Talk:List of official languages by country and territory

Italy

The list for Italy is ridiculous. Italian is the only official language nationwide. Then there is French co-official in Val d'Aosta and German co-official in Bolzano province. Stop. The other are ALL minorities'languages, not official ones, even at local level. And what about Emiliano,Piemontese etc listed in a list of Italy's official languages!OMG! (Easyboy82)

It's ridiculous to list both de facto and official. If it has not official language, then list none. Some countries have official languages, but another local language that is more common than the offficial language. How is this indicated here?

Also, the languages should be wikified. --Jiang 08:38, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

The USA, for one, has no official language. But English is definitely the de facto national language, being spoken by the vast majority of citizens. It would be silly to list no language at all simply because none is technically, legally "official". I do agree however that the list should indicate which languages are regional, which de facto, which official; and be wikified.Matt gies 08:50, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

This list is ridculous, and I'm going to put it on VfD tomorrow. How can you have "de facto" languages on a list of official languages?? If they're de facto, they're not necessarily official. Period. Change the title or it goes on VfD. Moncrief 28 Feb 2004 (UTC) And FRENCH is listed as an official language of the UK?? What! Not even de facto... oy vey. Moncrief

--Either way, it should be Scottish Gaelic, not French. Perhaps using the World Factbook to get languages? Nick04

I guess I'm not clear why "de facto" languages are still being included on a list of Official Languages. Does someone think they are the same thing or similar enough to fudge it? It's not the case, if so. De facto and official languages are two very distinct categories. Moncrief

I agree, and there's already a list of official languages. What this page is is really a List of Predominant Languages by Country, not official.Matt gies 20:49, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Matt, do you want to do the honor of moving to a new title? I think you or someone should. Moncrief, 20:50, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

No, this page should not be moved. That list is organized by language. This one is done by country. Instead, this list should be fixed so that it lists only official languages. Please cut the threats. --Jiang 00:16, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I removed the list of local dialects of Italy, because this is a list of "official" languages: Italian is the one official language statewide. A 1999 Law (I'm sorry, but I don't remember its number) recognizes 12 minority languages, locally considered as official: French, Occitan, French-Provençal, Catalan, Sardinian, German, Slovenian, Ladin, Friulian,Albanese, Serbian-Croatian, Greek. The difference between a language and a dialect, of course, is not defined, but no other local way has official recognition. By the way,calling "Neapolitans" all local dialects of south is simply ridiculous, because they belong to many different linguistic groups.More, Abruzzo, in central Italy, has two different linguistic families, whose one is related to Roman and other central dialects(called: Osco-Umbrian) and the other related to the dialects of Apulia (called: Iapigian). Mirko

The Italian language isn't an official language in Libya, so i removed it.

Norway

The language of Norway is Norweigan, "Bokmål" and "Nynorsk" are only two different ways of writing it. As this is a list of languages, and not of written languages, the terms "bokmål" and "nynorsk" should not be included here. Therefore I have removed them.

China

Huaiwei wrote People's Republic of China and removed the words mainland China with brackets. The reality is laws only govern the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to use Mandarin Chinese as the official language. The brackets in fact made the issue clearer. - Privacy 16:24, Jan 5, 2005 (UTC)

Oh? Come to think of it, listing the two SARS in their respective entities seems to suggest that they are seperate countries. Perhaps we should move them under the heading for the PRC, and thereby making the the distinctions clearer.--Huaiwei 18:48, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

They are dependencies (see List of dependent territories), as Aruba, Greenland or Bermuda. - Privacy 18:14, Jan 28 2005 (UTC)

Namibia, the Netherlands

Some adjustments made in Namibia and The Kingdom of the Netherlands, regarding the true situations there. (Afrikaans being the lingua franca of Namibia, Dutch being official nationwide in NL)

Venezuela

What's the second language of Venezuela (other than Spanish), as it shows number 2? Let this information be consistent. Grillofrances (talk) 15:54, 22 July 2025 (UTC)