Talk:List of official languages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Does anyone know where to get info on the official language(s) of Ghana? The CIA world fact book says:

English (official), African languages (including Akan, Moshi-Dagomba, Ewe, and Ga)

But I was pretty sure that some of those african languages were official (besides just English). It would also be useful to have a complete list of the recognized african languages (I believe there are at least 15 recognized languages, and another 60 or so unrecognized languages).


About the inclusion of Hong Kong and Macau in the PRC (an obvious fact for me)User:Efghij: If you keep specifying Hong Kong and Macau, please specify Açores and Madeira (Portugal) and ALL Spanish regions, among other self-governing parts of many countries. Why is this case special?Marco NevesMarco Neves

Louisiana has no official language

?which is why I took the liberty to delete the state of Louisiana from the list. Louisiana?s current constitution (1974) says that the "right of the people to preserve, foster, and promote their respective historic linguistic and cultural origins is recognized" (see Article XII, Section 4 at http://senate.legis.state.la.us/Documents/Constitution/). Furthermore, all contracts and other documents written in French are recognized as legally binding. See also for more information James Crawford?s page on Louisiana: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/can-la.htm

According to the New Mexico wikipedia page, it also does not have an official language.

"New Mexico is commonly thought to have Spanish as an official language alongside English, due to the widespread usage of Spanish in the state. Although the original state constitution of 1912 provided for a temporarily bilingual government, New Mexico has no official language."

Please stop edit-warring. If you've got a source that says Ireland has two official languages, with Irish as "the" official language, give me a link. -- ヤギ

I'm Portuguese and not particularly interested in the linguistic situation in Ireland, but I've learnt and repetedly see printed in many books and sources that:
  • Ireland is a mostly English-speaking country;
  • Ireland has two official languages: Irish Gaelic and English;
  • Irish Gaelic (or Irish) is considered the first official language, having superior legal value than English, which is one of the few (if not the only) cases in which an official language has a superior value to that of another (even in Spain, regional languages have exactly the same official value as Spanish in their own regions). Marco NevesMarco Neves

--- Kurdish is an official language in Iraq!!!

Yes (according to demographics of Iraq), and thanks for your excitement!!! Tuf-Kat

The 1937 Irish constitution Art.8.1. The Irish language as the national language is the first official language.

Art.8.2. The English language is recognised as a second official language.

(emphasis yours -- ヤギ )

All legislation, etc in the Irish language is treated as superior to anything in the Englsh language. etc etc etc. JtdIrL 06:32 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC)

The constitution of Ireland states that Irish will be the first official language and the next section states English is their second official language. This does not mean Irish (or Gaelic) is THE official language, but it was obviously the first established and I am not arguing on that point.
The fact is, any country with more than one official language would say "this is our first official language, this is our second official language, this is our tenth official language". There is no reason to make a special case for Ireland, they simply have two official languages like many countries. Article reverted. -- ヤギ
[just a remark: countries with more than one official language usually don't establish an order for those languages; Ireland, actually, is one of the few which does that.]Marco NevesMarco Neves

Cant you read english? Irish is THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. Number 1. The first. English is A second. Number two. Inferior in law. Takes second place in law. In the case of a clash, the Irish language version comes out tops.

One is THE language, one is rated as a second, to which if Ireland wanted to, Outer Mongolian could be added as an equal language to english. It is not an equality. One is THE language. One is a secondary language. JtdIrL 06:40 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC) Cant you read english? Irish is THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. Number 1. The first. English is A second. Number two. Inferior in law. Takes second place in law. In the case of a clash, the Irish language version comes out tops.

One is THE language, one is rated as a second, to which if Ireland wanted to, Outer Mongolian could be added as an equal language to english. It is not an equality. One is THE language. One is a secondary language. JtdIrL 06:40 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC)

I am perfectly capable of understanding English. Ireland has two official languages. It is not rocket science. -- ヤギ
Please leave the entries on Ireland uniform to the other entries until a consensus has been reached. -- ヤギ

You want me to leave the entries to Ireland incorrect? Are you joking? There is no question of leaving entries about something as fundamental, as basic and as easy to understand as what the Irish constitution says about relative status of two languages incorrect. I wouldn't leave a page that said Rome was the capital of France untouched. Or that England is a republic. There is no question of letting a page that contain a fundamental mistake about Ireland sit with that error. As you still don't seem capable of grasping the facts, let me spell them out one more time.

Irish = ' The NATIONAL LANGUAGE' 'THE first official language.' Art.8.1. English = merely 'recognised' as A second official language, not ;THE national language, not 'A' national language, not even another first official language'. Instead it is demoted to A SECOND official language. In any quiz, if someone is asked - What is the national language of Ireland?, if they answer english they are told wrong answer. The national language is Irish. English is a secondly, inferior, grade II language.

Personally I don't agree with the way the constitution treats english, and would love to change it. But my personal feelings are irrelevant, the Official language of Ireland is Irish. English is a secondary language, not the official one. JtdIrL 07:20 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC)

From Iraq's constitution:

Article 7 [Languages]

(a) Arabic is the official language.

(b) The Kurdish language is official, besides Arabic, in the Kurdish Region.

I should have read before editing that, my mistake. -- ヤギ

"in the Republic of Ireland what is the state's official national language is actually spoken by only a small proportion of people"

Isn't the "national language" of a country the language most of the population speaks? From what I have read the terms "national language" and "official language" are seperate and should not be used interchangably. -- ヤギ

And Puerto Rico? In the list of states?

this is not NPOV and misleading. Puerto Rico is not a state, (not an incorporated territory like Guam and American Samoa or the english speaking territory of Virgin Islands). It is a self governing commonwealth associated with US since 1952. Spanish is and has been the first language (mother tongue)of Puerto Rico , English is a symbolic second language due to Puerto Rico's political association with US (English is taught in schools as a foreign language and not as a common, majority or national language). Puerto Rico has its own National Academy of Spanish Language (http://www.acaple.org) separate from the the USA National Academy of Spanish Language as well. Puerto Rico should be listed under state or province (since it is not fully sovereign) but separate from US (since it a self governing commonwealth in political association with US).

Swedish is an official language of Finland, but not of Sweden. There is a current Government Bill that has been put to Parliament, which is proposing to make Swedish the official language, but it has run into heavy critisism and it seems unlikely that it will pass. Just two years ago the Swedish Parliament passed an act recognizing several minority lanugages, and these are the only languages that have any kind of official recognition in Sweden. Swedish is so far merely the de facto standard language of Sweden, and it does not have an official status. /Mic

Just out of interest, I notice that English isn't listed as an official language of Great Britain. As far as I know it should be (certainly Welsh has official status in Wales, and I'm sure English does too, so I'd be surprised if it's not official in the rest of Britain). Also, should it be the whole United Kingdom or just Great Britain (or even the individual countries)? Magnus 17:28 Apr 16, 2003 (UTC)

According to a 1995 Parliamentary answer, there is "no concept of an official language enshrined in English or Scottish law". The Welsh Language Act enshrines the principle that "in the conduct of public business and the administration of justice in Wales, the English and Welsh languages should be treated on a basis of equality", but does not quite make it an "official language". See this PDF for an argument that Welsh should be made an official language. Furthermore, under the definition offered at official language, neither the UK nor Wales can have an "official language" as there is no written constitution. As with so many things in the UK, English is our "official language" only by longstanding convention. --rbrwr

Anyone know what Inuvialuktun, an official language of the Northwest Territories of Canada, is? It is not listed in Inuit, Inuktitut, or Eskimo-Aleut. Rmhermen 23:53, Aug 8, 2003 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Dutch/Flemish

Look, I know the Dutch say "there's no such place as Belgium", but nevertheless Flemish is a distinct language with a distinct (and longer) cultural tradition, and the fact that Flemings and Dutchmen can make themselves mutually understood far more easily than (say) Danes and Swedes or Serbs and Croats does not make Dutch into one of the languages of Belgium. I suggest that we allow the fact of a distinct literary tradition to come through, or we lose touch with such things as Til Eulenspiel. PML.

I am from the Dutch Wikipedia, I am from Belgium, I speak Dutch (not flemish). Dutch is one of the 3 offical languages of Belgium and the main language of about 60% of the population. Flemish is not a offical language of Belgium. Giskart 09:54 Mar 13, 2003 (UTC)
Zelfs als Vlaams echt een andere taal zou zijn, wat het niet is, dan is het nog niet een officiële taal van een land. Dan kun je evengoed gaan zeggen dat ze in België "Limburgs, Antwerps, Gents, Brussels, en West-Vlaams spreken (al geef ik wel toe dat West-Vlaams soms wel als een andere taal klinkt) Giskart 09:54 Mar 13, 2003 (UTC)

Vandalism alert. Dutch supremacists appear to be denying the existence of Flemish, and making out that Belgium has Dutch as an official language. PML.

A remark: I've learned that Flemish and Dutch were united and are today two "dialects" of the same language - neerlandese. This is, I've heard the official situation, similar to that of Catalan: Catalan is called Valencian in Valencian Community but is, nevertheless, Catalan. Dutch and Flemish are two different names for the same language and, at the same time, two dialects of that language. Marco NevesMarco Neves

Flanders, the Netherlands and Suriname have a treaty called Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union). This treaty fixes the spelling used in education and by the government. Some other languages (Portuguese) also have such a treaty. --Otto ter Haar 09:58, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Moldovan language

Dear Sir, The Moldovan (Moldavian) language don't exist ! This "language" is only an invention of the Russian invaders. The language of the people in the so-called Moldova is the Romanian language. Best regards, Sorin Demetrescu 17.09.2003

No, of course it doesn't exist, it is just the official name of the Romanian language in Moldova. :)
See Moldovan language about this. Bogdan 12:10, 17 Sep 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Irish/English "secondary"

Under the Irish constitution, Article 8 1. The Irish language as the national language is the first official language.

2. The English language is recognised as a second official language.

3. Provision may, however, be made by law for the exclusive use of either of the said languages for any one or more official purposes, either throughout the State or in any part thereof. garryq 13:32, 9 May 2004 (UTC)

The OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT 2003 ( http://www.acts.ie/en.act.2003.0032.4.html#partiii-sec11 ) does enable the use of Irish only in stationery and public announcements. Nevertheless, it confirms that both languages are official and that any person may use either language in contacting the government and expect a reply in that language I am sure the State will now use Irish much more in the Gaeltacht, but English has not been downgraded or replaced. The Constitution and practicalities ensure that. The situation is not analogous to Qu&eacur;bec where the promotion of French has been by a near-criminalising of non-Francophone and by suspending the Constitution (via the notwithstanding clause) garryq 14:18, 9 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Languages missing from list

Some languages are not given entries even though they are mentioned as co-official languages under other entries. Bislama is one of these. Also, Bulgarian appears out of alphabetical sequence.

[edit] Portuguese in Galicia

The Portuguese language is not official in Galicia, texts in Portuguese don't have legal value.--Rocastelo 18:11, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC) n

[edit] Iceland

Why doesn't Iceland have a place their? The ancient Icelandic should definetely be there with the others, as its a very interesting language and obviously the official language of the country, as anyone who has been there knows (but you don't have to go there to know that).

[edit] Korean in South Korea

I am more and more unsure about the legal status of Korean in South Korea. As far as I can determine, it has no explicit status in written law. However, during the recent controversy surrounding President Roh Moo-hyun's proposed special law to move the capital, the argument that the prominent national symbols—Seoul being the capital, the national anthem, Korean as the "official" language—are included in the unwritten "Customary Constitution" (관습헌법) was used by the Constitutional Court of South Korea to overrule the proposed special law as being unconstitutional. Naturally, this raised a whole political debate about the validity of the "Customary Constitution" argument, and if we merely follow the Court's decision and say that Korean is the official language of South Korea, we may risk choosing a side in an ugly battle. How should we deal with this situation? Please direct your comments to Talk:South Korea. Thanks. --Iceager 01:02, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

Well, I have been reminded that earlier this year (2005) the "Basic Law on national language" (국어기본법) was passed, and although I haven't been able to find its content anywhere, according to the press reports at the time it specified Korean as the official language and Hangul as the official script. I completely forgot about this. Never mind then... --Iceager 01:16, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Vatican City

I think if there is no law in a country that says the equivalent of "X is the/a official language" or something very similar, then the country doesn't belong in this list. Countries where languages are merely de facto or traditionally official don't belong here. (Thus the U.S. isn't shown under English, Sweden is not listed under Swedish etc.)

By this measure I am having doubts that Latin is an official language of the State of the Vatican City. So far I haven't been able to uncover mention of a law that says Latin is official there. Does any one know one way or the other? I have also raised this question in Talk:Latin and Talk:Vatican City. -- Cam 06:59, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Australia

It appears that English is not de jure official in Australia. See recent discussion in Talk:Australia. When their article gets edited I will change it here. --Cam 17:10, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] De facto versus de jure

I suggest that we follow the Britannica practice of recognizing "de facto" and well as "de jure" official languages. For example, English is not the official language de jure of the United States. But Britannica apparently recosgnizes "official" any language in which the government of a country conducts most of its business. I propose a similar policy, with de facto and de jure clearly labelled as such. David Cannon 22:39, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Sounds reasonable, but by "official language" I think one means "official by law". And so any situation in which it is implicitly understood that a specific language is to be used for all formal purposes (for practical rather than symbolic reasons), should be denoted in the list as de facto official, as opposed to legally sanctioned. "De jure official" is an unnecessary pleonasm, while "de facto official" is an apt description of an actual situation. Note also that certain extinct languages are official solely as a symbolic gesture (such as Sanskrit, Latin or Manx), but we don't describe these as "de facto unofficial". //Big Adamsky 22:47, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
This definition is kind of a big deal, since it involves every country and state table. Could some kind of formal vote be taken about what our policy should be? --Cam 00:11, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Malaysian official language

There's only one official language and that's Malay. I've removed Malaysia from Chinese, English and Tamil list. See Article 152 of the Malaysian Constitution. __earth 02:16, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kosovo

Kosovo is not (as yet) a sovereign state. I believe it therefore does not belong to this list. Should it remain here, as far as I know from a few months I spent there dealing with local legal matters, all current legislation is issued in albanian, serbian and english. Therefore, Kosovo should be added under the serbian, and probably the english entry. --81.57.232.80 03:11, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Russian language in Ukraine

Russian is not an official language of Ukraine. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 152.66.237.197 (talk) 19:51, 6 December 2006 (UTC).

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../l/i/s/Talk%7EList_of_official_languages_7939.html"