National language
From Open Encyclopedia
A national language is a language (or language variant, i.e. dialect) which uniquely represents the national identity of a nation and/or country. Though distinct from an official language, which is used for political and legal discourse and so designated by a country's government, national languages are often also official languages simultaneously, even when possessing little or no government recognition. Although some countries claim to have more than one national language, the actual national language will be the language spoken by the majority of people from within that countries borders.
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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 ofTaiwan 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. ordinary speech) in Chinese.
Ireland
A Celtic language Irish Gaelic is recognized as the national and also as one of the two official languages of Ireland, and is spoken by about only 5% of its population as a first language and another 10% understand 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, 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, although it is the first language of the Malays who make up only 12.4% of the total population of 4.24 million. Three other languages enjoy official status, including English, which is the language of business and governance and the medium of instruction in national schools; Mandarin Chinese, which is spoken by the majority (75%) of the population, and Tamil(some 10%).
