The European Union (EU) has 24 official languages, of which threeEnglish, French and Germanhave the higher status of "procedural" languages of the European Commission (whereas the European Parliament accepts all official languages as working languages). Irish previously had the lower status of "treaty language" before being upgraded to an official and working language in 2007. However, a temporary derogation was enforced until 1 January 2022. The three procedural languages are those used in the day-to-day workings of the institutions of the EU. The designation of Irish as a "treaty language" meant that only the treaties of the European Union were translated into Irish, whereas Legal Acts of the European Union adopted under the treaties (like Directives and Regulations) did not have to be. Luxembourgish and Turkish, which have official status in Luxembourg and Cyprus, respectively, are the only two official languages of EU member states that are not official languages of the EU. In 2023, the Spanish government requested that its co-official languages Catalan, Basque, and Galician be added to the official languages of the EU.

The EU asserts that it is in favour of linguistic diversity. This principle is enshrined in the EU Charter of fundamental rights (art. 22) and in the Treaty on European Union (art. 3(3) TEU). In the EU, language policy is the responsibility of member states, and the EU does not have a common language policy; EU institutions play a supporting role in this field, based on the principle of "subsidiarity"; they promote a European dimension in the member states' language policies. The EU encourages all its citizens to be multilingual; specifically, it encourages them to be able to speak two languages in addition to their native language. Though the EU has very limited influence in this area, as the content of educational systems is the responsibility of individual member states, a number of EU funding programmes actively promote language learning and linguistic diversity.

The most widely understood language in the EU is English, which is understood by 44% of all adults, while German is the most widely used mother tongue, spoken by 18%. All 24 official languages of the EU are accepted as working languages, but in practice only threeEnglish, French, and Germanare in wide general use, and of these, English is the most commonly used. French is an official language in all three of the cities that are political centres of the Union: Brussels, Belgium; Strasbourg, France; and Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Since the exit of the United Kingdom from the EU in 2020, the government of France has encouraged greater use of French as a working language.

Official EU languages
, the official languages of the European Union, as stipulated in the latest amendment of Regulation No 1 determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community of 1958, are:

The number of member states exceeds the number of official languages, as several national languages are shared by two or more countries in the EU. Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, and Swedish are all official languages at the national level in multiple countries (see table above). In addition, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Hungarian, Italian, Slovak, and Slovene are official languages in multiple EU countries at the regional level.

Furthermore, not all national languages have been accorded the status of official EU languages. These include Luxembourgish, an official language of Luxembourg since 1984, and Turkish, an official language of Cyprus.

All languages of the EU are also working languages. Documents which a member state or a person subject to the jurisdiction of a member state sends to institutions of the Community may be drafted in any one of the official languages selected by the sender. The reply is drafted in the same language. Regulations and other documents of general application are drafted in the twenty-four official languages. The Official Journal of the European Union is published in the twenty-four official languages.

Documents of major public importance or interest are produced in all official languages, but that accounts for a minority of the institutions′ work. Other documents—e.g., communications with the national authorities, decisions addressed to particular individuals or entities and correspondence—are translated only into the languages needed. For internal purposes the EU institutions are allowed by law to choose their own language arrangements. The European Commission, for example, conducts its internal business in three languages, English, French, and German (sometimes called "procedural languages"), and goes fully multilingual only for public information and communication purposes. The European Parliament, on the other hand, has members who need working documents in their own languages, so its document flow is fully multilingual from the outset. Non-institutional EU bodies are not legally obliged to make language arrangement for all the 24 languages (Kik v. Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market, Case C-361/01, 2003 ECJ I-8283).

The translations are expensive. According to the EU's English-language website, the cost of maintaining the institutions' policy of multilingualism—i.e., the cost of translation and interpretation—was €1,123 million in 2005, which is 1% of the annual general budget of the EU, or €2.28 per person per year. The EU Parliament has made clear that its member states have autonomy for language education, which by treaty the Union must respect.

Language families

The vast majority of EU languages belong to the Indo-European family: the three dominant subfamilies are the Germanic, Romance, and Slavic. Germanic languages are spoken in central and northern Europe and include Danish, Dutch, English, German, and Swedish. Romance languages are spoken in western and southern European regions; they include French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. The Slavic languages are to be found in central Europe and the Balkans in southern Europe. They include Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Slovene. The Baltic languages, Latvian and Lithuanian; the Celtic languages, including Irish; and Greek are also Indo-European.

Outside the Indo-European family, Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian are Uralic languages while Maltese is the only Afroasiatic language with official status in the EU.

Writing systems

Most official EU languages are written in the Latin script. The two exceptions are Greek, which is written in the Greek script, and Bulgarian, which is written in Cyrillic script. With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek scripts. The current design of euro banknotes has the word euro written in both the Latin and Greek (Ευρώ) alphabets; the Cyrillic spelling (Eвро) was added to the new Europa series of banknotes started in 2013 (see Linguistic issues concerning the euro).

Language-specific regulations

Maltese
Although Maltese is an official language, the Council set a transitional period of three years from 1 May 2004, during which the institutions were not obliged to draft all acts in Maltese. It was agreed that the council could extend this transitional period by an additional year, but decided not to. All new acts of the institutions were required to be adopted and published in Maltese from 30 April 2007.

Irish
When Ireland joined the EEC (now the EU) in 1973, Irish was accorded "Treaty Language" status. This meant that the founding EU Treaty was restated in Irish. Irish was also listed in that treaty and all subsequent EU treaties as one of the authentic languages of the treaties. As a Treaty Language, Irish was an official procedural language of the European Court of Justice. It was also possible to correspond in written Irish with the EU Institutions.

However, despite being the first official language of Ireland and having been accorded minority-language status in the Northern Ireland region of the United Kingdom, then an EU member state, Irish was not made an official working language of the EU until 1 January 2007. On that date an EU Council Regulation making Irish an official working language of the EU came into effect. This followed a unanimous decision on 13 June 2005 by EU foreign ministers that Irish would be made the 21st official language of the EU. However, a derogation previously stipulated that not all documents have to be translated into Irish as is the case with the other official languages.

The regulation meant that legislation adopted by both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers is translated into Irish, and interpretation from Irish was available at European Parliament plenary sessions and some Council meetings. The cost of translation, interpretation, publication, and legal services involved in making Irish an official EU language was estimated at just under €3.5 million a year. On 3 December 2015, a new regulation passed by the council had set a definitive schedule on the gradual reduction of the derogation of the Irish language. This regulation outlined a schedule of gradual reduction spread across five years starting from 2016. The derogation was ultimately revoked on 1 January 2022, making Irish a fully recognised EU language for the first time in the state's history.

Irish is the only official language of the EU that is not the most widely spoken language in any member state. According to the 2006 Irish census figures, there are 1.66 million people in Ireland with some ability to speak Irish, out of a population of 4.6 million, though only 538,500 use Irish on a daily basis (counting those who use it mainly in the education system) and just over 72,000 use Irish as a daily language outside the education system.

South-Slavic language status
At the time of Croatia's accession to the EU, some diplomats and officials suggested that, rather than accepting the Croatian written standard as an official EU language, the EU should instead adopt a single unified literary form that would encompass several nearly-identical written standards of the same language, historically known as Serbo-Croatian. In addition to Croatian, this would include the Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin written standards, with the goal of reducing potential translation and interpretation costs if the other Western Balkan states eventually joined the EU as well. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was cited as an example of an international body that had conducted business in such a unified standard. In negotiations with Croatia, however, it was agreed that the Croatian standard would become a separate official EU language, as none of the other states at issue had yet been admitted to the EU.

Regional, minority and other languages
Some regional or minority languages spoken within the EU do not have official recognition at EU level. Some of them may have some official status within the member state and count many more speakers than some of the lesser-used official languages. The official languages of EU are in bold.

In the list, language varieties classified as dialects of an official language by member countries are not included. However, many of these varieties may be viewed as separate languages: for instance, Scots (the Germanic language descended from Old English, not the Celtic language known as Scottish Gaelic) and several Romance languages spoken in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, such as Aragonese, Asturian, Mirandese, Lombard, Ligurian, Piedmontese, Venetian, Corsican, Neapolitan and Sicilian.

Languages of France

The French constitution stipulates French as the sole language of France. Since the 2008 modifications, article 75-1 of the Constitution adds that "regional languages form part of the French heritage".

Nevertheless, there exist a number of languages spoken by sizable minorities, such as Breton (a Celtic language), Basque, and several Romance languages such as Occitan, Catalan, Corsican and the various langues d'oïl (other than French), as well as Germanic languages spoken in Alsace-Lorraine (Central Franconian, High Franconian, Luxembourgish, and Alemannic) and French Flanders (Dutch).

These languages enjoy no official status under the French state, and regions are not permitted to bestow any such status themselves.

Languages of Greece

The official language of Greece is Greek, and recognized minority languages are Armenian, Ladino and Turkish. Nevertheless, there are several other languages in Greece, which lack any recognition. These are Albanian, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian (these last two usually being collectively known as "Vlach"), Romani and the Slavic varieties spoken in the country. Greece has been described as the only European Union member state that sticks to a "linguistic assimilationist ideology".

Languages of Italy

Italy's official language is Italian, although twelve additional languages (namely Albanian, Catalan, German, Greek, Slovene, Croatian, French, Franco-Provençal, Friulian, Ladin, Occitan and Sardinian) have been recognized as minority languages by the 1999 national Framework Law on the Country's historical linguistic minorities, in accordance with the Article 6 of the Italian Constitution. However, many languages other than Italian and the above-mentioned twelve are spoken across the country, most of them being either Gallo-Italic or Italo-Dalmatian.

Languages of Spain

The Spanish governments have sought to give some official status in the EU for the languages of the autonomous communities of Spain, Catalan/Valencian, Galician and Basque. The 667th Council Meeting of the Council of the European Union in Luxembourg on 13 June 2005, decided to authorise limited use at EU level of languages recognised by member states other than the official working languages. The Council granted recognition to "languages other than the languages referred to in Council Regulation No 1/1958 whose status is recognised by the Constitution of a Member State on all or part of its territory or the use of which as a national language is authorised by law." The official use of such languages will be authorised on the basis of an administrative arrangement concluded between the council and the requesting member state.

Although Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician are not nationwide official languages in Spain, as co-official languages in the respective regions—pursuant to Spanish constitution, among other documents—they are eligible to benefit from official use in EU institutions under the terms of 13 June 2005 resolution of the Council of the European Union. The Spanish government has assented to the provisions in respect of these languages.

The status of Catalan, spoken by over 9 million EU citizens (just over 1.8% of the total), has been the subject of particular debate. On 11 December 1990, the use of Catalan was the subject of a European Parliament Resolution (resolution A3-169/90 on languages in the [European] Community and the situation of Catalan).

On 16 November 2005, the President Peter Straub of the Committee of the Regions signed an agreement with the Spanish Ambassador to the EU, , approving the use of Spanish regional languages in an EU institution for the first time in a meeting on that day, with interpretation provided by European Commission interpreters.

On 3 July 2006, the European Parliament's Bureau approved a proposal by the Spanish State to allow citizens to address the European Parliament in Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, two months after its initial rejection.

On 30 November 2006, the European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, and the Spanish ambassador in the EU, Carlos Bastarreche, signed an agreement in Brussels to allow Spanish citizens to address complaints to the European Ombudsman in Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, all three co-official languages in Spain. According to the agreement, a translation body, which will be set up and financed by the Spanish government, will be responsible for translating complaints submitted in these languages. In turn, it will translate the Ombudsman's decisions from Spanish into the language of the complainant. Until such a body is established the agreement will not become effective.

Following the 2023 Spanish general election, the PSOE-led Spanish government sent a letter to the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, asking for Catalan, Basque, and Galician to be added to the current 24 official languages of the EU. This was done in exchange for the support of the Catalan separatist party Junts for Francina Armengol's candidacy for President of the Congress of Deputies. Without such support the PSOE would likely have been unable to form a new government and a second election would have been held in the same year.

Galician in particular, not being itself a European Parliament official language, can be used and is in fact used by some European Parliament constituents as a spoken dialect of Portuguese due to its similarity with this language.

Luxembourgish and Turkish
Luxembourgish (Luxembourg) and Turkish (Cyprus) are the only two national languages that are not official languages of the EU. Neither Luxembourg nor Cyprus have yet used the provision of 13 June 2005 resolution to benefit from use in official EU institutions. On 26 February 2016 it was made public that Cyprus has asked to make Turkish an official EU language, in a "gesture" that could help reunification and improve EU–Turkey relations. Already in 2004, it was planned that Turkish would become an official language if Cyprus reunited. Turkish is also a recognized minority language in two EU member countries (Greece and Romania).

In September 2010, Luxembourg's foreign minister Jean Asselborn declined a request of the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) to make Luxembourgish an official language of the European Union citing financial reasons and also that German and French being already official languages would be sufficient for the needs of Luxembourg.

Romani
The Romani people, numbering over two million in the EU, speak the Romani language (actually numerous different languages), which is not official in any EU member state or polity, except for being an official minority language of Sweden and Finland. Moreover, Romani mass media and educational institution presences are near-negligible.

Russian
Though not an official language of the European Union, Russian is spoken in all member states that were part of the Soviet Union (and before that the Russian Empire). Russian is the native language of about 1.6 million Baltic Russians residing in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as a sizeable community of about 3.5 million in Germany and as a major immigrant language elsewhere in the EU, e.g. in and around Paris. Russian is also understood by a majority of ethnic Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians born before c. 1980, since, as official language of the Soviet Union, it was a compulsory school subject in those countries that were part of the Soviet Union. To a lesser extent, this legacy also holds true among the older generation in parts of the EU that were formerly part of the Eastern bloc, such as the GDR.

In March 2010 fact-sheets in Russian produced by the EU executive's offices in Latvia were withdrawn, provoking criticism from Plaid Cymru MEP and European Free Alliance group President Jill Evans who called European Commission to continue to provide information in non-official EU languages and commented that "it's disappointing to hear that the EU is bowing to pressure to exclude Russian speakers in the Baltic in this way".

Sami languages
In Finland, the Sami languages Northern Sami (ca. 2,000 speakers), Skolt Sami (400) and Inari Sami (300) have limited local recognition in certain municipalities of Finnish Lapland. Furthermore, legislation specifically concerning the Sami must be translated to these languages. Bilingualism with Finnish is universal, though.

At least five different Sami languages are spoken in Sweden, but "Sami language" (undifferentiated) is recognised as an official minority language in Sweden, and is co-official with Swedish in four municipalities in Norrbotten County (Swedish Lapland). Most of Sami speakers speak Northern Sami (5,000–6,000 speakers), although there are ca. 1,000–2,000 Lule Sami speakers and 600 Southern Sami speakers. Also Ume Sámi and Pite Sámi are spoken in Sweden.

Latin
For millennia, Latin served as a lingua franca for administrative, scholarly, religious, political, and other purposes in parts of the present-day European Union. After Athens and other Greek city-states of the 6th to 4th centuries BC, the first documented political entity historically verifiable in Europe was the Roman Republic, traditionally founded in 509 BC, the successor-state to the Etruscan city-state confederacies.
Latin as a lingua franca of Europe was rivalled only by Greek. It is serving as honourable and ceremonial language in some of the oldest European universities in the 21st century, and has operated as the official language of the Roman Catholic Church until today. Latin, along with Greek, was at the core of education in Europe from the schools of rhetoric of the Roman Republic in all of its provinces and territories, through the medieval trivium and quadrivium, through the humanists and the Renaissance, all the way to Newton's Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis (just to name one example of thousands of scientific works written in this language), to the public schools of all European countries, where Latin (along with Greek) was at the core of their curricula. Latin served as the undisputed European lingua franca until the 19th century, when the cultures of vernacular languages and the "national languages" started to gain ground and claim status. Today, several institutions of the European Union use Latin in their logos and domain names instead of listing their names in all the official languages. For example, the European Court of Justice has its website at "curia.europa.eu". The Court of Auditors uses Curia Rationum in its logo. The Council of the European Union has its website at "consilium.europa.eu" and its logo showing Consilium. The European Union itself has a Latin motto: "In varietate concordia". Under the European Company Regulation, companies can be incorporated as Societas Europaea (Latin for "European Company", often shortened to "SE" after the company's own proper name). Latin is one of the languages of IATE (the inter-institutional terminology database of the European Union).

Immigrant languages
A wide variety of languages from other parts of the world are spoken by immigrant communities in EU countries. Turkish (which is also an official language of the EU member Cyprus) is spoken as a first language by an estimated 1% of the population in Belgium and the western part of Germany, and by 1% in the Netherlands. Other widely used migrant languages include Berber languages which are spoken by about 1% of the population of both the Netherlands and Belgium and by many Berber migrants in France, Spain, Italy and Germany. Arabic is spoken in many EU countries mainly in its Maghrebi and Levantine varieties. Maghrebi Arabic is spoken by migrants in France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Levantine Arabic is spoken by migrants in Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Greece. Languages from former Yugoslavia (Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Albanian, etc.) are spoken in many parts of the EU by migrants and refugees who have left the region as a result of the Yugoslav wars and unrest there.

There are large Chinese communities in France, Spain, Italy, and other countries. Old and recent Chinese migrants speak a number of Chinese varieties, in particular Cantonese and other southern Chinese varieties. However, Mandarin is becoming increasingly more prevalent due to the opening of the People's Republic of China.

There are many Russian-speaking immigrants in Germany and France.

Many immigrant communities in the EU have been in place for several generations now, and their members are bilingual, at ease both in the local language and in that of their community.

Sign languages
A wide variety of sign languages are used in the EU, with around 500,000 people using a sign language as their first language. None of these languages are recognised as an official language of an EU member state, with the exception of Ireland passing the Irish Sign Language Act 2017 that granted it official status alongside Irish and English, and only three states (Austria, Finland and Portugal) refer to sign languages in their constitution.

Several NGOs exist which support signers, such as the European Union of the Deaf and the European Sign Language Centre. The European Commission has also supported some initiatives to produce digital technologies that can better support signers, such as Dicta-Sign and SignSpeak.

The sign languages in use in the EU are more difficult to classify into language families than the spoken languages, because of language contact and creolization. Important families include the Swedish, French, and German sign language families.

Vietnamese
Vietnamese is one of the 14 recognized minority languages in the Czech Republic.

Esperanto
Esperanto is a constructed language that is part of the educational system in several member states. In Hungary it is officially recognised by the Ministry of Education as a foreign language; and examinations in Esperanto may be used to meet the requirements of knowledge of foreign languages needed to complete university or high school. Every year, since 2001, between 1000 and 3000 people have passed examinations in Esperanto, making up for a sum of more than 35,000 up to 2016; it is recognised by the Hungarian state. The Hungarian census 2001 found 4575 Esperanto speakers in Hungary (4407 of them learned the language, for 168 of them it is a family or native language); in 2011 it found 8397 Esperanto speakers. In 1990 there were only 2083 Esperanto speakers in Hungary following the census.

Esperanto is not mentioned by the EU Commission as an EU language; the Commission mentions only official, indigenous regional and minority languages as well as languages of immigrants. Following estimates there are approximately 100,000 Europeans sometimes using Esperanto (and several millions having learned Esperanto); the language has several thousand native speakers, some of them of the second or third generation.

The European party Europe – Democracy – Esperanto seeks to establish the planned language as an official second language in the EU in order to make international communication more efficient and fair in economical and philosophical terms. They are based on the conclusions of the Grin Report, which concluded that it would hypothetically allow savings to the EU of €25 billion a year (€54 for every citizen) and have other benefits. However, the EU Parliament has stated clearly that language education is the responsibility of member states.

The European Esperanto Union also promotes Esperanto as the international auxiliary language of Europe.

Knowledge

The five most spoken languages in the EU are English (44%), German (36%), French (30%), Italian (18%) and Spanish (17%). At 20% of the total number of speakers, German is the most widely spoken native language, followed by Italian (15%), French (14%) and Spanish (9%). The knowledge of foreign languages varies considerably in the specific countries, as the table below shows. The most spoken second or foreign languages in the EU are English, French, German, Spanish, and Russian. In the table, boxes coloured light blue mean that the language is an official language of the country, while the main language spoken in the country is coloured dark blue.

1 This does not refer to the total population of the countries.2 40% of those who speak French are native speakers, for a total of 85%.3 Includes about 30% native speakers4 Includes more than 30% native speakers

56% of EU citizens are able to hold a conversation in a language other than their native language, nine percent higher than reported in 2001 among the 15 member states at the time. 28% are able to hold a conversation in at least two foreign languages, while 44% are only able to speak their native language. Approximately 1 in 5 Europeans can be described as an active language learner (i.e., someone who has recently improved his/her language skills or intends to do so over the following 12 months).

English remains by far the most widely spoken foreign language throughout Europe. A total of 95% of students in the EU study English at secondary level and 38% of EU citizens state that they have sufficient skills in English to have a conversation (excluding citizens of Ireland, an English-speaking country). A total of 28% of Europeans indicate that they know either French (14%) or German (14%), along with their native language. French is most commonly studied and used in southern Europe, especially in Mediterranean countries, in Germany, Portugal, Romania, the Benelux countries and Ireland. German, on the other hand, is commonly studied and used in the Benelux countries, in Scandinavia, and in the newer EU member states. Spanish is most commonly studied in France, Italy, Luxembourg, and Portugal. In 19 out of 29 countries polled, English is the most widely known language apart from the native language, this being particularly the case in Sweden (89%), Malta (88%); the Netherlands (87%); and Denmark (86%). A total of 77% of EU citizens believe that children should learn English. English was considered the number one language to learn in all countries where the research was conducted except for Ireland and Luxembourg. English, either as a native language or as a second/foreign language, is spoken by 44% of EU citizens, followed by German with 36% and French with 30%.

With the enlargement of the European Union, the balance between French and German is slowly changing. More citizens in the new member states speak German (23% compared with 12% in the EU15) while fewer speak French or Spanish (3% and 1% respectively compared with 16% and 7% among the EU15 group). A notable exception is Romania, where 24% of the population speaks French as a foreign language compared to 6% who speak German as a foreign language. At the same time, the balance is being changed in the opposite direction by growth of the French-speaking population and decrease of the German-speaking population.

Language skills are unevenly distributed both over the geographical area of Europe and over sociodemographic groups. Reasonably good language competences are perceived in relatively small member states with several state languages, lesser used native languages or "language exchange" with neighbouring countries. This is the case in Luxembourg, where 92% speak at least two languages. Those who live in southern European countries or countries where one of the major European languages is a state language have a lower likelihood of speaking multiple foreign languages. Only 5% of Turks, 13% of Irish, 16% of Italians, 17% of Spaniards and 18% of Britons speak at least two languages apart from their native language.

Working languages

European Commission
While documents for and communication with citizens are in every official EU language as a right, day-to-day work in the European Commission is based around its three working languages: English, French, and German. Of these, English and French are used the most often. The use of English vs. French depends greatly on the unit or directorate. Only a few of the commissioners use a language other than English or French as their working language. German is rarely used as a true working language in the Commission, and German media have called the dominance of English and French a discrimination against German (which is the most spoken mother tongue of the EU) and a violation of the regulations pertaining to the EU's working languages. The German Bundestag has repeatedly called for German to receive an equal position in the Commission alongside English and French. The language situation has also disappointed many in France, and Kristalina Georgieva, who is from Bulgaria, gained a round of applause when she told the European Parliament she would learn French while in the Commission.

Use of German has, however, been increasing in EU institutions, as has the number of people learning the language across Europe.

European Parliament

The European Parliament translates its proceedings into all official languages so that fellow MEPs can understand them better than if they had the delayed translation. Committee meetings also often default to the language most understood by those attending instead of listening to the translation.

Court of Justice

The working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union is French. The judges deliberate in French, pleadings and written legal submissions are translated into French, and the judgment is drafted in French. The Advocates-General, by contrast, may work and draft their opinions in any official language, as they do not take part in any deliberations. These opinions are then translated into French for the benefit of the judges and their deliberations.

European Central Bank

The working language of the European Central Bank is English.

Policy
The European Union's legal powers on legislative acts and other initiatives on language policy are based on the provisions of the Treaties of the European Union. In the EU, language policy is the responsibility of member states, and the European Union does not have a common "language policy". Based on the principle of subsidiarity, European Union institutions play a supporting role in this field, promoting cooperation between the member states and promoting the European dimension in the member states' language policies, particularly through the teaching and dissemination of the languages of the member states (Article 149.2). The rules governing the languages of the institutions of the Community shall, without prejudice to the provisions contained in the Statute of the Court of Justice, be determined by the council, acting unanimously (Article 290). All languages, in which was originally drawn up or was translated due to enlargement, are legally equally authentic. Every citizen of the Union may write to any of the EU institutions or bodies in one of these languages and receive an answer in the same language (Article 24 TFEU).

In the Charter of Fundamental Rights, legally binding since its inclusion in the Lisbon Treaty, the EU declares that it respects linguistic diversity (Article 22) and prohibits discrimination on grounds of language (Article 21). Respect for linguistic diversity is a fundamental value of the European Union, in the same way as respect for the person, openness towards other cultures, and tolerance and acceptance of other people.

Initiatives

Beginning with the  in 1990, the European Union invests more than €30 million a year (out of a €120 billion EU budget) promoting language learning through the Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci programmes in bursaries to enable language teachers to be trained abroad, placing foreign language assistants in schools, funding class exchanges to motivate pupils to learn languages, creating new language courses on CDs and the Internet, and projects that raise awareness of the benefits of language learning.

Through strategic studies, the Commission promotes debate, innovation, and the exchange of good practice. In addition, the mainstream actions of Community programmes which encourage mobility and transnational partnerships motivate participants to learn languages.

Youth exchanges, town twinning projects, and the European Voluntary Service also promote multilingualism. Since 1997, the Culture 2000 programme has financed the translation of around 2,000 literary works from and into European languages.

The new programmes proposed for implementation for the financial perspective 2007–2013 (Culture 2007, Youth in Action, and Lifelong Learning) will continue and develop this kind of support.

The EU used to provide the main financial support to the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages until 2010, a non-governmental organisation which represents the interests of the over 40 million citizens who belong to a regional and minority language community, and for the Mercator networks of universities active in research on lesser-used languages in Europe. Following a request from the European Parliament, the commission in 2004 launched a feasibility study on the possible creation of a new EU agency, the "European Agency for Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity." The study concludes that there are unmet needs in this field, and proposes two options: creating an agency or setting up a European network of "Language Diversity Centres." The Commission believes that a network would be the most appropriate next step and, where possible, should build on existing structures; it will examine the possibility of financing it on a multi-annual basis through the proposed Lifelong Learning programme. Another interesting step would be to translate important public websites, such as the one of the European Central Bank, or Frontex web site also, in at least one other language than English or French.

Although not an EU treaty, most EU member states have ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

To encourage language learning, the EU supported the Council of Europe initiatives for European Year of Languages 2001 and the annual celebration of European Day of Languages on 26 September.

To encourage the member states to cooperate and to disseminate best practice the Commission issued a Communication on 24 July 2003, on Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: an Action Plan 2004–2006 and a Communication on 22 November 2005, on A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism.

From 22 November 2004, the European Commissioner for Education and Culture portfolio included an explicit reference to languages and became European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism with Ján Figeľ at the post. From 2007 until 2010, the European Commission had a special portfolio on languages, European Commissioner for Multilingualism. The post was held by Leonard Orban. Since 2010, the portfolio was merged with education and culture, again.

EU devotes a specialised subsite of its "Europa" portal to languages, the EUROPA Languages portal.

See also

 Languages of Europe
 English language in Europe
 French language in Europe
 German language in Europe
 European Day of Languages 26 September
 Linguistic issues concerning the euro
 Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (CDT) – Inter-Active Terminology for Europe (IATE)

References

Further reading

 Hogan-Brun, Gabrielle and Stefan Wolff. 2003. Minority Languages in Europe: Frameworks, Status, Prospects. Palgrave.
 Nic Craith, Máiréad. 2005. Europe and the Politics of Language: Citizens, Migrants and Outsiders. Palgrave.
 Richard L. Creech, "Law and Language in the European Union: The Paradox of a Babel 'United in Diversity'" (Europa Law Publishing: Groningen, 2005)
 Shetter, William Z., EU Language Year 2001: Celebrating diversity but with a hangover, Language Miniature No 63.
 Shetter, William Z., Harmony or Cacophony: The Global Language System, Language Miniature No 96.
 Van der Jeught, Stefaan (2015). EU Language Law, Groningen: Europa Law Publishing, .
 Alice Leal, Seán Ó Riain, Language Policy and the Future of Europe, Routledge, 2023

External links

 Europa: Languages and Europe – The European Union portal on languages
 Eurostat: Foreign language learning statistics (Jan. 2016)
 European Commission > Education and Training > Policy Areas > Languages
 European Commission Directorate-General for Translation (DGT)
 European Commission Directorate-General for Interpretation (former SCIC)
 European Union Publications Office
 European Union interinstitutional style guide
 Translation tools and workflow
 Most Europeans can speak multiple languages. UK and Ireland not so much
 Key Data on Teaching Languages at School in Europe - 2012 Edition

European Union-related lists
Europe

hr:Jezici Europske unije

Languages of the European Union


Little Monsters is a 2019 post-apocalyptic musical action comedy horror film written and directed by Abe Forsythe, starring Lupita Nyong'o, Alexander England, Josh Gad, and Kat Stewart. The story centres on a washed-up musician, a children's television personality, and a kindergarten teacher teaming up to protect a group of young schoolchildren during a sudden zombie outbreak.

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2019, and was released in the United States on October 8, 2019, by Neon, in a limited release followed by digital streaming on October 11, 2019, by Hulu. It was released in Australia on October 31, 2019, by Universal Pictures and in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2019, by Altitude. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising the performances of the cast.

Plot
Dave is a dirty-talking, washed-up musician who goes through a rough break up with his girlfriend and is forced to stay with his sister, Tess, and her son, Felix, a child with a fascination for tractors, space blasters, and Darth Vader. While dropping Felix off at school, Dave meets Miss Audrey Caroline, Felix's kindergarten teacher, and is attracted to her. After a parent drops out from an upcoming field trip to a farm, Dave volunteers to chaperone, mostly to be near Audrey.

On the day of the field trip, Dave is upset to learn that beloved children's television personality Teddy McGiggle is filming his show there and that Audrey is engaged to someone else. Meanwhile, zombies break out of a U.S. testing facility and head straight for the farm where they attack the class, who try to escape, only to realize the farm is overrun.

The fugitives try to seek shelter in the gift shop, only to find that Teddy has locked himself inside and refusing to let them in. Audrey and the children crawl into an opening next to the shop. Dave breaks in from the roof, beats up Teddy, and unlocks the door so Audrey and the children can come in. Felix then has an allergic reaction after Dave accidentally feeds him chips with dairy in them. After a botched attempt to give Felix epinephrine, Audrey rushes to get some from Felix's backpack, which was left in the tractor. Teddy tries to signal a military helicopter, but falls off the roof and is rescued by Dave, to whom Teddy reveals that his real name is Nathan Schneider and that he is an alcoholic sex addict who hates children and sleeps with their mothers to escape his depression.

That night, while Teddy and the children are asleep, Dave and Audrey talk to each other. Dave tells her about how his father left him when he was young and that only his sister was there for him. Audrey reveals that she is no longer engaged, as her fiancé had cheated on her with a coworker, and that she only wears the ring to keep single fathers away.

The next day, the military plans to bomb the gift shop the children are in and destroy the zombies to prevent an outbreak. The survivors decide to get a large vehicle and drive to safety. Teddy and Dave attempt to get Teddy's McGiggle Mobile, but Teddy betrays Dave before he is eaten by a zombie hidden in the van. Dave is forced to climb on top of the van to avoid being eaten, and makes one last call to his sister before his phone is knocked out of his hands. When all seems lost, Felix arrives driving a tractor and saves Dave, and together they rescue Audrey and the children. As they drive to safety, they discover that the zombies respond to the music Audrey plays. They eventually reach the military and escape just as the farm is bombed. The zombies following them are gunned down by the army.

Dave and Audrey share a kiss before they and the kids are taken away and placed in quarantine for 48 hours in case of infection. The final scene shows Dave, Audrey, and the kids singing Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off", which Dave previously hated, as the kids' parents watch on with tears of joy in their eyes.

Cast

Production
In October 2017, it was announced Lupita Nyong'o and Josh Gad had joined the cast of the film, with Abe Forsythe directing from a screenplay he wrote. Keith Calder, Jess Calder, Bruna Papandrea will serve as producers on the film, under their Snoot Entertainment and Made Up Stories banners, respectively. The film was financed and produced by Screen Australia, and shot in Sydney.

Release
The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2019. Shortly after, Neon and Hulu acquired distribution rights to the film. Little Monsters was released in the United States in a limited release on October 8, 2019, followed by digital streaming on Hulu on October 11, 2019. The film had a limited release in Australia on 31 October 2019 by Universal Pictures Australia, followed by a digital release on various platforms three weeks later. It was released in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2019.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of  based on  reviews, with an average score of . The website's critical consensus reads, "Led by typically outstanding work from Lupita Nyong'o, Little Monsters is a horror/rom-com hybrid that proves the zombie genre still has fresh brains to savor." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 59 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

2019 comedy horror films
2010s monster movies
2019 films
American zombie comedy films
Australian comedy horror films
British zombie comedy films
Neon (company) films
Parodies of horror
2010s parody films
American parody films
Films produced by Keith Calder
Films about educators
Films about music and musicians
Films about television people
Films set on farms
Films shot in Sydney
Australian zombie films
Made Up Stories films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
2010s British films
Films about children
Screen Australia films

Little Monsters (2019 film)


Charles Joachim Colbert (11 June 1667 – 8 April 1738) was a bishop of Montpellier from 1697.

He was a son of Charles Colbert, marquis de Croissy and a nephew of Jean-Baptiste Colbert.
As an ardent Jansenist he had père François-Aimé Pouget edit the noted Catéchisme de Montpellier. His writings were condemned by Rome.
He was also part of the 'Appelant' movement alongside Jean Soanen, Pierre de La Broue and Pierre de Langle, calling for a church council to discuss the papal bull Unigenitus.

Sources

1667 births
1738 deaths
Bishops of Montpellier
Colbert family

Charles Joachim Colbert


Volition, also known as will or conation, is the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action. It is defined as purposive striving and is one of the primary human psychological functions. Others include affect (feeling or emotion), motivation (goals and expectations), and cognition (thinking). Volitional processes can be applied consciously or they can be automatized as habits over time.

Most modern conceptions of volition address it as a process of conscious action control which becomes automatized (e.g. see Heckhausen and Kuhl; Gollwitzer; Boekaerts and Corno).

Overview
Many researchers treat volition and willpower as scientific and colloquial terms (respectively) for the same process. When a person makes up their mind to do a thing, that state is termed 'immanent volition'. When we put forth any particular act of choice, that act is called an emanant, executive, or imperative volition. When an immanent or settled state of choice controls or governs a series of actions, that state is termed predominant volition. Subordinate volitions are particular acts of choice which carry into effect the object sought for by the governing or predominant volition.

According to Gary Kielhofner's "Model of Human Occupation", volition is one of the three sub-systems that act on human behavior.  Within this model, volition refers to a person's values, interests and self-efficacy (personal causation) about personal performance.  Kurt Lewin argues that motivation and volition are one and the same, in distinction to the nineteenth century psychologist Narziß Ach.  Ach proposed that there is a certain threshold of desire that distinguishes motivation from volition: when desire lies below this threshold, it is motivation, and when it crosses over, it becomes volition. In the book A Bias for Action, Heinrich Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal also differentiate volition (willpower) from motivation. Using this model, they propose assessing individuals' differing levels of commitment with regard to tasks by measuring it on a scale of intent from motivation(an emotion) to volition (a decision).  Discussions of impulse control (e.g., Kuhl and Heckhausen) and education (e.g., Corno), also make the motivation-volition distinction.  Corno's model ties volition to the processes of self-regulated learning.

See also
 Appetition
 Avolition
 Executive functions
 Free will
 Motivational salience
 Neuroscience of free will
 Self-agency
 Prohairesis

References

Bibliography

External links

 Weakness of Will (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
 Modeling Willpower (Darcey Riley)
 Narziß Kaspar Ach (1871-1946) (University of Konstanz)
http://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~schopra/Persons/Frankfurt.pdf (Harry Frankfurt's Analysis of the Volition among other things)

Cognition
Motivation

Volition (psychology)


Geneviève Behrend (1881 in Paris – 1960 in United States) was a French-born author and teacher of Mental Science, a New Thought discipline taught by Thomas Troward.

There is little known about her early life except that one of her parents was Scottish. After her husband died she traveled extensively. She studied Christian Science and met its founder Mary Baker Eddy, but ultimately left that faith. She met Abdul Baha, whose father had founded Bahá'í Faith, and he told her that she would "travel the world over seeking the truth, and when [she] had found it, would speak it out". She later wrote in her book Your Invisible Power that she found a book of Thomas Troward's lectures.

Inspired by this, she wanted to study with Troward, but lacked the money to travel to Cornwall, England where he lived, as she was then living in New York. So every night and morning she visualized counting out twenty $1,000 bills, buying her ticket to London, travelling on the ship, and being accepted as Troward's pupil. She also constantly affirmed to herself, "My mind is a center of Divine operations". Then, to quote her in Your Invisible Power, "While these reflections were going on in my mind, there seemed to come up from within me the thought: 'I am all the substance there is.' Then, from another channel in my brain the answer seemed to come, 'Of course, that's it; everything must have its beginning in mind. The 'I', the Idea, must be the only one and primary substance there is, and this means money as well as everything else.' My mind accepted this idea, and immediately all the tension of mind and body was relaxed". In about six weeks, she received the money.

From 1912 until 1914 she studied with Thomas Troward; Behrend was the only personal student he had throughout his life.

After her studies with Troward she founded a New Thought school called The School of the Builders in approximately 1915 in New York City, running it herself until 1925. She then founded another New Thought school in Los Angeles, after which she traveled throughout North America lecturing on mental science and New Thought for 35 years, as well as giving radio broadcasts.

She is quoted as an expert in the best-selling self-help book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.

Bibliography
Your Invisible Power (1921).
How to Live Life and Love it (1922)
Attaining Your Heart's Desire (1929).

References

External links

New Thought writers
1881 births
1960 deaths

Geneviève Behrend


The Heraldry Society of Southern Africa (HSSA) was founded in Cape Town on 27 August 1953.  It has not been active since 2007, but as it has not been wound up it is, in effect, in suspense.

Activities
The HSSA's main activity was regular meetings and lectures.

In its early years, the HSSA also took an active role in promoting good heraldic practice in South Africa, as there was no official heraldry authority in the country at that time, the HSSA provided a design and advice service, with particular emphasis on municipal arms.  The HSSA also acted as unofficial liaison with the College of Arms in London, through the then Chester Herald, who was an HSSA member.

The HSSA staged the first heraldry exhibition in South Africa, "Heraldry at the Cape", in 1956.

Publications
The HSSA published a regular Newsletter from 1953 to 1958.  This was replaced with a quarterly journal named Arma, in 1958.

President and chairmen
During the 54 years that it was active, the HSSA had only five chairmen:
 Colin Graham Botha: 1953-54
 Frank Waller: 1954-1957
 Dr Cornelis Pama: 1957-1994
 Robert Laing: 1994-2002
 Frederick Brownell: 2002-

C. Graham Botha was honorary life president from 1954 until his death in 1973.

See also
 South African heraldry
 Heraldry societies
 Heraldry Society (disambiguation)
 Southern African Vexillological Association

External links
 South African Heraldry Website

Heraldic societies
South African heraldry
1953 establishments in South Africa
Organizations established in 1953

Heraldry Society of Southern Africa


Dracula 5: The Blood Legacy is a 2013 point-and-click adventure video game developed by Koalabs Studio for Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android and OS X. It was published on all systems by Anuman under their Microïds brand. In 2014, the game was released on GOG.com and Steam, bundled with its prequel, Dracula 4: The Shadow of the Dragon.

The game follows 2000's Dracula: Resurrection and Dracula: The Last Sanctuary, 2008's Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon and 2013's Dracula 4: The Shadow of the Dragon. The plot is unrelated to Resurrection and Last Sanctuary, but is instead the second of a two-part loose sequel to Path of the Dragon, continuing the story of Metropolitan Museum of Art art restorer Ellen Cross and her investigation into a mysterious portrait of Dracula. Ellen's journey leads her from New York to Istanbul to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, bringing her into contact with an ancient secret society founded by Vlad Tepes' brother Radu, and placing her in the middle of a 500-year-old conflict between the society and Dracula's followers.

The Blood Legacy received very little attention in the mainstream gaming press, with limited coverage from professional critics, and what reviews it did receive were negative. As with Shadow of the Dragon, the biggest criticism of the game was its length, but critics were also unimpressed with the plot, the graphics, and the identical gameplay to the previous game.

Gameplay

Gameplay in The Blood Legacy is identical to Shadow of the Dragon. The game is a first-person point-and-click adventure game, with a minimalist HUD; a quick-access item holder, which allows the player to use an item without entering their inventory. The main inventory is accessible by clicking on the hand icon beside the quick-access holder. As well as the inventory, the player has access to a list of objectives, records of all conversations, records of all documents seen and collected, a summary of relevant information acquired, and options for the player to quit their game, or load a previously saved game. The game employs an autosave feature, which is activated at certain predetermined spots, or whenever the player quits to the main menu.

The game uses a basic point-and-click interface to move the player around and manipulate the game world, with player's perspective controlled by the mouse, although the game is also fully touchscreen operable on compatible operating systems. Within each screen, the player is free to look around 360 degrees. As the player moves the cursor around the screen it can change into different styles depending on the situation; neutral cursor (no interaction is possible), an arrow (the player can move in the direction indicated), a mouth (the player can speak to the character over whom the option appears), an eye (an area or object can be examined in more detail), a hand (the player can take the object), a cog (the player must use an inventory item to initiate interaction with the object), a left-right horizontal arrow (the object can be moved left and right), and an up-down vertical arrow (the object can be moved up and down).

A gameplay mechanic not seen in the previous Dracula games (until Shadow of the Dragon) is a health system. The player character (Ellen Cross) suffers from a rare blood disorder which must be managed with medication. During the game, Cross' health continually decreases, and if it goes below a certain level, she becomes unable to move or perform tasks. The player has access to various types of medication throughout the game and can experiment with combinations to continually top off her health.

The game can be played in either "Adventure Mode" or "Casual Mode". In Casual Mode, interactive zones are automatically shown on-screen. Also in Casual Mode, after a set period of time elapses, players are given the option to skip puzzles. The game also features a points system and a series of in-game trophies, both of which are inactive if the player is playing in casual mode.

Plot

The game begins with the final scene from Shadow of the Dragon; Ellen Cross, an art restorer from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, opening the uncatalogued sixteenth painting from the Vambery collection, which she believes to be a portrait of Dracula. Ellen is shocked, however, to instead see a portrait of Vambery's assistant, Adam Stoker, Bram Stoker's great-grandson, which suddenly comes to life, as Adam grows fangs and lunges at Ellen. However, this is revealed to have been a nightmare. In reality, Ellen has returned to New York with the painting unopened. Back at the Met, Phillips tells her the Turkish police found no body at Yanek's, who probably cleaned out his apartment after discovering Ellen had broken in. As such, they still have no idea who Yanek is working for, and why he was in possession of several of the lost Vambery paintings. Meanwhile, Ellen opens the painting to find it has been tarred over with a black cross. Her colleague Gerry Berowski tells her people used to paint crosses in black tar on their doors to ward off vampires. As Vambery seemed to have been afraid of the painting, Gerry speculates Vambery himself may have painted the cross.

Ellen removes the tar, revealing the portrait of Dracula. She puts the painting in storage, and then reads an unpublished biography of Vlad Tepes, which portrays him in a more positive light than usual. The book says Vlad's brother, Radu, was responsible for the suicide of Vlad's wife, telling her Vlad had been killed in battle and giving her a knife with which to kill herself. Vlad never recovered from her death, and turned to evil soon thereafter. The book explains Radu hated Vlad because when they were held prisoner by Sultan Murad II, Vlad had been released fourteen years prior to Radu. The book also reproduces a letter written by Radu in which he says "since you've refused to give me the gift you have thanks to me, my death is only the beginning of your torture. My blood will remain restless for as long as my vengeance goes unsatisfied, and throughout your lifetime, danger hangs over you."

Adam arrives to see Ellen, and back in her apartment, they sleep together. The next day, she finds a note from Adam promising to see her soon. She heads to the museum, but the painting has been stolen. Checking the surveillance footage, she sees Adam taking it. Meanwhile, a librarian friend of Gerry's leaves him a message telling him whilst she was researching Radu, she found a poem he had written called "The Shadow of the Dragon." Ellen reads the poem, which seems to offer instructions on how to find the headquarters of a secret society formed by Radu with the express purpose of gaining revenge against Vlad. Ellen realizes the poem is a guide to the headquarters of the society, and leads to the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul. She then gets a phonecall from a woman telling her Gerry is dead, and advising her to be careful, as powerful agents are working against her investigation. The woman also says her master knows the painting is missing, and would be very grateful if Ellen could bring it to him.

She heads to Turkey, and finds the headquarters. In display cases, she finds several items, including the diary of Fr. Arno Moriani (the protagonist of Path of the Dragon) and notes on a series of eugenics experiments called "Operation D" (referred to in the final scene of Path of the Dragon). The dagger used by Vlad's wife to kill herself, allegedly one of the few items capable of harming Dracula, is also supposed to be there, but is missing. Ellen learns the present day leader of the society is Adam, who is a direct descendant of Radu. She concludes Adam plans to kill Dracula using the dagger, and stole the painting as a way to draw Dracula out. With no other leads to follow, she returns to see Yanek.

He reveals he is a vampire, serving Dracula, who has forbidden his followers to harm Ellen. Yanek explains he is really Kaneyek, the painter of the portrait, which is more than just a painting. In fact, it allows Dracula to see through it, which was why Vambrey was so afraid of it, and why he covered it with tar. He tells her Dracula became a vampire by drinking his dead wife's blood, but because all vampires originate from Dracula, no vampire can harm him. Only a vampire born independently of Dracula can destroy him, and the only way for the creation of such a vampire is if someone else were to drink his wife's blood, which he wears in a vial around his neck. He also tells her she is pregnant with Adam's child. Yanek and Ellen conclude this must be Adam's goal, and with Yanek's instructions, Ellen heads to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to meet Dracula.

In an underground castle, he tells her Adam is imprisoned nearby, and asks her to retrieve his portrait. She goes to Adam, and tells him about the baby. He promises that if she saves him, he will give her the portrait, and they can escape together. She opens his cell, but faints. Adam carries her body to Dracula, and tries to stab him with the knife. However, Dracula avoids the attack, and knocks Adam out. Impressed with Ellen, he offers her his wife's blood to drink. The player is given the choice as to whether to accept it or not. If the player does so, Ellen becomes a vampire. If the player does not, Dracula kills her. However, unseen by Dracula, Adam is able to drink some of his wife's blood.

Development
The Blood Legacy was first announced on August 23, 2013, at Gamescom, when Anuman Interactive revealed the game was under development by Koalabs Studio and would be published under Anuman's Microïds brand.

In relation to the game's story, the character of Professor Vambery was partly inspired by Ármin Vámbéry, a Turkologist, who stayed with Bram Stoker in London prior to the composition of Dracula, and is said to have influenced many elements of the novel, including the depiction of Dracula himself. The concept of Dracula's wife killing herself after being tricked into thinking he had died was taken primarily from Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula. The captivity of Vlad Tepes and his brother Radu by Sultan Murad II, with Radu remaining with the Sultan longer than Vlad, and their imprisonment driving a wedge between the brothers, is very loosely based on historical fact. In reality, in 1442, Vlad II Dracul took his two eldest sons, Vlad and his half-brother Mircea, to meet Murad, who had supported Dracul in securing the throne of Wallachia. However, Murad took them prisoner. Both brothers were released in 1448, by which time their younger brother, Radu had earned the nickname "Radu cel Frumos" ("Radu the Handsome") and become friends with Murad's son, Mehmet, earning Vlad's enmity, due to his hatred of the Turks. Radu eventually converted to Islam and entered Ottoman service, alienating Vlad even more.

Reception

The Blood Legacy received little attention in the gaming press, garnering very limited coverage from professional critics. What reviews it did receive were negative, with the PC version holding an aggregate score of 45% on GameRankings.

Adventure Gamers' Rob Franklin scored the game 1.5 out of 5, calling it "simply the second half of a game that should have shipped as a complete Dracula 4." Of the gameplay, he wrote "Puzzles are painfully obvious from the outset, with little to no challenge as you proceed." He concluded "For anyone who enjoyed Dracula 4, the final half of this two-part adventure is more of the same. The Blood Legacy won't give you any sense of closure in its own right, but it will at least resolve the unsatisfactory cliffhanger from the previous instalment. For everyone else, this is merely a second incomplete Dracula game that can only be taken seriously when paired with its predecessor."

Adventure Classic Gaming's Mervyn Graham scored the game 3 out of 5, writing "Dracula 5: The Blood Legacy plays neither as a standalone game nor as a true sequel to the series. Instead, it plays more like the second part of a full game that begins with the previous game." He was critical of several aspects, including the linearity of the gameplay, and the graphics, calling the character animations "abysmal," and criticising the lack of lip syncing. He concluded "despite being better than Dracula 4: The Shadow of the Dragon, Dracula 5: The Blood Legacy still leaves much to be desired."

GameBoomers' Jenny100 gave the game a C, making a similar point about the length of the game; "It's essentially Part 2 of Dracula 4, takes about the same time to play, and has the same shortcomings. Both Dracula 4 and Dracula 5 together are still shorter than the games we used to get from Kheops and older companies that used to make first person games."

References

External links

2013 video games
Adventure games
Android (operating system) games
Dracula (video game series)
2010s horror video games
IOS games
MacOS games
Microïds games
Point-and-click adventure games
Single-player video games
Video game sequels
Video games based on Dracula
Video games developed in France
Video games featuring female protagonists
Video games set in New York City
Video games set in Turkey
Video games set in Ukraine
Windows games

Dracula 5: The Blood Legacy


Arawanna,Ara-Wanna(I҆rwnt). The Hittite-Luwian city-state and historical region of the same name in the south-west of the Armenian Highlands(near modern town of Elbistan, Ablasta in Armenian: Աբլաստա), which existed in the Bronze Age and was mentioned by king Mursili II in his annals, where he writes that when Šuppiluliuma I was king of the Hittites, the Aravanians invaded the land of Kaskians near «Sammahi». Some translators believe that this may be a Late-Hittite pronunciation of «Samuha», comparing Šuppiluliuma of the mid-14th century BC, who managed to subdue Arawanna and other city-states, which had rebelled against his father, with king Šuppiluliuma of the late 13th century BC. However, in other places of the annals Arawanna and Cascia are not connected with Samuha. King Mursili himself in the fifth year of his reign - c. 1317 BC - moved to the city of Zulila in the vicinity of Sammahi to save the Cascians from invasions near Samuha.

Arawanna took part in the coalition of states that rebelled against the Hittite king Tudhaliya III and were supported by the king of Mitanni Shuttarna II.

Arawanna(I҆rwnt) at the Battle of Kadesh

Arawanna(I҆rwnt) was one of the allies states who fought on the side of the Hittite empire against Egypt at the Battle of Kadesh

Succession of Arawanna

Arawanna(I҆rwnt) was a homeland and personal land domain of the first historically known Armenian royal dynasty Eruandid(Yervanduni,Orontid dynasty).

References

Hittite Empire
Ancient Armenia
Ancient settlements

Arawanna