Official language

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An official language is a language that is given a unique legal status in the countries, states, and other territories. It is typically the language used in a nation's legislative bodies, though the law in many nations requires that government documents be produced in other languages as well.

Official languages are sometimes not the same as the medium of instruction and so, the two are not interchangeable.

Contents 1 Laws on official languages 2 Officially recognised minority languages 3 Political issues 4 See also

Laws on official languages

Almost every sovereign state in the world has at least one official language, as declared in national constitutions, government websites, embassies, or other official sources.[citation needed] Some have only one official language, such as Albania, France, or Lithuania, despite the fact that in all these countries other indigenous languages are spoken as well. Some nations have more than one official language, such as Afghanistan, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Finland, India, Israel, Malta, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, South Africa, Singapore, and Switzerland.

A few states, such as Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, have no official language, although in most such cases there is a single de facto main language (Swedish in Sweden, English in the UK and the US), as well as a range of government regulations and practices on which languages are expected to be used in various circumstances.

In some countries, such as China, Iraq, Italy, Philippines, Russia and Spain, there is an official language for the country, but other languages are co-official in some important regions.

The official languages of some former colonies, typically French, English or Portuguese, are neither the national languages nor the most widely spoken language.

In contrast, Irish is the national language of the Republic of Ireland and its first official language, although it is spoken fluently by less than a tenth of its people. English, which is spoken by nearly everyone, is described as the second official language by Article 8 of the Constitution of Ireland. Irish has been an official language of the European Union since January 1, 2007.

Officially recognised minority languages

Officially recognised minority languages are often mistaken for official languages. However, a language officially recognized by a state, taught in schools, and used in official communication is not necessarily an official language. For example, Ladin and Sardinian in Italy and Mirandese in Portugal are only officially recognised minority languages, not official languages in the strict sense.

Political issues

In some countries, the issue of which language is to be used in what context is a major political issue; see List of countries where language is a political issue.

See also

• Language policy
• Language planning
• List of official languages
• List of official languages by country
• List of countries where language is a political issue
• Literary language
• Official script
• Standard language
• Language Movement
• National languageaf:Amptelike taal

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