Official language
An official language is a language having certain rights to be used in defined situations. These rights can be created in written form or by historic usage.[1][2]
178 countries recognize an official language, 101 of them recognizing more than one. The government of Italy made Italian official only in 1999,[3] and some nations (such as the United States, Mexico, and Australia) have never declared de jure official languages at the national level.[4] Other nations have declared non-indigenous official languages.
Many of the world's constitutions mention one or more official or national languages.[5][6] Some countries use the official language designation to empower indigenous groups by giving them access to the government in their native languages. In countries that do not formally designate an official language, a de facto national language usually evolves. English is the most common official language, with recognized status in 51 countries. Arabic, French, and Spanish are also widely recognized.
An official language that is also an indigenous language is called endoglossic, one that is not indigenous is exoglossic.[7] An instance is Nigeria which has three endoglossic official languages. By this, the country aims to protect the indigenous languages although at the same time recognising the English language as its lingua franca. In spatial terms, indigenous (endoglossic) languages are mostly employed in the function of official languages in Eurasia, while mainly non-indigenous (exoglossic) imperial (European) languages fulfill this function in most of the "Rest of the World" (that is, in Africa, the Americas, Australia and Oceania). Lesotho, Madagascar, South Africa, East African countries, Greenland, New Zealand, Samoa and Paraguay are among the exceptions to this tendency.[8]
History
Around 500 BC, when
The
Statistics
The following languages are official (de jure or de facto) in three or more sovereign states. In some cases, a language may be defined as different languages in different countries. Examples are Hindi and Urdu, Malay and Indonesian, Serbian and Croatian, Persian and Tajik.
- English: 58 UN states and 31 dependencies
- French: 28 UN states and 11 dependencies
- Arabic: 23 UN states and Palestine, 2 non-UN states on the same territory, and 1 dependency
- Spanish: 20 UN states and 1 dependency
- Portuguese: 9 UN states and 1 dependency
- German: 6 UN states
- Russian: 5 UN and 4 unrecognized states
- Serbo-Croatian: 4 UN states and 1 partially recognized state on the same territory
- Malay: 4 UN states and 1 dependency
- Swahili: 4 UN states (5 counting Comorian)
- Italian: 3 UN states and Vatican City
- Persian: 3 UN states and 1 dependency
- Dutch: 3 UN states (4 counting Afrikaans)
- Somali: 3 UN states and 1 unrecognized state on the same territory
- Sotho: 3 UN states
- Standard Chinese (Mandarin): 2 UN states and Taiwan
- Tamil: 3 UN states
- Hindustani: 3 UN states (counting Fijian Hindi)
Some countries—like
Political alternatives
The selection of an official language (or the lack thereof) is often contentious.
Official languages by country and territory
Afghanistan
Following Chapter 1, Article 16 of the
Australia
English is the de facto national language of Australia, while Australia has no de jure official language,[18] English is the first language of the majority of the population, and has been entrenched as the de facto national language since European settlement, being the only language spoken in the home for 72% of Australians.[19]
Azerbaijan
Article 21 of
Bangladesh
After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the then Head of the State Sheikh Mujibur Rahman adopted the policy of 'one state one language'.[21] The de facto national language, Bengali, is the sole official language of Bangladesh according to the third article of the Constitution of Bangladesh.[22] The government of Bangladesh introduced the Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 to ensure the mandatory use of Bengali in all government affairs.[23]
Belarus
Belgium
Belgium has three official languages: Dutch, French and German.[24]
Bulgaria
Bulgarian is the sole official language in Bulgaria.[25]
Canada
Following the Constitution Act, 1982 the (federal)
(Dogrib). All provinces, however, offer some necessary services in both English and French.The Province of Quebec with the Official Language Act (Quebec) and Charter of the French Language defines French, the language of the majority of the population, as the official language of the provincial government.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia has five official languages (Amharic alone until 2020)
Finland
According to the Finnish constitution, Finnish and Swedish are the official languages of the republic. Citizens have the right to communicate in either language with government agencies.
Germany
, which are officially recognised. Migrant languages like Turkish, Russian and Spanish are widespread but are not officially recognised languages.Hong Kong
According to the
India
The Constitution of India (part 17) designates the official language of the Government of India as Hindi written in the Devanagari script.[29] Although the original intentions of the constitution were to phase out English as an official language, provisions were provided so that "Parliament may by law provide for the use ... of ... the English language".
The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists has 22 languages,[30] which have been referred to as scheduled languages and given recognition, status and official encouragement. In addition, the Government of India has awarded the distinction of classical language to Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Odia.
Indonesia
The official language of Indonesia is the Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesia). Bahasa Indonesia is regulated in Chapter XV, 1945 Constitution of Indonesia.
Israel
On 19 July 2018, the
Before the enactment of the aforementioned basic law, the status of official language in Israel was determined by the 82nd paragraph of the "Palestine Order in Council" issued on 14 August 1922, for the British Mandate of Palestine, as amended in 1939:[32]
- "All Ordinances, official notices and official forms of the Government and all official notices of local authorities and municipalities in areas to be prescribed by order of the High Commissioner, shall be published in English, Arabic, and Hebrew."
This law, like most other laws of the British Mandate, was adopted in the State of Israel, subject to certain amendments published by the provisional legislative branch on 19 May 1948. The amendment states that:
- "Any provision in the law requiring the use of the English language is repealed."[33]
In most public schools, the main teaching language is Hebrew, English is taught as a second language, and most students learn a third language, usually Arabic but not necessarily. Other public schools have Arabic as their main teaching language, and they teach Hebrew as a second language and English as a third one. There are also bilingual schools which aim to teach both Hebrew and Arabic equally.
Some languages other than Hebrew and Arabic, such as English, Russian, Amharic, Yiddish and Ladino enjoy a somewhat special status but are not official languages. For instance, at least 5% of the broadcasting time of privately owned TV channels must be translated into Russian (a similar privilege is granted to Arabic), warnings must be translated to several languages, and signs are mostly trilingual (Hebrew, Arabic and English), and the government supports Yiddish and Ladino culture (alongside Hebrew culture and Arabic culture).
Latvia
The Official Language Law recognizes
Malaysia
The official language of Malaysia is the Malay language (Bahasa Melayu), also known as Bahasa Malaysia or just Bahasa for short. Bahasa Melayu is being protected under Article 152 of the Constitution of Malaysia.
Netherlands
New Zealand
English is not an official language.In 2018, New Zealand First MP Clayton Mitchell introduced a bill to parliament to statutorily recognise English as an official language. As of May 2020, the bill has not progressed.[40][41][42]
In 2023 during the 2023 New Zealand general election, the New Zealand First Party released a policy of making English an official language of New Zealand.[43]
Nigeria
The official language of Nigeria is English, which was chosen to facilitate the cultural and linguistic unity of the country. British colonial rule ended in 1960.
Norway
Pakistan
Urdu and English both are official languages in Pakistan. Pakistan has more than 60 other languages.
Philippines
Filipino and English both are official languages of the Philippines.
Poland
Polish is the official language of Poland.
Russia
South Africa
South Africa has twelve official languages[12] that are mostly indigenous. Due to limited funding, however, the government rarely produces documents in most languages. Accusations of mismanagement and corruption have been leveled[44] against the Pan South African Language Board, established to promote multilingualism, develop the 11 official languages, and protect language rights in the country.[13]
Switzerland
The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. At the federal level German, French and Italian are official languages, the official languages of individual cantons depend on the languages spoken in them.
Taiwan
Mandarin is the most common language used in government. After World War II the mainland Chinese-run government made Mandarin the official language, and it was used in the schools and government. Under the National languages development act, political participation can be conducted in any national language, which is defined as a "natural language used by an original people group of Taiwan",[45] which also includes Formosan languages, the Taiwanese variety of Hokkien and Hakka. According to Taiwan's Legislative Yuan, amendments were made to the Hakka Basic Act to make Hakka an official language of Taiwan.[46]
Timor-Leste
According to the constitution of Timor-Leste, Tetum and Portuguese are the official languages of the country, and every official document must be published in both languages; Indonesian and English hold "working language" status in the country.[47]
Ukraine
The official language of Ukraine is Ukrainian.
United Kingdom
The de facto official language of the United Kingdom is English.[citation needed] In Wales, the Welsh language, spoken by approximately 20% of the population, has de jure official status, alongside English.[48][49]
United States
English is the
New York state provides voter-registration forms in the following five languages: Bengali, Chinese, English, Korean and Spanish. The same languages are also on ballot papers in certain parts of the state (namely, New York City).[53]
Opponents of an official language policy in the United States argue that it would hamper "the government's ability to reach out, communicate, and warn people in the event of a natural or man-made disaster such as a hurricane, pandemic, or...another terrorist attack".[51] Professor of politics Alan Patten argues that disengagement (officially ignoring the issue) works well in religious issues but that it is not possible with language issues because it must offer public services in some language. Even if it makes a conscious effort not to establish an official language, a de facto official language, or the "national language", will nevertheless emerge.[14][54]
Yugoslavia
Sometimes an official language definition can be motivated more by national identity than by linguistic concerns. Prior to the breakup in early 1990s, although SFR Yugoslavia had no official language on the federal level, its six constituent republics including two autonomous provinces accounted for four official languages—Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, Macedonian and Albanian. Serbo-Croatian served as the lingua franca for mutual understanding and was also the language of the military, as official in four republics and taught as a second language in the other two.
When Croatia declared independence in 1991, it defined its official language as Croatian, while the confederate union of Serbia and Montenegro likewise defined its official language as Serbian in 1992. Bosnia and Herzegovina defined three official languages: Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian. From the linguistic point of view, the different names refer to national varieties of the same language, which is known under the appellation of Serbo-Croatian.[55][56][57] The language used in Montenegro became standardized as the Montenegrin language upon Montenegro's declaration of independence from Serbia and Montenegro in 2006.
Zimbabwe
Since the adoption of the
- Chewa
- Chibarwe
- English
- Kalanga
- Koisan
- Nambya
- Ndau
- Ndebele
- Shangani
- Shona,
- sign language
- Sotho
- Tonga
- Tswana
- Venda
- Xhosa.
See also
- Language policy
- List of official languages by country and territory
- List of official languages by institution
- Medium of instruction
- Minority language
- National language
- Official script
- Regional language
- Working language
References
- ^ "Official Language", Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language, Ed. Tom McArthur, Oxford University Press, 1998.
- ^ Pueblo v. Tribunal Superior, 92 D.P.R. 596 (1965). Translation taken from the English text, 92 P.R.R. 580 (1965), p. 588-589. See also LOPEZ-BARALT NEGRON, "Pueblo v. Tribunal Superior: Español: Idioma del proceso judicial", 36 Revista Juridica de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. 396 (1967), and VIENTOS-GASTON, "Informe del Procurador General sobre el idioma", 36 Rev. Col. Ab. (P.R.) 843 (1975).
- ^ "Legge 15 Dicembre 1999, n. 482 "Norme in materia di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche storiche" pubblicata nella Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 297 del 20 dicembre 1999". Italian Parliament. Archived from the original on 12 May 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
- ^ "FYI: English isn't the official language of the United States". 20 May 2018.
- ^ "Read about "Official or national languages" on Constitute". Retrieved 2016-03-28.
- ^ "L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde: page d'accueil". www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca. Retrieved 2016-03-28.
- OxfordDictionaries.com.
- ^ Tomasz Kamusella. 2020. Global Language Politics: Eurasia versus the Rest (pp. 118–151). Journal of Nationalism, Memory & Language Politics. Vol 14, No 2.
- ^ Shahbazi, Shapur (1994), "Darius I the Great", Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 7, New York: Columbia University, pp. 41–50
- ^ electricpulp.com. "ARAMAIC – Encyclopaedia Iranica". www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
- ^ Records of the Grand Historian, 6
- ^ a b "Chapter 1, Article 6 of the South African Constitution". constitutionalcourt.org.za. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
- ^ a b "Language in South Africa: An official mess". The Economist. July 5, 2013. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
- ^ S2CID 143178621. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
- ISBN 9780820497327.
- ISBN 9780774841009.
- ISBN 9780415496476.
- .
The use of English in Australia is one example of both a de facto national and official language: it is widely used and is the language of government and the courts, but has never been legally designated as the country's official language.
- ^ "2021 Australia, Census All persons QuickStats | Australian Bureau of Statistics".
- ^ The Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan
- .
- ^ "Article 3. The state language". The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Ministry of Law, The People's Republic of Bangladesh. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
{{cite book}}
:|website=
ignored (help) - ^ "Bangla Bhasha Procholon Ain, 1987" বাংলা ভাষা প্রচলন আইন, ১৯৮৭ [Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987]. Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. Government of Bangladesh. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
- ^ Belgium, a federal state: The communities
- ^ Constitution of the Republic Bulgaria, article 3
- ^ Shaban, Abdurahman. "One to five: Ethiopia gets four new federal working languages". Africa News.
- ^ "War between Traditional and Simplified". anthony8988. 7 May 2014. Archived from the original on 2016-01-05.
- ^ "Disclaimer and Copyright Notice". Legislative Council. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
- ^ "THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA" (PDF). Legislative Department. Government of India. 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
343. Official language of the Union.—(1) The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.
- ^ Languages Included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constution [sic] Archived 2016-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Halbfinger, David M.; Kershner, Isabel (19 July 2018). "Israeli Law Declares the Country the 'Nation-State of the Jewish People'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
- ^ The Palestine Gazette, No. 898 of 29 June 1939, Supplement 2, pp. 464–465.
- ^ Law and Administration Ordinance No 1 of 5708—1948, clause 15(b). Official Gazette No. 1 of 5th Iyar, 5708; as per authorised translation in Laws of the State of Israel, Vol. I (1948) p. 10.
- likumi.lv. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia. 5 June 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
- ISBN 978-9984-829-47-0.
- ^ "Welke erkende talen heeft Nederland?". Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties. 11 January 2016.
- ^ New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006. New Zealand Legislation. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
- ^ NZ Sign Language to be third official language. Ruth Dyson. 2 April 2006. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
- ^ "NZ First submits Bill for English to be recognised as official language". Newshub. 15 February 2018.
- ^ "NZ First Bill: English set to become official". Scoop. 15 February 2018.
- ^ "English an Official Language of New Zealand Bill - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
- 1 News. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
- ^ Xaba, Vusi (2 September 2011). "Language board to be probed". SowetanLive.co.za. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ "國家語言發展法". law.moj.gov.tw (in Chinese). Retrieved 22 May 2019.
- ^ languagehat (January 4, 2018). "HAKKA NOW AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF TAIWAN". languagehat.
- )
- ^ "Welsh speakers by local authority, gender and detailed age groups, 2011 Census". statswales.gov.wales. 11 December 2012. Archived from the original on 16 June 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
- ^ "Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011". legislation.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
- ^ [1] - US English: West Virginia Becomes 32nd State to Adopt English as Official Language
- ^ James M. Inhofe; Cecilia Muñoz. "Should English be declared America's national language?". The New York Times upfront. Scholastic. Archived from the originalon February 19, 2015. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
- ^ "Available Languages". California DMV. Retrieved November 26, 2014.
- ^ "New York State Voter Registration Form" (PDF). New York State Board of Elections. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-01-27. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
- ^ James Crawford. "Language Freedom and Restriction: A Historical Approach to the Official Language Controversy". Effective Language Education Practices and Native Language Survival. pp. 9–22. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
- OCLC 471591123.
- ^ Václav Blažek, "On the Internal Classification of Indo-European Languages: Survey" retrieved 20 Oct 2010, pp. 15–16.
- (PDF) from the original on 1 June 2012.
- ^ "What Languages Are Spoken In Zimbabwe?". WorldAtlas. 2017-04-25. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
- ^ "newsday".
Further reading
- Writing Systems of the World: Alphabets, Syllabaries, Pictograms (1990), ISBN 0-8048-1654-9— lists official languages of the countries of the world, among other information.
External links
- official language (P37) (see uses)