List of countries where language is a political issue
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This is a list of countries where language is a political issue. It is not a list of countries with more than one official language, or more than one language community.
Many countries 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. Only these latter cases are listed here.
Assessments of gravity
The list attempts to give an idea of the gravity of the problem, but this is inevitably a subjective judgement and liable to change. The ratings are:
- Serious - language is a major organizing principle of the country's politics, and language disputes persistently threaten the unity of the country and/or involve violent protest or terrorist action
- Moderate - language disputes regularly arise, but are currently contained
- Minor - language issues are the concern of a small minority of the population (though those people may take them very seriously)
List of countries
Note that only the languages in dispute are listed here; several of these countries have additional language communities.
- Algeria (Arabic and Berber): moderate to serious
- Belarus (Russian and Belarusian): serious
- Belgium (Dutch and French): moderate to serious
- Cameroon (English and French): moderate to serious
- Canada (English and French, particularly in Quebec; also, to varying degrees, English and Native Canadian languages): serious
- China (Chinese and various local languages): serious
- Cyprus (Greek and Turkish): serious
- England (English, Cornish): minor
- Finland (Finnish and Swedish): minor to moderate, see mandatory Swedish
- France (French), minor except Basque Country and Corsica: moderate
- Greece (varieties of Modern Greek): solved after 1975
- India (English and Hindi, Hindi and local language in some states): minor to serious
- Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesia and various native languages): serious
- Iraq (Arabic and Kurdish): serious
- Iran (Persian and Azerbaijani, Persian and Kurdish): serious
- Ireland (English and Irish): minor to moderate
- Kazakhstan (Kazak and Russian): serious
- Latvia (Latvian and Russian): minor to moderate
- Macedonia (Macedonian and Albanian): serious
- Moldova (Russian, Moldovan, and Romanian): serious
- New Zealand (English, Maori and NZ Sign Language): minor to moderate
- Northern Ireland (English, Ulster, Irish Gaelic): minor
- Norway (Bokmål and Nynorsk): moderate to minor
- Pakistan (Issue among the official language Urdu, the most common language Punjabi and regional languages such as Sindhi) : minor to serious
- Philippines (Filipino based on Tagalog and English ): moderate. (English and Spanish: serious in past, now very minor, Cebuano native speakers resist Tagalog). See Languages of the Philippines
- Scotland (English, Scottish Gaelic, Scots): minor. Scots Gaelic is currently in the process of being granted official status.
- Serbia and Montenegro (Serbian and Albanian, Serbian and Hungarian): serious
- Slovakia (Slovakian and Hungarian): moderate
- Spain (Basque, Catalan, Galician and Spanish): serious. Aranese, Asturian, Basque, Catalan and Galician are co-official in certain regions. (Catalan and Valencian): serious).
- Switzerland (issues between French and German in some cantons): minor
- Taiwan (Mandarin, Taiwanese, and to some extent Hakka): moderate
- Timor-Leste- Commonly known as East Timor (Tetum and Portuguese in relation to Indonesian): moderate. Indonesian and English are considered working languages.
- Turkey (Turkish and Kurdish): serious
- Ukraine (Russian and Ukrainian): moderate
- United States (English and Spanish; also English alongside Hawaiian (in Hawaii), French (in Lousiana), and various Native American languages (on Indian reservations)): minor to moderate (see also Spanish in the United States)
- Wales (English, Welsh): moderate