List of language regulators facts for kids

Have you ever wondered who decides how a language should be spoken or written? That's where language academies come in! These groups are like the official rule-makers for languages. They often want to keep a language "pure" and make sure it sounds good and is respected.

They usually publish special dictionaries that tell you the correct meaning of words and how to say them. Sometimes, they also help promote a standard way of spelling words, but they don't force anyone to follow their rules. Many of these academies are private clubs, but some are run by governments or have special government approval. For some languages, there might even be several academies, especially if the language is spoken in different countries.

Many languages around the world have one or more language academies. However, these academies don't control languages as strictly as "simple English" versions or fictional languages like Newspeak. Languages still grow and change naturally. English, for example, has never had an official language academy anywhere, though dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary are very important for it.

Languages and Their Rule-Makers

Here's a look at some languages and the groups that help guide them.

Language	Territory	Regulator(s)	Founded
Afrikaans	South Africa  Namibia	Die Taalkommissie (The Language Commission)	1909
Albanian	Albania	Academy of Sciences of Albania	1972
Arabic	Egypt	Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo	1932
	Syria	Academy of the Arabic Language in Damascus	1918
Armenian	Armenia	Armenian National Academy of Sciences	1943
Basque	Basque Country Navarre French Basque Country	Euskaltzaindia, also known as Royal Academy of the Basque language	1918
Bengali (Bangla)	Bangladesh	Bangla Academy	1955
	India	Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi	1986
Bulgarian	Bulgaria	Institute for Bulgarian Language at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences	1942
Burmese	Myanmar	Myanmar Language Commission	1963
Catalan	Catalonia	Institute for Catalan Studies	1907
	Valencian Community	Valencian Language Academy	2001
Standard Chinese	China	State Language Work Committee	1986
	Singapore	Promote Mandarin Council	1979
Croatian	Croatia	Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics	1948
Czech	Czech Republic	Institute of the Czech Language	1946
Danish	Denmark	Dansk Sprognævn (Danish Language Council)	1955
Dutch	Netherlands  Belgium  Suriname	Dutch Language Union	1980
English	None	None official, but the Oxford English Dictionary is a very important historical dictionary for English.
Estonian	Estonia	Emakeele Seltsi keeletoimkond (Language Board at the Mother Tongue Society) sets rules and standards. The Institute of the Estonian Language gives advice.	1993
Filipino	Philippines	Commission on the Filipino Language	1937
Finnish	Finland	Institute for the Languages of Finland	1976
French	France	French Academy	1635
	Quebec	Office québécois de la langue française (Québec Office of the French Language)	1961
Galician	Galicia	Royal Galician Academy	1906
German	Germany  Austria  Switzerland	Council for German Orthography	2004
Hebrew	Israel	Academy of the Hebrew Language	1890
Hindi	India	Central Hindi Directorate	1960
Hungarian	Hungary	Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics	1949
Icelandic	Iceland	Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies	1962
Indonesian	Indonesia	Language Development and Fostering Agency	1947
Irish	Ireland  Northern Ireland	Foras na Gaeilge (Irish Institute)	1999
Italian	Italy	Accademia della Crusca	1583
Japanese	Japan	National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics	1948
Korean	South Korea	National Institute of the Korean Language	1991
	North Korea	The Language Research Institute, Academy of Social Science
Latvian	Latvia	Latvian State Language Center	1992
Lithuanian	Lithuania	Commission of the Lithuanian Language	1990
Macedonian	North Macedonia	Linguistics and Literary Science Department at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts	1967
Malay	Malaysia	Institute of Language and Literature	1956
	Brunei	Language and Literature Bureau	1960
Maltese	Malta	National Council for the Maltese Language	2005
Māori	New Zealand	Māori Language Commission	1987
Nepali	Nepal	Nepal Academy	1957
Norwegian Bokmål Norwegian Nynorsk	Norway	Norwegian Language Council	2005
Persian	Iran	Academy of Persian Language and Literature	1935
	Afghanistan	Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan	1978
Polish	Poland	Polish Language Council	1996
Portuguese	Portugal	Lisbon Academy of Sciences	1779
	Brazil	Brazilian Academy of Letters	1897
Quechua	Peru	Peruvian Ministries of Education and of Culture
	Bolivia	Language and Culture Institute of the Quechua Nation	2013
Romanian	Romania	Academia Română	1866
Russian	Russia	Russian Language Institute	1944
Serbian and Montenegrin	Serbia  Montenegro	Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language	1997
Sindhi	Pakistan	Sindhi Language Authority	1992
Slovak	Slovakia	Slovak Academy of Sciences	1942
Slovene	Slovenia	Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts	1938
Spanish	Spain  Colombia  Mexico	Association of Spanish Language Academies	1951
Swedish	Sweden	Language Council of Sweden	1941
	Swedish Academy	1786
Tamil	India	Tamil University	1981
	Singapore	Tamil Language Council	2000
Thai	Thailand	Royal Society of Thailand	1926
Turkish	Turkey	Türk Dil Kurumu	1932
Ukrainian	Ukraine	NASU Institute of Ukrainian Language	1991
Urdu	Pakistan	National Language Promotion Department
	India	National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language
Welsh	Wales	Welsh Language Commissioner	2012

What About Made-Up Languages?

Most languages that people create, often called conlangs, don't have official language academies. But there are a few exceptions!

Helper Languages

These are languages created to help people from different countries communicate easily.

Esperanto: A Planned Language

Esperanto and Ido were first designed by a person or a small group. But over time, communities of people started using them, and the languages grew and changed, much like natural languages do. Groups like the Akademio de Esperanto help guide how Esperanto is used, keeping in mind its original goals.

Interlingua: A Language That Grows on Its Own

Interlingua is different because it doesn't have a group telling people how to use it. Its words, grammar, and spelling are seen as something that develops naturally from how people use it. So, Interlingua changes without any human group trying to control it. Its words are checked by looking at how they appear in existing natural languages. The people who first created Interlingua decided that it didn't need an academy.

Other Made-Up Languages

Here are some other created languages and the people or groups who guide them.

Other Language Groups

Some groups don't try to set rules for a language. Instead, they mostly help and advise the government on how to handle language use in their area.

•  Hong Kong: Official Language Division Civil Service Bureau Government of Hong Kong: http://www.csb.gov.hk/english/aboutus/org/scsd/1470.html – This group deals with government language rules.
•  Macau: Departamento dos Assuntos Linguísticos of the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau of the Government of Macau – This group also focuses on government language rules.

See also

A friendly robot to guide you!

• In Spanish: Anexo:Academias lingüísticas para niños
• Proposals for an English Academy
• Language policy
• Language revival
• Language planning
• Linguistic purism
• Languages in censuses