List of official languages

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Contents


[edit] Official languages of supra-national institutions

See List of official languages by institution.

[edit] Official languages of sovereign countries

There are 112 languages in this category.

Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Afrikaans:

Albanian:

Amharic:

Arabic:

Armenian:

Assamese:

Aymara:

Azeri:

Basque:

Belarusian:

Bengali:

Bislama:

Bosnian:

Bulgarian:

Burmese:

Catalan:

Chinese (see also Sinitic languages):

Croatian

Czech:

Danish

Dari:

Dhivehi:

Dutch:

Dzongkha:

English (see also List of countries where English is an official language):

Estonian:

Fijian

Filipino:

Finnish:

French (see also List of countries where French is an official language):

Frisian (West):

Gagauz:

Georgian:

German:

Greek:

Guaraní

Gujarati:

Haitian Creole:

Hebrew:

Hindi

  • India (with 22 other official languages)
  • Fiji (with English and Bau Fijian; known constitutionally as Hindustani as an umbrella term to cover Urdu, as well as Hindi.)

Hiri Motu:

Hungarian:

Icelandic:

Indonesian:

Irish Gaelic is the national and first official language of:

Italian:

Japanese:

Kannada:

Kashmiri:

Kazakh:

Khmer:

Korean:

Kurdish:

  • Iraq (with Arabic)

Kyrgyz:

Lao:

Latvian:

Lithuanian:

Luxembourgish:

Macedonian:

Malagasy:

Malay:

Malayalam:

Maltese:

Māori:

  • New Zealand (with English and New Zealand Sign Language)

Marathi:

Moldovan (identical to Romanian according to the law of Moldova[2])

Mongolian

  • Mongolia
  • part of the People's Republic of China
    • Inner Mongolia, with Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Haixi, with Tibetan and Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Bortala, with Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Bayin'gholin, with Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Dorbod, with Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Qian Gorlos, with Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Harqin Left, with Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Fuxin, with Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Weichang, with Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Subei, with Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Henan, with Chinese (Mandarin)

Montenegrin:

  • Montenegro (with Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian)

Ndebele:

Nepali:

New Zealand Sign Language:

Northern Sotho:

Norwegian:

  • Norway (two official written forms - Bokmål and Nynorsk)

Oriya:

Papiamento

Pashto:

Persian:

Polish:

Portuguese:

Punjabi:

Quechua

Romanian:

Rhaeto-Romansh:

Russian:

Sanskrit:

Serbian:

Sindhi:

Sinhala:

  • Sri Lanka (with Tamil, and with English as a link language)

Slovak

Slovene:

Somali:

Sotho:

Spanish:

Swahili:

Swati:

Swedish:

Tajik:

Tamil:

Telugu:

Tetum:

Thai:

Tok Pisin:

Tsonga:

Tswana:

Turkish:

Turkmen:

Ukrainian:

Urdu: *Republic of India (with 22 other official languages)

  • Pakistan (with English, Pothowari, Punjabi, Kashmiri (Koshur), Pashto, Sindhi, Siraiki, Balochi and Brahui)
  • Fiji (with Englishand Bau Fijian; known constitutionally as Hindustani as an umbrella term to cover Urdu, as well as Hindi.)

Uzbek:

Venda:

Vietnamese:

Welsh:

Xhosa:

Yiddish:

Zulu:

[edit] Ranking of languages by number of sovereign countries in which they are official

[edit] In Africa:

[edit] In the Americas:

[edit] In Asia:

[edit] In Europe:

[edit] In Oceania:

  • 12 countries: English
  • 1 country: numerous languages

[edit] By number of continents:

  • All 6 continents (besides Antarctica)
    • English (Africa: 19 countries; North America: 13 countries; Oceania: 12 countries; Asia: 4 countries; Europe: 3 countries; South America: 1 country)
    5 continents
    • Portuguese (Africa: 6 countries; South America: 1 country; Europe: 1 country; Asia: 1 country; Oceania: 1 country)
    • French (Africa: 21 countries; Europe: 5 countries; North America: 2 countries;South America: 1 country; Oceania: 1 country)
    4 continents
    • Spanish (South America: 9 countries; North America: 8 countries; Europe: 1 country; Africa: 1 country)
    2 continents
    • Arabic (Africa: 12 countries; Asia: 12 countries)
    • Russian (Europe: 2 countries; Asia: 2 countries)
    • Dutch (Europe: 2 countries; The Americas: 1 country)
    • Urdu (Asia: 2 countries; Oceania: 1 country)
    • Hindi (Asia: 1 country; Oceania: 1 country)
    • Japanese (Asia: 1 country; Oceania: 1 country)
    • Italian (Europe: 1 country; Africa: 1 country)
    • Greek (Europe:1 country; Asia: 1 country)
    1 continent
  • numerous other languages, of which German (6 countries).

[edit] Official languages of subnational entities

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Aranese see Occitan

Armenian:

Basque:

Cantonese Chinese:

  • Hong Kong (for Chinese language, both Cantonese and Mandarin are spoken de facto; co-official with English)
  • Macau (for Chinese language, both Cantonese and Mandarin are spoken de facto; co-official with Portuguese)

Catalan:

Chipewyan:

  • Northwest Territories (with Cree, English, French, Gwich'in, Innuinaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tłįchǫ (Dogrib))

Cree:

  • Northwest Territories (with Chipewyan, English, French, Gwich'in, Innuinaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tłįchǫ (Dogrib))

Tłįchǫ:

  • Northwest Territories (with Cree, Chipewyan, English, French, Gwich'in, Innuinaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, and South Slavey)

English:

  • parts of Canada:

See also:Official language by province

Faroese:

French:

  • parts of Canada

see also Official language by province

  • New Brunswick (co-official with English)
  • Northwest Territories (with Chipewyan, Cree, English, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, Slavey (North and South) and Tłįchǫ)
  • Nunavut (with English, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut)
  • Quebec
  • Yukon (with English)

Galician:

Gwich'in:

  • Northwest Territories (with Cree, Chipewyan, English, French, Innuinaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tłįchǫ (Dogrib))

Hawaiian:

  • Hawai'i (co-official with English in the state of Hawai'i)

Inuinnaqtun:

  • Northwest Territories (with Cree, Chipewyan, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tłįchǫ (Dogrib))
  • Nunavut (with English, French, and Inuktitut)

Inuktitut:

  • Greenland (with Danish)
  • Nunavut (with English, French, and Inuinnaqtun)
  • Northwest Territories (with Cree, Chipewyan, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tłįchǫ (Dogrib))

Inuvialuktun:

  • Northwest Territories (with Cree, Chipewyan, English, French, Gwich'in, Innuinaqtun, Inuktitut, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tłįchǫ (Dogrib))

Mazandarani:

Occitan (Aranese):

Rusyn:

  • Vojvodina (with Croatian, Serbian, Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak)

Sami:

  • Finland (in four municipalities)
  • Norway (in six municipalities)
  • Sweden (in four municipalities and surrounding municipalities)

North and South Slavey:

  • Northwest Territories (with Cree, Chipewyan, English, French, Gwich'in, Innuinaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, and Tłįchǫ (Dogrib))

Spanish:

Tahitian:

Tibetan:

  • Tibet Autonomous Region (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Aba (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Garzê (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Diqing (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Wenshan (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Gannan (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Haibai (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Hainan (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Huangnan (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Golog (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Gyêgu (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Haixi (with Mongolian and Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Muli (with Chinese (Mandarin))
  • Tianzhu (with Chinese (Mandarin))

Tswana:

Uyghur:

Vietnamese:

Yiddish:

Zhuang:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Namibia - Constitution, servat.unibe.ch/icl (International Constitutional Law collection), 1990, <http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/wa00000_.html>. Retrieved on 2008-05-02  (Article 3)
  2. ^ a b The 1989 Language Law of the Moldavian SSR, which is still in force in Moldova (according to the Constitution [1]) asserts the existence of a "linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity".[2]

    "The law of 1 September 1989 regarding the usage of languages spoken on the territory of the Republic of Moldova remains valid, excepting the points where it contradicts this constitution."

    —Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, Title 7, Article 7

    "Moldavian SSR supports the desire of the Moldovans that live across the borders of the Republic, and considering the really existing linguistical Moldo-Romanian identity - of the Romanians that live on the territory of the USSR, of doing their studies and satisfying their cultural needs in their maternal language."

    —Law regarding the usage of languages spoken on the territory of the Republic of Moldova
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