What nations have more than one official language?

peasypod

Afghanistan (Persian (Dari), Pashtu), Belarus (Belarusian, Russian), Belgium (Dutch, French, German), Bolivia (Spanish, Quechua, Aymara), Canada (English and French), Eritrea (Tigrigna, Arabic and English), Finland (Finnish, Swedish), India (Hindi, English and about 21 others...), Paraguay (Spanish and Guaraní), South Africa (Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Ndebele, Southern Sotho, Northern Sotho, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda), Switzerland (German, French, Italian, Romansh.) Oct 10 05, 8:56 PM

Arpeggionist

Israel (Hebrew, Arabic). Some states in the US use Spanish for official purposes as well as English, which has never made the national language officially. Oct 11 05, 2:51 AM

Flem-ish

Doesn't the Irish Republic have two official languages too: "Irish" and English? And don't the Netherlands have two as well: Dutch and Friesian. It also depends on how you define an official language. The Netherlands recognize Limburgian and Lower-Saxonian as "official regional languages" though technically speaking they are dialects. Don't know what status the Basque and the Catalan languages have in Spain, but I bet they get some degree of recognition. At least locally. Oct 11 05, 5:48 AM

my_baby_love

And in the UK principality of Wales it would be Welsh and English. Oct 11 05, 10:46 AM

Flynn_17

"Irish" is in fact Gaelic... thankyou. Oct 11 05, 5:39 PM

Arpeggionist

Yes, but I believe our Belgian friend was trying to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, which is not an official language in the UK. Oct 12 05, 1:52 AM

Arpeggionist

David Lloyd George, former PM of England, actually spoke English as his second language. His native tongue was Welsh. Oct 12 05, 1:53 AM

Flem-ish

The Department of the Taoiseach does not use the name Gaelic, but Irish. See http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie "Scheme under the Official Languages Act 2003". What's good enough for the Taoiseach, is good enough for me. There are at least three types of Gaelic: Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic. Personally I think Irish Gaelic is linguistically the clearest term because it shows the Celtic identity. Irish might be understood as the Irish way of using English. But if the Irish Government chooses to use the term "Irish", it's not up to me to say they got it wrong. Oct 12 05, 12:19 PM

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Which countries have more than one official currency? Which countries have more than one capital? In nations that English is the official language, what is the largest city begining with the letter "X"? Women have more of this than men. In fact, women have one and a half times more. What is it?

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