This is a list of states where language is a political issue.
| Country/Constituent region |
Languages |
Notes |
| Afghanistan |
Pashto, Dari, Uzbek, Turkmen, and about 30 minor languages |
|
| Algeria |
Arabic, French, and Berber |
|
| Australia |
Various Indigenous Australian languages |
|
| Austria |
Slovene in Carinthia |
|
| Azerbaijan |
Azerbaijani, Lezgian, Armenian and Talysh |
|
| Bahrain |
Arabic and Persian |
|
| Belarus |
Russian and Belarusian |
|
| Belgium |
Dutch and French and German |
|
| German-speaking community of Belgium |
French and German |
|
| Brazil, particularly in Rio Grande do Sul |
Portuguese and Riograndenser Hunsrückisch; also Talian |
|
| Cameroon |
English and French |
|
| Canada, particularly in Quebec |
English and French; also, to varying degrees, English and Aboriginal languages |
See: Languages of Canada, Official bilingualism in Canada, Official Languages Act (Canada), Legal dispute over Quebec's language policy, Charter of the French Language, Language demographics of Quebec, National Question |
|
| China, People's Republic of |
Mandarin Chinese and various local dialects and languages |
|
| Hong Kong |
Chinese and English |
|
| Cyprus |
Greek and Turkish |
|
| Egypt |
Egyptian Arabic and Standard Arabic |
|
| Estonia |
Estonian and Russian |
|
| Finland |
Finnish and Swedish |
see mandatory Swedish, history: Finland's language strife |
| Åland |
Swedish and Finnish |
|
| France |
French, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Franco-Provençal, Occitan, Dutch (West Flemish), Alsatian and Italian |
France has only one official language (French), and is regularly criticized by the European Union for its lack of recognition for minority regional languages. |
| Greece |
varieties of Modern Greek |
solved after 1975 |
| India |
numerous, see languages of India |
see The Language Movement, Tanittamil Iyakkam, Anti-Hindi agitations |
| Indonesia |
Indonesian and various native languages |
|
| Iraq |
Arabic and Kurdish |
|
| Ireland |
English and Irish |
|
| Italy |
French in Aosta Valley and Friulian in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Valdôtain in Aosta Valley, German in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, and Slovene in Friuli-Venezia Giulia |
|
| Kazakhstan |
Kazakh and Russian |
|
| Latvia |
Latvian and Russian |
|
| Republic of Macedonia |
Macedonian and Albanian |
|
| Malaysia |
Malay, Mandarin and English |
Use of languages as mediums on instructions in schools are one of many issues. [1] |
| Moldova |
Russian, Moldovan, and Romanian |
part of the issue is whether Moldovan is the same language as Romanian |
| Montenegro |
Serbian and Montenegrin |
|
| Morocco |
Arabic and Berber |
|
| The Netherlands |
Dutch and West Frisian |
|
| New Zealand |
English, Maori and New Zealand Sign Language |
|
| Norway |
Bokmål, Nynorsk, Sami and Finnish/Kven |
see Norwegian language struggle |
| Pakistan |
Issue among the official language Urdu, the most common language Punjabi and regional languages such as Sindhi, Baluchi, Sraiki,Pushto, Potohari, Kashmiri |
|
| Philippines |
Filipino de facto based on Tagalog and English (See Languages of the Philippines) |
|
| Philippines |
English and Spanish |
|
| Poland |
issue of Silesian; whether is Silesian a dialect of Polish with local and German elements, or is it separate language (what leads some to conclusiuon that Silesians are nation |
| Puerto Rico |
Spanish and English |
issue of Spanish Language; whether Spanish should be reverted to as the sole Puerto Rico Official Language as supported by the Puerto Rican Independence Party and decreed by a now overturned law passed in 1992 |
| Romania |
Romanian and Hungarian |
|
| Russian Federation |
Russian, Tatarian |
|
| Bashkortostan |
Russian, Tatarian, Bashkirian |
|
| Tatarstan |
Tatarian, Russian |
|
| Chechnya |
Chechen, Russian |
|
| Slovakia |
Slovakian, Hungarian and Romani |
|
| South Africa |
English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa and seven smaller Bantu languages |
|
| Spain |
Asturian, Basque, Catalan, Galician, Occitan and Spanish |
Asturian is an officially recognized language. Aranese Occitan, Basque, Catalan and Galician are co-official languages in their respective regions. |
| Sri Lanka |
Sinhalese and Tamil |
|
| Syria |
Arabic and Kurdish |
|
| Sweden |
regionally Swedish and Meänkieli/Finnish |
|
| Switzerland |
regionally French, German, Italian and Romansh |
|
| Taiwan |
Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, and to some extent Hakka and Formosan languages |
|
|
| East Timor |
Tetum and Portuguese in relation to Indonesian |
Indonesian and English are considered working languages. |
| Turkey |
Turkish |
|
| Ukraine |
Ukrainian and Russian |
|
| United Kingdom |
English, Cornish, English, Ulster Scots, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Welsh |
Irish and Scots were officially recognized as regional or minority languages in 2001, when the UK ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Under the Good Friday Agreement, and subsequent legislation, both Irish Gaelic and Scots have cross-border, state-funded language boards. For Scotland, some Gaelic language service provision was guaranteed by statute in 2005. Scots and Scottish Gaelic were officially recognized as regional or minority languages in 2001, when the UK ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Welsh is a national language and can be a medium of instruction within Wales. |
| United States |
English and Spanish; also English alongside Hawaiian (in Hawaii), French (in Louisiana), and various Native American languages (on Indian reservations) |
see also Spanish in the United States |
| Uzbekistan |
Uzbek, Persian, and Russian |
|
