Official languages

An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, legislature, and/or administration).

178 countries recognize an official language, 101 of them recognizing more than one. The government of Italy made Italian official only in 1999, and some nations (such as the United States, Mexico and Australia) have never declared de jure official languages at the national level. Other nations have declared non-indigenous official languages.

Many of the world's constitutions mention one or more official or national languages. 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''. 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 (state) 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). Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, North African countries, Greenland, Tanzania, Samoa and Paraguay are among the exceptions to this tendency.

History

Around 500 BC, when Darius the Great annexed Mesopotamia to the Persian Empire, he chose a form of the Aramaic language (the so-called Official Aramaic or Imperial Aramaic) as the vehicle for written communication between the different regions of the vast empire with its different peoples and languages. Aramaic script was widely employed from Egypt in the southwest to Bactria and Sogdiana in the northeast. Texts were dictated in the native dialects and written down in Aramaic, and then read out again in the native language at the places they were received.

The First Emperor of Qin standardized the written language of China after unifying the country in 221 BC. Classical Chinese would remain the standard written language for the next 2000 years. Standardization of the spoken language received less political attention, and Mandarin developed on an ''ad hoc'' basis from the dialects of the various imperial capitals until being officially standardized in the early twentieth century.

Statistics

According to a dateless or anonymous chart by the American pro-English-only organization known as U.S. English, 178 countries have an official language at the national level. Among those, English is the most common with 67 nations giving it official status. French is second with 29 countries, Arabic is third with 26 countries and Spanish is fourth with 21 countries, Portuguese is the official language in 10 countries and German is official in 6.

Some countries—like Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States—have no official language recognized as such at a national level. On the other extreme, Bolivia officially recognizes 37 languages, the most of any country in the world. Second to Bolivia is India with 22 official languages. South Africa is the country with the third lead with 11 official languages that all have equal status; Bolivia gives primacy to Spanish, and India gives primacy to English and Hindi.

Political alternatives

The selection of an official language (or the lack thereof) is often contentious. An alternative to having a single official language is "official multilingualism", where a government recognizes multiple official languages. Under this system, all government services are available in all official languages. Each citizen may choose their preferred language when conducting business. Most countries are multilingual and many are officially multilingual. Taiwan, Canada, the Philippines, Belgium, Switzerland, and the European Union are examples of official multilingualism. This has been described as controversial and, in some other areas where it has been proposed, the idea has been rejected. It has also been described as necessary for the recognition of different groups or as an advantage for the country in presenting itself to outsiders.

In specific countries/territories

Afghanistan

Following ''Chapter 1, Article 16'' of the Constitution of Afghanistan, the Afghan government gives equal status to Pashto and Dari as official languages.

Australia

English is the ''de facto'' national language of Australia, while Australia has no official language, 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.

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'. The ''de facto'' national language, Bengali, is the sole official language of Bangladesh according to the third article of the Constitution of Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh introduced the Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 to ensure the mandatory use of Bengali in all government affairs.

Bulgaria

Bulgarian is the sole official language in Bulgaria.

Belarus

Belarusian and Russian have official status in the Republic of Belarus.

Belgium

Belgium has three official languages: Dutch, French and German.

Canada

Following the ''Constitution Act, 1982'' the (federal) Government of Canada gives equal status to English and French as official languages. The Province of New Brunswick is also officially bilingual, as is Yukon. Nunavut has four official languages: English, French, Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun. The Northwest Territories has eleven official languages: Chipewyan/Dené, Cree, English, French, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey, and Tłı̨chǫ (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) Amharic, Oromo, Somali, Tigrinya, and Afar, but Amharic is the de-facto sole official language which is used by the government for issuing driving licenses, business licenses, passport, and foreign diplomacy with the addition that Court documents are in Amharic, and the constitution is written in Amharic.

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

German is the official language of Germany. However, its minority languages include Sorbian ( Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian), Romani, Danish and North Frisian, which are officially recognised. Migrant languages like Turkish, Russian and Spanish are widespread but are not officially recognised languages.

Hong Kong

According to the Basic Law of Hong Kong and the Official Languages Ordinance, both Chinese and English are the official languages of Hong Kong with equal status. The variety of Chinese is not stipulated; however, Cantonese, being the language most commonly used by the majority of Hongkongers, forms the ''de facto'' standard. Similarly, Traditional Chinese characters are most commonly used in Hong Kong and form the ''de facto'' standard for written Chinese, however, there is an increasing presence of Simplified Chinese characters particularly in areas related to tourism. In government use, documents written using Traditional Chinese characters are authoritative over ones written with Simplified Chinese characters.

India

The Constitution of India ( part 17) designates the official language of the Government of India as English as well as Standard Hindi written in the Devanagari script.

The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists has 22 languages, 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.

Israel

On 19 July 2018, the Knesset passed a basic law under the title Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, which defines Hebrew as "the State's language" and Arabic as a language with "a special status in the State" (article 4). The law further says that it should not be interpreted as compromising the status of the Arabic language in practice before the enactment of the basic law, namely, it preserves the status quo and changes the status of Hebrew and Arabic only nominally.

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 o
14 August 1922
for the British Mandate of Palestine, as amended in 1939:

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."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.

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 Latvian as the sole official language of Latvia, while Latgalian is protected as "a historic variant of Latvian" and Livonian is recognized as "the language of the indigenous (autochthon) population". Latvia also provides national minority education programmes in Russian, Polish, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Estonian, Lithuanian, and Belarusian. In 2012 there was a constitutional referendum on elevating Russian as a co-official language, but the proposal was rejected by nearly three-quarters of the voters.

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

Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands (a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands). In the province of Friesland, Frisian is the official second language. While Dutch is therefore the official language of the Caribbean Netherlands (the islands Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius), it is not any of the three islands’ main spoken language: Papiamento is the most often spoken language on Bonaire, while English is on both Saba and Sint Eustatius. These languages can be used in official documents (but do not have the same status as Frisian). Low Saxon and Limburgish, languages acknowledged by the European Charter, are spoken in specific regions of the Netherlands.

New Zealand

New Zealand has three official languages. English is the ''de facto'' official language, accepted as such in all situations. The Māori language and New Zealand Sign Language both have restricted ''de jure'' official status under the '' Māori Language Act 1987'' and ''New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006''.

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

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases