Talk:List of official languages
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About the inclusion of Hong Kong and Macau in the PRC (an obvious fact for me)User:Efghij: If you keep specifying Hong Kong and Macau, please specify Açores and Madeira (Portugal) and ALL Spanish regions, among other self-governing parts of many countries. Why is this case special?Marco NevesMarco Neves
Louisiana has no official language
?which is why I took the liberty to delete the state of Louisiana from the list. Louisiana?s current constitution (1974) says that the "right of the people to preserve, foster, and promote their respective historic linguistic and cultural origins is recognized" (see Article XII, Section 4 at http://senate.legis.state.la.us/Documents/Constitution/). Furthermore, all contracts and other documents written in French are recognized as legally binding. See also for more information James Crawford?s page on Louisiana: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/can-la.htm
Please stop edit-warring. If you've got a source that says Ireland has two official languages, with Irish as "the" official language, give me a link. -- ヤギ
- I'm Portuguese and not particularly interested in the linguistic situation in Ireland, but I've learnt and repetedly see printed in many books and sources that:
- Ireland is a mostly English-speaking country;
- Ireland has two official languages: Irish Gaelic and English;
- Irish Gaelic (or Irish) is considered the first official language, having superior legal value than English, which is one of the few (if not the only) cases in which an official language has a superior value to that of another (even in Spain, regional languages have exactly the same official value as Spanish in their own regions). Marco NevesMarco Neves
--- Kurdish is an official language in Iraq!!!
- Yes (according to demographics of Iraq), and thanks for your excitement!!! Tuf-Kat
The 1937 Irish constitution Art.8.1. The Irish language as the national language is the first official language.
Art.8.2. The English language is recognised as a second official language.
(emphasis yours -- ヤギ )
All legislation, etc in the Irish language is treated as superior to anything in the Englsh language. etc etc etc. JtdIrL 06:32 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC)
- The constitution of Ireland states that Irish will be the first official language and the next section states English is their second official language. This does not mean Irish (or Gaelic) is THE official language, but it was obviously the first established and I am not arguing on that point.
- The fact is, any country with more than one official language would say "this is our first official language, this is our second official language, this is our tenth official language". There is no reason to make a special case for Ireland, they simply have two official languages like many countries. Article reverted. -- ヤギ
- [just a remark: countries with more than one official language usually don't establish an order for those languages; Ireland, actually, is one of the few which does that.]Marco NevesMarco Neves
Cant you read english? Irish is THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. Number 1. The first. English is A second. Number two. Inferior in law. Takes second place in law. In the case of a clash, the Irish language version comes out tops.
One is THE language, one is rated as a second, to which if Ireland wanted to, Outer Mongolian could be added as an equal language to english. It is not an equality. One is THE language. One is a secondary language. JtdIrL 06:40 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC) Cant you read english? Irish is THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. Number 1. The first. English is A second. Number two. Inferior in law. Takes second place in law. In the case of a clash, the Irish language version comes out tops.
One is THE language, one is rated as a second, to which if Ireland wanted to, Outer Mongolian could be added as an equal language to english. It is not an equality. One is THE language. One is a secondary language. JtdIrL 06:40 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC)
- I am perfectly capable of understanding English. Ireland has two official languages. It is not rocket science. -- ヤギ
- Please leave the entries on Ireland uniform to the other entries until a consensus has been reached. -- ヤギ
You want me to leave the entries to Ireland incorrect? Are you joking? There is no question of leaving entries about something as fundamental, as basic and as easy to understand as what the Irish constitution says about relative status of two languages incorrect. I wouldn't leave a page that said Rome was the capital of France untouched. Or that England is a republic. There is no question of letting a page that contain a fundamental mistake about Ireland sit with that error. As you still don't seem capable of grasping the facts, let me spell them out one more time.
Irish = ' The NATIONAL LANGUAGE' 'THE first official language.' Art.8.1. English = merely 'recognised' as A second official language, not ;THE national language, not 'A' national language, not even another first official language'. Instead it is demoted to A SECOND official language. In any quiz, if someone is asked - What is the national language of Ireland?, if they answer english they are told wrong answer. The national language is Irish. English is a secondly, inferior, grade II language.
Personally I don't agree with the way the constitution treats english, and would love to change it. But my personal feelings are irrelevant, the Official language of Ireland is Irish. English is a secondary language, not the official one. JtdIrL 07:20 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC)
From Iraq's constitution:
Article 7 [Languages]
(a) Arabic is the official language.
(b) The Kurdish language is official, besides Arabic, in the Kurdish Region.
I should have read before editing that, my mistake. -- ヤギ
Look, I know the Dutch say "there's no such place as Belgium", but nevertheless Flemish is a distinct language with a distinct (and longer) cultural tradition, and the fact that Flemings and Dutchmen can make themselves mutually understood far more easily than (say) Danes and Swedes or Serbs and Croats does not make Dutch into one of the languages of Belgium. I suggest that we allow the fact of a distinct literary tradition to come through, or we lose touch with such things as Til Eulenspiel. PML.
- I am from the Dutch Wikipedia, I am from Belgium, I speak Dutch (not flemish). Dutch is one of the 3 offical languages of Belgium and the main language of about 60% of the population. Flemish is not a offical language of Belgium. Giskart 09:54 Mar 13, 2003 (UTC)
- Zelfs als Vlaams echt een andere taal zou zijn, wat het niet is, dan is het nog niet een officiële taal van een land. Dan kun je evengoed gaan zeggen dat ze in België "Limburgs, Antwerps, Gents, Brussels, en West-Vlaams spreken (al geef ik wel toe dat West-Vlaams soms wel als een andere taal klinkt) Giskart 09:54 Mar 13, 2003 (UTC)
"in the Republic of Ireland what is the state's official national language is actually spoken by only a small proportion of people"
Isn't the "national language" of a country the language most of the population speaks? From what I have read the terms "national language" and "official language" are seperate and should not be used interchangably. -- ヤギ
And Puerto Rico? In the list of states?
Vandalism alert. Dutch supremacists appear to be denying the existence of Flemish, and making out that Belgium has Dutch as an official language. PML.
- A remark: I've learned that Flemish and Dutch were united and are today two "dialects" of the same language - neerlandese. This is, I've heard the official situation, similar to that of Catalan: Catalan is called Valencian in Valencian Community but is, nevertheless, Catalan. Dutch and Flemish are two different names for the same language and, at the same time, two dialects of that language. Marco NevesMarco Neves
Swedish is an official language of Finland, but not of Sweden. There is a current Government Bill that has been put to Parliament, which is proposing to make Swedish the official language, but it has run into heavy critisism and it seems unlikely that it will pass. Just two years ago the Swedish Parliament passed an act recognizing several minority lanugages, and these are the only languages that have any kind of official recognition in Sweden. Swedish is so far merely the de facto standard language of Sweden, and it does not have an official status. /Mic
Just out of interest, I notice that English isn't listed as an official language of Great Britain. As far as I know it should be (certainly Welsh has official status in Wales, and I'm sure English does too, so I'd be surprised if it's not official in the rest of Britain). Also, should it be the whole United Kingdom or just Great Britain (or even the individual countries)? Magnus 17:28 Apr 16, 2003 (UTC)
According to a 1995 Parliamentary answer (http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199495/ldhansrd/vo950515/text/50515-02.htm#50515-02_head1), there is "no concept of an official language enshrined in English or Scottish law". The Welsh Language Act (http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1993/Ukpga_19930038_en_1.htm) enshrines the principle that "in the conduct of public business and the administration of justice in Wales, the English and Welsh languages should be treated on a basis of equality", but does not quite make it an "official language". See this PDF (http://www.cymdeithas.com/dadlwytho/canrifnewydd.en.pdf) for an argument that Welsh should be made an official language. Furthermore, under the definition offered at official language, neither the UK nor Wales can have an "official language" as there is no written constitution. As with so many things in the UK, English is our "official language" only by longstanding convention. --rbrwr
Anyone know what Inuvialuktun, an official language of the Northwest Territories of Canada, is? It is not listed in Inuit, Inuktitut, or Eskimo-Aleut. Rmhermen 23:53, Aug 8, 2003 (UTC)
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Moldovan language
Dear Sir, The Moldovan (Moldavian) language don't exist ! This "language" is only an invention of the Russian invaders. The language of the people in the so-called Moldova is the Romanian language. Best regards, Sorin Demetrescu 17.09.2003
- No, of course it doesn't exist, it is just the official name of the Romanian language in Moldova. :)
- See Moldovan language about this. Bogdan 12:10, 17 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Irish/English "secondary"
Under the Irish constitution, Article 8 1. The Irish language as the national language is the first official language.
2. The English language is recognised as a second official language.
3. Provision may, however, be made by law for the exclusive use of either of the said languages for any one or more official purposes, either throughout the State or in any part thereof. garryq 13:32, 9 May 2004 (UTC)
The OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT 2003 ( http://www.acts.ie/en.act.2003.0032.4.html#partiii-sec11 ) does enable the use of Irish only in stationery and public announcements. Nevertheless, it confirms that both languages are official and that any person may use either language in contacting the government and expect a reply in that language I am sure the State will now use Irish much more in the Gaeltacht, but English has not been downgraded or replaced. The Constitution and practicalities ensure that. The situation is not analogous to Qu&eacur;bec where the promotion of French has been by a near-criminalising of non-Francophone and by suspending the Constitution (via the notwithstanding clause) garryq 14:18, 9 May 2004 (UTC)
Languages missing from list
Some languages are not given entries even though they are mentioned as co-official languages under other entries. Bislama is one of these. Also, Bulgarian appears out of alphabetical sequence.
Portuguese in Galicia
The Portuguese language is not official in Galicia, texts in Portuguese don't have legal value.--Rocastelo 18:11, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC) n
Iceland
Why doesn't Iceland have a place their? The ancient Icelandic should definetely be there with the others, as its a very interesting language and obviously the official language of the country, as anyone who has been there knows (but you don't have to go there to know that).