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List of official languages facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Have you ever wondered why people in different countries speak different languages? Or why some countries have more than one official language? An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a country, state, or other area. This means it's used for government business, laws, and official documents. Sometimes, a language might be used a lot by people in a country but isn't officially recognized by the government. We call these de facto official languages. This article explores some of the official languages spoken around the world.

What is an Official Language?

An official language is like a special language chosen by a country's government. It's the language used for things like writing laws, holding court, and communicating with citizens. For example, if a country has English as its official language, government forms and school lessons will likely be in English.

Some countries have only one official language, while others have many. When a country has more than one official language, they are called co-official languages. This often happens in countries with different groups of people who speak different languages.

Official Languages Around the World

Many countries have official languages. Here's a look at some of them, listed by the language name. You'll see how some languages are official in many places, while others are specific to one country or region.

Abkhaz

  • Abkhazia (This country's independence is still being discussed. Abkhaz is official here along with Russian.)

Afrikaans

Albanian

Amharic

Arabic

Arabic is an official language in many countries, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.

Armenian

Azerbaijani

Belarusian

Bengali

Berber

Bosnian

Bulgarian

Burmese

  • Myanmar (This country used to be called Burma.)

Catalan

Chinese, Mandarin

Mandarin Chinese is a very widely spoken language.

Croatian

Czech

Danish

Dari

Dhivehi

Dutch

Dzongkha

English

English is an official language in many countries around the world.

Estonian

Faroese

Fijian

Filipino

Finnish

French

French is another language spoken officially in many countries.

Georgian

German

Greek

Guaraní

Haitian Creole

Hebrew

Hindi

  • India (Hindi is an official language of the Union, along with English and 21 other regional languages.)

Hiri Motu

Hungarian

Icelandic

Indonesian

Irish

  • Republic of Ireland (Irish is the "national" language, with English as the "second official" language.)

Italian

Japanese

  • Japan (Japanese is the main language, though not officially declared.)

Khmer

Kinyarwanda

Kirundi

Korean

Kurdish

Lao

Latin

  • Holy See (This is the government of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City.)

Latvian

Lithuanian

Luxembourgish

Macedonian

Malagasy

Malay

Maltese

Māori

  • New Zealand (with English and New Zealand Sign Language.)

Marshallese

Mongolian

Montenegrin

Nauruan

Nepali

New Zealand Sign Language

Norwegian

  • Norway (It has two official written forms: Bokmål and Nynorsk.)

Oromo

Palauan

Papiamento

Pashto

Persian

Polish

Portuguese

Quechua

Romanian

Romansh

Russian

Samoan

Sango

Scots

Serbian

Seychellois Creole

Shona

Sinhala

Slovak

Slovene

Somali

Sotho

Spanish

Spanish is an official language in many countries, especially in Central and South America.

Swahili

Swati

Swedish

Tamil

Tetum

Thai

Tigrinya

Tok Pisin

Tongan

Tswana

Turkish

Turkmen

Tuvaluan

Ukrainian

Urdu

  • Pakistan (with English.)
  • India (Urdu is one of India's many official languages.)

Uzbek

Vietnamese

Welsh

Wolof

  • Senegal (Wolof is a national language, with French as the official language.)

Xhosa

Zimbabwean Sign Language

  • Zimbabwe (This is one of Zimbabwe's many official languages, along with English and Shona.)

Zulu

Languages Spoken in Many Countries

This table shows which languages are official or widely used in the most countries.

Language Number of countries language spoken
English 101
French 60
Arabic 51
Standard Chinese 33
Spanish 31
Persian 29
German 18
Russian 16
Malay 13
Portuguese 12

Languages for Regions and Minorities

Besides national official languages, many countries also recognize special languages for specific regions or for minority groups. These languages might be used in local government, schools, or public signs in those areas. For example:

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List of official languages Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.