Official language

An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc."^[1] Depending on the decree, establishment of an official language might also place restrictions on the use of other languages.^[2][3] Designated rights of an official language can be created in written form or by historic usage.^[4][5]

An official language is recognized by 178 countries, of which 101 recognize more than one.^{[citation needed]} The government of Italy made Italian their official language in 1999,^[6][7] and some nations (such as Mexico and Australia) have never declared de jure official languages at the national level.^{[8][failed verification]} Other nations have declared non-indigenous official languages.

Many of the world's constitutions mention one or more official or national languages.^[9][10] Some countries use the official language designation to empower indigenous groups by giving them access to the government in their native languages. In countries that do not formally designate an official language, a de facto national language usually evolves. English is the most common official or co-official language, with recognized status in 52 countries. Arabic, French, and Spanish are official or co-official languages in several countries.

An official language that is also an indigenous language is called endoglossic, one that is not indigenous is exoglossic.^[11] An instance is Nigeria, which has three endoglossic official languages. By this, the country aims to protect the indigenous languages although at the same time recognising the English language as its lingua franca. In spatial terms, indigenous (endoglossic) languages are mostly employed in the function of official languages in Eurasia, while mainly non-indigenous (exoglossic) rest of the world.^[12]