List of official languages

Official languages of sovereign countries

Afrikaans:

• South Africa (with English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu)

Albanian:

• Albania
• Macedonia
• Part of Serbia and Montenegro
  • Kosovo

Arabic:

• Algeria
• Bahrain
• Chad (with French)
• Comoros (with French and Shikomor)
• Djibouti (with French)
• Egypt
• Eritrea (with Tigrignan)
• Iraq (with Kurdish)
• Israel (with Hebrew)
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Libya
• Mauritania
• Morocco
• Oman
• Qatar
• Palestine
• Saudi Arabia
• Sudan
• Syria
• The United Arab Emirates
• Tunisia
• Yemen

Armenian:

• Armenia

Assamese:

• India (with English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit)
  • Assam

Aymara:

• Bolivia (with Spanish and Quechua)
• Peru (with Spanish and Quechua)

Azeri:

• Azerbaijan

Bahasa Indonesia:

• Indonesia

Belarusian:

• Belarus

Bengali:

• Bangladesh
• India (with English, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Assamese, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Sanskrit, Sindhi)
  • Tripura
  • West Bengal

Bosnian:

• Bosnia and Herzegovina (with Croatian, Serbian)

Bulgarian:

• Bulgaria

Catalan:

• Andorra
• parts of Spain
  • Balearic Islands (with Spanish)
  • Catalonia (with Spanish)
  • Valencia (named as Valencian, with Spanish)

Chinese:

• the People's Republic of China
  • Mainland China (Mandarin)
  • Hong Kong (with English, Cantonese spoken de facto with Mandarin)
  • Macau (with Portuguese, Cantonese spoken de facto with Mandarin)
• the Republic of China (Taiwan) (Mandarin)
• Singapore (with Malay, English and Tamil)

Croatian

• some municipalities in Austria (with German)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (with Bosnian, Serbian)
• Croatia
• part of Serbia and Montenegro
  • Vojvodina (with Serbian, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak and Ruthenian)

Danish

• Denmark
  • Faroe Islands (with Faroese)
  • Greenland (with Inuktitut)

Dari:

• Afghanistan (with Pashtu)

Dhivehi:

• Maldives

Dutch:

• Belgium (with French and German)
• The Netherlands (with Frisian)
• Suriname
• The Netherlands Antilles
• Aruba

Dzongkha:

• Bhutan

English:

• Australia
• Bahamas
• Belize
• Botswana (but the national language is Setswana)
• Canada (federally, with French)
  • New Brunswick (with French)
  • Nunavut (with French, Inuktitut, and Inuvialuktun)
  • Northwest Territories (with Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib, French, Gwich'in, Inuktitut, and Slavey)
  • Yukon (with French)
• Fiji (with Bau Fijian and Hindustani)
• part of the People's Republic of China
  • Hong Kong (with Chinese)
• Guyana
• India (with Hindi and 14 other languages)
• Kenya (with Kiswahili)
• Kiribati
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Papua New Guinea (with Tok Pisin and Motu)
• Republic of Ireland (with Irish)
• South Africa (with Afrikaans, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu)
• New Zealand (an official language by custom; the other by law is Māori)
• Singapore (with Malay, Tamil and Mandarin Chinese)
• Philippines (but the national language is Filipino)
• The Gambia
• parts of the United States. The USA Federal Government does not have an official language; English is the first language by custom, not law. See English-only movement. English is official language in the following states and territories:
  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii (with Hawaiian language)
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kentucky
  • Louisiana (with French)
  • Massachusetts
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • New Hampshire
  • New Mexico (with Spanish)
  • North Carolina
  • North Dakota
  • Puerto Rico (with Spanish)
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • U.S. Virgin Islands
  • Utah
  • Virginia
  • West Virginia
  • Wyoming
• Zambia

Fijian

• Fiji (with English and Hindustani)

Filipino:

• Philippines (with English)

Finnish:

• Finland (with Swedish)

French:

• Belgium (with Dutch and German)
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi (with Kirundi and Swahili)
• Cameroon (with English)
• Canada (federally, with English)
  • New Brunswick (with English)
  • Quebec
  • Nunavut (with English, Inuktitut, and Inuvialuktun)
  • Northwest Territories (with Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib, English, Gwich'in, Inuktitut, and Slavey)
  • Yukon (with English)
• Central African Republic
• Chad (with Arabic)
• Comoros (with Arabic and Comorian)
• Congo-Brazzaville
• Congo-Kinshasa
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Djibouti (with Arabic)
• Equatorial Guinea (with Spanish)
• France
• Gabon
• Guinea
• Haiti (with Haitian Creole)
• part of Italy
  • the Aosta Valley (with Italian)
• Madagascar (with Malagasy)
• Mali
• Mauritius (with English)
• Monaco
• Rwanda (with English and Kinyarwanda)
• Senegal
• Seychelles (with English)
• Switzerland (with German, Italian, and Rhaeto-Romansch)
  • Geneva
  • Vaud
  • Valais
  • Jura
  • Neuchâtel
  • Fribourg, Bern (with German)
• Togo
• part of the United States
  • Louisiana (with English)
• Vanuatu (with Bislama and English)

Frisian:

• The Netherlands (with Dutch)

Georgian:

• Georgia

German:

• Austria
• Belgium (with Dutch and French)
• Germany
• Liechtenstein
• part of Italy
  • South Tyrol (with Italian)
• Switzerland (with French, Italian, and Rhaeto-Romansch)
  • 17 of the 26 cantons (unilingually German)
  • Graubünden (with Italian and Romansh)
  • Bern, Fribourg (with French)

Greek:

• Greece
• Cyprus (with Turkish)

Guarani

• Paraguay (with Spanish)

Gujarati:

• India (with English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit)
  • Dadra and Nagar Haveli
  • Daman and Diu
  • Gujarat

Haitian Creole:

• Haiti (with French)

Hebrew:

• Israel (with Arabic)

Hindi

• India (with English and 14 other languages)
• Fiji (with English and Bau Fijian; known constitutionally as Hindustani as an umbrella term to cover Urdu, as well as Hindi.)

Hungarian:

• Hungary
• part of Slovenia
• part of Serbia and Montenegro
  • Vojvodina (with Croatian, Serbian, Romanian, Slovak and Ruthenian)

Irish is the first official language of:

• Republic of Ireland (with English)

Italian:

• Italy (with German, French, Ladin and Sardinian in some provinces)
• Switzerland (with German, French, and Rhaeto-Romansh)
  • Ticino
  • Graubünden (with German and Rhaeto-Romansh)
• San Marino
• part of Croatia
  • Istria county (with Croatian)
• part of Slovenia
  • Izola, Koper and Piran municipalities (with Slovene)

Japanese:

• Japan
• Palau (with Palauan and English)

Kannada:

• India (with English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit)
  • Karnataka

Kashmiri:

• India (with English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Sindhi, Sanskrit)

Kazakh:

• Kazakhstan (with Russian)

Khmer:

• Cambodia

Korean:

• North Korea
• South Korea

Kurdish:

• Iraq (with Arabic)

Kyrgyz:

• Kyrgyzstan (with Russian)

Lao:

• Laos

Latin:

• Holy See (Vatican City)

Latvian:

• Latvia

Lithuanian:

• Lithuania

Macedonian:

• Macedonia

Malay:

• Malaysia (as Bahasa Melayu)
• Brunei
• Singapore (with English, Tamil and Mandarin Chinese)

Malayalam:

• India (with English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit)
  • Kerala
  • Lakshadweep

Māori:

• New Zealand (with English)

Marathi:

• India (with English, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit)
  • Maharashtra

Moldovan (asserted by nationalists to be distinct from Romanian; most linguists remain skeptical):

• Moldova

Motu :

• Papua New Guinea (with English and Tok Pisin)

Ndebele:

• South Africa (with Afrikaans, English, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu)

Nepali:

• Nepal

Northern Sotho:

• South Africa (with Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu)

Norwegian:

• Norway (two official written forms - Bokmål and Nynorsk)

Oriya:

• India (with English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit)
  • Orissa

Pashtu:

• Afghanistan (with Dari-Persian)

Persian

• Iran
• Afghanistan (called Dari-Persian in Afghanistan) (with Pashtu)
• Tajikistan (called Tajiki-Persian in Tajikistan)

Polish:

• Poland

Portuguese:

• Angola
• Brazil
• Cape Verde
• East Timor
• Guinea-Bissau
• part of the People's Republic of China
  • Macau (with Chinese)
• Mozambique
• Portugal
• São Tomé and Príncipe
• part of Spain
  • Galicia, using the name Galician [See: Galician, above.] (with Spanish)

Punjabi:

• India (with English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit)
  • Punjab

Quechua

• Bolivia (with Spanish and Aymara)
• Peru (with Spanish and Aymara)

Romanian:

• Moldova (known locally as Moldovan, and asserted by nationalists to be a separate language, an assertion disputed by most professional linguists)
• Romania
• part of Serbia and Montenegro
  • Vojvodina (with Croatian, Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak and Ruthenian)

Rhaeto-Romansh:

• Switzerland (with German, French, and Italian)
  • Graubünden (with German and Italian)

Russian:

• Belarus (with Belarusian)
• Kazakhstan (with Kazakh)
• Kyrgyzstan (with Kyrgyz)
• Russia

Sanskrit:

• India (with English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi)

Serbian:

• Bosnia and Herzegovina (with Bosnian, Croatian)
• Serbia and Montenegro

Sindhi:

• India (with English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sanskrit)

Sinhala:

• Sri Lanka (with Tamil, and with English as a link language)

Slovak language

• Slovakia
• part of Serbia and Montenegro
  • Vojvodina (with Croatian, Serbian, Hungarian, Romanian and Ruthenian)

Slovene:

• Slovenia

Somali:

• Somalia

Sotho:

• South Africa (with Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu)

Spanish:

• Argentina
• Bolivia (with Aymara and Quecha)
• Chile
• Colombia
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Equatorial Guinea (with French)
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Paraguay (with Guarani)
• Peru (with Quechua)
• Spain (Aranese, Basque, Catalan and Galician are co-official in some regions)
• parts of the United States (co-official with English in New Mexico and Puerto Rico)
• Uruguay
• Venezuela

Swahili:

• Kenya (with English)
• Tanzania

Swazi:

• Swaziland (with English)
• South Africa (with Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu)

Swedish:

• Finland (with Finnish)
  • Åland (unilingually Swedish) (an autonomous province under Finnish sovereignty)

Tamil:

• Singapore (with Malay, English and Mandarin Chinese)
• India (with English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit)
  • Pondicherry
  • Tamil Nadu
• Sri Lanka (with Sinhala, and with English as a link language)

Telugu:

• India (with English, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit)
  • Andhra Pradesh

Thai:

• Thailand

Tok Pisin:

• Papua New Guinea (with English and Motu)

Tsonga:

• South Africa (with Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu)

Tswana:

• South Africa (with Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu)

Turkish:

• Turkey
• Cyprus (with Greek (Hellenic))

Ukrainian:

• Ukraine

Urdu:

• India (with Hindi, English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit)
  • Jammu and Kashmir
• Pakistan

Venda:

• South Africa (with Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Xhosa, Zulu)

Vietnamese:

• Vietnam

Xhosa:

• South Africa (with Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Zulu)

Zulu:

• South Africa (with Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa)

Official languages at the level of state or provincial unit only

Aranese see Occitan

Basque:

• Basque Country (with Spanish)
• Navarre (with Spanish)

Cantonese:

• Hong Kong (spoken de facto, with English and Mandarin )
• Macao (spoken de facto, with English and Mandarin)

Chipewyan:

• Northwest Territories (with Cree, Dogrib, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuktitut, and Slavey)

Cree:

• Northwest Territories (with Chipewyan, Dogrib, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuktitut, and Slavey)

Dogrib:

• Northwest Territories (with Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuktitut, and Slavey)

Galician:

• Galicia (with Spanish)

NOTE: Whether Galician is in fact a language, or a dialect of Portuguese, is a matter of debate among linguists.

Gwich'in:

• Northwest Territories (with Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib, English, French, Inuktitut, and Slavey)

Hawaiian:

• Hawaii (with English)

Inuktitut:

• Greenland (with Danish)
• Nunavut (with English, French, and Inuvialuktun)
• Northwest Territories (with Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib, English, French, Gwich'in, and Slavey)

Inuvialuktun:

• Nunavut (with English, French, and Inuktitut)
• Northwest Territories (included in Inuktitut; with Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib, English, French, Gwich'in, and Slavey)

Occitan (Aranese):

• Val d'Aran (with Catalan and Spanish)

Rusyn:

• Vojvodina (with Croatian, Serbian, Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak)

Sami:

• Finland (in four municipalities)
• Norway (in six municipalities)

Slavey:

• Northwest Territories (with Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib, English, French, Gwich'in, and Inuktitut)

Welsh:

• Wales (with English)

See also

• List of official languages by institution
• List of official languages by country
• List of national languages of India