Official languages of different countries

According to various sources, there are 3-5 thousand languages in the world. Among them, there are the so-called world languages: Russian, English, French, and Spanish. There are also regional languages spoken by people of neighboring countries: Arabic, Swahili. There are state or official languages: Polish in Poland, Mongolian in Mongolia, Swedish in Sweden, etc. But the majority of languages do not have any official title: they are just spoken. Some of them – by 10 people, others – by 100 or 1,000, third – by 10,000.

In some countries where more than one language is used there are usually several official languages. For example, in Switzerland there are 3 acknowledged official languages: German, French, and Italian, and there are four state languages: besides the above mentioned, there is also Retro Romanian. In Canada, article 16 of the Constitutional Act approved in 1982 granted the official status to English and French languages, although French-speaking Canadians live only in two provinces. Two languages – English and Irish – are used by the Irish, the Finns use Finnish and Swedish (in Lapland, in the area populated by the Lapps, the official language is also Lappish). Among some other countries with two or more official languages are Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Turkey, Finland, and many others. There are some regions where the language used by minority groups is considered the language of interethnic communication – for example, Swahili in Tanzania, Malay in Indonesia.