- Bangladesh - Bengali, English;
- Belarus - Belarusian, Russian;
- Botswana - English, Setswana;
- Burundi - French, Kirundi;
- Vatican - Latin, Italian;
- East Timor - Portuguese, Tetun;
- Djibouti - Arabic, French;
- Israel Hebrew, Arabic;
- India - Hindi, English;
- Iraq - Arabic, Kurdish;
- Ireland - Irish, English;
- Kazakhstan - Kazakh, Russian;
- Cameroon - French, English;
- Canada - English, French;
- Kenya - Swahili, English;
- Cyprus - Greek, Turkish;
- Kyrgyzstan - Kyrgyz, Russian;
- Comoros - French, Arabic;
- Lesotho - English, Sesotho;
- Madagascar - French, Malagasy;
- Malawi - English, Chichewa;
- Malta - Maltese, English;
- Nauru - English, Nauruan;
- Pakistan - Urdu, English;
- Paraguay - Spanish, Guarani;
- Samoa - Samoan, English;
- Swaziland - English, Swazi;
- Somalia - Somali, Arabic;
- Tanzania - Swahili, English;
- Tonga - English, Tongan;
- Philippines - English, Tagalog;
- Finland - Finnish, Swedish;
- Chad - Arabic, French;
- Montenegro - Albanian, Serbian;
- Sri Lanka - Sinhala, Tamil;
- Equatorial Guinea - French, Spanish;
- Eritrea - Tigrinya, Arabic;
- Republic of South Africa - Afrikaans, English.
- Belgium - French, Dutch, German;
- Bolivia - Aymara, Quechua, Spanish;
- Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian;
- Vanuatu - Bislama, English, French;
- Luxembourg - German, French, Luxembourgish dialect;
- Peru - Spanish, Aymara, Quechua;
- Rwanda - Kinyarwanda, English, French;
- Seychelles - English, Creole, French;
- Singapore - English, Chinese, Tamil, Malay;
- Switzerland - Romansh, German, French, Italian.
- Belarus (Belarusian and Russian)
Israel (Hebrew and Arabic), although those who came to Israel say that they hear a lot of Russian speech.
Canada (French and English)
- India (Indian and English)
- French
- German
- Italian,
- retro-romance language.
In some countries (for example, in South Africa, there are even more than 2 official languages. In many they want to introduce a second national language. For example, in Ukraine they were going to make Russian the second national language (during the reign of Yanukovych), but this did not come to fruition .
Plus, in some countries there are separate regions with other official languages. In the USA, some states with two offices. languages: English and Spanish.
But if purely by country, then the bilingual states are Canada, Israel, Afghanistan, Finland, Belarus, Paraguay.
There are a lot of such countries. Since the world map changed very often, as a result of wars, many countries or their territories changed their affiliation several times. Therefore, several languages may be used in a country, both at the legislative level and not. You can look at the countries in detail here.
In many countries, there are not one, but two official languages. For example, in Belarus both Belarusian and Russian are considered state languages. I was there recently and that’s why I know. In Israel, Arabic and Hebrew are the official languages. This is very convenient, since in addition to representatives of Jewish nationality, there are a lot of Arabs living there.
There are no problems with bilingualism or more where people don’t put pots on their heads and don’t shout Slava....
Israel's official languages are Hebrew and Arabic (in conditions of constant war with the Arabs)
Switzerland's official languages are German, French, Italian, Romansh.
Singapore official languages - Chinese, Malay, English, Tamil.
Haiti's official languages are Haitian, Creole, French.
This phenomenon is very common and many people live communicating in two or even more languages. They study them from childhood and do business with them. A full list of such countries can be seen by clicking on the link.
To the above answers, I can also add Kazakhstan from the second Russian and India with one English state, Hindi is probably not the second official due to the prevention of internal quarrels, at least it seems so to me. In connection with the current situation, I would not be surprised if I hear that Belarus and Kazakhstan will eventually abandon bilingualism, this is indicated by the first sign - an affectionate attitude towards the Russian world in these countries, in connection with the prevention of further events unfolding according to the Ukrainian scenario.
If we talk about countries that have two official languages, there are quite a lot of them:
The following countries have more than two official languages:
As you can see, the list is more than impressive.
An interesting ratio of official language to number of countries is given below:
English - 56
French - 29
Arabic - 24
Spanish - 20
Portuguese - 8
German - 6
Italian - 4
Russian - 4
If the question is about two official state languages x, then here is a list of these countries:
Belgium has 3 languages:
French, Dutch and German.
In such a wise country as Switzerland there are generally 4 languages:
The Republic of South Africa has 11 languages, but the main ones are African and English.
In general, this list can be continued for a long time.
True, there is one country where there is only one language - China.
And even if you know English and want to communicate in China, it is very difficult, since in China almost all Chinese speak only Chinese and even if they learn English at school, it’s generally for show.
Many countries have two national languages. For example, in our friendly and brotherly Belarus, there are Belarusian and Russian languages, both official state languages. Previously, there were more such countries, where the second state language is Russian, until persecution and rewriting of history began.
For example, the following countries have two official languages:
Finland (Finnish and Swedish)
Vatican (Italian and Latin)
Israel (Hebrew and Arabic)
Cyprus (Greek and Turkish)
Afghanistan (Pashto and Dari)
Tajikistan (Tajik and Russian)
Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz and Russian)
India (Hindi and English; in addition, 21 more languages are recognized as regional)
Sri Lanka (Sinhala and Tamil)
East Timor (Tetum and Portuguese)
Somalia (Somali and Arabic)
Djibouti (French and Arabic)
CAR (French and Sango)
Chad (French and Arabic)
Cameroon (French and English)
Eritrea (Tigrinya and Arabic)
Uganda (English and Swahili)
Kenya (Swahili and English)
Tanzania (Swahili and English)
Burundi (Kirundi and French)
Botswana (English and Setswana)
Lesotho (Sesotho and English)
Swaziland (Swati and English)
Madagascar (Malagasy and French)
Canada (English and French)
Haiti (French and Haitian Creole)
Paraguay (Spanish and Guarani)
Samoan (Samoan and English)
Tonga (Tongan and English)
Tuvalu (Tuvaluan and English)
Marshall Islands (Marshallian and English)
Kiribati (English and Kiribati)
Nauru (English and Nauruan)
The following countries have more than two official languages:
Belgium (Dutch, French and German)
Switzerland (German, French and Italian; partly also Romansh)
Singapore (English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil)
Rwanda (Kinyarwanda, French and English)
Zimbabwe (16 languages, the most important of which are English, Shona and Ndebele)
South Africa (11 languages, including: English, Afrikaans, Venda, Zulu, Xhosa)
Comoros (Comorian, Arabic and French)
Seychelles (French, English and Seychellois Creole)
Bolivia (37 national languages, the most important of which are Spanish, Quechua, Aymara and Guarani)
Papua New Guinea(English, Tok Pisin and Hiri Motu)
Fiji (English, Fijian and Hindustani)
New Zealand (English, Maori and New Zealand Sign Language)
There may be many such countries, but I will tell you which countries I know, but of course I won’t write them all:
Finland (Finnish and Swedish)
Norway (Norwegian and Sami)
Belarus (Belarusian and Russian)
Ireland (Irish and English)
Cyprus (Greek and Turkish)
Belgium (French and Dutch)
Scotland (English and Scottish)
These are some of the countries that I remembered, but in general there are so many of them, it’s impossible to list them all.
In Canada, as far as I know, there are two official state languages: French and English, but about more than two state languages. I can’t say something in languages
At one time, while working as a legal assistant, I had to go on a business trip to Chechnya. My mentor instructed me to briefly familiarize myself with the case and tell him the essence. That was the first time I came across the protocol of a court hearing, written entirely in the Nokhchiin (Chechen) language. There was nothing to do, I had to look for a translator.
State languages and the principle of their identification
The state language is not only a means of communication between people of a certain country, but also the language in which all official communication and correspondence is conducted: it is used both in court and in the clinic. Modern states have a multinational basis, and some of their territories are inhabited by a large number of people of a certain nationality for whom it is more convenient to express themselves in their native language, which has developed over centuries. In such areas, the concept of a “other” or “local” state language is introduced.
Official languages in foreign countries
On the territory of the same country, several state languages can be used either equally or on partial terms. For example, throughout Finland in to the same degree Both Finnish and Swedish are used. It so happened historically that almost the entire population speaks these two languages. And the American state of California has established Spanish as its preferred state language, because... the majority of the population are immigrants from Central America.
State language as a mechanism for protecting national minorities
Many states, going through the “imperial” period of their historical development, imposed compulsory learning of the language of the titular nation on other small or indigenous peoples, trying to eradicate them native language. This applies not only former USSR, this happened in other countries:
The use of local languages as state languages helps national minorities preserve their identity and culture.
IN different countries laws define the status of languages in terms of state, official, and sometimes national. In states where the population speaks more than one language, several languages usually have official status. So, for example, in Switzerland three official languages are recognized - German, French and Italian, and there are generally four official languages: in addition to the above-mentioned, there is also Romance. In Canada, Article 16 of the Constitution Act, adopted in 1982, gave official status to English and French languages, although French-speaking Canadians live in only two provinces. Two languages - English and Irish - are used by the Irish, Finns - Finnish and Swedish (in Lapland, where the Sami live, Sami is also considered the official language). Examples of states with two or more official languages are also shown by Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Turkey, Finland and many other countries. There are regions where the language of a national minority is adopted as the language of interethnic communication, for example, Swahili in Tanzania, Malay in Indonesia.
In a number of countries, a borrowed language is (or has been) used in interethnic communication - for example, Latin in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, Arabic in Central Asia and Iran in the 6th-10th centuries, classical Chinese (wenyan) in Japan, Vietnam, Korea. In many states that have freed themselves from colonial dependence, the languages of the former metropolises are used in interethnic communication. Thus, English is recognized as the official language of The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea; French - Gabon, Zaire, Congo, Mali, Niger, Togo; Portuguese - Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique. In a number of third world countries, two official (or state) languages are used: for example, in Kenya - English and French; in Equatorial Guinea - French and Spanish; in Tanzania, Uganda - Swahili and English; in Pakistan - Urdu and English, in India - Hindi and English. There are states where two intermediary languages are assigned different social status: one language is considered national, the other - official. For example, in Mauritania, the status of the national language belongs to Arabic, and French is recognized as the official language.
In most post-Soviet countries, the only state and official language is the language of the titular nation, and only in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan is Russian recognized as the second state language or equal to it. In Kazakhstan, according to the Constitution, the state language is Kazakh, Russian is the official language and is used on an equal basis with Kazakh. In other CIS countries, Russian is no less popular, but its popularity does not in any way affect the legal status. For example, in Azerbaijan, the only state language is Azerbaijani, although at least a quarter of the country’s citizens permanently live in Russia and, accordingly, speak Russian. The situation is similar in Armenia, where the Russian language remains compulsory subject in schools, but does not have the status of a second state one.
Without any politics or analytics - just information: a list of countries with several state or official languages.
website presents to readers the states, official languages, facts that the Fishki.net portal has collected.
Austria- main: German; regional languages: Slovenian (Carinthia), Gradiscan-Croatian, Hungarian.
Andorra- Catalan, Spanish, French.
Belgium- Flemish, French, German.
Denmark- main: Danish, also Greenlandic in Greenland and Faroese in the Faroe Islands, in the south of Denmark - German.
Ireland- Irish, English. The main language of communication for the vast majority of the population remains English. 32.5% of the population speak Irish at the level of everyday use.
Spain- state language Castilian (literary Spanish), regional-official - Basque, Catalan, Galician.
Italy- the official language is Italian, regional: German and Ladin in South Tyrol, Slovenian and Friulian in Friuli Venezia Giulia, French in Valle d’Aosta, Sardinian in Sardinia.
Cyprus- Greek, Turkish.
Luxembourg- French, German and Luxembourgish (Francis Mozelant). The latter is one of the dialects of the French language.
Malta- Maltese, English.
Netherlands- state language Dutch (Flemish), regional - West Frisian, Limburgish dialect, Low Saxon dialects (several).
Norway- Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk), regional - Sami.
Poland- Polish, regional: Belarusian, Lithuanian and German.
Slovakia- Slovak, regional - Hungarian.
Slovenia- Slovenian, regional - Hungarian, Italian.
Finland- Finnish and Swedish. The Swedish ethnic group makes up only about 5% of the total population of this country.
Switzerland- German, French, Italian, Romansh (spoken by about 0.1% of the population).
South Africa- Afrikaans (a dialect of Dutch), English, Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, Ndebele, Sesotho, Northern Sotho, Tsonga, Tswana and Venda.
India- Hindi and English.
In addition to these official languages, the Indian Constitution includes 18 (on Wiki it says 21) the most common languages in the country with the definition of “main”. However, each state and territory has the right, in addition to the national official languages, to introduce as the official languages of the state and territory other languages that are most widely spoken in the region.
Afghanistan- Pashto, Dari, Uzbek.
Bolivia- Spanish, Quechua, Aymara and 34 other languages.
Israel- Hebrew, Arabic.
Canada- English and French.
China- Chinese, regional: English in Hong Kong, Portuguese in Macau, Cantonese in Guangdong.
Paraguay- Spanish and Guarani.
Singapore- English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil.
Philippines- Tagalog, Spanish and English.
Belarus- Belarusian, Russian.
Kazakhstan- the state language is Kazakh, the official language is Russian.
Kyrgyzstan- Kyrgyz, Russian.
Moldova- Moldavian, regional: Gagauz, Russian, Ukrainian.
Russia: The common state language is Russian.
Regional state languages (in national republics):
Abaza (Karachay-Cherkessia), Adyghe (Adygea), Altai (Altai Republic), Bashkir (Republic of Bashkortostan), Buryat (Buryatia), Ingush (Ingushetia), Kabardino-Circassian (Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia), Kalmyk (Kalmykia ), Karachay-Balkarian (Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia), Komi (Komi Republic), Nogai (Karachay-Cherkessia), Mari (Mari El), Moksha (Mordovia), Ossetian ( North Ossetia), Tatar (Tatarstan), Tuvan (Tuva), Udmurt (Udmurtia), Khakass (Khakassia), Chechen (Chechnya), Chuvash (Chuvashia), Erzyan (Mordovia), Yakut (Sakha Republic), languages of Dagestan (K written languages Dagestan includes Avar, Agul, Azerbaijani, Dargin, Kumyk, Lak, Lezgin, Nogai, Rutul, Tabasaran, Tat, Tsakhur and Chechen languages).
Languages with official status (can be used along with the state language):
Vepsian (Karelia), Dolgan (Yakutia), Kazakh (Altai Republic), Karelian (Karelia), Komi-Permyak (Komi-Permyak district of the Perm Territory), Finnish (Karelia), Chukchi (Yakutia), Evenki (Yakutia), Even ( Yakutia), Yukaghir (Yakutia).
List of countries with several state or official languages of the state, official languages, facts
In almost half of the countries in the world, the state and official language is not legally established (USA, Sweden, Germany, Japan, etc.).
