Working language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A working language (also procedural language) is a language that is given a unique legal status in a supra-national company, society, state or other body or organization as its primal mean of communication. It is primarily the language of the daily correspondence and conversation, since the organization usually has members with various differing language backgrounds.

Most international organizations have working languages for their bodies. By definition a working language is not the same as an official language.

[edit] Examples

• The United Nations has six working languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
• The European Commission has three working languages: English, German and French.
• The Shanghai Cooperation Organization has two working languages: Chinese and Russian.
• NATO has two working languages: French and English.
• The Southern African Development Community has three working languages: English, French and Portuguese
• FIFA has three working languages: French, German and English.
• East Timor has two working languages: Indonesian and English.
• Eritrea has three working languages: Tigrinya, Arabic and English.