Official script

The letters of the Indic official scripts of the Indian Republic used by the official languages of India –
(top row: Tamil, Malayalam, Odia, Gujarati, Meitei
bottom row:Bengali/Assamese, Kannada/Telugu, Ol Chiki, Devanagari, Gurmukhi), Urdu alphabet
These are the examples of the official scripts.

An official script is a writing system that is specifically designated to be official in the constitutions or other applicable laws of countries, states, and other jurisdictions. Akin to an official language, an official script is much rarer. It is used primarily where an official language is in practice written with two or more scripts. As, in these languages, use of script often has cultural or political connotations, proclamation of an official script is sometimes criticized as having a goal of influencing culture or politics or both. Desired effects also may include easing education, communication and some other aspects of life.

List of official scripts

Below is a partial list of official scripts used in different countries. Those in italics are states that have limited international recognition.

This list does not cover local variations of international scripts, such as which diacritics are used.

• Armenia  – Armenian alphabet
• Bolivia  – Latin script
• Bosnia and Herzegovina:
  • Republika Srpska  – Cyrillic and Latin ^[1]
  • Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina  – Cyrillic and Latin ^[2]
• Bulgaria  – Cyrillic (Bulgarian alphabet)
• Cambodia  – Khmer script
• China, People's Republic of (mainland China) – Simplified Chinese ^[3]
  • Hong Kong SAR – Traditional Chinese (de facto), Latin script ^[4]
  • Macau SAR – Traditional Chinese (de facto), Latin script
  • Inner Mongolia region – Mongolian alphabet, Simplified Chinese
  • Tibet region – Tibetan alphabet, Simplified Chinese
  • Xinjiang region – Uyghur Ereb Yéziqi, ^[5] Simplified Chinese
  • Guangxi region – Zhuang Latin alphabet, Simplified Chinese
• Croatia  – Croatian alphabet ^[6]
• Ethiopia  – Ge'ez script
• Eritrea  – Ge'ez script
• Georgia  – Georgian alphabet ^{[ citation needed ]}
• Greece  – Greek alphabet
• Hungary  – Latin script
• India:
  • Hindi, ^[7] Marathi, Konkani, Nepali, Maithili, Boro, Sanskrit, Dogri – Devanagari
  • Assamese  – Assamese alphabet
  • Bengali  – Bengali alphabet
  • Gujarati  – Gujarati script
  • Kannada  – Kannada script
  • Kashmiri  – Perso-Arabic script
  • Malayalam  – Malayalam script
  • Meitei  – Meitei script
  • Odia  – Odia script
  • Punjabi  – Gurmukhi
  • Santali  – Ol Chiki script
  • Sindhi  – Perso-Arabic script, Devanagari
  • Tamil  – Tamil script
  • Telugu  – Telugu script
  • Urdu  – Urdu alphabet
• Islamic world:
  • Afghanistan  – Perso-Arabic
  • Azerbaijan  – Azeri Latin alphabet ^{[8] [9]}
  • Bahrain  – Arabic
  • Bangladesh  – Bengali alphabet
  • Brunei  – Rumi script (Latin) and Jawi script (Arabic)
  • Egypt  – Arabic
  • Indonesia  – Rumi script (Latin)
  • Iran  – Perso-Arabic ^[10]
  • Iraq  – Arabic
  • Jordan  – Arabic
  • Kazakhstan  – Cyrillic (Kazakh, Russian) and Latin (Kazakh)
  • Kuwait  – Arabic
  • Lebanon  – Arabic
  • Libya  – Arabic
  • Malaysia  – Rumi script (Latin); Jawi script (Arabic) is recognized. ^[11]
  • Maldives  – Thaana
  • Oman  – Arabic
  • Palestine  – Arabic
  • Qatar  – Arabic
  • Saudi Arabia  – Arabic
  • Tunisia  – Arabic
  • Turkey  – Latin alphabet
  • United Arab Emirates  – Arabic
  • Yemen  – Arabic
• Italy:
  • Venetian (Official script of the Venetian language)
• Japan – a combination of Kana (Hiragana, Katakana) and Kanji (Shinjitai)
• Korea (both) – Chosŏn'gŭl/Hangul ^[12] (Hanja is sometime used in South Korea, not used in North Korea) ^[13]
• Laos  – Lao script
• Malta  – Latin script
• Moldova  – Latin alphabet ^[14]
• Mongolia  – Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet and Mongolian script ^[15]
• Montenegro  – Cyrillic (Montenegrin alphabet) ^[16]
• Myanmar  – Burmese alphabet
• Nepal
  • Nepali language  — Devanagari
  • Nepal Bhasa  — Ranjana script
  • Maithili  — Tirhuta script and Kaithi
  • Bhojpuri language  — Kaithi and Devanagari
  • Magar  — Magar Akkha script and Devanagari
  • Tharu  — Devanagari
  • Tamang  — Tamyig, Devanagari and Tibetan script
  • Bajjika  — Tirhuta script, Kaithi and Devanagari
  • Limbu  — Limbu script
  • Bantawa  — Kirat Rai script and Devanagari
  • Gurung  — Khema script, Devanagari and Tibetan script
  • Awadhi  — Kaithi, Perso-Arabic script, Devanagari and Latin script
  • Urdu  — Urdu alphabet, Roman Urdu and Urdu Braille
• North Macedonia  – Cyrillic (Macedonian alphabet) ^[17]
• Philippines  – Latin alphabet (de facto)
• Russian Federation  – Cyrillic (Russian alphabet) ^[18]
• Serbia  – Cyrillic (Serbian alphabet) ^[19]
• Singapore
  • English, Malay  — Latin script
  • Mandarin  – Simplified Chinese
  • Tamil  – Tamil script
• Slovakia  – Latin script
• Taiwan ^[20]  – Traditional Chinese
• Thailand  – Thai script
• Ukraine  – Cyrillic (Ukrainian alphabet)
• United Kingdom   – Latin script
• Vietnam  – Latin script (de facto) ^[21]

Historical

• In the USSR, numerous languages were latinized during the 1920s–1930s. In the late 1930s the Latinization campaign was canceled and all newly romanized languages were converted to Cyrillic.

See also

• Official language
• Spelling reform

References

1. Constitution of Republika Srpska Archived 22 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine , Article 7.
2. Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Archived 12 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine , Part I, Article 6.
3. National People's Congress of China, "The law of national all-purpose language and character in the People's Republic of China". Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
4. After the announcement of Simplified Chinese in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau didn't follow the change, making Traditional Chinese the de facto official script. (Hong Kong and Macau were still colonies at that time, and their current constitutions don't state whether Tradition Chinese or Simplified Chinese is to be used. Both places continued to use Traditional Chinese after handover.see List of languages written in Chinese characters and derivatives of Chinese characters )
5. Xinjiang Languages and characters, "Uyghur Language and characters".^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}
6. Constitution of Croatia, Article 12: "Basic Provisions". Croatian Parliament. Archived from the original on 9 September 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011. The Croatian language and the Latin script shall be in official use in the Republic of Croatia.
7. "Official Language Act - Official Language: Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India". socialjustice.nic.in. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
8. "Alphabet Transitions: Chronology of the New Latin Script". www.azer.com. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
9. Staff (2 August 2001). "A-Z back in Azerbaijan". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 19 March 2024. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
10. Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Official Language, Script, Calendar, and Flag of the Country Archived 5 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine .
11. "National Language Acts 1963/67". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. The script of the national language shall be the Rumi script: provided that this shall not prohibit the use of the Malay script, more commonly known as the Jawi script, of the national language.
12. Alton, David; Chidley, Rob (2013). Building Bridges: Is There Hope for North Korea?. Oxford: Lion Books. p. 89. ISBN   978-0-7459-5598-8.
13. Article 14 of the Framework Act on Korean Language Archived 24 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine prefers hangul but also allows hanja in parentheses, in cases prescribed by South Korean Presidential Decree.
14. Constitution of Moldova, Article 13: "Title I. General Principles". Official Website of the President of Moldavia. Archived from the original on 29 August 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011. (1) The national language of the Republic of Moldova is Moldovan, and its writing is based on the Latin alphabet.
15. "Official Documents to be in Mongolian Script". UB Post (in Chinese). 21 June 2011. Archived from the original on 1 November 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2010.
16. "Влада Црне Горе". vlada.me. Archived from the original on 16 August 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
17. Constitution of Macedonia, Article 7: "Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia". Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011. The Macedonian language, written using its Cyrillic alphabet, is the official language in the Republic of Macedonia.
18. In Russian, the designation of Cyrillic as an official script (2001) has the consequence that the official languages of national Republics of Russia have to be written in the Cyrillic script in all official institutions and education. The passing of the law was met with particular resistance and criticism in the Republic of Tatarstan, as it replaced the Turkish Latin alphabet which the local government tried to promote in education after the dissolution of USSR.see List of languages in Russia
19. Constitution of Serbia, Article 10: "I Constitution Principles". Government of Serbia. Archived from the original on 2 May 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2011. Serbian language and Cyrillic script shall be in official use in the Republic of Serbia.
20. Control by Republic of China
21. Chapter I - Decree 5 - Section 3 of the current Constitution (2013) states that Vietnamese language is the National language of Vietnam, but nothing states the Vietnamese Latin Alphabet (called as chữ Quốc ngữ) is the official script de jure. Archived 15 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine chữ Hán (Chinese characters) and chữ Nôm sometime can be used, most in activities about the traditional cultural in Vietnam (e.g. Vietnamese calligraphy).