the list of languages which have official status in several countries. i will be able to only take under consideration the languages which have official status at the national level. In some countries there are not any official languages, during this case, i will be able to take under consideration the language which is employed de facto within the administration. during a country, there are often either a politician language, there can also be official national languages or de facto languages. allow us to take a couple of examples. In Botswana there are two official languages: English and Tswana. English is that the language of administration, Tswana is that the maternal language of the bulk of the population. But both languages have an equivalent status. within the us , there’s no official language. So, to define what’s the language of the country, we glance at which language is employed within the administration.
In this case, it’s English. Okay, here we are, we are getting to take a tour of the planet of languages having official status in several countries, or de facto official, and that we will start with the languages having this status in just two countries. I specify that i will be able to not take under consideration the languages having official regional status only. The status should be official nationwide. We start with national languages which are often not utilized in administration. there’s Guarani, the official language of Paraguay and Bolivia. In these two countries, Spanish is that the official and administrative language, Guarani is a politician language because it’s spoken but actually , it’s little utilized in administration.
Then we’ve the Aymara. Official language of Peru and Bolivia. Same as before, it’s a politician language but it remains little utilized in the administration which favors Spanish. Still within the same vein, in Africa this point , we’ve the Amazigh, official language of Morocco and Algeria. Official language but not used at the executive level, Arabic is privileged. Sesotho, the official language in South Africa and Lesotho. In South Africa , there are many official languages while in Lesotho, Sesotho is that the national language. However, in both cases, Sesotho isn’t the executive language, English is employed .
Tswana, the official language in South Africa and Botswana. like Sesotho, it’s one language among many in South Africa . Tswana is that the national language of Botswana without being an administrative language since it’s English. In Asia, there’s Tamil, the official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is a politician regional language in India, this is often his region of origin elsewhere. In Sri Lanka and Singapore, it’s rarely utilized in administration. So, for the instant we’ve seen languages that are official in several countries but which have only national status, often quite secondary. Now we’ll continue with slightly more official languages.
I start with Hindi which is that the official language of India only. And Urdu which is that the official language of Pakistan only. Hindi and Urdu are considered an equivalent language or almost an equivalent language. the most difference is that the alphabet employed by the 2 languages, Urdu is written within the Arabic alphabet , Hindi with the Devanagari. So, if we consider that it’s an equivalent language, so, it’s official in two countries. Still within the same register, there’s the Bulgarian. Official language of Bulgaria. In Macedonia, it’s Macedonian. For Bulgaria, Macedonian may be a simple variant of Bulgarian then it is the same language. we will therefore say that Bulgarian is that the official language of two countries. the 2 languages are almost identical. Okay now that we have seen these cases where the language is official in two countries where it’s slightly different, we’ll see the cases where the language is official in two countries but where one among the 2 countries isn’t recognized internationally.
We have Anatolian Turkish which is that the official language of Turkey but also from the Turkish Republic of Cyprus. The Turkish Republic of Cyprus may be a country recognized only by Turkey. Anatolian Turkish is additionally the official language of the Republic of Cyprus but the latter has not used it since the island split. there’s Armenian, the official language of Armenia but also from Nagorno-Karabakh, country recognized by any UN member country albeit Armenia recognizes it de facto . The country being claimed by Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani, the official language of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh at the time. Georgian which is that the official language of Georgia and South Ossetia, a rustic not recognized by Georgia. Albanian is that the official language of Albania and Kosovo. Kosovo is recognized as independent by many UN member countries.
Here we are, we’ve toured countries not recognized internationally, we will switch to other languages. we’ve Swedish, the official language of Sweden, it’s the sole official language and official language of Finland. actually in Finland Swedish is merely spoken regionally but the language is official nationally. we’ve Korean, the official language of North Korea and South Korea . Greek, the official language of Greece and Cyprus. Romanian, the official language of Romania and Moldova. In Moldova, Romanian can sometimes be called Moldovan, it’s rarer but it’s still an equivalent language.
