List of official languages

Official languages of supra-national institutions

See List of official languages by institution.

Official languages of sovereign countries

A

Afar:

Afrikaans:

Aja-Gbe:

Akan (Akuapem Twi, Ashante Twi, Fante):

Albanian:

Amazigh:

Amharic:

Anii:

Arabic (see also List of countries where Arabic is an official language):

Armenian:

Assamese:

Aymara:

Azerbaijani:

B

Balanta:

Bambara:

Bariba:

Bassari:

Bedik:

Belarusian:

Bengali:

Berber:

Biali:

Bislama:

Boko:

Bomu:

Bosnian:

Bozo:

Buduma:

Bulgarian:

Burmese:

C

Cantonese:

Catalan:

Chinese, Mandarin:

Chichewa:

Chirbawe (Sena):

Chokwe

Comorian

Croatian:

Czech:

D

Dagaare:

Dagbani:

Dangme

Danish:

Dari:

Dendi:

Dhivehi:

Dioula:

Dogon:

Dutch:

Dzongkha:

E

English (see also List of countries where English is an official language):

Estonian:

Ewe-Gbe:

F

Fijian:

Filipino:

Finnish:

Fon-Gbe:

Foodo:

French (see also List of countries where French is an official language):

Fula:

G

Ga:

Gàidhlig:

Gbe:

Gen-Gbe:

Georgian:

German:

Gonja:

Gourmanché

Greek:

Guaraní:

Gujarati:

H

Haitian Creole:

Hassaniya:

Hausa:

Hebrew:

Hindi:

Hiri Motu:

Hungarian:

I

Igbo:

Icelandic:

Indonesian:

Irish:

Italian:

J

Japanese:

Jola:

K

Kabye:

Kalanga:

Kanuri:

Kasem:

Kazakh:

Khmer:

Kikongo-Kituba:

Kimbundu:

Kinyarwanda:

Kirundi:

Kissi

Khoisan:

Korean:

Kpelle:

Kurdish:

Kwanyama:

Kyrgyz:

L

Lao:

Latin:

Latvian:

Lingala:

Lithuanian:

Lukpa:

Luxembourgish:

M

Macedonian:

Malagasy:

Malay:

Malinke:

Maltese:

Mamara:

Manding (Mandinka, Malinke):

Mandinka:

Mandjak:

Mankanya:

Manx Gaelic:

Māori:

Marshallese:

Mbelime:

Moldovan

Mongolian:

Montenegrin:

Mossi:

N

Nambya:

Nateni:

Nauruan

Ndau:

Ndebele (Northern):

Ndebele (Southern):

Nepali:

New Zealand Sign Language:

Noon:

North Korean:

Northern Sotho:

Norwegian:

Nzema:

O

Oniyan:

Ossetian:

P

Palauan:

Papiamento:

Pashto:

Persian:

Polish:

Portuguese:

Q

Quechua:

R

Romanian:

Romansh:

Russian:

S

Safen:

Samoa

Sango

Sena:

Serbian:

Serer:

Seychellois Creole

Shona:

Sinhala:

Slovak:

Slovene:

Somali:

Songhay-Zarma:

Soninke:

Sotho:

Spanish:

Susu:

Swahili:

Swati:

Swedish:

Syenara:

T

Tajik:

Tagalog:

Tamasheq:

Tamil:

Tammari:

Tasawaq:

Tebu:

Telugu:

Tetum:

Thai:

Tigrinya:

Tok Pisin:

Toma:

Tonga:

Tongan

Tshiluba

Tsonga:

Tswana:

Turkish:

Turkmen:

Tuvaluan

U

Ukrainian:

Umbundu:

Urdu:

Uzbek:

V

Venda:

Vietnamese:

W

Waama:

Waci-Gbe:

Wamey:

Welsh:

Wolof:

X

Xhosa:

Xwela-Gbe:

Y

Yobe:

Yom:

Yoruba:

Z

Zimbabwean sign language:

Zulu:

Number of countries with the same official language

This is a ranking of languages by number of sovereign countries in which they are de jure or de facto official (or with a national language status).

Language World Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania Countries
English 59 24 16 4 3 12 India, United States, Pakistan, United Kingdom. See the full list
French 29 21 2 - 5 1 France, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Canada, Madagascar. See the full list
Arabic 27 14 - 13 - - Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Morocco. See the full list
Spanish 21 1 19 - 1 1 Spain, Mexico, Equatorial Guinea, Easter Island in (Oceania). See the full list
Portuguese 10 6 1 1 2 - Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola. See full list
Russian 8 - - 3 5 - Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Abkhazia*, South Ossetia*, Transnistria*. See also the full list
German 8 1 - - 7 - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Italy, Namibia
Fula 7 7 - - - - Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal
Italian 6 - - - 6 - Italy, Croatia, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland, Vatican City
Malay 4 - - 4 - - Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei
Manding 4 4 - - - - Burkina Faso (Dioula), Guinea (Malinke), Mali (Bambara), Senegal (Maninka)
Swahili 4 4 - - - - Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
Chinese, Mandarin 3 - - 3 - - China, Taiwan*, Singapore
Danish 3 - 1 - 2 - Denmark, Faroe Island, Greenland
Dutch 3 - 1 - 2 - Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname
Gbe 3 3 - - - - Benin, Ghana, Togo
Kikongo 3 3 - - - - Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo
Persian 3 - - 3 - - Iran, Afghanistan (known as Dari), Tajikistan (known as Tajik)
Romanian 3 - - - 3 - Romania, Moldova, Transnistria* (uses Cyrillic script there)
Serbian 3 - - - 3 - Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*
Somali 3 3 - - - - Djibouti, Somalia, Somaliland*
Soninke 3 3 - - - - Mali, Mauritania, Senegal
Tamil 3 - - 3 - - India, Singapore, Sri Lanka
Tswana 3 3 - - - - Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Albanian 2 - - - 2 - Albania and Kosovo*
Armenian 2 - - - 2 - Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh*
Aymara, Quechua 2 - 2 - - - Bolivia and Peru
Berber 2 2 - - - - Algeria and Morocco
Catalan 2 - - - 2 - Andorra and Spain
Chichewa 2 2 - - - - Malawi and Zimbabwe
Croatian 2 - - - 2 - Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
Greek 2 - - - 2 - Greece and Cyprus
Hausa 2 2 - - - - Niger and Nigeria
Hindi 2 2 - - - - India and Fiji
Korean 2 - - 2 - - North Korea and South Korea
Lingala 2 2 - - - - Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo
Samoan 2 - - - - 2 American Samoa and Samoa
Slovak 2 - - - 2 - Slovakia and Czech Republic
Songhay-Zarma 2 2 - - - - Mali, Niger
Sotho 2 2 - - - - Lesotho and South Africa
Swati 2 2 - - - - Swaziland and South Africa
Swedish 2 - - - 2 - Sweden and Finland
Tamasheq 2 2 - - - - Mali and Niger
Tigrinya 2 2 - - - - Eritrea and Ethiopia
Turkish 2 - - - 2 - Turkey and Cyprus
Ukrainian 2 - - - 2 - Ukraine and Transnistria*
Venda 2 2 - - - - South Africa and Zimbabwe
Wolof 2 2 - - - - Mauritania and Senegal
Yoruba 2 2 - - - - Benin and Nigeria
Xhosa 2 2 - - - - South Africa and Zimbabwe
Amharic 1 1 - - - - Ethiopia
Basque 1 - - - 1 - Spain
Comorian 1 1 - - - - Comoros
Estonian 1 - - - 1 - Estonia
Faroese 1 - - - 1 - Faroe Island
Finnish 1 - - - 1 - Finland
Galician 1 - - - 1 - Spain
Greenlandic 1 - 1 - - - Greenland
Hawaiian 1 - - - - 1 United States
Hebrew 1 - - 1 - - Israel
Kurdish 1 - - 1 - - Iraq
Latin 1 - - - 1 - Vatican City
Latvian 1 - - - 1 - Latvia
Lithuanian 1 - - - 1 - Lithuania
Luxembourgish 1 - - - 1 - Luxembourg
Malagasy 1 1 - - - - Madagascar
Norwegian 1 - - - 1 - Norway
Polish 1 - - - 1 - Poland
Urdu 1 - - 1 - - Pakistan
Note
Asterisk shows the countries which independence is disputed

Official regional and minority languages

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Abaza:

Adyghe:

Aghul:

Aklanon:

Albanian:

Albanian:

Altay:

Arabic:

Aranese see Occitan

Armenian:

Assamese:

Avar:

Azeri:

Balkar:

Bashkir:

Basque:

Bengali:

Bikol:

Bosnian:

Buryat:

Cantonese Chinese:

Catalan:

Cebuano:

Chavacano:

Chechen:

Cherkess:

Cherokee:

Chipewyan:

Chukchi:

Chuvash

Cree:

Crimean Tatar

Croatian:

Dargwa:

Dolgan:

Dutch:

English:

Erzya:

Even:

Evenki:

Faroese:

Finnish:

French:

Frisian (West):

Gagauz:

Galician:

German:

Greek:

Guaraní:

Gujarati:

Gwich'in:

Hawaiian:

Hiligaynon:

Hindi:

Hungarian:

Ibanag:

Ilocano:

Ingush:

Inuinnaqtun:

Inuktitut:

Inuvialuktun:

Irish:

Italian:

Ivatan:

Japanese:

Kabardian

Kalaallisut:

Kalmyk:

Kannada:

Kapampangan:

Karachay:

Karelian:

Kashmiri:

Kazakh:

Khakas:

Khanty:

Kinaray-a:

Komi:

Komi-Permyak:

Korean:

Kumyk:

Kyrgyz:

Lak:

Lezgian

Macedonian:*part of Albania

Maguindanao:

Malayalam:

Mansi:

Maranao:

Marathi:

Mari (Hill and Meadow):

Mayan:

Moksha:

Mongolian:

Náhuatl:

Nenets:

Nepali:

Nogai:

Occitan:

Odia:

Ossetic (Digor and Iron dialects):

Pangasinan:

Portuguese:*part of the People's Republic of China

Punjabi:

Romanian:

Russian. Russian is fixed as a state language in the Constitutions of the republics of the Russian Federation:

Rusyn:

Rutul:

Sakha:

Sambal:

Sami:

Sanskrit:

Saraiki

Sarikoli:

Scottish Gaelic:

Scots:

Selkup:

Serbian:

Sindhi:

North and South Slavey:

Slovak:

Slovene:

Spanish:

Surigaonon:

Tabasaran:

Tagalog:

Tahitian:

Tamil:

Tat:

Tatar:

Tausug:

Telugu:

Tibetan:

Tłįchǫ:

Tsakhur:

Tswana:

Turkish:

Tuvan:

Udmurt:

Urdu:

Uyghur:

Veps:

Vietnamese:

Waray:

Welsh:

Yakan:

Yiddish:

Yukaghir:

Zhuang:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Section 6. Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
  2. Article 14. Albanian Constitution
  3. Article 5. Kosovo Constitution
  4. Article 5. Ethiopian Constitution
  5. 1 2 Article 4. Constitution of Iraq
  6. 1 2 Article 5. Constitution du Maroc
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Loi n° 2001-037 du 31 décembre 2001 fixant les modalités de promotion et de développement des langues nationales
  8. Article 12. Constitution of Armenia
  9. Article 15. Constitution of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
  10. 1 2 3 4 Artículo 5. Constitución Política del Estado
  11. 1 2 3 Artículo 48. Constitución Política del Perú
  12. Article 21. Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan
  13. 1 2 Article 17. Constitution of the Republic of Belarus
  14. 3. The state language. Constitution of Bangladesh
  15. Loi no02-03 du 27 Moharram 1423 correspondant au 10 avril 2002 portant révision constitutionnelle.
  16. 1 2 3 Article 3. Constitution of the Republic of Vanuatu
  17. 1 2 3 Hilary Footitt; Michael Kelly (2012). Languages at War: Policies and Practices of Language Contacts in Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-230-36877-4.
  18. Article 3. Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria
  19. Article 450. Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
  20. Article 2. La Constitució del Principat d’Andorra
  21. 1 2 3 4 Articles 44, 53, 123. Constitution of the Republic of Singapore
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Constitution of Zimbabwe 2013, Africatime.com, 22 March 2013
  23. Article 12. Constitution of the Republic of Croatia
  24. 1 2 3 Article 16. Constitution of Afghanistan
  25. Article 11. Constitution of the Republic of Maldives
  26. Article 1. Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan
  27. 1 2 3 Section 4. Fiji Constitution
  28. 1 2 "Article 8. Constitution of Ireland 1937" (PDF). p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 October 2012.
  29. Article 152 - National Language and Other Languages, Constitution of Malaysia
  30. 1 2 Article 49. Constitution of Mauritius
  31. Namibia - Constitution, servat.unibe.ch/icl (International Constitutional Law collection), 1990, retrieved 2008-05-02 (Article 3)
  32. 1 2 Article 18. Constitution de la République Centrafricaine
  33. 1 2 3 4 5 Article 1. Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
  34. 1 2 3 Article 5. Constitution de la République du Congo
  35. 1 2 Article 5. La Constitution de la République d’Haïti
  36. 1 2 3 4 Article 4. Constitution fédérale de la Confédération Suisse
  37. 1 2 Article 8. Constitution of Georgia
  38. 1 2 3 (Russian) Статья 4. Конституция Республики Южная Осетия
  39. 1 2 App. D., Part 1, Art. 3. Constitution of Cyprus
  40. 1 2 Artículo 140. Constituciones de la República del Paraguay
  41. 1 2 3 Article 55. Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
  42. "Axis Translations". Axis Translations. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
  43. Part XVII. Constitution of India
  44. Article H. Fundamental Law of Hungary
  45. 1 2 Article 36. Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia
  46. 1 2 Article 7. Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan
  47. Article 5. Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia
  48. 1 2 (Russian) Статья 10. Конституция Кыргызской Республики
  49. 1 2 Article 13. Constitution of the Republic of Moldova
  50. 1 2 3 Article 12. Constitution of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica
  51. 1 2 3 Article 2. Constitution of Tajikistan
  52. Article 68. Constitution of the Russian Federation
  53. (Russian) Статья 6. Конституция Республики Абхазия
  54. Slovak language is defined as official language together with Czech language by several laws - e.g. law 500/2004, 337/1992. Source: http://portal.gov.cz. Cited: "Například Správní řád (zákon č. 500/2004 Sb.) stanovuje: "V řízení se jedná a písemnosti se vyhotovují v českém jazyce. Účastníci řízení mohou jednat a písemnosti mohou být předkládány i v jazyce slovenském..." (§16, odstavec 1). Zákon o správě daní a poplatků (337/1992 Sb.) „Úřední jazyk: Před správcem daně se jedná v jazyce českém nebo slovenském. Veškerá písemná podání se předkládají v češtině nebo slovenštině..." (§ 3, odstavec 1). http://portal.gov.cz
  55. Section 3. Spanish Constitution
  56. Article 7. The Constitution of Kenya (2010)
  57. 1 2 3 4 5 Article 11 of the Constitution of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic
  58. 1 2 Article 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Adygea
  59. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Article 11 of the Constitution of the Republic of Dagestan
  60. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 DepEd adds 7 languages to mother tongue-based education for Kinder to Grade 3. GMA News. July 13, 2013.
  61. 1 2 Article 13 of the Constitution of the Republic of Altay
  62. 1 2 3 Article 76 of the Constitution of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic
  63. 1 2 Article 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Bashkortostan
  64. 1 2 Article 67 of the Constitution of the Republic of Buryatia
  65. Article 108 of the Statute of the Zabaykalsky Krai
  66. 1 2 Article 10 of the Constitution of the Chechen Republic
  67. "The Cherokee Nation & its Language" (PDF). University of Minnesota: Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition. 2008. Retrieved 2014-05-22.
  68. 1 2 3 4 5 Article 6 of the Law of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) On languages in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
  69. 1 2 Article 8 of the Constitution of the Chuvash Republic
  70. 1 2 3 Article 12 of the Constitution of the Republic of Mordovia
  71. 1 2 3 Law of the Republic of Karelia On state support of Karelian, Veps and Finnish languages in the Republic of Karelia
  72. 1 2 Article 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ingushetia
  73. 1 2 Article 17 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kalmykia
  74. Article 4 of the Law of the Republic of Altay On languages
  75. 1 2 Article 69 of the Constitution of the Republic of Khakassia
  76. 1 2 3 Law of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug On the languages of the aboriginal minorities of the North living within the territory of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug
  77. 1 2 3 Law of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug On native languages of the aboriginal minorities of the North within the territory of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
  78. 1 2 Article 67 of the Constitution of the Republic of Komi
  79. Article 42 of the Statute of the Perm Krai
  80. 1 2 Article 15 of the Constitution of the Republic of Mari El
  81. 1 2 Article 15 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Ossetia—Alania
  82. Article 11 of the Constitution of the Republic of Karelia
  83. 1 2 Article 46 of the Constitution of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
  84. 1 2 Article 8 of the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan
  85. 1 2 Article 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Tyva
  86. 1 2 Article 8 of the Constitution of the Udmurt Republic
  87. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Treće izvješće Republike Hrvatske o primjeni Europske povelje o regionalnim ili manjinskim jezicima" (PDF). Government of Croatia. August 2006. Retrieved 2014-03-30.
  88. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Government of Croatia. "NAPUTAK ZA DOSLJEDNU PROVEDBU ZAKONA O UPORABI JEZIKA I PISMA NACIONALNIH MANJINA U REPUBLICI HRVATSKOJ". Narodne novine. Retrieved 2014-03-30.
  89. 1 2 3 "Registar Geografskih Imena Nacionalnih Manjina Republike Hrvatske" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-03-30.
  90. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/02/english-official-language-border-bilingual_n_1249307.html
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