National language

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A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the territory of a country may be referred to informally or designated in legislation as national languages of the country. National languages are mentioned in over 150 world constitutions.^[1]

• "Territorial language" (chthonolect, sometimes known as chtonolect[3]) of a particular people
• "Regional language" (choralect)
• "Language-in-common or community language" (demolect) used throughout a country
• "Central language" (politolect) used by government and perhaps having a symbolic value.

The last is usually given the title of official language. In some cases (e.g., the Philippines), several languages are designated as official and a national language is separately designated.

Official versus national languages

"National language" and "official language" are best understood as two concepts or legal categories with ranges of meaning that may coincide, or may be intentionally separate. Stateless nations are not in the position to legislate an official language, but their languages may be sufficiently distinct and well-preserved to be national languages. Some languages may be recognized popularly as "national languages", while others may enjoy official recognition in use or promotion.

In many African countries, some or all

Albania

Albanian is the national language of Albania. Greek is the national language of the Greek communities, predominately in the south. Aromanian serves as a national language of the Aromanian linguistic minority. Albanian is also the national language of Kosovo, parts of southern Italy, southern Montenegro and southern Serbia. It is a co-official but not a national language of North Macedonia.

Algeria

The Armenian language is a separate branch in the linguistic family of Indo-European languages. Armenian is widely spoken in Armenia as well as in its diaspora.

Australia

Australia has no

There were almost 400 languages spoken by Indigenous Australians prior to the arrival of Europeans. Only about 70 of these languages have survived and all but 30 of these are now endangered.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani language is the national language in Azerbaijan.

Bangladesh

Bengali, the sole official language of Bangladesh, is also the de jure and de facto national language of the country. Establishing Bengali as a national language was one of the key reason for the independence of Bangladesh.^[8]

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina de jure has three national languages - Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian - which are de facto varieties of one language, Serbo-Croatian. It is officially defined under the three names, corresponding to the country's constituent nations. The Latin and Cyrillic alphabets both have official and equal status.^[9][10]

Bulgaria

Bulgarian is the sole official language in Bulgaria.^[11]

Canada

There are many languages spoken across China, with most people speaking one of several varieties of Chinese. During successive imperial dynasties, the spoken language of the capital city served as the official spoken language and was used across the country by government officials who traveled to communicate with one another. Dialects used for this purpose in different eras included those of Xi'an, Luoyang, Nanjing, Beijing, and other historical capital cities.

After the

Still, elements from other dialects do exist in the standard language, which is now defined as reflecting the pronunciation of Beijing, the grammatical patterns of Mandarin dialects spoken in the northern parts of China, and the vocabulary of modern vernacular Chinese literature. The People's Republic of China renamed the national language 普通话 (Pinyin: Pǔtōnghuà, literally "common speech"), without otherwise changing the definition of the standard national language.^[12]

Croatia

The Croatian language is the official language of Croatia.^[13] "The Croatian language and the Latin script shall be in official use in the Republic of Croatia" in Article 12 of the Croatian Constitution.^[14]

Czech Republic

The Czech language is the national language of the Czech Republic.

Ethiopia

Amharic was the national language in

French is the sole official language of France, according to Article 2 of the French Republic's constitution.^[19]

Germany

The official language of Germany is German, with over 95% of the country's population speaking it as their first language.^[20]

Haiti

Haiti's official languages are Haitian Creole and French. While French is the language used in the media, government and education, 90–95% of the country speak Haitian Creole as the home language while French is learned in school.

Iceland

Hindi in Devanagari script and English are the official languages in India, according to article 343(1) of the Indian constitution.^[21] Gujarat High Court has stated that while a majority of people in India have accepted Hindi as a national language, there is no official record or order declaring Hindi as the national language of the country.^[22][23]

The observation was made by division bench of Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya and justice A.S. Dave recently while rejecting a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by one Suresh Kachhadia.^[24]

The

The official and national language of Indonesia is Indonesian. Indonesia has more than 700 living languages, making it the second most linguistically diverse country after Papua New Guinea.^[29] These 700+ languages, however, are without official status, and some are in danger of extinction. The largest local language is Javanese.

Iran

Persian (or Farsi) is recognised as the national language of Iran.^[30]

Ireland

Irish is recognised by the Constitution of Ireland as the national language and first official language of Ireland, and the English language is recognised as a second official language.^[31]

Israel

Italy

The

While English and

Luxembourg uses three official languages: Luxembourgish, French, and German. Previously Luxembourgish had no official status, but following a constitutional revision a law was passed on 24 February 1984 making Luxembourgish the national language. Furthermore, this law recognised the three languages of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish, French and German) as administrative languages.

Malaysia

The

Maldives

Dhivehi is the national language of Maldives per the Maldivian constitution.

Malta

The Maltese language is the national language of Malta. It is also the official language of the island, together with English. Maltese only is recognised as "national" in Chapter 1 of the Laws of Malta.

Namibia

Although English is the only nationwide official language in

Dutch is the official language of The Netherlands. In the province of Fryslân they speak Frisian, which is recognized as the second official language there.

New Zealand

While the population of New Zealand is predominantly English-speaking, the language of the indigenous Polynesian people is the Māori language. Both these languages have official status in the country, along with New Zealand Sign Language, which is one of the few sign languages in the world to have such status.

Nigeria

Besides official English (

Article 251(1) of the

Philippines

Filipino is the national language of the Philippines. The current 1987 constitution designated the Filipino language, which is based on Tagalog with the inclusion of terms from all recognized languages of the Philippines, as the national language. It also designated both Filipino and English as the official languages for purposes of communication and instruction, and designated the regional languages as auxiliary official languages in the regions to serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein.

More than 170 languages are spoken in the Philippines and almost all of them belong to the Philippine subgroup of the Austronesian language family. In September 2012, La Union became the first province in Philippine history to pass an ordinance proclaiming a local language. It declared Ilocano as an official language. This move aims to protect and revitalize the use of Ilocano in various government and civil affairs within the province.^[41]

The

Poland

Article 27 of the Constitution states: "Polish shall be the official language in the Republic of Poland".^[42]

Portugal

Portuguese is the sole official language of Portugal.

Romania

The official and national language of Romania is the Romanian language.

Russia

The Russian language is the only national language of Russia and had federal official status, but 27 other languages are considered official in different Federal subjects of Russia.^[43]

Serbia

The

The Slovak language is the national language of Slovakia.

Slovenia

Main article: Languages of Slovenia

The Slovene language is the national language of Slovenia. There are 6 minority languages.^{[citation needed]}

South Africa

Main article: Languages of South Africa

Sepedi, Sesotho, siSwati, Setswana, Xitsonga, Thsivenda, isiXhosa and isiZulu

.

The South African constitution further explicitly supports the promotion of the indigenous

Hebrew, Sanskrit.^[44]

Spain

See also: Languages of Spain

Spain has one national constitutional language, Spanish or Castilian, but there are four other languages that are co-official in some territories: Galician language in Galicia, Basque in Euskadi and part of Navarre, Catalan language in Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia (as Valencian), and Aranese in Val d'Aran.

Sri Lanka

See also: Languages of Sri Lanka

The Sinhala Language and Tamil are the national languages of Sri Lanka.^[45]

Switzerland

Main article: Languages of Switzerland

Switzerland has four national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh,^[46] all of which have official status at the national level within the Federal administration of Switzerland.^[47]

A majority (74%) of the population speaks German, while most of the remainder (21%) speak French, and minorities speak Italian (4%) and Romansh (1%, not monolingually). German speakers are predominant in most of the country, while French speakers occupy the western parts near the border with France, and the Italian speakers are situated to the south near the border with Italy, mostly within the

Canton of Grisons in the south-east.^[48]

Taiwan

A national language in Taiwan is legally defined as "a natural language used by an original people group of Taiwan and the Taiwan Sign Language".[49] This includes Formosan languages, Hakka, Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien and Matsu dialect.

During

Republic of China retreated to the island of Taiwan, where they introduced Standard Chinese and English language

, which were spoken by few of the island population at the time, to be the "national language". Today however, the National languages development act recognises languages of all people groups of Taiwan to be national languages.

Tunisia

Main article: Languages of Tunisia

The official language of the

Djerba Island

also use the Tunisian Chelha language.

Turkey

Main article: Languages of Turkey

Turkish is the national language of Turkey per the Turkish constitution.

Uganda

Main article: Languages of Uganda

The national language of Uganda is English.

Ukraine

Main article: Languages of Ukraine

Ukrainian is the only official language of Ukraine.

United Kingdom

Main article: Languages of the United Kingdom

The English language (British English) is the de facto official language of the United Kingdom and is the sole language of an estimated 95% of the British population.^{[citation needed]} The three Home Nations outside England have national languages of their own with varying degrees of recognition, which coexist with the dominant English language. Britain also has several Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories which are to some extent self-governing, but are not recognized as independent states. Many of these have their own regional languages.

Northern Ireland

In

Tha Boord o Ulstèr-Scotch

(the Ulster-Scots Agency) respectively.

English was the sole official language until 2022 when the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022 was passed which gave Irish official status in Northern Ireland.

Scotland

In Scotland,

West Germanic language related to but separate from English, has no official status but is recognized as a minority language, and is the language of much Scottish literature, including the poetry of Robert Burns

.

Wales

The

Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg) is legally tasked with ensuring that, "in the conduct of public business and the administration of justice, the English and Welsh languages should be treated on a basis of equality".^[56]

Crown Dependencies: Isle of Man

English is de facto the only official language. However a few words of Manx Gaelic (the historical national language) are sometimes encountered in government institutions, largely for symbolic and ceremonial purposes, and it is the main medium of instruction in one primary school.

English regions

Cumbria

English is the main language spoken in the county of Cumbria. Cumbric was the historical language of Cumbria, a Brythonic language closely related to Welsh. It also used to be spoken in parts of Lancashire and southern Scotland. Most say that Cumbric became extinct in the 12th or 13th century. The Cumbric numerical system is still used by many shepherds in the Lake District.^{[citation needed]}

Cornwall

English is the de facto main language spoken in the county of Cornwall. Historically, the main language of Cornwall was Cornish. By 1800, Cornish was endangered with some debate about a mythical last speaker of the Cornish language. Revival of the Cornish language and some recognition has occurred in the 20th century.

United States

Main article: Languages of the United States

In the

United States Constitution does not explicitly declare any official language

, although the constitution is written in English, as is all federal legislation.

Since 1973[update], every year, a bill was introduced to the United States Congress by a Representative or a Senator to try to establish English as the official language of the United States.^[57]

Vietnam

In Vietnam, the Vietnamese language had been the de facto national language for many years, but it was not until Decree No. 5 of the 2013 constitution that the Vietnamese language was officially described as the National Language.^[58]

See also

• Ethnolect
• Indigenous language
• Language policy
• Regional language
• Standard language
• Official language
• Working language
• Bengali language movement in former East Pakistan, now Bangladesh
• Anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu, India
• Global language system

Notes and references

1. ^ "Jacques Leclerc". Archived from the original on 28 May 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
2. ^ Brann, C.M.B. 1994. "The National Language Question: Concepts and Terminology." Logos [University of Namibia, Windhoek] Vol 14: 125–134
3. ^ Wolff, H. Ekkehard "African Languages: An Introduction Ch./Art: Language and Society p. 321 pub. Cambridge University Press 2000
4. ^ 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language http://www.plean2028.ie/en/node/14^{[permanent dead link]}
5. ISBN 9781853590313
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7. ^ "2011 Census QuickStats: Australia".
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9. ^ "Amendments XXVII-LIV to the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina" (PDF). High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
10. ^ "Amendments LXXI-XCII to the Constitution of Republika Srpska" (PDF). High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
11. ^ Constitution of the Republic Bulgaria, article 3
12. ^ General Information of the People's Republic of China (PRC): Languages, chinatoday.com, retrieved 17 April 2008
13. ^ "Croatian declared official language 174 years ago". Croatiaweek. 23 November 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
14. ^ "Croatia 1991 (rev. 2010)".
15. ^ Shaban, Abdurahman. "One to five: Ethiopia gets four new federal working languages". Africa News. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
16. ^ Finland – Constitution, Section 17. International Constitutional Law website.
17. ^ "FINLEX ® – Ajantasainen lainsäädäntö: 11.6.1999/731".
18. ^ Decree on the Sami Parliament FINLEX. Access date: 3 July.
19. ^ "Legifrance - Le service public de l'accés au droit". 4 June 2011. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
20. ^ "BBC Education".
21. ^ "CHAPTER I.—LANGUAGE OF THE UNION" (PDF).
22. ISSN 0971-8257
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23. ISSN 0971-751X
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24. ISSN 0971-751X
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25. ^ "Official Language Rules, 1976". Retrieved 6 November 2021.
26. ^ "CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS | Department of Official Language | Ministry of Home Affairs | GoI". rajbhasha.nic.in. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
27. ^ "There's no national language in India: Gujarat High Court". The Times of India. 25 January 2010. and English and Hindi are used for official purposes by the union government and in the parliament
28. ^ "The Constitution of India" (PDF). National Portal. 26 November 1949.
29. ^ "What countries have the most languages?". SIL International. 22 May 2019. Archived from the original on 20 August 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
30. ^ "Persian". UCLA Language Materials Project. Archived from the original on 23 September 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
31. ^ Article 8, Bunreacht na hÉireann.
32. ^ Law 482, December 15, 1999 Archived 12 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine. camera.it
33. ^ Italian language. ethnologue.com
34. ^ Lingua nazionale: le ragioni del fiorentino. accademiadellacrusca.it
35. ^ Bruno Migliorini, (1960). Storia della lingua italiana. 1st ed. Italy: Sansoni.
36. ^ Constitution of Kenya Accessed 2010-10-28.
37. ^ "ICL - Lebanon - Constitution". 21 September 1990.
38. ^ "The Constitution of Nepal" (PDF). Nepal Law Commission. Nepal Law Commission. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
39. ^ Article 55, Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria : 1999.
40. ^ "PART XII (contd); Miscellaneous; Chapter 4. General", The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 14 August 1973, retrieved 22 April 2008
41. ^ Elias, Jun (19 September 2012). "Iloko La Union's official language". The Philippine Star. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
42. ^ Constitution of the Republic of Poland, 2 April 1997, retrieved 16 July 2016
43. JSTOR 43669126
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44. ^ "Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 - Chapter 1: Founding Provisions". www.gov.za. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
45. ^ "What Languages Are Spoken In Sri Lanka?". WorldAtlas. 25 April 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
46. ^ "The Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation, article 4". Retrieved 30 April 2009.
47. ^ "Diversité des langues et compétences linguistiques en Suisse". Retrieved 30 April 2009.
48. ^ Jud, Markus G. "Switzerland's Four National Languages". All-About-Switzerland.info. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
49. ^ 國家語言發展法. law.moj.gov.tw (in Chinese). Retrieved 22 May 2019.
50. ^ "Tunisia Constitution, Article 1" (PDF). 26 January 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2014. Translation by the University of Bern: "Tunisia is a free State, independent and sovereign; its religion is the Islam, its language is Arabic, and its form is the Republic."
51. ^ "Arabic, Tunisian Spoken". Ethnologue.
52. ^ "Christian Valantin (sous la dir. de), La Francophonie dans le monde. 2006-2007, éd. Nathan, Paris, 2007, p. 16" (PDF) (in French). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2015. (5.58 MB)
53. ^ 2011 Census of Scotland, Table QS211SC. Viewed 30 May 2014.
54. ^ Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, Office of Public Sector Information, archived from the original on 7 September 2010, retrieved 9 March 2007
55. ^ "2011 Census: Key Statistics for Wales, March 2011". ONS. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
56. ^ Welsh Language Act 1993, Office of Public Sector Information, retrieved 3 September 2007
57. ^ "All legislation matching 'H.R.997'". United States Congress. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
58. ^ "Toàn văn Hiến pháp sửa đổi". Tin nhanh VnExpress.