Anational language is alanguage (orlanguage variant, e.g.dialect) that has some connection—de facto orde jure—with anation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken asfirst languages in the territory of a country may be referred to informally or designated in legislation as national languages of the country. National languages are mentioned in over 150 world constitutions.[1][better source needed]
C.M.B. Brann, with particular reference to India, suggests that there are "four quite distinctive meanings" for national language in a polity:[2]
"Territorial language" (chthonolect, sometimes known aschtonolect[3]) of a particular people
"Language-in-common or community language" (demolect) used throughout a country
"Central language" (politolect) used by government and perhaps having a symbolic value.
The last is usually given the title ofofficial language. In some cases (e.g.,the Philippines), several languages are designated asofficial and a national language is separately designated.
"National language" and "official language" are best understood as two concepts or legal categories with ranges of meaning that may coincide, or may be intentionally separate.Stateless nations are not in the position to legislate anofficial language, but their languages may be sufficiently distinct and well-preserved to be national languages. Some languages may be recognized popularly as "national languages", while others may enjoy official recognition in use or promotion.
In many African countries, some or allindigenousAfrican languages are officially used, promoted, or expressly allowed to be promoted (usually taught in schools and written in important publications) as semi-official languages whether by long-term legislation or short-term, case-by-case executive (government) measures. To be official, spoken and written languages may enjoy government or federalised use, major tax-funded promotion or at least full tolerance as to their teaching and employers' recognition inpublic education, standing on equal footing with the official language(s). Further, they may enjoy recognition as a language used in compulsory schooling and treasury money may be spent to teach or encourage adults in learning a language which is a minority language in a particular area to restore its understanding and spread its moral stories, rhymes, poems, phrases, songs, and other literary heritage which will promotesocial cohesion (where other languages remain) or will promotenationalist differentiation where another, non-indigenous language is deprecated.[4][5]
Bengali, the sole official language ofBangladesh, is also thede jure andde facto national language of the country. Establishing Bengali as a national language was one of the key reasons for the independence of Bangladesh.[6]
English and French are official inCanada's three territories; two legislate a variety of Indigenous languages in addition.Nunavut and theNorthwest Territories (N.W.T.) have as official languagesInuktitut andInuinnaqtun, with N.W.T. also have a further seven more (totalling eleven official languages):Cree,Dënesųłiné,Gwich’in, Inuvialuktun,North and South Slavey andTłı̨chǫ. As these official languages are legislated at a territorial (sub-federal) level, they can be construed as national languages.
There are many languages spoken acrossChina, with most people speaking one of severalvarieties of Chinese. During successive imperial dynasties, the spoken language of the capital city served as the official spoken language and was used across the country by government officials who traveled to communicate with one another. Dialects used for this purpose in different eras included those ofXi'an,Luoyang,Nanjing,Beijing, andother historical capital cities.
After theXinhai Revolution in 1911, theKuomintang (Chinese nationalists) founded theRepublic of China. In order to promote a sense of national unity and enhance the efficiency of communications within the nation, the government decided to designate a national language. TheBeijing dialect ofMandarin andGuangzhou dialect ofCantonese were each proposed as the basis for a national language for China.[citation needed] In the beginning, there were attempts to introduce elements from other Chinese varieties into the national language in addition to those from the Beijing dialect; this was reflected in the first official dictionary of the national language, given the name國語 (Pinyin:Guóyǔ, literally "national language"). But this artificial language had no native speakers and was difficult to learn, so it was abandoned in 1924. Ultimately, the Beijing dialect was chosen as the national language and it continued to be referred to as國語 in Chinese in the Republic of China. Since then, the Beijing dialect has become the main standard for pronunciation, due to its prestigious status during the precedingQing dynasty.
Still, elements from other dialects do exist in the standard language, which is now defined as reflecting the pronunciation of Beijing, the grammatical patterns ofMandarin dialects spoken in the northern parts of China, and the vocabulary of modern vernacular Chinese literature. The People's Republic of China renamed the national language普通话 (Pinyin: Pǔtōnghuà, literally "common speech"), without otherwise changing the definition of the standard national language.[10]
TheCroatian language is the official language of Croatia.[11] "The Croatian language and the Latin script shall be in official use in the Republic of Croatia" in Article 12 of the Croatian Constitution.[12]
Amharic was the national language inEthiopian Empire. The country is composed of at least 80 different ethnic nationalities. Its people altogether speak over 80 different languages.Amharic,Oromo,Tigrinya,Somali, andAfar are the official working languages of Ethiopia. But courts, and legislations work in Amharic and the constitution of the country is written in Amharic in an official capacity. And in day-to-day basis, Amharic is used to issue driving licenses and report tax income, making it not a national language but official language of the government.[14]
Finland has two national languages: theFinnish language and theSwedish language. TheConstitution of Finland guarantees the right to use Finnish and Swedish in courts and other state institutions.[15][16] Despite the large difference in the numbers of users, Swedish is not officially classified as a minority language but equal to Finnish. Both national languages are compulsory subjects in school (except for children with a third language as mother tongue) and a language test is a prerequisite for governmental offices where a university degree is required. The constitution also grants the Sami and the Roma peoples the right to maintain and develop their languages: The Sami have partial right to useSami languages in official situations according to other laws.[17]
Hindi and English are the official languages in India, according to Article 343(1) of theConstitution of India.[18]Gujarat High Court has stated that while a majority of people in India have accepted Hindi as a national language, there is no official record or order declaring Hindi as the national language of the country.[19][20]
The observation was made by division bench ofChief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Justice A.S. Dave recently while rejecting aPublic Interest Litigation (PIL) by one Suresh Kachhadia.[21]
TheSupreme Court of India uses English in its proceedings and objects to attempts to make Hindi official in legal proceedings.[22]
The official and national language of Indonesia isIndonesian. Indonesia has more than 700 living languages, making it the second most linguistically diverse country after Papua New Guinea.[27] These 700+ languages, however, are without official status, and some are in danger ofextinction. The largest local language isJavanese.
Irish is recognised by theConstitution of Ireland as the national language and first official language of Ireland, and the English language is recognised as a second official language.[28]
Hebrew was identified as the national language of the State of Israel with the adoption of theNation-State Bill in 2018, withArabic recognized as a language with "special status" used in state institutions.
TheItalian language is thede jure andde facto official language ofItaly.[29][30]Italian is also referred to as national language for historical and cultural reasons, because since the 15th century,Italian became the language used in thecourts of nearly every state inItaly and in general among educatedItalians (scholars, writers, poets, philosophers, scientists, composers and artists) who contributed to what is nowadays theculture of Italy.[31] Furthermore, Italian was often an official language of the various Italian states beforeunification, slowly replacing Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers (such as the Spaniards in theKingdom of Naples, or the Austrians in theKingdom of Lombardy–Venetia).[32]
While English andSwahili are official languages, Swahili also has a special status as national language. None of the country's biggest languages (Gikuyu,Luo,Kamba,Kalenjin, etc.) have any explicit legal status on the national level, but the 2010 constitution enjoins the state to "promote and protect the diversity of language of the people of Kenya."[33]
Luxembourg uses three official languages:Luxembourgish, French, and German. Previously Luxembourgish had no official status, but following a constitutional revision a law was passed on 24 February 1984 making Luxembourgish the national language. Furthermore, this law recognised the three languages of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish, French and German) as administrative languages.
TheMaltese language is the national language of Malta. It is also the official language of the island, together withEnglish. Maltese only is recognised as "national" in Chapter 1 of the Laws of Malta.
Although English is the only nationwide official language inNamibia, there are also 20national languages,[citation needed] which are each spoken by more or less sizeable portions of the population and are considered Namibia's cultural heritage. All national languages have the rights of a minority language and may even serve as alingua franca in certain regions. Among Namibia's national languages areGerman,Afrikaans,Oshiwambo,Otjiherero,Portuguese, as well as the languages of theHimba,Nama,San,Kavango andDamara.[citation needed]
Nepali is the official language in the federal government of Nepal. Over 123 languages are spoken in Nepal, all of which are granted constitutional status asrāṣṭrabhāṣā (राष्ट्रभाषा), officially translated as 'languages of the nation' (the wordrāṣṭrabhāṣā also simply means 'national language').[35] Some of the languages include:Nepal Bhasa,Tamang,Sherpa,Rai,Magar,Gurung,Maithili,Awadhi,English,Limbu,Bhojpuri, etc.
Dutch is the official language of The Netherlands. In the province ofFriesland,Frisian is also spoken and is recognized as the second official language there.
Besides official English (Nigerian Standard English), Nigeria recognizes three 'majority', or national, languages. These areHausa,Igbo, andYoruba, each with some 20 million speakers or more.[36]
Article 251(1) of the1973 Constitution of Pakistan, titledNational language, specifies: "The National language ofPakistan isUrdu, and arrangements shall be made for its being used for official and other purposes within fifteen years from the commencing day." Although Urdu has been declared an official language, so far all government documents, legislation, legal orders, and other official records are written inPakistani English. Most higher education instruction is in English.[37] TheNational Language Authority is an organization established to make arrangements to promote Urdu since 1979.
Filipino is the national language of thePhilippines. The current 1987 constitution designated theFilipino language, which is based on Tagalog with the inclusion of terms from all recognizedlanguages of the Philippines, as the national language. It also designated both Filipino and English as the official languages for purposes of communication and instruction, and designated the regional languages as auxiliary official languages in the regions to serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein.
More than 170languages are spoken in thePhilippines and almost all of them belong to thePhilippine subgroup of theAustronesian language family. In September 2012,La Union became the first province in Philippine history to pass an ordinance proclaiming a local language. It declaredIlocano as anofficial language. This move aims to protect and revitalize the use of Ilocano in various government and civil affairs within the province.[38]
TheFilipino Sign Language is designated as the "national sign language of the Filipino deaf" as well as the official sign language for transactions of the Philippine government.
Traditionally, thelingua franca among the different ethnic groups in Singapore wasBazaar Malay, a Malay-basedcreole. Since independence, the government has been promoting English as the main language of Singapore. The bilingual education policy requires students to study two languages: English and a "mother tongue" corresponding to the student's ethnicity. Malay is only offered to non-Malay students as an optional third language in secondary schools. As a result, English has displaced Bazaar Malay as the common language among Singaporeans. Therefore, despite the status of Malay as the national language, the majority doesn't speak it as a first language.
A majority (60%) of the population speaks German, while most of the remainder (21%) speak French, and minorities speak Italian (10%) and Romansh (7%, not monolingually). German speakers are predominant in most of the country, while French speakers occupy the western parts near the border with France, and the Italian speakers are situated to the south near the border with Italy, mostly within theCanton of Ticino. The Romansh speakers are concentrated in theCanton of Grisons in the south-east.[48]
DuringJapanese rule (1895 to 1945), the "national language movement" (國語運動,kokugo undō) promoted theJapanese language. After their defeat in theChinese Civil War in 1949, theKuomintang regime of theRepublic of China retreated to the island ofTaiwan, where they introducedStandard Chinese andEnglish language, which were spoken by few of the island population at the time, to be the "national language". Today however, theNational languages development act recognises languages of all people groups of Taiwan to be national languages.
The official language of theTunisian state isModern Standard Arabic.[50] However, it is not the mother tongue of the population. Therefore, it is not often used to communicate between Tunisian people, insteadTunisian Arabic plays these roles and is the national language of Tunisia.[51] Furthermore, even without an official status,French is also known by 63.6% of the population. It is used extensively in its written and spoken form in administration, education, and business environments.[52] Berber minorities in the south-west and onDjerba Island also use the Tunisian Chelha language.
TheEnglish language (British English) is thede facto official language of theUnited Kingdom and is the sole language of an estimated 95% of theBritish population.[citation needed] The threeHome Nations outside England have national languages of their own with varying degrees of recognition, which coexist with the dominant English language. Britain also has severalCrown Dependencies andOverseas Territories which are to some extent self-governing, but are not recognized as independent states. Many of these have their ownregional languages.
In Scotland,Scottish Gaelic is a minority language spoken by 57,375 people (1.1% of the Scottish population aged over three years old).[53] TheGaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 gives the language a limited official status, and theBòrd na Gàidhlig is tasked with "securing the status of the Gaelic language as anofficial language ofScotland commanding equal respect to the English language".[54]Scots, generally treated as aWest Germanic language related to but separate from English, has no official status but is recognized as a minority language, and is the language of muchScottish literature, including the poetry ofRobert Burns.
TheWelsh language has official status withinWales, and as of the2011 census, is spoken by 562,000 people, or 19% of the population.[55] The Welsh Language Board (Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg) is legally tasked with ensuring that, "in the conduct of public business and the administration of justice, the English and Welsh languages should be treated on a basis of equality".[56]
English isde facto the only official language. However a few words of Manx Gaelic (the historical national language) are sometimes encountered in government institutions, largely for symbolic and ceremonial purposes, and it is the main medium of instruction in one primary school.
English is thede facto main language spoken in the county ofCornwall. Historically, the main language of Cornwall wasCornish. By 1800, Cornish was endangered with some debate about a mythicallast speaker of the Cornish language. Revival of the Cornish language and some recognition has occurred in the 20th century.
In theUnited States, English (American English) is the national language only in an informal sense, by numbers and by historical and contemporary association. TheUnited States Constitution does not explicitly declare anyofficial language, although the constitution is written in English, as is all federal legislation.
Since 1973[update], every year, a bill was introduced to theUnited States Congress by a Representative or a Senator to try to establish English as the official language of the United States.[57]
InVietnam, theVietnamese language had been thede facto national language for many years, but it was not until Decree No. 5 of the 2013 constitution that theVietnamese language was officially described as the National Language.[58]
^國家語言發展法.law.moj.gov.tw (in Chinese). Retrieved22 May 2019.
^"Tunisia Constitution, Article 1"(PDF). 26 January 2014. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 9 February 2014. Retrieved10 February 2014. Translation by the University of Bern: "Tunisia is a free State, independent and sovereign; its religion is the Islam, its language is Arabic, and its form is the Republic."
