# National Language **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2002, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421 "2002-07-23T18:37:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/21 "2002-07-24T10:34:42Z")
I think there’s a distinction between government agencies producing consumer oriented documents - information booklets, application forms, etc - in a variety of languages to meet needs, and systematically producing all official documents in more than one language. In the US the former happens widely, but I don’t think the latter happens at all. For instance, are Acts of Congress routinely published in any language other than English? Federal Regulations? Presidential proclamations? I think not. As I understand it, English is the de facto working language of federal and state governments in the US, but it is not an “official language” - there is no official language. Other languages are used on a local and selective basis for the convenience of citizens or the more efficient operation of certain government functions, but they do not have even the status that English has. The US is the land of the free, and citizens are free to think, write, speak and communicate in any language they please. Whether government agencies need to accomodate them in this is a question of convenience and practicality, not principle. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/22 "2002-07-24T12:18:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hari Seldon \* > \*\*I imagine that in the UK (as opposed to England) at least Welsh must be an official language. \*\* [disclaimer] I am not Welsh and I don’t live there. This is just what I understand to be true and what I see when I visit [/disclaimer] Government agencies in Wales have a duty to provide all services in both english and welsh. All road signs are bi-lingual and welsh speakers have the right to expect to be able to carry out business with these agencies in welsh if they wish. This is true in all parts of Wales, regardless of how common welsh speakers are in that area - IME welsh is much more prevelant in the north than the south. That would seem to make it official to me. In the highlands of Scotland last week I noticed that road signs were also bi-lingual - english and gaelic. Since this was only in areas with a high proportion of gaelic spaekers I assume this is out of respect for the language rather than law. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/23 "2002-07-24T13:33:44Z")
Muchas gracias, **UDS** for putting it so succintly. The US and its sub-units are not obligated to put _every official document_ into other languages than the recognized common language; they do so because they find it useful or necessary in certain cases – or politically expedient. And as mentioned, many other countries do it. US States may decree official languages on their own; it does not obligate the National Government. And making English the “official language” would not make it any less useful, necessary in certain cases, or politically expedient, for the government to invest in multilingual production of that documentation that is already in other languages… [detour thru GD territory] Unless, of course, by that you mean _banning_ the use of any other language in a government setting… which has been discussed in GD many times, and **hazel-rah** has offered to do so again. [/GD detour] José ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/24 "2002-07-24T13:51:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Popup \* > \*\*While you’re here **Flodnak** … What’s the official status of **nynorsk** in Norway? > I thought it was considered an official language (next to bokmål - the ‘normal norwegian’), but the CIA factbook only lists one official language! \*\* There **is** only one official language - Norwegian. It happens to have two official written forms! The national government has to make all documents available in both forms. Each municipality, on the other hand, is free to choose one and stick to it. School children have to learn to read and write in both forms, though they’ll do most of their schoolwork in just one. Incidentally, calling _bokmål_ “the normal Norwegian” is highly impolitical… though by at least one definition it’s true; about 80-85% of Norwegians use that form in their daily writing. To make matters more complicated, a few municipalities in the far north have Sami (what many of you probably know as “Lappish”) as their official language, alone or together with one form of Norwegian. This, plus a number of laws at the national level, gives Sami a semi-official status; a Sami-speaking child is eligible for special linguistic support at school, for instance, above and beyond what other non-Norwegian speaking children are offered. I’m over-simplifying here, skipping for instance over the question of how many Sami languages there are, and then there’s tiny tri-lingual Porsanger, but I think I’ve bored most of you and confused the rest by now, so… ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/25 "2002-07-24T14:21:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sparc \* > **The EU has 11 official languages . . . In the Parliamentary cessions and other meetings of governmental bodies a representative may only address the assembly in the official language of his/her electorate.** Just to correct **Sparc** on this point, a member of the European Parliament may address the parliament in any of the official languages, regardless of the language used by his electors (Rule 117 of the Rules of Procedure for the European Parliament). It will surprise nobody to learn that the European Commission’s translation service is the largest in the world. If the current rules are maintained, and if the number of member states rises to 27 as is predicted, the number of official and working languages in the EU will rise from 11 to 20. For internal purposes, English, French and to a lesser extent German are the de facto working languages of the Commission, and a fonctionnaire who does not speak at least one and preferably two of these languages will make a very limited impact. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/26 "2002-07-24T14:53:18Z")
as **bordelond** says, India has 2 “official” languages: Hindi and English. Even though Hindi is the national language, almost every document is printed primarily in English, such as my Driver’s Licence and Passport. Here’s an interesting bit of info: [http://adaniel.tripod.com/Languages2.htm](http://adaniel.tripod.com/Languages2.htm) > [@](#): > > "The different states of India have different official languages, some of them not recognized by the central government. Some states have more then one official language. Bihar in east India has three official languages - Hindi, Urdu and Bengali – which are all recognized by the central government. But Sikkim, also in east India, has four official languages of which only Nepali is recognized by the central government. Besides the languages officially recognized by central or state governments, there are other languages which don’t have this recognition and their speakers are running political struggles to get this recognition. Anyway as stated earlier the central government decided that Hindi is the official language of India and therefore it has also the status of official language in the states. Another language that has a official status in all states is English. The Indian constitution recognizes 18 languages: [http://adaniel.tripod.com/languagelist](http://adaniel.tripod.com/languagelist) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/27 "2002-07-24T14:58:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hari Seldon \* > \*\*A Swiss friend of mine explained to me that Romansch is not an official language, although a native speaker has the right to address the government in that language. \*\* If one wants to nit-pick, OK, Romansch does not have exactly equal status with the other three languages. Its use in government is permitted, but not required. Some sites refer to this as being "official, others characterize it as “semi-official.” However, as I said the language is “official” enough to appear on the currency. It is more than just a “national” language, the status having changed in 1996. From [this site](http://www.john.stephenson.net/linguistics/romansh/socstatusrom.pdf): > [@](#): > > \*\* > Romansh was awarded the status of a ‘national language’ in 1938 - recognised and supported but not used in government or bureaucracy. This was granted not out of a desire to maintain the language but to frustrate the Italians. > > Throughout the 1930s Italian fascists were claiming that Romansh was no more than an Italian dialect and therefore the Romansh-speaking Swiss territories should become part of Italy, along with the Italian-speaking areas. The Swiss rejected Mussolini’s designs by recognising Romansh for the first time (Rash 1998: 33). > > In March 1996, a plebiscite accepted Romansh as an ‘official’ language, allowing its use in government. This victory is rather less important in practice, as ministries only have to use Romansh when forced to deal with its speakers and none of Switzerland’s senior ministers are required to know the language (Rash 1998: 30). Given the general decline of Romansh, it is highly possible in the future that another referendum will remove Romansh’s semi -official status for economic reasons.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/28 "2002-07-24T15:06:09Z")
And from [this site](http://www.eda.admin.ch/washington_emb/e/home/culedu/cultur/langua.html.): > [@](#): > > \*\* > There are four national languages in Switzerland: German, French, Italian and Romansh. In principle, all four languages have equal rights. In practice, however, things sometimes are different since the smaller groups, although geographically fairly homogeneous, more often than not have to assert their political and economic influence. . . . > > The Federal Constitution (Art. 70 of the new Constitution) stipulates that German, French, and Italian are Switzerland’s official languages, whereas Romansh is an official language for communicating with Romansh-speaking persons.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Hemlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Hemlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hemlock)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/29 "2002-07-24T15:13:57Z")
Hong Kong’s official languages are Chinese and English. Macau’s are Chinese and Portuguese. The UK doesn’t have an official language but census forms etc are available in several dozen languages to cater for minorities, and a recent proposal to require immigrants to know the vernacular specified English or Welsh. Singapore has Malay, English and Chinese as official languages, with Tamil as an optional extra. Most official business is in English, but the govt has to provide translation services where needed. South Africa has a dozen or so official languages. I think I am right in saying New Zealand recognizes Maori as well as English. I think Spain recognizes Basque and Catalan, as well as Castillian. etc, etc… It would be easier to list the officially monolingual nations. (France, I bet) An interesting debate is currently going on in E Timor. There is a native tongue, a bit obscure (can’t recall its name). Younger people use Bahasa (Malay - the official Indonesian language), but it’s politically unpopular. Portuguese is the colonial language, so that’s favored for sentimental reasons. And English makes sense. They’re still arguing over it - I don’t know in which language. ---
**Author:** ![Sparc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sparc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparc)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/30 "2002-07-24T15:15:11Z")
Now that I check Belgium - has no official language as of the revised constitution of February 17 1994. > [@](#): > > _Belgian Constitution revised February 17 1994_ > > **Article 30 [Choice of Language]** > The use of languages current in Belgium is optional; only the law can rule on this matter, and only for acts of the public authorities and for legal matters. I know not what rulings might have been made as per the provision herein on regulating what the public authorities and judicial system does. [/quote] So this led me to wonder about the rest of the EU on a constitutional level… > [@](#): > > _Austria_ > **Article 8 [Official Language]** > German is the official language of the Republic without prejudice to the rights provided by federal law for linguistic minorities. > > _Denmark_ – no official language on constitutional level > > _Finland_ > **Section 17 Right to one’s language and culture** > (1) The national languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. > (2) The right of everyone to use his or her own language, either Finnish or Swedish, before courts of law and other authorities, and to receive official documents in that language, shall be guaranteed by an Act. The public authorities shall provide for the cultural and societal needs of the Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking populations of the country on an equal basis. > (3) The Sami, as an indigenous people, as well as the Roma and other groups, have the right to maintain and develop their own language and culture. Provisions on the right of the Sami to use > the Sami language before the authorities are laid down by an Act. The rights of persons using sign language and of persons in need of interpretation or translation aid owing to disability shall be guaranteed by an Act. > > _France_ > **Article 2 [State Form and Symbols]** > […] > (2) The language of the Republic is French > > _Germany_ - no official language on federal ‘grundgesetz’ level > > _Greece_ - no official language on constitutional level > > _Ireland_ > **Article 8 [Language]** > (1) The Irish language as the national language is the first official language. > (2) The English language is recognized 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. > > _Lichtenstein_ > **Art. 6** > The German language is the national and official language. > > _Luxembourg_ > **Article 29 [Language]** > The law shall regulate the use of languages in administrative and > judicial matters. > > _Portugal_ > **Article 9 Basic Tasks of the State** > The basic tasks of the State are: > […] > f) To secure training on and constant valorization of the Portuguese language, to defend its use and promote its international circulation. > > _Spain_ > **Article 3 [Official Language]** > (1) Castilian is the official Spanish language of the state. All Spaniards have the duty to know it and the right to use it. > (2) The other languages of Spain will also be official in the respective autonomous communities, in accordance with their Statutes. > (3) The richness of the linguistic modalities of Spain is a cultural patrimony which will be the object of special respect and protection. > > _Sweden_ - no official language on constitutional level > > _United Kingdom_ – no official language on constitutional level I surmise that the nations lacking a constitutionally dictated official language have laws and directives on a sub constitutional level that govern the duties of the state and the rights of recourse to translation and documentation in a given language. And thanks UDS, I did not know that. I was under the impression that it was guided by electorate. ---
**Author:** ![Sparc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sparc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparc)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/31 "2002-07-24T15:25:16Z")
Darn! I missed Italy. Thay have no official language on constitutional level, but provide for the right to translation into the tongue of the accused in court proceedings. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/32 "2002-07-24T15:25:36Z")
So, to answer the OP 1. A signficant number of countries have more than one language with an officially-recognised status of some kind, and many countries have several such languages. Presumably all such countries issue a significant range of documentation in more than one language. 2. It is probable that more countries, for practical or political reasons, deal with citizens in languages which have no particular official status, and issue appropriate documents in these languages, as happens in the US. My guess would be that countries which deal with citizens in one language only are relatively few in number, and they would mostly be countries with small and very homogenous populations. ---
**Author:** ![Hemlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Hemlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hemlock)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/33 "2002-07-24T15:27:36Z")
Just remembered a funny story. When Cory Aquino became president of the Philippines (86, IIRC), she issued a memo to all govt depts saying that all govt memos must henceforth be in Filipino. Her memo was in English. And was ignored. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/34 "2002-07-24T19:11:10Z")
I didn’t mean to start a debate about Switzerland. I originally wrote that it had four official languages (I was including Romansch), but then decided to verify my information at the CIA and changed it to three. Thanks to everyone who provided additional information and cites. Purely by coincidence, I learned yesterday that **Bolivia** has three official languages: Spanish, Quechua, and Aymara. ---
**Author:** ![Sparc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sparc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparc)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421/35 "2002-07-24T21:24:29Z")
I just browsed though all of that once again. Impressive, that’s what I call teamwork! If I had all of you guys to help me with research for work, I wouldn’t be able to digest it fast enough to make anything out of it. I hope the OP also finds the question duly answered. Sparc [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-language/120421.md?page=1)