This is a list of official languages of international organizations. Different organizations sometimes refer to their principal languages of administration and communication as "working languages", while others refer to these as being "official". No distinction is made here, except where an organization itself, distinguishes between its official and working languages.
English and French are often regarded as the symbolic official languages, although the former has gained prominence in recent years. [1]
According to a recent study of multilingualism in 13 major international organizations (Commonwealth, ICC, ILO, IMF, IOC, IPU, ITU, OECD, UN, UPU, WB, WHO, and WTO), English is an official language in almost all (12). This is followed by French (10); Spanish (6); and Arabic, Chinese, and Russian (3 each). Interpretation is offered in Japanese and German as well for 2 organizations. [2]
The six official languages of the United Nations reflects the languages of the permanent members of the Security Council (Chinese, English, French, and Russian), in addition to Arabic and Spanish. Another study found that the percentage of each language used at each United Nations meeting in 2010 was distributed as follows: English (98%), French (87%), Spanish (34%), Russian (10%), Arabic (7%), and Chinese (3%). [3]
The following is a list of major international and inter-governmental organizations.
Institutions | Languages |
---|---|
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) | Russian |
League of Nations | English and French |
Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) | Czech, German, Polish and Russian |
The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO was created to promote and protect intellectual property (IP) across the world by cooperating with countries as well as international organizations. It began operations on 26 April 1970 when the convention entered into force. The current Director General is Singaporean Daren Tang, former head of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, who began his term on 1 October 2020.
The United States does not have an official language at the federal level, but the most commonly used language is English, which is the de facto national language. In addition, 32 U.S. states out of 50 and all five U.S. territories have declared English as an official language. The great majority of the U.S. population speaks only English at home. The remainder of the population speaks many other languages at home, most notably Spanish, according to the American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census Bureau; others include indigenous languages originally spoken by Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and native populations in the U.S. unincorporated territories. Other languages were brought in by people from Europe, Africa, Asia, other parts of the Americas, and Oceania, including multiple dialects, creole languages, pidgin languages, and sign languages originating in what is now the United States. Interlingua, an international auxiliary language, was also created in the U.S.
A lingua franca, also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a native language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages.
An official language is a language having certain rights to be used in defined situations. These rights can be created in written form or by historic usage.
The European Union (EU) has 24 official languages, of which three – English, French and German – have the higher status of "procedural" languages of the European Commission. Irish previously had the lower status of "treaty language" before being upgraded to an official and working language in 2007. However, a temporary derogation was enforced until 1 January 2022. The three procedural languages are those used in the day-to-day workings of the institutions of the EU. The designation of Irish as a "treaty language" meant that only the treaties of the European Union were translated into Irish, whereas Legal Acts of the European Union adopted under the treaties did not have to be. Luxembourgish and Turkish, which have official status in Luxembourg and Cyprus, respectively, are the only two official languages of EU member states that are not official languages of the EU. In 2023, the Spanish government requested that its co-official languages Catalan, Basque, and Galician be added to the official languages of the EU.
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies is a private research university based in Seoul, in South Korea. The university currently teaches 45 foreign languages. In addition, it contains studies in humanities, law, political science, social sciences, business, medical science, natural sciences, and engineering.
A working language is a language that is given a unique legal status in a supranational company, society, state or other body or organization as its primary means of communication. It is primarily the language of the daily correspondence and conversation, since the organization usually has members with various differing language backgrounds.
An International Driving Permit (IDP), often referred to as an international driving license, is a translation of a domestic driving license that allows the holder to drive a private motor vehicle in any country or jurisdiction that recognises the document. The term International Driving Permit was first mentioned in the document prescribed in the International Convention relative to Motor Traffic that was signed at Paris in 1926, and is a translation of the French 'permis de conduire international', or 'international driving license'. The Paris treaty, and all subsequent, use the word 'permit' exclusively in relation to all kinds of driving license.
The Dag Hammarskjöld Library is a library on the grounds of the headquarters of the United Nations, located in the Turtle Bay/East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is connected to the Secretariat and Conference buildings through ground level and underground corridors. It is named after Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. The library was founded in 1946, and the current library building was completed in 1961.
The European Day of Languages is observed 26 September, as proclaimed by the Council of Europe on 6 December 2001, at the end of the European Year of Languages (2001), which had been jointly organised by the Council of Europe and the European Union. Its aim is to encourage language learning across Europe.
A bilingual sign is the representation on a panel of texts in more than one language. The use of bilingual signs is usually reserved for situations where there is legally administered bilingualism or where there is a relevant tourist or commercial interest. However, more informal uses of bilingual signs are often found on businesses in areas where there is a high degree of bilingualism, such as tourist venues, ethnic enclaves and historic neighborhoods. In addition, some signs feature synchronic digraphia, the use of multiple writing systems for a single language.
United Nations Radio was created on 13 February 1946. In 2017, United Nations Radio and the UN News Centre merged to form UN News, producing daily news and multimedia content in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Swahili, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Hindi. In its new iteration, UN News Audio continues to produce daily news and feature stories about the work of the UN and its member countries in eight languages for more than 2,000 partner radio stations around the world.
The official languages of the United Nations are the six languages used in United Nations (UN) meetings and in which the UN writes all its official documents.
In accordance with the the United Nations General Assembly proclamation of the International Year of Languages in 2008, the Arabic Language International Council was established by the Arab universities association. The organization was formed within the framework of the UN's effort to promote Unity in diversity, and also in recognition of the UN's push for multilingualism as a means of promoting, protecting and preserving the diversity of languages and cultures globally, particularly in the paramount importance attributed to the quality of the organization's six official languages.
UN English Day is observed annually on 23 April. The event was established by UN's Department of Public Information in 2010 "to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization".
The linguistic landscape refers to the "visibility and salience of languages on public and commercial signs in a given territory or region". Linguistic landscape research has been described as being "somewhere at the junction of sociolinguistics, sociology, social psychology, geography, and media studies". It is a concept which originated in sociolinguistics and language policy as scholars studied how languages are visually displayed and hierarchised in multilingual societies, from large metropolitan centers to Amazonia. For example, linguistic landscape scholars have described how and why some public signs in Jerusalem are presented in Hebrew, English, and Arabic, or a combination thereof. It also looks at how communication in public space plays a crucial role in the organisation of society.