The official language spoken in Austria is German, which is also the lingua franca of the country. However, there are also several regional linguistic minorities that have been recognized, including:
-
Austro-Bavarian: This is the main dialect spoken outside of Vorarlberg, and it differs greatly from Standard German.
-
Croatian: This has been the official language of the Burgenland region since 1955, and it is spoken by 1.6% of the total population.
-
Slovenian: This is spoken by nearly 14,000 Austrians in parts of the Carinthian region, and it has been recognized as an official minority language since 1955.
-
Hungarian: This is recognized as an official language in the Burgenland area, although it is used by a decreasingly smaller group of people than in the past. It is the most widely spoken second language in Austria, with a percentage of around 2.3% of speakers.
-
Serbian: This represents a large linguistic minority, with 2.2% of the population.
Other foreign languages are also used in Austria by smaller groups of people, such as Italian, Czech, French, and Spanish.
