List of official languages by state

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This is a complete list of the official languages designated in the sovereign states of the world. It includes all languages that have official language status either statewide or in a part of the state, or that have status as a national language, regional language, or minority language.

Only states, which are defined as sovereign, internationally recognised, independent political entities, are listed. This is not a list of countries or nations, although many states listed, are simultaneously also countries and/or nations.

For dependent territories, refer to the corresponding sovereign states.

[edit] Definitions

  • Official language: one designated as having a unique legal status in the state, typically, the language used in a nation's legislative bodies, and often, official government business
  • Regional language: one designated as having official status limited to a specific area, administrative division, or territory of the state (on this page a regional language will have parentheses next to it that contain a region, province, etc. where the language has regional status)
  • Minority language: (as used here) one spoken by a minority population within the state and officially designated as such; typically afforded protection and designated an officially permissible language for legal and government business in a specific area or territory of the state (on this page a minority language will be followed by parentheses that identify its minority status)
  • National language: one that uniquely represents the national identity of a state, nation, and/or country and so designated by a country's government; some are technically minority languages (on this page a national language will be followed by parentheses that identify it as a national language status). Some countries have more than one language with this status.

[edit] A

  •  Afghanistan[1]
    • Pashto (statewide) (official)
    • Dari (statewide) (official)
    • Uzbek (statewide) (third official language in areas where spoken by majority of population)
    • Turkmen (statewide) (third official language in areas where spoken by majority of population)
    • Pashai (statewide) (third official language in areas where spoken by majority of population)
    • Nuristani (statewide) (third official language in areas where spoken by majority of population)
    • Balochi (statewide) (third official language in areas where spoken by majority of population)
    • Pamiri (statewide) (third official language in areas where spoken by majority of population)

[edit] B

[edit] C

  •  Colombia
    • Spanish (the languages and dialects of ethnic groups are also official in their territories [13])

[edit] D


[edit] E

  •  Ecuador
    • Spanish (Quechua or Kichwa and Shuar are official languages of intercultural relation, ancient languages are official in their territories.[14])

[edit] F



[edit] G

[edit] H


[edit] I

[edit] J

[edit] K

[edit] L

[edit] M

[edit] N

[edit] O

[edit] P

[edit] Q

[edit] R

[edit] S

  •  Somalia
    • Somali is the de facto official language and the national language.
    • Italian spoken by dying few
    • Arabic not spoken, only to read Quran

[edit] T

[edit] U

[edit] V

[edit] W

[edit] Y


[edit] Z

[edit] Partially recognised states

  •  Kosovo
    • Albanian (territory wide)
    • Serbian (territory wide)
    • English (territory wide, during the NATO occupation of the territory on behalf of the UN)
    • Turkish (territory wide, upon request)

[edit] References and footnotes

  1. ^ Constitution of Afghanistan (Article 16)
  2. ^ Constitution of Albania (Article 14)
  3. ^ a b Constitution of Algeria (Article 3) (MS Word format)
  4. ^ Constitution of Andorra (Article 2)
  5. ^ "Angola". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ao.html#People. 
  6. ^ Constitution of Antigua and Barbuba, 1981 (Article 29)
  7. ^ Argentina: Country Information
  8. ^ Constitution of Armenia (Article 12)
  9. ^ Constitution of Austria (Article 8)
  10. ^ a b Constitution of Austria, Article 8 & State Treaty for the Re-establishment of an Independent and Democratic Austria) (Article 7, Page 188)
  11. ^ Constitution of Azerbaijan, Constitution of Azerbaijan (English translation) (Article 21)
  12. ^ Constitution of Belgium, in Dutch, French and German (Article 4)
  13. ^ Constitution of Colombia, 1991 (Article 10)
  14. ^ Constitution of Ecuador 2008, (Article 2)
  15. ^ Constitution of France (Article 2)
  16. ^ Constitution of Ireland (Article 8)
  17. ^ The Constitution of Jamaica section 20(6e) (implicit)
  18. ^ Article 152 of the Constitution of Malaysia designated Malay as the national language. Section 2 of that article allowed English to be used officially until otherwise provided by Parliament. In 1967, the Parliament of Malaysia passed the National Language Act, making Malay the official language of Malaysia. The act does, however, allow the use of English for some official purposes.
  19. ^ Constitution of Monaco (Article 8)
  20. ^ "Article 3 – Language". The Constitution of The Republic of Namibia. orusovo.com. http://www.orusovo.com/namcon/chap1.htm#art3. Retrieved on 2008-04-23. 
  21. ^ "United Kingdom; Key Facts". Commonwealth Secretariat. http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookHomeInternal/139560/. Retrieved on 2008-04-23. 
  22. ^ "Cornish gains official recognition". BBC News. November 6, 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2410383.stm. Retrieved on 2008-05-08. 
  23. ^ (Russian) "Конституция Республики Абхазия". President of Abkhazia. http://www.abkhaziagov.org/ru/state/sovereignty/. Retrieved on 2009-03-17. 
  24. ^ (Russian) "Конституции Республики Южная Осетия". The State Committee on Information and Press of the Republic of South Ossetia. http://cominf.org/2004/10/15/1127818105.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-17. 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_official_languages_by_state"
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