Just like we human beings, languages are accorded statuses that determine their functions in societies. This brings us to the study of official language in linguistics.
What is an Official Language?
An official language is a language that occupies a very special position in a region or nation. It is a language that is highly valued in a nation, owing to the fact that it is used by the government to steer the affairs of a nation.
An official language is simply the language of government. The language that the government of a region uses to address its citizens, make laws, deliberate on them, and even the constitution of a nation is written in this language. This shows you just how prestigious an official language is.
It is not just the language of government, it also serves several other important purposes, which also elevates its status above other existing languages in the regions of its use making it a high variety language.
Language of Media
Both the print and electronic media in a nation are delivered in the official language of the nation. Newspapers, radio broadcasts, TV broadcast in a region are all rendered in the official language. Take for instance: in the United States, most, if not all of its media outlets are presented in the English language, and this is because the English language is the official language of the United States, thus it takes precedence over other existing languages in the country, when it comes to matters of this sort.
Language of Education
Most of the countries of the world today are heterogeneous in nature—meaning that there is the existence of more than one language or language varieties in many countries. As a result, there is a need to establish a single language for the purpose of educating citizens of such nations, in order to bring everyone on the same page, and this is why an official language is also the language of education.
Even in the process of granting admissions into higher institutions, it is always a prerequisite that aspiring students have at least a credit in the official language of the nation, which shows the kind of strong influences an official language has on the affairs of a nation.
Language of Commerce
Just as we already established in the previous point, the heterogeneous nature of many nations of the world today makes it all the more important for a single unifying language, to be designated with the function of facilitating trade between speakers of different languages in a nation—that is the purpose of an official language.
Official languages facilitate trading in nations thereby eliminating the hindering obstacle of language barrier, and ensuring that commercial activities are carried out in a nation with less stress.
Some nations of the world have more than one official languages. Take for instance, the official languages of Canada are: English and French. Now the reason for such arrangements are usually influenced by both cultural and historical factors. The history of a people, more especially, can be responsible for the establishment of more than one language as the official language of a nation.
It could be because majority of the citizens of a nation speak a particular language, and so it would pose a great inconvenience to them if such language is not added to the official languages. India for instance has more than 10 official languages, which just goes to show how powerful a tool, language can be, and the factors that influence its status in a nation which are: cultural, economical, historical, and more importantly: political.
The establishment of a language as the official language of a nation may have political underpinnings. What this means is that political leaders in a nation, to a great extent, influence the establishment of an official language for their own personal gains and to have more control and dominance in their nations. For instance: the official language of Nigeria is English, even though the language is not native to Nigerians, but because of colonial influence on the nation as well dependence on the western world, the language remains the official language of Nigeria since 1945, which is before its independence in 1960.
So official languages are languages that possess immense power in a nation, making them superior to other languages or language varieties that exist in a nation. An official language is the language of government, education, media, and commerce as it plays a crucial role in running the affairs of a nation. Understanding official language will better inform you on the important roles of languages in a nation.
Read more:
- National Language in Linguistics Explained: The Language of Unity
- Dialect in Linguistics: Understanding the Varieties of Language
- Properties of Language in Linguistics Explained: Understanding the Features of Language
- Language Acquisition and Language Learning in Linguistics Explained: Understanding the Process of Learning a Language