
Brussels ( French : Bruxelles [ bʁysɛl ] ( listen ) or [ bʁyksɛl ] ; Dutch : Brussel [ ˈbrʏsəl ] ( listen ) ) , officially the Brussels-Capital Region ( French : Région de Bruxelles-Capitale ; [ a ] Dutch : Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest ) , [ b ] is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities , including the City of Brussels , which is the capital of Belgium . The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community , but is separate from the Flemish Region ( which forms an enclave ) and the Walloon Region . Brussels is the most densely populated and the richest region in Belgium in terms of GDP per capita . It covers 162 km2 ( 63 sq mi ) , a relatively small area compared to the two other regions , and has a population of over 1.2 million . The metropolitan area of Brussels comprises over 2.5 million people , which makes it the largest in Belgium . It is also part of a large conurbation extending towards Ghent , Antwerp , Leuven and Walloon Brabant , home to over 5 million people . Brussels grew from a small rural settlement on the river Senne to become an important city-region in Europe . Since the end of the Second World War , it has been a major centre for international politics and home to numerous international organisations , politicians , diplomats and civil servants . Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union , as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions , including its administrative-legislative , executive-political , and legislative branches ( though the judicial branch is located in Luxembourg , and the European Parliament meets for a minority of the year in Strasbourg ) [ c ] . Its name is sometimes used metonymically to describe the EU and its institutions . The secretariat of the Benelux and headquarters of NATO are also located in Brussels . As the economic capital of Belgium and one of the top financial centres of Western Europe with Euronext Brussels , it is classified as an Alpha global city .
Bhutan ( /buːˈtɑːn/ ( listen ) ; Dzongkha : འབྲུག་ཡུལ་ , romanized : Druk Yul [ ʈuk̚˩.yː˩ ] ) , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan ( Dzongkha : འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ , romanized : Druk Gyal Khap ) , is a landlocked country in South Asia . Located in the Eastern Himalayas , it is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north , the Indian state of Sikkim , the Chumbi Valley of Tibet , China in the west and south , the Arunachal Pradesh state of India in the east , and the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal in the south . Bhutan is geopolitically in South Asia and is the region 's second-least-populous nation after the Maldives . Thimphu is its capital and largest city , while Phuntsholing is its financial center . Bhutan 's independence has endured for centuries . It has never been colonized in its history . Situated on the ancient Silk Road between Tibet , the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia , the Bhutanese state developed a distinct national identity based on Buddhism . Headed by a spiritual leader known as the Zhabdrung Rinpoche , the territory comprised many fiefdoms and was governed as a Buddhist theocracy . Following a civil war in the 19th century , the House of Wangchuck reunited the country and established relations with the British Empire . Bhutan fostered a strategic partnership with India during the rise of Chinese communism and has a disputed border with China . In 2008 Bhutan transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy and held the first election to the National Assembly of Bhutan . The National Assembly is part of the bicameral parliament of the Bhutanese democracy .
Dzongkha , or Bhutanese ( རྫོང་ཁ་ [ dzoŋkʰa ] ) , is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by over half a million people in Bhutan ; it is the sole official and national language of the Kingdom of Bhutan . The Tibetan alphabet is used to write Dzongkha . The word dzongkha means the language of the palace ; dzong means palace and kha is language . As of 2013 , Dzongkha had 171,080 native speakers and about 640,000 total speakers .
Thimphu ( /tɪmˈpuː/ ; Dzongkha : ཐིམ་ཕུ [ tʰim˥.pʰu˥ ] ; formerly spelt as Thimbu or Thimpu ) is the capital and largest city of Bhutan . It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan , and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan 's dzongkhags , the Thimphu District . The ancient capital city of Punakha was replaced as capital by Thimphu in 1955 , and in 1961 Thimphu was declared as the capital of the Kingdom of Bhutan by the 3rd Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck . The city extends in a north-south direction on the west bank of the valley formed by the Raidāk River , which is known as the Wang Chuu or Thimphu Chuu in Bhutan . Thimphu is the fifth highest capital in the world by altitude and ranges in altitude from 2,248 metres ( 7,375 feet ) to 2,648 metres ( 8,688 feet ) . Unusually for a capital city , Thimphu does not have its own airport , but relies on the Paro Airport connected by road some 54 kilometres ( 34 miles ) away . Thimphu , as the political and economic center of Bhutan , has a dominant agricultural and livestock base , which contributes 45% of the country 's GNP . Tourism , though a contributor to the economy , is strictly regulated , maintaining a balance between the traditional , development and modernization . Thimphu contains most of the important political buildings in Bhutan , including the National Assembly of the newly-formed parliamentary democracy and Dechencholing Palace , the official residence of the King , located to the north of the city . Thimphu is co-ordinated by the Thimphu Structure Plan , an Urban Development Plan which evolved in 1998 with the objective of protecting the fragile ecology of the valley . This development is ongoing with financial assistance from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank . The culture of Bhutan is fully reflected in Thimphu in literature , religion , customs , and national dress code , the monastic practices of the monasteries , music , and dance , and in the media .
Bosnia and Herzegovina , [ a ] abbreviated BiH or B & H , [ b ] sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia , is a country of South and Southeast Europe , located within the Balkans . Sarajevo is the capital and largest city . Bosnia and Herzegovina is an almost landlocked country - to the south it has a narrow coast on the Adriatic Sea , about 20 kilometres ( 12 miles ) long and surrounding the town of Neum . It is bordered by Serbia to the east , Montenegro to the southeast , and Croatia surrounding north and southwest . In the central and eastern interior of the country the geography is mountainous , in the northwest moderately hilly , and the northeast predominantly flatland . The inland , Bosnia , is a geographically larger region and has a moderate continental climate , with hot summers and cold and snowy winters . The southern tip , Herzegovina , has a Mediterranean climate and mostly mountainous topography . Bosnia and Herzegovina traces permanent human settlement back to the Neolithic age , during and after which it was populated by several Illyrian and Celtic civilizations . Culturally , politically , and socially , the country has a rich history , having been first settled by the Slavic peoples that populate the area today from the 6th through to the 9th centuries . In the 12th century the Banate of Bosnia was established , which evolved into the Kingdom of Bosnia in the 14th century , after which it was annexed into the Ottoman Empire , under whose rule it remained from the mid-15th to the late 19th centuries . The Ottomans brought Islam to the region , and altered much of the cultural and social outlook of the country . This was followed by annexation into the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy , which lasted up until World War I .
The Bosnian language ( /ˈbɒzniən/ ( listen ) ; bosanski / босански [ bɔ̌sanskiː ] ) is the standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian mainly used by Bosniaks . Bosnian is one of three such varieties considered official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina , along with Croatian and Serbian . It is also an officially recognized minority language in Serbia , Montenegro , North Macedonia and Kosovo . [ a ] Bosnian uses both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets , [ Note 1 ] with Latin in everyday use . It is notable among the varieties of Serbo-Croatian for a number of Arabic , Ottoman Turkish and Persian loanwords , largely due to the language 's interaction with those cultures through Islamic ties . Bosnian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian , Shtokavian , more specifically on Eastern Herzegovinian , which is also the basis of standard Croatian , Serbian , and Montenegrin varieties . Therefore , the Declaration on the Common Language of , Croats , Serbs , Bosniaks and Montenegrins was issued in 2017 in Sarajevo . Until the 1990s , the common language was called Serbo-Croatian and that term is still used in English , along with Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian ( BCMS ) , especially in diplomatic circles .
Gaj 's Latin alphabet ( Serbo-Croatian : abeceda , latinica , or gajica ) is the form of the Latin script used for writing Serbo-Croatian and all of its standard varieties : Bosnian , Croatian , Serbian , and Montenegrin . It was devised by Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj in 1835 , based on Jan Hus 's Czech alphabet . A slightly reduced version is used as the script of the Slovene language , and a slightly expanded version is used as a script of the modern standard Montenegrin language . A modified version is used for the romanization of the Macedonian language . Pavao Ritter Vitezović had proposed an idea for the orthography of the Croatian language , stating that every sound should have only one letter .
Croatian ( /kroʊˈeɪʃən/ ( listen ) ; hrvatski [ xř̩ʋaːtskiː ] ) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language used by Croats , principally in Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , the Serbian province of Vojvodina , and other neighboring countries . It is the official and literary standard of Croatia and one of the official languages of the European Union . Croatian is also one of the official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a recognized minority language in Serbia and neighboring countries . Standard Croatian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian , Shtokavian , more specifically on Eastern Herzegovinian , which is also the basis of Standard Serbian , Bosnian , and Montenegrin . In the mid-18th century , the first attempts to provide a Croatian literary standard began on the basis of the Neo-Shtokavian dialect that served as a supraregional lingua franca pushing back regional Chakavian , Kajkavian , and Shtokavian vernaculars . The decisive role was played by Croatian Vukovians , who cemented the usage of Ijekavian Neo-Shtokavian as the literary standard in the late 19th and the beginning of the 20th century , in addition to designing a phonological orthography . Croatian is written in Gaj 's Latin alphabet . Besides the Shtokavian dialect , on which Standard Croatian is based , there are two other main dialects spoken on the territory of Croatia , Chakavian and Kajkavian . These dialects , and the four national standards , are usually subsumed under the term Serbo-Croatian in English , though this term is controversial for native speakers , and paraphrases such as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian are therefore sometimes used instead , especially in diplomatic circles .
The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( Serbian : српска ћирилица/srpska ćirilica , pronounced [ sr̩̂pskaː t͡ɕirǐlit͡sa ] ) is an adaptation of the Cyrillic script for Serbo-Croatian , developed in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić . It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian , Bosnian and Montenegrin , the other being Latin . Karadžić based his alphabet on the previous Slavonic-Serbian script , following the principle of write as you speak and read as it is written , removing obsolete letters and letters representing iotified vowels , introducing ⟨J⟩ from the Latin alphabet instead , and adding several consonant letters for sounds specific to Serbian phonology . During the same period , Croatian linguists led by Ljudevit Gaj adapted the Latin alphabet , in use in western South Slavic areas , using the same principles . As a result of this joint effort , Cyrillic and Latin alphabets for Serbo-Croatian have a complete one-to-one congruence , with the Latin digraphs Lj , Nj , and Dž counting as single letters . Vuk 's Cyrillic alphabet was officially adopted in Serbia in 1868 , and was in exclusive use in the country up to the inter-war period . Both alphabets were co-official in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and later in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . Due to the shared cultural area , Gaj 's Latin alphabet saw a gradual adoption in Serbia since , and both scripts are used to write modern standard Serbian , Montenegrin and Bosnian ; Croatian only uses the Latin alphabet . In Serbia , Cyrillic is seen as being more traditional , and has the official status ( designated in the Constitution as the official script , compared to Latin 's status of script in official use designated by a lower-level act , for national minorities ) . It is also an official script in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro , along with Latin . The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was used as a basis for the Macedonian alphabet with the work of Krste Misirkov and Venko Markovski .
Sarajevo ; see names in other languages ) is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina , with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits . The Sarajevo metropolitan area , including Sarajevo Canton , East Sarajevo and nearby municipalities , is home to 555,210 inhabitants . [ a ] Nestled within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia , it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of the Balkans . Sarajevo is the political , financial , social and cultural center of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a prominent center of culture in the Balkans , with region-wide influence in entertainment , media , fashion and the arts . Due to its long history of religious and cultural diversity , Sarajevo is sometimes called the Jerusalem of Europe or Jerusalem of the Balkans . It is one of only a few major European cities to have a mosque , Catholic church , Orthodox church and synagogue within the same neighborhood . A regional center in education , the city is home to the Balkans first institution of tertiary education in the form of an Islamic madrasa , today part of the University of Sarajevo . Although settlement in the area stretches back to prehistoric times , the modern city arose as an Ottoman stronghold in the 15th century . Sarajevo has attracted international attention several times throughout its history . In 1885 , Sarajevo was the first city in Europe and the second city in the world to have a full-time electric tram network running through the city , following San Francisco . In 1914 , it was the site of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by local Young Bosnia activist Gavrilo Princip that sparked World War I , which also ended Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and resulted in the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . Later , after World War II , the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the Second Yugoslavia led to a massive expansion of Sarajevo , then the constituent republic 's capital , which culminated with the hosting of the 1984 Winter Olympics marking a prosperous era for the city .
Brunei ( /bruːˈnaɪ/ ( listen ) broo-NY ) , officially the Nation of Brunei , the Abode of Peace ( Malay : Negara Brunei Darussalam , Jawi : نڬارا بروني دارالسلام ) , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia . Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea , the country is completely surrounded by the insular Malaysian state of Sarawak . It is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang . Brunei is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo ; the remainder of the island 's territory is divided between the nations of Malaysia and Indonesia . Brunei 's population was 428,963 in 2018 . At the peak of the Bruneian Empire , Sultan Bolkiah ( reigned 1485-1528 ) is alleged to have had control over most regions of Borneo , including modern-day Sarawak and Sabah , as well as the Sulu Archipelago off the northeast tip of Borneo , Seludong ( modern-day Manila ) , and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo . The maritime state was visited by Spain 's Magellan Expedition in 1521 and fought against Spain in the 1578 Castilian War . During the 19th century , the Bruneian Empire began to decline . The Sultanate ceded Sarawak ( Kuching ) to James Brooke and installed him as the White Rajah , and it ceded Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company . In 1888 , Brunei became a British protectorate and was assigned a British resident as colonial manager in 1906 . After the Japanese occupation during World War II , in 1959 a new constitution was written . In 1962 , a small armed rebellion against the monarchy was ended with the help of the British .
Malay ( /məˈleɪ/ ; Malay : Bahasa Melayu , بهاس ملايو ) is an Austronesian language spoken in Brunei , Indonesia , Malaysia and Singapore , as well as parts of Thailand . A language of the Malays , it is spoken by 290 million people across the Strait of Malacca , including the coasts of the Malay Peninsula of Malaysia and the eastern coast of Sumatra in Indonesia and has been established as a native language of part of western coastal Sarawak and West Kalimantan in Borneo . It is also used as a trading language in the southern Philippines , including the southern parts of the Zamboanga Peninsula , the Sulu Archipelago and the southern predominantly Muslim-inhabited municipalities of Bataraza and Balabac in Palawan . As the Bahasa Kebangsaan or Bahasa Nasional ( national language ) of several states , Standard Malay has various official names . In Malaysia , it is designated as either Bahasa Malaysia ( Malaysian language ) or Bahasa Melayu ( Malay language ) . In Singapore and Brunei , it is called Bahasa Melayu ( Malay language ) and in Indonesia , an autonomous normative variety called Bahasa Indonesia ( Indonesian language ) is designated the Bahasa Persatuan/Pemersatu ( unifying language/lingua franca ) . However , in areas of central to southern Sumatra where vernacular varieties of Malay are indigenous , Indonesians refer to it as Bahasa Melayu and consider it one of their regional languages . Standard Malay , also called Court Malay , was the literary standard of the pre-colonial Malacca and Johor Sultanates , and so the language is sometimes called Malacca , Johor or Riau Malay ( or various combinations of those names ) to distinguish it from the various other Malayan languages . According to Ethnologue 16 , several of the Malayan varieties they currently list as separate languages , including the Orang Asli varieties of Peninsular Malay , are so closely related to standard Malay that they may prove to be dialects . There are also several Malay trade and creole languages which are based on a lingua franca derived from Classical Malay as well as Macassar Malay , which appears to be a mixed language .
Bandar Seri Begawan ( Jawi : بندر سري بڬاوان ; Malay : [ ˌbandar səˌri bəˈɡawan ] ) ( formerly known as Brunei Town ) is the capital city of the Sultanate of Brunei . It is officially governed as a municipality ( Malay : bandaran ) . Bandar Seri Begawan has an estimated population of 100,700 , and including the whole Brunei-Muara District , the metro area has an estimated population of 279,924 .
Bulgaria ( /bʌlˈɡɛəriə , bʊl-/ ( listen ) ; Bulgarian : България , romanized : Balgariya ) , officially the Republic of Bulgaria ( Bulgarian : Република България , romanized : Republika Balgariya , IPA : [ rɛˈpublikɐ bɐɫˈɡarijɐ ] ) , is a country in Southeast Europe . It is bordered by Romania to the north , Serbia and North Macedonia to the west , Greece and Turkey to the south , and the Black Sea to the east . The capital and largest city is Sofia ; other major cities are Plovdiv , Varna and Burgas . With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres ( 42,855 sq mi ) , Bulgaria is Europe 's 16th-largest country . One of the earliest societies in the lands of modern-day Bulgaria was the Neolithic Karanovo culture , which dates back to 6,500 BC . In the 6th to 3rd century BC the region was a battleground for Thracians , Persians , Celts and ancient Macedonians ; stability came when the Roman Empire conquered the region in AD 45 . The Eastern Roman , or Byzantine , Empire lost some of these territories to an invading Bulgar horde in the late 7th century . The Bulgars founded the First Bulgarian Empire in AD 681 , which dominated most of the Balkans and significantly influenced Slavic cultures by developing the Cyrillic script . This state lasted until the early 11th century , when Byzantine emperor Basil II conquered and dismantled it . A successful Bulgarian revolt in 1185 established a Second Bulgarian Empire , which reached its apex under Ivan Asen II ( 1218-1241 ) . After numerous exhausting wars and feudal strife , the Second Bulgarian Empire disintegrated in 1396 and its territories fell under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries . The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 resulted in the formation of the current Third Bulgarian State .
Bulgarian ( /bʌlˈɡɛəriən/ ( listen ) , /bʊlˈ-/ bu ( u ) l-GAIR-ee-ən ; български , bălgarski , pronounced [ ˈbɤɫɡɐrski ] ( listen ) ) is a South Slavic language spoken in Southeastern Europe , primarily in Bulgaria . It is the language of Bulgarians . Along with the closely related Macedonian language ( collectively forming the East South Slavic languages ) , it is a member of the Balkan sprachbund . The two languages have several characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages : changes include the elimination of case declension , the development of a suffixed definite article and the lack of a verb infinitive , but it retains and has further developed the Proto-Slavic verb system . One such major development is the innovation of evidential verb forms to encode for the source of information : witnessed , inferred , or reported . It is the official language of Bulgaria , and since 2007 has been among the official languages of the European Union . It is also spoken by minorities in several other countries .
Sofia ( /ˈsoʊfiə , ˈsɒf- , soʊˈfiːə/ SOH-fee-ə , SOF- ; Bulgarian : София , romanized : Sofiya , IPA : [ ˈsɔfijɐ ] ( listen ) ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria . The city is at the foot of Vitosha mountain in the western part of the country . Being in the centre of the Balkans , it is midway between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea , and closest to the Aegean Sea . Sofia is the 13th largest city in the European Union . The city is surrounded by mountains , such as Mount Vitosha by the southern side , Lyulin by the western side , and the Balkan Mountains by the north , which makes it the second highest European capital after Madrid . The city is built on the Iskar river , and has many mineral springs , such as the Sofia Central Mineral Baths . Sofia has a humid continental climate . Sofia has been described as the 'triangle of religious tolerance ' . This is due to the fact that three colossal temples of the three world major religions - Christianity , Islam and Judaism , reside inside the borders of the city , which are the Sveta Nedelya Church , Banya Bashi Mosque and Sofia Synagogue . Being Bulgaria 's primate city , Sofia is a hometown of many of the major local universities , cultural institutions and commercial companies . Sofia is one of the top ten best places for start-up businesses in the world , especially in information technologies . Sofia was Europe 's most affordable capital to visit in 2013 .
Cambodia ( /kæmˈboʊdiə/ ( listen ) ; also Kampuchea /ˌkæmpʊˈtʃiːə/ ; Khmer : កម្ពុជា [ kam.pu.ciə ] ; French : Cambodge ) , officially the Kingdom of Cambodia ( Khmer : ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា , prĕəh riəciənaacak kampuciə , IPA : [ prĕəh riə.ciə.naː.caʔ kam.pu.ciə ] ; French : Royaume du Cambodge ) , is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia . It is 181,035 square kilometres ( 69,898 square miles ) in area , bordered by Thailand to the northwest , Laos to the northeast , Vietnam to the east and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest . The sovereign state of Cambodia has a population of over 15 million . The official religion is Theravada Buddhism , practised by approximately 95 percent of the population . Cambodia 's minority groups include Vietnamese , Chinese , Chams and 30 hill tribes . The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh , the political , economic and cultural centre of Cambodia . The kingdom is an elective constitutional monarchy with a monarch , currently Norodom Sihamoni , chosen by the Royal Council of the Throne as head of state . The head of government is the Prime Minister , currently Hun Sen , the longest serving non-royal leader in Southeast Asia , ruling Cambodia since 1985 . In 802 AD , Jayavarman II declared himself king , uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name Kambuja . This marked the beginning of the Khmer Empire , which flourished for over 600 years , allowing successive kings to control and exert influence over much of Southeast Asia and accumulate immense power and wealth . The Indianised kingdom facilitated the spread of first Hinduism and then Buddhism to much of Southeast Asia and undertook many religious infrastructural projects throughout the region , including the construction of more than 1,000 temples and monuments in Angkor alone . Angkor Wat is the most famous of these structures and is designated as a World Heritage Site .
Khmer /kmɛər/ ( natively ភាសាខ្មែរ phiăsaa khmae Khmer pronunciation : [ pʰiə.ˈsaː kʰmae ] , dialectal khmæ or khmɛɛr , or more formally ខេមរភាសា kheemaʾraʾ phiăsaa Khmer pronunciation : [ kʰeː.maʔ.raʔ pʰiə.ˈsaː ] ) is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia . With approximately 16 million speakers , it is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language ( after Vietnamese ) . Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pali , especially in the royal and religious registers , through Hinduism and Buddhism . The more colloquial registers have influenced , and have been influenced by , Thai , Lao , Vietnamese , and Cham , all of which , due to geographical proximity and long-term cultural contact , form a sprachbund in peninsular Southeast Asia . It is also the earliest recorded and earliest written language of the Mon-Khmer family , predating Mon and by a significant margin Vietnamese , due to Old Khmer being the language of the historical empires of Chenla , Angkor and , presumably , their earlier predecessor state , Funan . The vast majority of Khmer speakers speak Central Khmer , the dialect of the central plain where the Khmer are most heavily concentrated . Within Cambodia , regional accents exist in remote areas but these are regarded as varieties of Central Khmer . Two exceptions are the speech of the capital , Phnom Penh , and that of the Khmer Khe in Stung Treng province , both of which differ sufficiently enough from Central Khmer to be considered separate dialects of Khmer . Outside of Cambodia , three distinct dialects are spoken by ethnic Khmers native to areas that were historically part of the Khmer Empire . The Northern Khmer dialect is spoken by over a million Khmers in the southern regions of Northeast Thailand and is treated by some linguists as a separate language . Khmer Krom , or Southern Khmer , is the first language of the Khmer of Vietnam while the Khmer living in the remote Cardamom mountains speak a very conservative dialect that still displays features of the Middle Khmer language . Khmer is primarily an analytic , isolating language .
Phnom Penh ( / ( pə ) ˌnɒm ˈpɛn , ˌpnɒm -/ ; Khmer : ភ្នំពេញ , romanized : phnum pɨñ , IPA : [ pʰnʊm ˈpɨɲ ] ; literally Penh 's Hill ) , formerly known as Krong Chaktomuk Serimongkul ( Khmer : ក្រុងចតុមុខសិរីមង្គល means The City of the Brahma 's Faces ) or shortly known as Krong Chaktomuk ( Khmer : ក្រុងចតុមុខ ) , is the capital and most populous city in Cambodia . Phnom Penh has been the national capital since French colonization of Cambodia , and has grown to become the nation 's economic , industrial , and cultural center . Once known as the Pearl of Asia , it was considered one of the loveliest French-built cities in Indochina in the 1920s . Phnom Penh , along with Siem Reap and Sihanoukville , are significant global and domestic tourist destinations for Cambodia . Founded in 1372 , the city is noted for its historical architecture and attractions . It became the national capital in 1434 following the fall of Angkor , and remained so until 1497 . It regained its capital status during the French colonial era in 1865 . There are a number of surviving French colonial buildings scattered along the grand boulevards . On the banks of the Tonlé Sap , Mekong , and Bassac Rivers , Phnom Penh is home to more than 2 million people , approximately 14% of the Cambodian population .
China ( Chinese : 中国 ; pinyin : Zhōngguó ) , officially the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) , is a country in East Asia and is the world 's most populous country , with a population of around 1.428 billion in 2017 . Covering approximately 9,600,000 square kilometers ( 3,700,000 sq mi ) , it is the third largest country by area . [ j ] Governed by the Communist Party of China , the state exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces , [ k ] five autonomous regions , four direct-controlled municipalities ( Beijing , Tianjin , Shanghai , and Chongqing ) , and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau . China emerged as one of the world 's first civilizations , in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain . For millennia , China 's political system was based on hereditary monarchies , or dynasties , beginning with the semi-mythical Xia dynasty in 21st century BCE . Since then , China has expanded , fractured , and re-unified numerous times . In the 3rd century BCE , the Qin reunited core China and established the first Chinese empire . The succeeding Han dynasty , which ruled from 206 BCE until 220 CE , saw some of the most advanced technology at that time , including papermaking and the compass , along with agricultural and medical improvements . The invention of gunpowder and movable type in the Tang dynasty ( 618-907 ) and Northern Song ( 960-1127 ) completed the Four Great Inventions . Tang culture spread widely in Asia , as the new Silk Route brought traders to as far as Mesopotamia and the Horn of Africa . Dynastic rule ended in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution , when the Republic of China ( ROC ) replaced the Qing dynasty . China , as a whole , was ravaged by feudal warlordism and Japan during World War II .
Simplified Chinese characters ( 简化字 ; jiǎnhuàzì ) are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China . Along with traditional Chinese characters , they are one of the two standard character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language . The government of the People 's Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s to encourage literacy . They are officially used in the People 's Republic of China , Malaysia , and Singapore . Traditional Chinese characters are officially used in Hong Kong , Macau , the Republic of China ( Taiwan ) and occasionally in the Chinese community of Malaysia and Singapore . Other Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters . [ citation needed ] Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially ( 简体字 ; jiǎntǐzì ) . The latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body , character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular , more complicated forms . On the other hand , the official name refers to the modern systematically simplified character set , which ( as stated by then-Chairman Mao Zedong in 1952 ) includes not only structural simplification but also substantial reduction in the total number of standardized Chinese characters . Simplified character forms were created by reducing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of Chinese characters . Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms . Some characters were simplified by applying regular rules , for example , by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component .
Traditional Chinese characters ( traditional Chinese : 正體字/繁體字 ; simplified Chinese : 正体字/繁体字 , Pinyin : Zhèngtǐzì/Fántǐzì ) are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946 . [ dubious - discuss ] They are most commonly the characters in the standardized character sets of Taiwan , of Hong Kong and Macau . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty and have been more or less stable since the 5th century ( during the Southern and Northern Dynasties ) . The retronym Traditional Chinese is used to contrast traditional characters with Simplified Chinese characters , a standardized character set introduced by the government of the People 's Republic of China on Mainland China in the 1950s . Traditional Chinese characters are used in Taiwan , Hong Kong and Macau , as well as in Overseas Chinese communities outside Southeast Asia . In contrast , Simplified Chinese characters are used in Mainland China , Malaysia and Singapore in official publications . The debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities . Currently , many overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both character sets . [ citation needed ]
Beijing ( /ˌbeɪˈdʒɪŋ/ BAY-JING , /ˌbeɪˈʒɪŋ/ BAY-ZHING ; Mandarin pronunciation : [ pèi.tɕíŋ ] ( listen ) ) , formerly romanized as Peking ( /ˌpiːˈkɪŋ/ PEE-KING ) , is the capital of the People 's Republic of China , the world 's third most populous city proper , and most populous capital city . The city , located in northern China , is governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the central government with 16 urban , suburban , and rural districts . Beijing Municipality is surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring Tianjin Municipality to the southeast ; together , the three divisions form the Jingjinji metropolitan region and the national capital region of China . Beijing is an important world capital and global power city , and one of the world 's leading centers for culture , diplomacy and politics , business and economy , education , language , and science and technology . A megacity , Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by urban population after Shanghai and is the nation 's cultural , educational , and political center . It is home to the headquarters of most of China 's largest state-owned companies and houses the largest number of Fortune Global 500 companies in the world , as well as the world 's four biggest financial institutions . It is also a major hub for the national highway , expressway , railway , and high-speed rail networks . The Beijing Capital International Airport has been the second busiest in the world by passenger traffic since 2010 , and , as of 2016 [ update ] , the city 's subway network is the busiest and longest in the world . Combining both modern and traditional architecture , Beijing is one of the oldest cities in the world , with a rich history dating back three millennia . As the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China , Beijing has been the political center of the country for most of the past eight centuries , and was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium AD . Encyclopædia Britannica notes that few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural center of an area as immense as China . With mountains surrounding the inland city on three sides , in addition to the old inner and outer city walls , Beijing was strategically poised and developed to be the residence of the emperor and thus was the perfect location for the imperial capital .
Chinese ( simplified Chinese : 汉语 ; traditional Chinese : 漢語 ; pinyin : Hànyǔ ; literally : 'Han language ' ; or especially though not exclusively for written Chinese : 中文 ; Zhōngwén ; 'Chinese writing ' ) is a group of languages that forms the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages . Chinese languages are spoken by the ethnic Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China . About 1.2 billion people ( around 16% of the world 's population ) speak some form of Chinese as their first language . The varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be regional variants of ethnic Chinese speech , without consideration of whether they are mutually intelligible . Due to their lack of mutual intelligibility , linguists generally describe them as distinct languages , perhaps hundreds , sometimes noting that they are more varied than the Romance languages . [ b ] Investigation of the historical relationships among the Sinitic languages is just getting started . Currently , most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups , based on often superficial phonetic developments , of which the most populous by far is Mandarin ( about 800 million speakers , e.g . Southwestern Mandarin ) , followed by Min ( 75 million , e.g . Southern Min ) , Wu ( 74 million , e.g . Shanghainese ) , Yue ( 68 million , e.g . Cantonese ) . These groups are unintelligible to each other , and generally many of their subgroups are mutually unintelligible as well ( e.g. , not only is Min Chinese a family of mutually unintelligible languages , but Southern Min itself is not a single language ) .
Croatia ( /kroʊˈeɪʃə/ ( listen ) , kroh-AY-shə ; Croatian : Hrvatska , pronounced [ xř̩ʋaːtskaː ] ) , officially the Republic of Croatia ( Croatian : Republika Hrvatska , listen ( help·info ) ) , [ d ] is a country in Southeast Europe . It borders Slovenia to the northwest , Hungary to the northeast , Serbia to the east , Bosnia and Herzegovina , and Montenegro to the southeast , sharing a maritime border with Italy . Its capital , Zagreb , forms one of the country 's primary subdivisions , along with twenty counties . Croatia has an area of 56,594 square kilometres ( 21,851 square miles ) and a population of 4.28 million , most of whom are Roman Catholics . Croatia has been inhabited since the Paleolithic Age . The Croats arrived in the area in the 6th century and organised the territory into two duchies by the 9th century . Croatia was first internationally recognized as an independent state on 7 June 879 during the reign of duke Branimir . Tomislav became the first king by 925 , elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom , which retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries . During the succession crisis after the Trpimirović dynasty ended , Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102 . In 1527 , faced with Ottoman conquest , the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of Austria to the Croatian throne . In October 1918 , in the final days of World War I , the State of Slovenes , Croats and Serbs , independent from Austria-Hungary , was proclaimed in Zagreb , and in December 1918 it was merged into the Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes ( renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929 ) . Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 , most of the Croatian territory was incorporated into a Nazi-backed client-state , the Independent State of Croatia .
Zagreb ( /ˈzɑːɡrɛb , ˈzæɡrɛb , zɑːˈɡrɛb/ ; Croatian pronunciation : [ zǎːɡreb ] ( listen ) ) is the capital and the largest city of Croatia . It is located in the northwest of the country , along the Sava river , at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain . Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately 122 m ( 400 ft ) above sea level . The estimated population of the city in 2018 was 820,678 . The population of the Zagreb urban agglomeration is 1,086,528 , approximately a quarter of the total population of Croatia . Zagreb is a city with a rich history dating from the Roman times to the present day . The oldest settlement located in the vicinity of the city was the Roman Andautonia , in today 's Ščitarjevo . The name Zagreb is recorded in 1134 , in reference to the foundation of the settlement at Kaptol in 1094 . Zagreb became a free royal town in 1242 . In 1851 Zagreb had its first mayor , Janko Kamauf . Zagreb has special status as a Croatian administrative division and is a consolidated city-county ( but separated from Zagreb County ) , and is administratively subdivided into 17 city districts . Most of them are at a low elevation along the river Sava valley , whereas northern and northeastern city districts , such as Podsljeme and Sesvete districts are situated in the foothills of the Medvednica mountain , making the city 's geographical image rather diverse .
Cyprus ( /ˈsaɪprəs/ ( listen ) ; Greek : Κύπρος [ ˈcipros ] ; Turkish : Kıbrıs [ ˈkɯbɾɯs ] ) , officially the Republic of Cyprus ( Greek : Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία , lit . Cypriot Republic ; Turkish : Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti , lit . Republic of Cyprus ) , is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third-largest and third-most populous island in the Mediterranean , located south of Turkey , west of Syria and Lebanon , north of Israel , the Gaza Strip ( Palestinian region ) and Egypt , and southeast of Greece . The earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC . Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia , and Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world . Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC . As a strategic location in the Middle East , it was subsequently occupied by several major powers , including the empires of the Assyrians , Egyptians and Persians , from whom the island was seized in 333 BC by Alexander the Great . Subsequent rule by Ptolemaic Egypt , the Classical and Eastern Roman Empire , Arab caliphates for a short period , the French Lusignan dynasty and the Venetians , was followed by over three centuries of Ottoman rule between 1571 and 1878 ( de jure until 1914 ) . Cyprus was placed under the UK 's administration based on the Cyprus Convention in 1878 and was formally annexed by the UK in 1914 . While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population , the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders and Turkey in the 1950s . Turkish leaders for a period advocated the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as Cyprus was considered an extension of Anatolia by them ; while , since the 19th century , the majority Greek Cypriot population and its Orthodox church had been pursuing union with Greece , which became a Greek national policy in the 1950s . Following nationalist violence in the 1950s , Cyprus was granted independence in 1960 .
Greek ( Modern Greek : ελληνικά , elliniká ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages , native to Greece , Cyprus , Albania and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea . It has the longest documented history of any living Indo-European language , spanning at least 3,500 years of written records . Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history ; other systems , such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary , were used previously . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Armenian , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems . The Greek language holds an important place in the history of the Western world and Christianity ; the canon of ancient Greek literature includes works in the Western canon such as the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science , especially astronomy , mathematics and logic and Western philosophy , such as the Platonic dialogues and the works of Aristotle , are composed ; the New Testament of the Christian Bible was written in Koiné Greek . Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the study of the Greek texts and society of antiquity constitutes the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world , West Asia and many places beyond . It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire and develop into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language in two countries , Greece and Cyprus , a recognised minority language in seven other countries , and is one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . The language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece , Cyprus , Italy , Albania , and Turkey and by the Greek diaspora . Greek roots are often used to coin new words for other languages ; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary .
Turkish ( Türkçe ( help·info ) ) , also referred to as Istanbul Turkish ( İstanbul Türkçesi ) , and sometimes known as Turkey Turkish ( Türkiye Türkçesi ) , is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages , with around ten to fifteen million native speakers in Southeast Europe ( mostly in East and Western Thrace ) and sixty to sixty-five million native speakers in Western Asia ( mostly in Anatolia ) . Outside Turkey , significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany , Austria , Bulgaria , North Macedonia , Northern Cyprus , Greece , the Caucasus , and other parts of Europe and Central Asia . Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official language , even though Turkey is not a member state . To the west , the influence of Ottoman Turkish - the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire - spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded . In 1928 , as one of Atatürk 's Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey , the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet . The distinctive characteristics of the Turkish language are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination . The basic word order of Turkish is subject-object-verb . Turkish has no noun classes or grammatical gender . The language makes usage of honorifics and has a strong T-V distinction which distinguishes varying levels of politeness , social distance , age , courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee . The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a single person out of respect .
Nicosia ( /ˌnɪkəˈsiːə/ NIK-ə-SEE-ə ; Greek : Λευκωσία , romanized : Lefkosía [ lefkoˈsi.a ] ; Turkish : Lefkoşa [ lefˈkoʃa ] ) is the largest city , capital , and seat of government of Cyprus . It is located near the centre of the Mesaoria plain , on the banks of the River Pedieos . Nicosia is the southeasternmost of all EU member states ' capitals . It has been continuously inhabited for over 4,500 years and has been the capital of Cyprus since the 10th century . The Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities of Nicosia segregated into the south and north of the city respectively in early 1964 , following the fighting of the Cyprus crisis of 1963-64 that broke out in the city . This separation became a militarised border between the Republic of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus after Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus in 1974 , occupying the north of the island , including northern Nicosia . Today North Nicosia is the capital of Northern Cyprus , a state recognized only by Turkey , that is considered to be occupied Cypriot territory by the international community . Apart from its legislative and administrative functions , Nicosia has established itself as the island 's financial capital and its main international business centre . In 2018 , Nicosia was the 32nd richest city in the world in relative purchasing power .
The Czech Republic ( /ˈtʃɛk -/ ( listen ) ; Czech : Česká republika [ ˈtʃɛskaː ˈrɛpublɪka ] ( listen ) ) , also known by its short-form name , Czechia ( /ˈtʃɛkiə/ ( listen ) ; Czech : Česko [ ˈtʃɛsko ] ( listen ) ) , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Poland to the northeast , Slovakia to the southeast , Austria to the south , and Germany to the west . The Czech Republic is a landlocked country with a hilly landscape that covers an area of 78,866 square kilometers ( 30,450 sq mi ) with a mostly temperate continental climate and oceanic climate . It is a unitary parliamentary republic , with 10.7 million inhabitants . Its capital and largest city is Prague , with 1.3 million residents ; other major cities are Brno , Ostrava , Olomouc and Pilsen . The Czech Republic includes the historical territories of Bohemia , Moravia , and Czech Silesia . The Czech state was formed in the late ninth century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire . In 1002 , the duchy was formally recognized as an Imperial State of the Holy Roman Empire along with the Kingdom of Germany , the Kingdom of Burgundy , the Kingdom of Italy ; and became the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 , reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century . Prague was the imperial seat in periods between the 14th and 17th century . The Protestant Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century led to the Hussite Wars , the first of many conflicts with the Catholic Church . Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526 , the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy . The Protestant Bohemian Revolt ( 1618-20 ) against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years ' War . After the Battle of the White Mountain , the Habsburgs consolidated their rule , eradicated Protestantism , reimposed Catholicism , and adopted a policy of gradual Germanization .
Czech ( /tʃɛk/ ; Czech čeština [ ˈtʃɛʃcɪna ] ) , historically also Bohemian ( /boʊˈhiːmiən , bə-/ ; lingua Bohemica in Latin ) is a West Slavic language of the Czech-Slovak group . Spoken by over 10 million people , it serves as the official language of the Czech Republic . Czech is closely related to Slovak , to the point of mutual intelligibility to a very high degree , as well as Polish . Like other Slavic languages , Czech is a fusional language with a rich system of morphology and relatively flexible word order . Its vocabulary has been extensively influenced by Latin and German . The Czech-Slovak group developed within West Slavic in the high medieval period , and the standardization of Czech and Slovak within the Czech-Slovak dialect continuum emerged in the early modern period . In the later 18th to mid-19th century , the modern written standard became codified in the context of the Czech National Revival . The main non-standard variety , known as Common Czech , is based on the vernacular of Prague , but is now spoken as an interdialect throughout most of the Czech Republic . The Moravian dialects spoken in the eastern part of the country are also classified as Czech , although some of their eastern variants are closer to Slovak . Czech has a moderately-sized phoneme inventory , comprising ten monophthongs , three diphthongs and 25 consonants ( divided into hard , neutral and soft categories ) . Words may contain complicated consonant clusters or lack vowels altogether . Czech has a raised alveolar trill , which is known to occur as a phoneme in only a few other languages , represented by the grapheme ř. Czech uses a simple orthography which phonologists have used as a model .
Prague ( /prɑːɡ/ ; Czech : Praha [ ˈpraɦa ] ( listen ) , German : Prag , Latin : Praga ) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic , the 13th largest city in the European Union and the historical capital of Bohemia . Situated on the Vltava river , Prague is home to about 1.3 million people , while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 2.6 million . The city has a temperate oceanic climate , with relatively warm summers and chilly winters . Prague is a political , cultural and economic centre of central Europe complete with a rich history . Founded during the Romanesque and flourishing by the Gothic , Renaissance and Baroque eras , Prague was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the main residence of several Holy Roman Emperors , most notably of Charles IV ( r. 1346-1378 ) . It was an important city to the Habsburg Monarchy and its Austro-Hungarian Empire . The city played major roles in the Bohemian and Protestant Reformation , the Thirty Years ' War and in 20th-century history as the capital of Czechoslovakia between the World Wars and the post-war Communist era . Prague is home to a number of well-known cultural attractions , many of which survived the violence and destruction of 20th-century Europe . Main attractions include Prague Castle , Charles Bridge , Old Town Square with the Prague astronomical clock , the Jewish Quarter , Petřín hill and Vyšehrad . Since 1992 , the extensive historic centre of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites . The city has more than ten major museums , along with numerous theatres , galleries , cinemas and other historical exhibits . An extensive modern public transportation system connects the city .
Denmark ( Danish : Danmark , pronounced [ ˈtænmak ] ( listen ) ) , officially the Kingdom of Denmark , [ N 10 ] [ N 2 ] is a Nordic country in Northwest Europe . Denmark proper , which is the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries , consists of a peninsula , Jutland , and an archipelago of 443 named islands , [ N 2 ] with the largest being Zealand , Funen and the North Jutlandic Island . The islands are characterised by flat , arable land and sandy coasts , low elevation and a temperate climate . The southernmost of the Scandinavian nations , Denmark lies southwest of Sweden and south of Norway , [ N 11 ] and is bordered to the south by Germany . The Kingdom of Denmark also includes two autonomous territories in the North Atlantic Ocean : the Faroe Islands and Greenland . Denmark has a total area of 42,924 km2 ( 16,573 sq mi ) , land area of 42,394 km2 ( 16,368 sq mi ) , and the total area including Greenland and the Faroe Islands is 2,210,579 km2 ( 853,509 sq mi ) , and a population of 5.8 million in Denmark proper ( Danish egentlige Danmark ) ( as of 2020 [ update ] ) . The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 8th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea . Denmark , Sweden , and Norway were ruled together under one sovereign ruler in the Kalmar Union , established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523 . The areas of Denmark and Norway remained under the same monarch until 1814 , Denmark-Norway . Beginning in the 17th century , there were several devastating wars with the Swedish Empire , ending with large cessions of territory to Sweden . After the Napoleonic Wars , Norway was ceded to Sweden , while Denmark kept the Faroe Islands , Greenland , and Iceland . In the 19th century there was a surge of nationalist movements , which were defeated in the First Schleswig War .
Denmark ( Danish : Danmark , pronounced [ ˈtænmak ] ( listen ) ) , officially the Kingdom of Denmark , [ N 10 ] [ N 2 ] is a Nordic country in Northwest Europe . Denmark proper , which is the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries , consists of a peninsula , Jutland , and an archipelago of 443 named islands , [ N 2 ] with the largest being Zealand , Funen and the North Jutlandic Island . The islands are characterised by flat , arable land and sandy coasts , low elevation and a temperate climate . The southernmost of the Scandinavian nations , Denmark lies southwest of Sweden and south of Norway , [ N 11 ] and is bordered to the south by Germany . The Kingdom of Denmark also includes two autonomous territories in the North Atlantic Ocean : the Faroe Islands and Greenland . Denmark has a total area of 42,924 km2 ( 16,573 sq mi ) , land area of 42,394 km2 ( 16,368 sq mi ) , and the total area including Greenland and the Faroe Islands is 2,210,579 km2 ( 853,509 sq mi ) , and a population of 5.8 million in Denmark proper ( Danish egentlige Danmark ) ( as of 2020 [ update ] ) . The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 8th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea . Denmark , Sweden , and Norway were ruled together under one sovereign ruler in the Kalmar Union , established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523 . The areas of Denmark and Norway remained under the same monarch until 1814 , Denmark-Norway . Beginning in the 17th century , there were several devastating wars with the Swedish Empire , ending with large cessions of territory to Sweden . After the Napoleonic Wars , Norway was ceded to Sweden , while Denmark kept the Faroe Islands , Greenland , and Iceland . In the 19th century there was a surge of nationalist movements , which were defeated in the First Schleswig War .
Danish ( /ˈdeɪnɪʃ/ ( listen ) ; dansk pronounced [ ˈtænˀsk ] ( listen ) , dansk sprog [ ˈtænˀsk ˈspʁɔu̯ˀ ] ) is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people , principally in Denmark , Greenland and in the region of Southern Schleswig in northern Germany , where it has minority language status . Also , minor Danish-speaking communities are found in Norway , Sweden , Spain , the United States , Canada , Brazil , and Argentina . Due to immigration and language shift in urban areas , around 15-20% of the population of Greenland speak Danish as their first language . Along with the other North Germanic languages , Danish is a descendant of Old Norse , the common language of the Germanic peoples who lived in Scandinavia during the Viking Era . Danish , together with Swedish , derives from the East Norse dialect group , while the Middle Norwegian language before the influence of Danish and Norwegian Bokmål are classified as West Norse along with Faroese and Icelandic . A more recent classification based on mutual intelligibility separates modern spoken Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish as mainland Scandinavian , while Icelandic and Faroese are classified as insular Scandinavian . Until the 16th century , Danish was a continuum of dialects spoken from Schleswig to Scania with no standard variety or spelling conventions . With the Protestant Reformation and the introduction of printing , a standard language was developed which was based on the educated Copenhagen dialect . It spread through use in the education system and administration , though German and Latin continued to be the most important written languages well into the 17th century . Following the loss of territory to Germany and Sweden , a nationalist movement adopted the language as a token of Danish identity , and the language experienced a strong surge in use and popularity , with major works of literature produced in the 18th and 19th centuries . Today , traditional Danish dialects have all but disappeared , though regional variants of the standard language exist . The main differences in language are between generations , with youth language being particularly innovative .
Copenhagen [ a ] ( Danish : København [ kʰøpm̩ˈhau̯ˀn ] ( listen ) ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark . As of 1 January 2020 , the city had a population of 794,128 , 632,340 in Copenhagen Municipality , 104,305 in Frederiksberg Municipality , 42,989 in Tårnby Municipality , and 14,494 in Dragør Municipality . It forms the core of the wider urban area of Copenhagen ( population 1,320,629 ) and the Copenhagen metropolitan area ( population 2,557,737 ) . Copenhagen is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand ; another small portion of the city is located on Amager , and it is separated from Malmø , Sweden , by the strait of Øresund . The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road . Originally a Viking fishing village established in the 10th century in the vicinity of what is now Gammel Strand , Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century . Beginning in the 17th century it consolidated its position as a regional centre of power with its institutions , defences and armed forces . During the renaissance the city served as the de facto capital being the seat of government of the Kalmar Union , governing the entire present day Nordic region in a personal union with Sweden and Norway ruled by the Danish monarch serving as the head of state . The city flourished as the cultural and economic center of Scandinavia under the union for well over 120 years , starting in the 15th century up until the beginning of the 16th century when the union was dissolved with Sweden leaving the union through a rebellion . After a plague outbreak and fire in the 18th century , the city underwent a period of redevelopment . This included construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and founding of such cultural institutions as the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts . After further disasters in the early 19th century when Horatio Nelson attacked the Dano-Norwegian fleet and bombarded the city , rebuilding during the Danish Golden Age brought a Neoclassical look to Copenhagen 's architecture .