Languages of Austria Austro-Bavarian grammar differs from Standard German. A number of minority languages are spoken in Austria, some of which have official status. Turkish is the largest minority language, in a situation mirroring that of Germany, spoken by 2.3% of the population. Serbian is the second largest minority language, with usage by 2.2% of the population. Burgenland Croatian, an official language in Burgenland, is spoken by 2.5% of Austrians, and Burgenland Croats are recognized as a minority and have enjoyed special rights following the Austrian State Treaty ("Staatsvertrag") of 1955. While little spoken today, Hungarian has traditionally held an important position in
Official languages of the United Nations endangered languages. In 2002, it was reportedly proposed to the then current UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the UN develops a 'Semi-Official' or 'Regional' language status for commonly spoken languages that do not have Official status so that a higher percentage of the worlds population could be familiar with UN actions. As of 2006, the six official languages are the first or second language of 2.8 billion people on the planet, which is less than half of the world population. The list of potential 'Semi-Official' or 'Regional' languages, many of which can be considered lingua francas in their areas,