query: what are the 3 official languages of spain?

title: Autonomous communities of Spain

text: all territories, but the "other Spanish languages" can also be official in their respective communities, in accordance with their Statutes of Autonomy. Article 3 of the constitution ends up declaring that the "richness of the distinct linguistic modalities of Spain represents a patrimony which will be the object of special respect and protection". Spanish remains the only official language of the state; other languages are only co-official with Spanish in the communities that have so regulated. In addition, knowledge of the Spanish language was declared a right and an obligation of all Spaniards. Spanish legislation, most notably in the Statutes

title: Languages of Colombia

text: Languages of Colombia More than 99.2% of Colombians speak the Spanish language; also 65 Amerindian languages, 2 Creole languages and the Romani language are spoken in the country. English has official status in the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands. The overwhelming majority of Colombians speak Spanish (see also Colombian Spanish), but in total 101 languages are listed for Colombia in the Ethnologue database. The specific number of spoken languages varies slightly since some authors consider as different languages what others consider to be varieties or dialects of the same language. Best estimates recorded 71 languages that are spoken

title: Languages of Spain

text: these languages proper to Spain, either dialect, cants or pidgins: Languages of Spain The languages of Spain (), or Spanish languages (), are the languages spoken or once spoken in Spain. Romance languages are the most widely spoken in Spain; of which Spanish, or Castilian, is the only language which has official status for the whole country. Various other languages have co-official or recognised status in specific territories, and a number of unofficial languages and dialects are spoken in certain localities. In terms of the number of speakers and dominance, the most prominent of the languages of Spain is Spanish

title: Languages of Spain

text: Languages of Spain The languages of Spain (), or Spanish languages (), are the languages spoken or once spoken in Spain. Romance languages are the most widely spoken in Spain; of which Spanish, or Castilian, is the only language which has official status for the whole country. Various other languages have co-official or recognised status in specific territories, and a number of unofficial languages and dialects are spoken in certain localities. In terms of the number of speakers and dominance, the most prominent of the languages of Spain is Spanish (Castilian), spoken by about 99% of Spaniards as a first

title: Languages of Spain

text: area sometimes called "Valley of Jálama/Xálima", which includes the towns of San Martín de Trevejo ("Sa Martin de Trevellu"), Eljas ("As Elhas") and Valverde del Fresno ("Valverdi du Fresnu"), in the northwestern corner of Cáceres province, Extremadura. Portuguese proper is still spoken by local people in three border areas: In addition to the languages which continue to be spoken in Spain to the present day, other languages which have been spoken within what are now the borders of Spain include: Languages that are now chiefly spoken outside Spain but which have roots in Spain are: There are also variants of

title: Languages of Spain

text: or second language. Catalan (or Valencian) is spoken by 19%, Galician by 5%, and Basque by 2% of the population. Distribution of the regional co-official languages in Spain: Spanish is official throughout the country; the rest of these languages have legal and co-official status in their respective communities, and (except Aranese) are widespread enough to have daily newspapers and significant book publishing and media presence in those communities. In the cases of Catalan and Galician, they are the main languages used by the Catalan and Galician regional governments and local administrations. A number of citizens in these areas consider their

title: Official languages of the United Nations

text: the six official languages. The UN provides simultaneous interpretation from the official language into the other five official languages, via the United Nations Interpretation Service. The six official languages are also used for the dissemination of official documents. Generally, the texts in each of the six languages are equally authoritative. The United Nations has drawn criticism for relying too heavily on English, and not enough on the other five official languages. Spanish-speaking member nations formally brought this to the attention of the Secretary-General in 2001. Secretary-General Kofi Annan then responded that full parity of the six official languages was unachievable

text: Official languages of the United Nations The official languages of the United Nations are the six languages that are used in UN meetings, and in which all official UN documents are written. In alphabetical order, they are: These languages are used at meetings of various UN organs, particularly the General Assembly (Article 51 of its Rules of Procedure), the Economic and Social Council, and the Security Council (Article 41 of its Rules of Procedure). Each representative of a country may speak in any one of these six languages, or may speak in any language and provide interpretation into one of

text: Muslim nation groups. Most of non-Arab Africa is either Francophone or Anglophone because of their imperial past, but there is also a lusophone grouping of countries for the same reason. Official languages of the United Nations The official languages of the United Nations are the six languages that are used in UN meetings, and in which all official UN documents are written. In alphabetical order, they are: These languages are used at meetings of various UN organs, particularly the General Assembly (Article 51 of its Rules of Procedure), the Economic and Social Council, and the Security Council (Article 41 of

text: just one official language, French. IFAD has four official languages: Arabic, English, French, and Spanish. The next largest international grouping after the UN is the Commonwealth of Nations which is exclusively English speaking. All other international bodies in commerce, transport and sport have tended to the adoption of one or a few languages as the means of communication. This is usually English, closely followed by French (see: list of international organisations which have French as an official language). Regional groups have adopted what is common to other elements of their ethnic or religious background. Standard Arabic is usually adopted across

title: Official languages of Puducherry

text: are: As of 2001, number of people speaking in each official languages are, Official languages of Puducherry French was the official language of Puducherry under the Treaty of Cession 1956. The Pondicherry Official Language Act, 1965 without mentioning French added the Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu as the official languages along with English. French was the official language of the "Établissements français dans l'Inde" (French India) and it remained as de jure official language of Pondicherry U.T by the "Article XXVIII" of Traité de Cession which states that, As of today, still the official gazette of Puducherry is published with French;

text: to a lesser extent, Turkish, Bengali, or other languages as additional official languages. The most recent example being when the Deputy Secretary General was asked in January 2018 about the process of adding Hindi as an official language. Most proposed languages are spoken in more than one nation and/or have a large number of speakers. As of June 2018, the media branch of the United Nations, UN News (https://news.un.org/), includes website translations into Portuguese and Swahili in addition to the 6 official languages. Other UN documents and websites are already translated into Bengali (referred to as Bangla), Hindi, Urdu, Malay,

text: endangered languages. In 2002, it was reportedly proposed to the then current UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the UN develops a 'Semi-Official' or 'Regional' language status for commonly spoken languages that do not have Official status so that a higher percentage of the worlds population could be familiar with UN actions. As of 2006, the six official languages are the first or second language of 2.8 billion people on the planet, which is less than half of the world population. The list of potential 'Semi-Official' or 'Regional' languages, many of which can be considered lingua francas in their areas,

text: less than half of the world population. The six languages are official languages in more than half the countries in the world (about one hundred). The Charter of the United Nations, its 1945 constituent document, did not expressly provide for official languages of the UN. The Charter was enacted in five languages (Chinese, French, Russian, English, and Spanish) and provided (in Article 111) that the five texts are equally authoritative. In 1946, the first session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted rules of procedure concerning languages that purported to apply to "all the organs of the United Nations, other

title: Official languages of Puducherry

text: such notification"". Finally, it states that ""Notwithstanding anything contained in section 3, and from the commencement of this Act, the English language may be used for all or any of the official purposes of the Union Territory"". During the early twentieth century, Tamil has got equal status along with the existing French language. After the merger with India, Telugu and Malayalam also obtained the same status although with some restrictions. Though the status of each languages varies with respect to each district, when communicating in between districts of different languages, generally English is used for convenience. The three official languages

title: Official Languages Ordinance

text: Official Languages Ordinance The Official Languages Ordinance is an ordinance of Hong Kong enacted for the purpose of specifying the status and use of official languages of the territory. Both Chinese and English are declared official languages with equal status in the ordinance, and are to be used in communication between the government and members of the public. It dictates that all ordinances would be enacted and published in both languages, and allows judicial officers the choice of using either language in court proceedings. While no law existed prior to 1974 to designate official languages in Hong Kong, by practice,

title: Languages of the European Union

text: languages, Latvian and Lithuanian; the Celtic languages, including Irish; and Greek are also Indo-European. Outside the Indo-European family, Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian are Uralic languages while Maltese is the only Afroasiatic language with official status in the EU. The Basque language, a language isolate whose roots are unknown, is an official language in some parts of northern Spain, but not an official language of the EU. Most official EU languages are written in the Latin script. The two exceptions are Greek, which is written in the Greek script, and Bulgarian, which is written in Cyrillic script. With the accession of

title: Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

text: Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages of the Canadian government is responsible for achieving the objectives of, and promoting, Canada's Official Languages Act. Canada has two official languages: English and French. The 1988 Official Languages Act mandates this office and its commissioner, who holds office for seven years. Its mission has three main objectives: ensuring the equality of English and French within the Government of Canada and institutions subject to the Act; preserving and developing official language communities; and ensuring the equality of English and French in Canadian society at large.

text: Japan, who was also Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. In 2010, the UN's Department of Public Information announced an initiative of six "language days" to be observed throughout the year, one for each official language, with the goal of celebrating linguistic diversity and learning about the importance of cross-cultural communication. The days and their historical significance are: UN independent agencies have their own sets of official languages that sometimes are different from that of the principal UN organs. For example, the General Conference of UNESCO has nine official languages including Hindi, Italian, and Portuguese. The Universal Postal Union has

title: Languages of Spain

text: language isolate, all of the languages present in mainland Spain are Indo-European languages, specifically Romance languages. Afro-Asiatic languages, such as Arabic (including Ceuta Darija) or Berber (mainly Riffian), are spoken by the Muslim population of Ceuta and Melilla and by recent immigrants (mainly from Morocco and Algeria) elsewhere. In Galicia, the mutual relationship between Galician and Portuguese has caused some controversy, since some linguists, such as Lindley Cintra, consider that they are still dialects of a common language, in spite of the differences in phonology and vocabulary (see reintegrationism). Others, such as Pilar Vázquez Cuesta, argue that they have become

text: and Théberge is the first Commissioner from Western Canada and from outside Ontario and Quebec. In 2009, Commissionner Graham Fraser created the Award of Excellence – Promotion of Linguistic Duality. The prise is given annually by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages to an individual or organization in Canada that is not subject to the federal "Official Languages Act" but that makes a difference by promoting linguistic duality in Canada or abroad, or by contributing to the development of official language minority communities. Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages

text: 1948. In 1968, Russian was added as a working language of the General Assembly so that, of the GA's five official languages, four (all but Chinese) were working. In 1973, the General Assembly made Chinese a working language and added Arabic as both an official language and working language of the GA. Thus all six official languages were also working languages. Arabic was made an official and working language of "the General Assembly and its Main Committees", whereas the other five languages had status in all GA committees and subcommittees (not just the main committees). The Arab members of the

text: of the post required a specific working language". The Secretary-General's most recent report on multilingualism was issued on 4 October 2010. In response, on 19 July 2011, the General Assembly adopted Resolution No. A/RES/65/311 on multilingualism, calling on the Secretary-General, once again, to ensure that all six official languages are given equally favourable working conditions and resources. The resolution noted with concern that the multilingual development of the UN website had improved at a much slower rate than expected. The six official languages spoken at the UN are the first or second language of 2.8 billion people on the planet,

title: Official languages of Puducherry

text: Official languages of Puducherry French was the official language of Puducherry under the Treaty of Cession 1956. The Pondicherry Official Language Act, 1965 without mentioning French added the Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu as the official languages along with English. French was the official language of the "Établissements français dans l'Inde" (French India) and it remained as de jure official language of Pondicherry U.T by the "Article XXVIII" of Traité de Cession which states that, As of today, still the official gazette of Puducherry is published with French; albeit, with a marginal use . After independence, the new official languages got

title: Languages of the European Union

text: or part of its territory or the use of which as a national language is authorised by law." The official use of such languages will be authorised on the basis of an administrative arrangement concluded between the Council and the requesting member state. Although Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician are not nationwide official languages in Spain, as co-official languages in the respective regions – pursuant to Spanish constitution, among other documents – they are eligible to benefit from official use in EU institutions under the terms of the 13 June 2005 resolution of the Council of the European Union. The Spanish

title: Official Languages Act (Canada)

text: Official Languages Act (Canada) The Official Languages Act (Cree language: "Wetsuweten |Dené]]) "(French ("Inuvik: "Loi sur les langues officielles)) (the "Act)" is a Canadian law that came into force on September 9, 1969, which gives French and English equal status in the government of Canada. This makes them "official" languages, having preferred status in law over all other languages. Although the Official Languages Act is not the only piece of federal language law, it is the legislative keystone of Canada's official bilingualism. It was substantially amended in 1988. Both languages are equal in Canada's government and in all the services

title: Official Languages of the Union Act, 1925

text: the South Africa Act read: The single substantive provision of the Official Languages Act, section 1, read: The South Africa Act and the Official Languages Act were repealed by the Constitution of 1961, which reversed the position of Afrikaans and Dutch, so that English and Afrikaans were the official languages and Afrikaans was deemed to include Dutch. The Constitution of 1983 removed mention of Dutch. Official Languages of the Union Act, 1925 The Official Languages of the Union Act, 1925 (Act No. 8 of 1925) was an act of the Parliament of South Africa that included Afrikaans as a variety

text: UN had agreed to pay the costs of implementing the resolution, for three years. In 1980, the General Assembly got rid of this final distinction, making Arabic an official and working language of all its committees and subcommittees, as of 1 January 1982. At the same time, the GA requested the Security Council to include Arabic among its official and working languages, and the Economic and Social Council to include Arabic among its official languages, by 1 January 1983. As of 1983, the Security Council (like the General Assembly) recognized six official and working languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian,

title: Languages of Catalonia

text: Languages of Catalonia There are four languages with official status in Catalonia (an autonomous community of Spain): Catalan; Spanish- which is official throughout Spain; Aranese, a dialect of Occitan spoken in the Aran Valley; and Catalan Sign Language. Many other languages are spoken in Catalonia as a result of recent immigration from all over the world. Catalan has enjoyed special status since the approval of the Statute of Autonomy of 1979 which declares it to be the language "proper to Catalonia". Spanish had been the only official language for most of the period between the 18th century and 1975. According

title: Languages of Catalonia

text: not accept the use of documents written in Catalan, though it is a co-official language in Catalonia. Languages of Catalonia There are four languages with official status in Catalonia (an autonomous community of Spain): Catalan; Spanish- which is official throughout Spain; Aranese, a dialect of Occitan spoken in the Aran Valley; and Catalan Sign Language. Many other languages are spoken in Catalonia as a result of recent immigration from all over the world. Catalan has enjoyed special status since the approval of the Statute of Autonomy of 1979 which declares it to be the language "proper to Catalonia". Spanish had

text: and Spanish. In the Economic and Social Council, as of 1992, there were six official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) of which three were working languages (English, French, and Spanish). Later, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian were added as working languages in the Economic and Social Council. In 1996, the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights was presented to UNESCO but has yet to be officially ratified. Many international linguistics still expect that the UN will eventually add new official languages such as Hindi, Swahili, and Malay to represent Asian and African populations and put more resources into assisting

title: Languages of the European Union

text: and Gallo are officially recognized in Brittany. The Spanish governments have sought to give some official status in the EU for the languages of the autonomous communities of Spain, Catalan/Valencian, Galician and Basque. The 667th Council Meeting of the Council of the European Union in Luxembourg on 13 June 2005, decided to authorise limited use at EU level of languages recognised by member states other than the official working languages. The Council granted recognition to "languages other than the languages referred to in Council Regulation No 1/1958 whose status is recognised by the Constitution of a Member State on all

title: Official Languages Act (Canada)

text: nationalism. Six years later, the Parti Québécois came to power in the 1976 provincial election. From time to time, the Official Languages Commissioner draws attention to the fact that federal agencies subject to the law are failing to live up to their legal obligations regarding official languages. In a report published in 2004 on the 35th anniversary of the "Official Languages Act", Commissioner Dyane Adam noted that only 86% of posts designated "bilingual" in the federal public service were occupied by persons who had effectively mastered the two official languages. This nevertheless was an increase over the comparable figure of

title: Official minority languages of Sweden

text: The Sami languages are actually not one language, even though they are commonly referred to as such. In Sweden, three Sámi languages are spoken, with the other 7 Sámi languages being spoken in Norway, Russia and Finland. The history of the Sami languages can be traced back at least 2,000 years. In total, they are spoken by a minimum of 40,000 people throughout the four countries. As a minority language, Sami is an official language and may be used in government agencies, courts, preschools and nursing homes in the municipalities where it is most common. Romani chib, the language of

title: Official Languages Act (Canada)

text: "Official Languages Act" and Quebec's "Charter of the French Language" (also known as "Bill 101") are fundamentally at cross-purposes with each other. However, that perspective is not universally accepted. For example, former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has stated that "Bill 101 and the "Official Languages Act" are not in opposition, they are complementary." In 1969, the law was adopted with all-party support in the House of Commons. Despite this, there was not universal support for the law. The premiers of the three Prairie provinces requested, early in 1969, that the Official Languages Bill be referred to the Supreme Court of

title: Official minority languages of Sweden

text: Official minority languages of Sweden In 1999, the Minority Language Committee of Sweden formally declared five official minority languages: Finnish, Sami, Romani, Yiddish, and Meänkieli (Tornedal Finnish). The Swedish language dominates commercial and cultural life in Sweden but did not officially become the country's main language until 2009, when a new language law entered into effect. The need for this legal status had been the subject of protracted debate and proposed legislation was narrowly defeated in 2005. The minority languages have been legally recognized to protect the cultural and historical heritage of their respective speech communities. These communities are given

title: Official minority languages of Sweden

text: Stockholm. Romani and Yiddish have minority language status throughout the country and are covered by government obligations regarding their preservation. Official minority languages of Sweden In 1999, the Minority Language Committee of Sweden formally declared five official minority languages: Finnish, Sami, Romani, Yiddish, and Meänkieli (Tornedal Finnish). The Swedish language dominates commercial and cultural life in Sweden but did not officially become the country's main language until 2009, when a new language law entered into effect. The need for this legal status had been the subject of protracted debate and proposed legislation was narrowly defeated in 2005. The minority languages

text: Official Languages of the Union Act, 1925 The Official Languages of the Union Act, 1925 (Act No. 8 of 1925) was an act of the Parliament of South Africa that included Afrikaans as a variety of Dutch. It had the effect of making Afrikaans an official language of the Union of South Africa. It commenced on 27 May 1925 but was deemed to have had effect from the creation of the Union in 1910. The South Africa Act, 1909, which was the constitution of the Union, had made English and Dutch the official languages of the country. Section 137 of

text: within current budgetary restraints, but he nevertheless attached great importance to improving the linguistic balance. In 2008 and 2009, resolutions of the General Assembly have urged the Secretariat to respect the parity of the six official languages, especially in the dissemination of public information. On 8 June 2007, resolutions concerning human resources management at the UN, the General Assembly had emphasized "the paramount importance of the equality of the six official languages of the United Nations" and requested that the Secretary-General "ensure that vacancy announcements specified the need for either of the working languages of the Secretariat, unless the functions

title: Spain

text: other Spanish languages"—that is, all other languages of Spain—will also be official in their respective autonomous communities in accordance to their Statutes, their organic regional legislations, and that the "richness of the distinct linguistic modalities of Spain represents a patrimony which will be the object of special respect and protection." The other official languages of Spain, co-official with Spanish are: As a percentage of the general population of all Spain, Spanish is spoken by 74%, Catalan by 17%, Galician by 7% and Basque by 2% of all Spaniards. Occitan is spoken by less than 5,000 people, only in the small

title: Official Languages Act (Canada)

text: more mixed in the online portion of the poll, where 78% of respondents said they "strongly support" or "somewhat support" the aims of the "Official Languages Act", and 73% said they personally "strongly support" or "somewhat support" official bilingualism. In another poll conducted on this topic in the same year, 67% of respondents across Canada answered "yes" to the question "Are you personally in favour of bilingualism for all of Canada?" while 31% said "no". Official Languages Act (Canada) The Official Languages Act (Cree language: "Wetsuweten |Dené]]) "(French ("Inuvik: "Loi sur les langues officielles)) (the "Act)" is a Canadian law

title: Languages of France

text: bilingual people are now counted twice): Languages of France Of the languages of France, the national language, French, is the only official language according to the second article of the French Constitution, and its standardized variant is by far the most widely spoken. Several regional languages are also spoken to varying degrees as a secondary language after French, such as German dialects (Alsatian 1.44%), Celtic languages (Breton 0.61%) and other Gallo-Romance languages (Langues d'Oïl 1.25%, Occitan 1.33%). Some of these languages have also been spoken in neighbouring countries, such as Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy or Spain. The official language of

title: Languages with official status in India

text: speakers is about 25% of the total Indian population; however, including dialects of Hindi termed as Hindi languages, the total is around 44% of Indians, mostly accounted from the states falling under the Hindi belt. Other Indian languages are each spoken by around 10% or less of the population. States specify their own official language(s) through legislation. The section of the Constitution of India dealing with official languages therefore includes detailed provisions which deal not just with the languages used for the official purposes of the union, but also with the languages that are to be used for the official

title: Languages of France

text: Languages of France Of the languages of France, the national language, French, is the only official language according to the second article of the French Constitution, and its standardized variant is by far the most widely spoken. Several regional languages are also spoken to varying degrees as a secondary language after French, such as German dialects (Alsatian 1.44%), Celtic languages (Breton 0.61%) and other Gallo-Romance languages (Langues d'Oïl 1.25%, Occitan 1.33%). Some of these languages have also been spoken in neighbouring countries, such as Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy or Spain. The official language of the French Republic is French (art.

text: French Creole, Portuguese, and Swahili but not on an official or consistent basis. Bengali is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, ranking seventh, with over 240 million speakers. In April 2009, Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina argued in front of the United Nations General Assembly that the Bengali language should be made one of the official languages of the UN. This was backed by a resolution adopted unanimously by the assembly of the Indian state of West Bengal in December, and support was also given by the states of Assam and Tripura. Hindi is one

title: Minister responsible for Official Languages (Canada)

text: Minister responsible for Official Languages (Canada) The Minister responsible for Official Languages is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is entrusted with the enforcement of the Official Languages Act, ensuring that government services are available in both English and French, protecting minority language rights, particularly in the area of education, and promoting bilingualism throughout Canada. The last Minister responsible for Official Languages was Shelly Glover in Stephen Harper's Cabinet. Moore held that role since 2013-07-15. Other previous Ministers have been James Moore, Josée Verner and Mauril Bélanger. In 2003 the first Minister responsible for Official Languages

title: Languages of the United Kingdom

text: Languages of the United Kingdom English, in various dialects, is the most widely spoken language of the United Kingdom, however there are a number of regional languages also spoken. There are 11 indigenous languages spoken across the British Isles: 5 Celtic, 3 Germanic, and 3 Romance. There are also many immigrant languages spoken in the British Isles, mainly within inner city areas; these languages are mainly from South Asia and Eastern Europe. The "de facto" official language of the United Kingdom is English, which is spoken by approximately 59.8 million residents, or 98% of the population, over the age of

title: Languages of Spain

text: separate languages due to major differences in phonetics and vocabulary usage, and, to a lesser extent, morphology and syntax. In any case, the respective written standards are noticeably different one from another, partly because of the divergent phonological features and partly due to the usage of Spanish orthographic conventions over the Portuguese ones at the time of Galician standardisation by the early 20th century. The official (delegated onto both the and the Royal Galician Academy standard) and widespread position is that Galician and Portuguese should be considered independent languages. A Galician-Portuguese-based dialect known as Fala is locally spoken in an

title: Languages with official status in India

text:
the Union of India.

 Of the 22 official languages, 15 are Indic, four are Dravidian, two are Tibeto-Burman, and one is Munda. Since 2003, a government committee has been looking into the feasibility of treating all languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution as "Official Languages of the Union". The language in which communications between different states, or from the union government to a state or a person in a state, shall be sent is regulated by the Official Languages Act and, for

title: Official Languages Ordinance

text: English was the sole language used in all branches of the British colonial government. Under public pressure, the Official Languages Ordinance was enacted in 1974 to declare that both English and Chinese may be used in communication between the government and the public. Despite the usage of different dialects in spoken Chinese, the government chose not to specify a dialect as an official language, instead indicating "Chinese" as an official language, allowing any dialect to be used. Since most of the local population spoke Cantonese, it became the most frequently used dialect in official communication. Official Languages Ordinance The Official

title: Languages of the Caribbean

text: an issue in the post-colonial era. In recent years, Caribbean islands have become aware of a linguistic inheritance of sorts. However, language policies being developed nowadays are mostly aimed at multilingualism. Most languages spoken in the Caribbean are either European languages (namely English, Spanish, French, and Dutch) or European language-based creoles. English is the first or second language in most Caribbean islands and is also the unofficial "language of tourism", the dominant industry in the Caribbean region. In the Caribbean, the official language is usually determined by whichever colonial power (England, Spain, France, or the Netherlands) held sway over the

text: of the official languages of India and Fiji and is also spoken in Suriname, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. It is mutually intelligible to a high degree with Urdu which is spoken in Pakistan and together they are often considered the same language, referred to as Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu. Although very similar verbally, they do have different written scripts; Hindi is written in the Devanagari script and Urdu is written in the Nastaʿlīq script. Hindi has more than 550 million speakers in India alone, of whom 422 million are native, 98.2 million are second language speakers, and 31.2 million

title: Languages in censuses

text: that "all other Spanish languages"—that is, all other languages of Spain—will also be official in their respective autonomous communities in accordance to their Statutes, their organic regional legislations, and that the "richness of the distinct linguistic modalities of Spain represents a patrimony which will be the object of special respect and protection." The other official languages of Spain, co-official with Spanish are: As a percentage of the general population, Basque is spoken by 2%, Catalan (or Valencian) by 17%, and Galician by 7% of all Spaniards. In Catalonia, Aranese ("aranés"), a local variety of the Occitan language, has been declared

title: Official Languages Act 2003

text: sector customer phone lines and state-run websites. The Act also allowed for the introduction of bilingual automated speaker announcements on public transport and other less prominent instances of a bilingual policy in respect of the two official national languages. The only state-area not to be covered by the Official Languages Act in the Republic of Ireland to date is road signage whose policy falls under the Department of Transport. The Official Languages Act 2003 does not cover the business or private sectors. On 30 October 2003, Part 5 of the Official Languages Act came into effect. Under Part 5, the

title: Timeline of official languages policy in Canada

text: Timeline of official languages policy in Canada Because the country contains two major language groups and numerous other linguistic minorities, in Canada official languages policy has always been an important and high-profile area of public policy. In an exhaustive 1971 study of Canadian language law prepared for the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, Claude-Armand Sheppard offered this definition for the term “official language”: “[An] official language is a language in which all or some of the public affairs of a particular definition are, or can be, conducted, either by law or custom. We take public affairs to comprise the

text: Canadian Heritage the specific responsibility of taking measures to advance the equality of status and use of English and French in Canadian society; under section 44 of that Act, the Minister must submit annual reports to Parliament on the matters relating to official languages for which the Minister is responsible. Minister responsible for Official Languages (Canada) The Minister responsible for Official Languages is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is entrusted with the enforcement of the Official Languages Act, ensuring that government services are available in both English and French, protecting minority language rights, particularly in

title: Official Languages Act 2003

text: Official Languages Act 2003 The Official Languages Act 2003 (OLA; ) is an Act of the Oireachtas of Ireland. The Act sets out rules regarding use of the Irish language by public bodies; established the office of An Coimisinéir Teanga to monitor and enforce compliance by public bodies with the provisions of the Official Languages Act; and made provision for the designation of official Irish language versions of placenames and the removal of the official status of English placenames in the Gaeltacht. The Act is being implemented on a phased basis. According to the Act the provision of services by

title: Official Languages Act 2003

text: the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010–2030 to have at least 250,000 daily speakers of Irish by 2030. Official Languages Act 2003 The Official Languages Act 2003 (OLA; ) is an Act of the Oireachtas of Ireland. The Act sets out rules regarding use of the Irish language by public bodies; established the office of An Coimisinéir Teanga to monitor and enforce compliance by public bodies with the provisions of the Official Languages Act; and made provision for the designation of official Irish language versions of placenames and the removal of the official status of English placenames in the

title: Official multilingualism

text: English and French are official languages in all three territories (because they are federally administered). In addition, Inuktitut is also an official language in Nunavut, and nine aboriginal languages have official status in the Northwest Territories. Out of 120 languages spoken in the Central African Republic, French and the Ngbandi-based creole Sango are official. Citizens of Chad speak over 120 languages, and the standardized Chadian Arabic serves as the lingua franca with colonial language French also being official. Island nation of Cyprus has had Greek and Turkish as its languages since the 1960 Constitution (Article 3, section 1). The usage

text: was sworn in, on the creation of the "Official Languages Branch of Intergovernmental Affairs" within the Privy Council Office. In 2006, responsibility was shifted from the Privy Council Office to the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the branch was renamed the "Official Languages Secretariat". As minister responsible for official languages, Moore's portfolio included the Official Languages Support Programs Branch (which supports the Minister in implementing Part VII of the Official Languages Act) and the Official Languages Secretariat (which coordinates the Government of Canada's activities in official languages). Sections 42 and 43 of the Official Languages Act give the Minister of

title: Culture of Spain

text: medieval times, a single language which linguists call Galician-Portuguese, Medieval Galician, or Old Portuguese, spoken in the territories initially ruled by the medieval Kingdom of Galicia. Both languages are even today united by a dialect continuum located mainly in the northern regions of Portugal. Aranese () is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Val d'Aran, in north western Catalonia on the border between Spain and France, where it is one of the three official languages besides Catalan and Spanish. Other languages of Spain: About 68% of Spaniards identify as belonging to

title: Languages with official status in India

text: offices. In 2016, the Modi government announced plans to promote Hindi in government offices in Southern and Northeast India. The Indian constitution does not specify the official languages to be used by the states for the conduct of their official functions, and leaves each state free to, through its legislature, adopt Hindi or any language used in its territory as its official language or languages. The language need not be one of those listed in the Eighth Schedule, and several states have adopted official languages which are not so listed. Examples include Kokborok in Tripura and Mizo in Mizoram. The

title: Official minority languages of Sweden

text: certain rights on that basis, such as school education in their language, and its use in dealing with governmental agencies. These are the criteria established by the Minority Language Committee, influenced by the directives from the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 1997. To be accorded official minority status, a language must have been spoken in Sweden for a significant amount of time. A precise figure has not been revealed, but qualified estimations consider 100 years to be reasonable, based on the included and excluded languages. A significant immigration to Sweden did not start until after World War

text: at Nairobi, one of the four major UN global offices (in addition to offices in New York City, Vienna, and Geneva), is located in Nairobi, Kenya. The media branch of the UN, UN News (https://news.un.org/), already includes translations into Swahili. In September 2011, during a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed a desire to see Turkish become an official UN language. Turkic family languages, among which there is high mutual intelligibility, are spoken in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Northern Cyprus, Iran, China, Russia, and Afghanistan. In a 1999 resolution, the General Assembly

text: Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, is an official language of the African Union and is officially recognised as a lingua franca of the East African Community. It is one of the most commonly spoken languages in Africa, is a compulsory subject in all Kenyan schools and is increasingly being used in eastern Burundi and northern Mozambique. With between 50 – 100 million speakers, Swahili is lexiconically similar to other eastern Bantu languages such as Comorian which have differing levels of mutual intelligibility. Swahili is already used unofficially in many UN organizations as the United Nations Office

text: than the International Court of Justice", setting out five official languages and two working languages (English and French). The following year, the second session of the General Assembly adopted permanent rules of procedure, Resolution 173 (II). The part of those rules relating to language closely followed the 1946 rules, except that the 1947 rules did not purport to apply to other UN organs, just the General Assembly. Meanwhile, a proposal had been in the works to add Spanish as a third working language in addition to English and French. This was adopted in Resolution 262 (III), passed on 11 December

title: Official Languages Act (Canada)

text: be discriminated against based on ethnic origin or first language learned when it comes to employment opportunities and advancement. The law also created the Commissioner of Official Languages, an officer of Parliament charged with receiving complaints from the public, undertaking inquiries, and making recommendations regarding the status of the two official languages. Section 32 of the "Official Languages Act" authorizes the Governor in Council ("i.e.", the federal cabinet) to issue regulations defining the geographic regions in which services will be offered by the federal government in the relevant minority language (English in Quebec and French elsewhere). This provides a legal

title: Languages of Ethiopia

text: Languages of Ethiopia The languages of Ethiopia refers to the various spoken forms of communication in Ethiopia. It includes the nation's official languages, its national and regional languages, as well as its minority and foreign languages. There are 88 individual languages of Ethiopia according to Ethnologue, with the 1994 Ethiopian census indicating that some 77 tongues were spoken locally. Most of these languages belong to the Afroasiatic family (Semitic and Cushitic languages; Omotic languages are also spoken, though their classification is uncertain). Additionally, Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by what the government calls the "Nilotic" people, though scholars distinguish Nilotic from

title: Culture of Spain

text: (similar to a federal organisation) under the Spanish Constitution of 1978 is intended as a way to incorporate these communities into the state. While everyone in Spain can speak Spanish, other languages figure prominently in many areas: Basque in the Basque Country and Navarre; Catalan in Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia (where it is usually referred to as Valencian), and Galician in Galicia. Spanish is official throughout the country; the rest of these have co-official status in their respective communities and all are major enough that there are numerous daily newspapers in these languages and, especially in Catalan, a significant

title: Languages of the European Union

text: determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community" of 1958, are: The number of member states exceeds the number of official languages, as several national languages are shared by two or more countries in the EU. Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, and Swedish are all official languages at the national level in multiple countries (see table above). In addition, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Slovak, and Slovene / Slovenian are official languages in multiple EU countries at the regional level. Furthermore, not all national languages have been accorded the status of official EU languages. These include

text: to have Hindi recognized as an official language of the UN. In 2015, Nepal's Vice President Parmananda Jha stated his firm support for the inclusion of Hindi as an official language of the UN. Because of the linguistic diversity in India, the expansion of Hindi has become political and has led to a rise of English in the post-British colonial period. This is why English is included along with Hindi on Indian passports. If the Indian government is able to grant more federal-level protection for other languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, as a compromise then

title: Languages of Montenegro

text: Bay of Kotor ("Cattaro"). The Montenegrin language is written in Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, but there it is a growing political movement to use only the Latin alphabet. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages entered into force in Montenegro in June 2006, following the independence of Montenegro from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro on 3 June 2006. The Constitution of Montenegro from 2007 states that Montenegrin is the official language of country, while Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and Albanian are languages in official use. The Constitution states that languages in official use are those of groups that

title: Languages of Gibraltar

text: Languages of Gibraltar As Gibraltar is a British overseas territory, its sole official language is English, which is used by the Government and in schools. The eponymous Gibraltarian English accent is spoken in the territory. Most locals are bilingual, also speaking Spanish, because of Gibraltar's proximity to Spain. Most Gibraltarians converse in "Llanito", their vernacular which is mostly based on Andalusian Spanish but with numerous loanwords from English as well other Mediterranean languages. However, because of the varied mix of ethnic groups which reside there, other languages such as Moroccan Berber, Moroccan Arabic and Hindi are also spoken on The

title: Official Languages Commission

text: House of the People and ten shall be members of the Council of States to be elected respectively by the members of the House of the People and the members of the Council of States in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote." Official Languages Commission Official Languages Commission ("India") is a commission which was constituted by the President of India in pursuance to the provisions stated in the Article-344 of the Indian Constitution. This commission was constituted on June 7, 1955 vide a notification of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of

title: Official Languages Commission

text: Official Languages Commission Official Languages Commission ("India") is a commission which was constituted by the President of India in pursuance to the provisions stated in the Article-344 of the Indian Constitution. This commission was constituted on June 7, 1955 vide a notification of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. As defined in the Article-344 of the Constitution, it shall be the duty of the Commission to make recommendations to the President as to: As defined in the articles of the Constitution of India, "the committee shall consist of thirty members, of whom twenty shall be members of the

title: Languages of Zimbabwe

text: a language database maintained by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, lists seven varieties of indigenous Zimbabwean sign language: Manicaland Sign, Mashonaland Sign, Masvingo School Sign, Matabeleland Sign, Midlands Sign, Zimbabwe Community Sign, and Zimbabwe School Sign. American Sign Language is also reportedly used, though it is not clear to what extent. "Sign language", without further specificity, became one of Zimbabwe's official languages in the 2013 Constitution. Languages of Zimbabwe Many languages are spoken, or historically have been spoken, in Zimbabwe. Since the adoption of its 2013 Constitution, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, namely

title: Languages of the European Union

text: for the first time in a meeting on that day, with interpretation provided by European Commission interpreters. On 3 July 2006, the European Parliament's Bureau approved a proposal by the Spanish State to allow citizens to address the European Parliament in Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, two months after its initial rejection. On 30 November 2006, the European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, and the Spanish ambassador in the EU, Carlos Bastarreche, signed an agreement in Brussels to allow Spanish citizens to address complaints to the European Ombudsman in Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, all four co-official languages in Spain. According to the agreement,

title: Languages with official status in India

text: Languages with official status in India The Constitution of India designates the official language of the Government of India as Hindi written in the Devanagari script, as well as English. There is no national language as declared by the Constitution of India. Hindi is used for official purposes such as parliamentary proceedings, judiciary, communications between the Central Government and a State Government. States within India have the liberty and powers to specify their own official language(s) through legislation and therefore there are 22 officially recognized languages in India of which Hindi is the most used. The number of native Hindi

title: Languages with official status in India

text: continues to be used today, in combination with other (at the central level and in some states) State official languages at the state level. The legal framework governing the use of languages for official purpose currently includes the Constitution, the Official Languages Act, 1963, Official Languages (Use for Official Purpose of the Union) Rules, 1976, and various state laws, as well as rules and regulations made by the central government and the states. The Indian constitution, in 1950, declared Hindi in Devanagari script to be the official language of the union. Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for

title: Languages of the European Union

text: Luxembourgish, an official language of Luxembourg since 1984, and Turkish, an official language of Cyprus. All languages of the EU are also working languages. Documents which a member state or a person subject to the jurisdiction of a member state sends to institutions of the Community may be drafted in any one of the official languages selected by the sender. The reply is drafted in the same language. Regulations and other documents of general application are drafted in the twenty-four official languages. The "Official Journal of the European Union" is published in the twenty-four official languages. Legislation and documents of

title: Languages in censuses

text: that called Baba Malay. Thirteen options are provided in response to the question "Which two languages does "(name)" speak most often in this household?", namely the eleven official languages, sign language and "Other". Spain is openly multilingual, and the constitution establishes that the nation will protect "all Spaniards and the peoples of Spain in the exercise of human rights, their cultures and traditions, languages and institutions. Spanish ("español")—officially recognized in the constitution as Castilian ("castellano")—is the official language of the entire country, and it is the right and duty of every Spaniard to know the language. The constitution also establishes

title: Languages with official status in India

text:
the Supreme Court. In 2006, the law ministry said that it would not object to Tamil Nadu state's desire to conduct Madras High Court proceedings in Tamil. In 2010, the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court allowed lawyers to argue cases in Tamil. List of official languages of states of India
 List of official languages of Union Territories of India
 The Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution contains a list of 22 scheduled languages. At

title: Official Languages Act (Canada)

text: 1978, when only 70% of the incumbents in posts that had been designated "bilingual" were capable of speaking both languages at accepted levels. In January 2017, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages had received 14 complaints related to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's use of English and French during public town hall meetings. Eleven of the reports came following a session in Sherbrooke, Quebec, where Trudeau, whose father had enacted the "Official Languages Act" fifty years prior, answered in French when he was asked in English to address a lack of government-provided mental health services for English-speaking persons. The

title: Official Languages Act (Canada)

text: definition for the otherwise vague requirement that services be provided in the minority official languages wherever there is "significant demand." The definition used in the regulations is complex, but basically an area of the country is served in both languages if at least 5,000 persons in that area, or 5% of the local population (whichever is smaller), belongs to that province's English or French linguistic minority population. The regulations were first promulgated in 1991. The "Official Languages Act" was one of the cornerstones of the government of Pierre Trudeau. The law was an attempt to implement some of the policy

title: Languages with official status in India

text: exact extent to which, and the areas in which, the Union government uses Hindi and English, respectively, is determined by the provisions of the Constitution, the Official Languages Act, 1963, the Official Languages Rules, 1976, and statutory instruments made by the Department of Official Language under these laws. The Indian constitution draws a distinction between the language to be used in Parliamentary proceedings, and the language in which laws are to be made. Parliamentary business, according to the Constitution, may be conducted in either Hindi or English. The use of English in parliamentary proceedings was to be phased out at

title: Indigenous languages of the Americas

text: 18th and 19th centuries, Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, and Dutch, brought to the Americas by European settlers and administrators, had become the official or national languages of modern nation-states of the Americas. Many indigenous languages have become critically endangered, but others are vigorous and part of daily life for millions of people. Several indigenous languages have been given official status in the countries where they occur, such as Guaraní in Paraguay. In other cases official status is limited to certain regions where the languages are most spoken. Although sometimes enshrined in constitutions as official, the languages may be used infrequently

title: Languages of Catalonia

text: As a part of the intense immigration process which Spain in general and Catalonia in particular have experienced over the last decade, there is a large number of immigrant languages spoken in various cultural communities in Catalonia, of which (Maghrebi) Arabic and Urdu are the most common if Spanish-speaking migrants are not taken into account. From all four Provinces of Catalonia, the largest number of habitual foreign language speakers are located in Girona. In Francoist Spain Catalan was, until the 1970s, excluded from the state education system and all other official and governmental use, including the prohibition of baptizing children

title: Languages of Mexico

text: Chinese and Japanese. From the arrival of the first Franciscan missionaries, Spanish, Latin, and indigenous languages played parts in the evangelization of Mexico. Many sixteenth-century churchmen studied indigenous languages in order to instruct native peoples in Christian doctrine. The same men also found Castilian and Latin appropriate in certain contexts. All told, there existed a kind of "linguistic coexistence" from the beginning of the colonial period. Some monks and priests attempted to describe and classify indigenous languages with Spanish. Philip II of Spain decreed in 1570 that Nahuatl become the official language of the colonies of New Spain in order

title: Languages of Turkey

text: Languages of Turkey The languages of Turkey, apart from the only official language Turkish, include the widespread Kurmanji, the moderately prevalent minority languages Arabic and Zazaki and a number of less common minority languages, some of which are guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. Article 3 of the Constitution of Turkey defines Turkish as the only official language of Turkey. Article 42 of the Constitution explicitly prohibits educational institutions to teach any language other than Turkish as a mother tongue to Turkish citizens. Due to Article 42 and its longtime restrictive interpretation, ethnic minorities have been facing severe restrictions

title: Languages of Turkey

text: from about the 9th century BCE until the 6th century. Hattian is attested in Hittite ritual texts but is not related to the Hittite language or to any other known language; it dates from the 2nd millennium BCE. Languages of Turkey The languages of Turkey, apart from the only official language Turkish, include the widespread Kurmanji, the moderately prevalent minority languages Arabic and Zazaki and a number of less common minority languages, some of which are guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. Article 3 of the Constitution of Turkey defines Turkish as the only official language of Turkey. Article

title: Provinces of Spain

text: given, together with an indication of the autonomous community to which it belongs and a link to a list of municipalities in the province. The names of the provinces and their capitals are ordered alphabetically according to the form in which they appear in the main Wikipedia articles describing them. Unless otherwise indicated, their Spanish-language (Castilian) names are the same; locally valid names in Spain's other co-official languages (Asturian, Basque, Catalan, Galician) are also indicated where they differ. General: Provinces of Spain Spain and its autonomous communities are divided into fifty provinces (, ; sing. "provincia"). Spain's provincial system was

title: Languages of Canada

text: same extent, with constitutional entrenchment. Quebec's official language is French, although, in that province, the Constitution requires that all legislation be enacted in both French and English, and court proceedings may be conducted in either language. Similar constitutional protections are in place in Manitoba. Canada's Official Languages Commissioner (the federal government official charged with monitoring the two languages) has stated, "[I]n the same way that race is at the core of what it means to be American and at the core of an American experience and class is at the core of British experience, I think that language is at

title: Languages of Mali

text: independent language family. The following table gives a summary of the 63 spoken languages reported by "Ethnologue" (there are also 3 sign languages): French is the official language. According to the Loi 96-049 of 1996 thirteen indigenous languages are recognised by the government as national languages: Bamanankan, Bomu, Bozo, Dɔgɔsɔ, Fulfulde, Hassaniya Arabic, Mamara, Maninkakan, Soninke, Soŋoy, Syenara, Tamasheq, Xaasongaxanŋo. This superseded the Decree 159 PG-RM of 19 July 1982 (Article 1). French is part of the standard school curriculum. There is a new policy to use Malian languages in the first grades and transition to French. Languages of Mali

title: Languages of Indonesia

text: Indonesia were ruled by the Dutch East India Company and subsequently the whole of what is now Indonesia was in the Dutch East Indies, the Dutch language has no official status there and the small minority that can speak the language fluently are either educated members of the oldest generation, or employed in the legal profession, as certain law codes are still only available in Dutch. Several prominent languages spoken in Indonesia sorted by language family are: There are many additional small families and isolates among the Papuan languages. Indonesian languages are generally not rendered in native-invented systems, but in

title: Official names of South Africa

text: Official names of South Africa There are eleven official names of South Africa, one in each of its eleven official languages. The number is surpassed only by India. These languages include English, Afrikaans, the Nguni languages (Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele, and Swazi), as well as the Sotho languages, which include Tswana, Sotho and Northern Sotho. The remaining two languages are Venda and Tsonga. There are smaller but still significant groups of speakers of Khoi-San languages which are not official languages, but are one of the eight unofficially recognised languages. There are even smaller groups of speakers of endangered languages, many of

title: Official minority languages of Sweden

text: I, and many languages currently spoken by a large number of people in Sweden are excluded, among them Arabic and Persian. It is also required that the language be spoken by a significant number of people and be centred in a specific geographical region (the latter, however, not applied for Romani and Yiddish). Furthermore, it is a condition that the granting of official minority language status should be of cultural benefit to the group speaking it. It is allegedly for this reason that Swedish Sign Language was not included – even though it is a unique language with a history

title: Languages of the Philippines

text: inscribed using the writing system. Additionally, the Arabic script is used in the Muslim areas in the southern Philippines. The 1987 Constitution declares Filipino as the national language of the country. Filipino and English are the official languages, with the recognition of the regional languages as auxiliary official in their respective regions (though not specifying any particular languages). Spanish and Arabic are to be promoted on an optional and voluntary basis. Spanish was the official language of the country for more than three centuries under Spanish colonial rule, and became the lingua franca of the Philippines in the 19th and

title: Languages of the European Union

text: status within the member state and count many more speakers than some of the lesser-used official languages. The official languages of EU are in bold. In the list those idioms deemed by member states as mere dialects of an official language are not included. However many of these dialects are often viewed as separate languages: Scots—the Germanic language descended from Old English, not the Celtic language known as Scottish Gaelic—and several Romance languages spoken in Portugal, France and Italy, such as Mirandese, Lombard, Ligurian, Piedmontese, Venetian, Corsican, Neapolitan, and Sicilian. The French constitution stipulates French as the sole language of

title: Languages of the United States

text: although the state constitution does not specify an official language, laws are published in English and Spanish, and government materials and services are legally required (by Act) to be made accessible to speakers of both languages as well as Navajo and various Pueblo languages. New Mexico also has its own dialect of Spanish, which differs from Spanish spoken in the rest of Latin America. Native American languages are official or co-official on many of the U.S. Indian reservations and pueblos. In Oklahoma before statehood in 1907, territory officials debated whether or not to have Cherokee, Choctaw, and Muscogee languages as

title: Political divisions of Spain

text: in Basque), constitute the lowest level of territorial organization in the country, and are guaranteed a measure of autonomy by the constitution. The administration of the municipalities corresponds to the ayuntamientos ("ayuntamientos" in Spanish, "concellos" in Galician, "ajuntament" in Catalan, "udalak" in Basque) consisting of mayors and councillors, who are elected by universal suffrage. The municipalities are the basic entities of the territorial organization of the State, the immediate channels of the citizens' participation in public affairs. The official names of the municipalities of Spain can be in Spanish—the official language of the country, in any of the co-official languages