National language

A national language is a language (or language variant, i.e. dialect) which uniquely represents the national identity of a nation or country. A national language is used for political and legal discourse and so designated by a country's government. Some countries have more than one national language, such as Canada which uses both French and English. A national language is not to be confused with the predominant language, which is spoken by the majority of people from within a country's borders.

Official versus national languages

The national languages of stateless nations are often not official languages in any country. Some have no government recognition, while others may enjoy a high degree of official recognition. Some examples of national languages that are not official languages include Aromanian, Cherokee, and Navajo (and other living Native American languages). Certain languages may enjoy government recognition or even status as official languages in some countries while not in others.

Examples

China

See also: Standard Mandarin and History of Standard Mandarin.

In China, plenty of spoken variants have been existing in different parts of the country. After the Republic of China was established by the Kuomintang after the 1911 Revolution, in order to promote a sense of national unity and enhance the efficiency of communications within the nation, the Government of the Republic of China decided to designate a national language. The Beijing dialect of Mandarin and Guangzhou dialect of Cantonese were the most popular options, and the Beijing dialect turned out to be the national language, given the name "國語" in Chinese (Pinyin: Guóyǔ, lit. national language, commonly known as "Standard Mandarin" in English). In the beginning there were attempts to introduce elements from other Chinese spoken variants into the national language, in addition to those existing in Beijing dialect. But this was deemed too difficult, and was abandoned in 1924. Since then the Beijing dialect became the major source of standard national pronunciations, due to its prestigious status in the preceding Qing Dynasty. Elements from other dialects continue to exist in the standard language. After the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the communist People's Republic of China was established. The nationalist regime of the Republic of China retreated to the island of Taiwan and maintained the same policy. On the other hand, the People's Republic of China, which administers mainland China, continued the effort, and renamed the national language that is largely based on the Beijing dialect as "普通話" (Pinyin: pǔtōnghuà, lit. common speech) in Chinese.

Republic of Ireland

Irish, a Celtic language, is recognized as the primary constitutional language of Ireland; notwithstanding that English is the de facto language of the nation. It is spoken by about only 5% of its population as a first language; however, the majority of the country have a reasonable spoken comprehension of it.

Malta

In Malta, the Maltese language is the national language. This is recognised as official as well together with English. In Malta most of the people speak the Maltese language and it is recognised as "national" in Chapter 1 of the Laws of Malta.

Philippines

A Filipino language which is based on Tagalog and other existing Filipino languages, is according to the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines recognized as an official language (English is also recognized). More than 170 languages are spoken in the Philippines and almost all of them belong to the Western Malayo-Polynesian language group of the Austronesian language family.

Singapore

In Singapore, the Malay language is the national and official language, since it is the native language of Malay Singaporeans, who were the original inhabitants of the land but are now a minority due to mass ethnic Chinese immigration and who now make up only 12.4% of the total population of 4.24 million. Three other languages enjoy official language status, including English, which is the language of business and governance and the medium of instruction in public schools; Mandarin Chinese, which is spoken by the majority (75%) of the population, and Tamil(some 10%).

United States

On May 19, 2006, the United States Senate voted to make English the national language of the United States. According to the bill, written by Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), the federal government will no longer provide multilingual communications and services, except for those already guaranteed by law. Shortly after the approval of the Inhofe amendment, the Senate voted for another bill by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), according to which English is the "common unifying language of the United States," but mandated that nothing in that declaration "shall diminish or expand any existing rights" regarding multilingual services.

The impact of these bills is not immediately clear. It is also interesting to note that Inhofe switched the language from "official language" to "national language" in a last minute change.

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