Discover

(Redirected from List of issues in language and politics)

This is a list of states where language is a political issue.
Many states in the world have more than one official language. This may simply reflect the existence of well defined groups speaking different languages, often including minority groups near borders, and in many such cases the use of multiple languages is unproblematic. However in some cases the issue of which language is to be used in what contexts is a major political issue, with the rights of particular language groups a constant source of political friction.

Country/Constituent region	Languages	Notes
Afghanistan	Pashto, Dari, Uzbek, Turkmen and about 30 minor languages
Algeria	Arabic and Berber
Australia	Various Aboriginal languages
Azerbaijan	Azerbaijani, Lezgi, Armenian and Talysh
Bahrain	Arabic and Persian
Belarus	Russian and Belarusian
Belgium	Dutch and French
German-speaking community of Belgium	French and German
Brazil, particularly in Rio Grande do Sul	Portuguese and Riograndenser Hunsrückisch; also Talian
Cameroon	English and French
Canada, particularly in Quebec	English and French; also, to varying degrees, English and Aboriginal languages
China, People's Republic of	Mandarin Chinese and various local dialects and languages
Hong Kong	Chinese and English
China, Republic of	Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Chinese, and to some extent Hakka Chinese and Formosan languages
Cyprus	Greek and Turkish
Egypt	Egyptian Arabic and Standard Arabic
Estonia	Estonian and Russian
Finland	Finnish and Swedish	see mandatory Swedish, ''history: Finland's language strife''
Åland	Swedish and Finnish
France	French, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Franco-Provençal, Occitan, Flemish, Alsatian and Italian	France has only one official language (French), and is regularly criticized by the European Union for its lack of recognition for minority regional languages.
Greece	varieties of Modern Greek	solved after 1975
India	numerous, see languages of India	see The Language Movement, Tanittamil Iyakkam, Anti-Hindi agitations
Indonesia	Indonesian and various native languages
Iraq	Arabic and Kurdish
Ireland	English and Irish
Italy	French in Aosta Valley and Friulian in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Valdôtain in Aosta Valley, German in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, and Slovenian in Trieste
Kazakhstan	Kazakh and Russian
Latvia	Latvian and Russian
Republic of Macedonia	Macedonian and Albanian
Malaysia	Malay, Mandarin and English
Moldova	Russian, Moldovan, and Romanian	part of the issue is whether Moldovan is the same language as Romanian
Montenegro	Serbian and Montenegrin
Morocco	Arabic and Berber
The Netherlands	Dutch and Frisian
New Zealand	English, Maori and New Zealand Sign Language
Norway	Bokmål, Nynorsk, Sami and Finnish/Kven	see Norwegian language struggle
Pakistan	Issue among the official language Urdu, the most common language Punjabi and regional languages such as Sindhi, Baluchi, Sraiki,Pushto, Potohari, Kashmiri
Philippines	Filipino ''de facto'' based on Tagalog and English (See Languages of the Philippines)
Philippines	English and Spanish	Cebuano native speakers resist Tagalog.
Poland	issue of Silesian; whether is Silesian a dialect of Polish with local and German elements, or is it separate language (what leads some to conclusiuon that Silesians are nation
Puerto Rico	Spanish and English	issue of Spanish Language; whether Spanish should be reverted to as the sole Puerto Rico Official Language as supported by the Puerto Rican Independence Party and decreed by a now overturned law passed in 1992
Romania	Romanian and Hungarian
Russian Federation	Russian, Tatarian
Bashkortostan	Russian, Tatarian, Bashkirain
Tatarstan	Tatarian, Russian
Chechnya	Chechen, Russian
Slovakia	Slovakian, Hungarian and Romani
South Africa	English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa and seven smaller Bantu languages
Spain	Asturian, Basque, Catalan, Galician, Occitan and Spanish	Asturian is an officially recognized language. Aranese Occitan, Basque, Catalan and Galician are co-official languages in their respective regions.
Sri Lanka	Sinhalese and Tamil
Syria	Arabic and Kurdish
Sweden	regionally Swedish and Meänkieli/Finnish
Switzerland	regionally French and German
Taiwan - See "China, Republic of"
East Timor	Tetum and Portuguese in relation to Indonesian	Indonesian and English are considered working languages.
Turkey	Turkish
Ukraine	Ukrainian and Russian
United Kingdom
England	English, Cornish
Northern Ireland	English, Ulster Scots, Irish	Irish and Scots were officially recognized as ''regional or minority languages'' in 2001, when the UK ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Under the Good Friday Agreement, and subsequent legislation, both Irish Gaelic and Scots have cross-border, state-funded language boards.
Scotland	English, Scottish Gaelic, Scots	Some Gaelic language service provision was guaranteed by statute in 2005. Scots and Scottish Gaelic were officially recognized as ''regional or minority languages'' in 2001, when the UK ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Wales	English and Welsh in Wales	Welsh is a national language and can be a medium of instruction within Wales.
United States	English and Spanish; also English alongside Hawaiian (in Hawaii), French (in Louisiana), and various Native American languages (on Indian reservations)	see also Spanish in the United States
Uzbekistan	Uzbek, Persian, and Russian

Contents

See also

See also

★ Language policy

★ Language politics