The various regional and minority languages in Europe encompass four categories:
Dialects and languages of immigrants are not included in the official definition of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
The European Union regards Luxembourgish as a minority language, too, as it is not an official language of the EU. Through June 13, 2005, the Irish language also had this status.
In recent years, some countries of the EU have begun assorting the status as a minority language to various sign languages.