All articles starting with L
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Languages of Malawi
Languages of Malawi: English is official, Chichewa (formerly Chinyanja) the de facto national language, with about 16-18 Bantu languages; policy shifted from the 1968 Chichewa elevation through 1996 official status for five more languages and the 2014 English-only education policy.
Languages of Malaysia
Languages of Malaysia: the 100-plus languages of multilingual Malaysia, with Malay (Bahasa Melayu) as national and official language under Article 152, Mandarin, Tamil, indigenous languages, and English in trade and education.
Languages of Malta
Languages of Malta: Maltese (national language, derived from Siculo-Arabic, Latin script) and English are official; Maltese Sign Language became the third official language in 2016; Italian is understood by 66%.
Languages of Mexico
The languages of Mexico include Spanish as the dominant language plus 68 indigenous groupings with 364 variants, recognized as national languages of equal validity since 2003.
Languages of Morocco
Languages of Morocco: Arabic and Amazigh (Tamazight) are the two official languages under the 2011 Constitution Article 5; Darija is the everyday vernacular, with French, Spanish, and English widely used, and about 25 percent of Moroccans speaking an Amazigh variety.
Languages of Nepal
Languages of Nepal: 124 mother tongues recorded in the 2021 census across Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan and other families; Nepali is official, with Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tharu and Tamang the other major languages.
Languages of New Zealand
Languages of New Zealand: English, te reo Māori, and New Zealand Sign Language are the three official languages, with over 160 other languages spoken; te reo Māori became official in 1987, NZSL in 2006, English in 2026.
Languages of Nigeria
Languages of Nigeria: over 500 indigenous languages plus English, Nigerian Pidgin (~120M speakers), and the major languages Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo; covers 2025 education policy reversal and low-resource NLP.
Languages of Northern Ireland
Languages of Northern Ireland: English dominant, with recognised regional languages Irish (Gaeilge) and Ulster Scots, BSL and ISL sign languages, and growing Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian and Portuguese communities per the 2021 census and 2022 Act.
Languages of Norway
Languages of Norway covers Norwegian with its two equal written standards Bokmål and Nynorsk, the indigenous Sámi languages, minority languages Kven, Romani, and Romanes, Norwegian Sign Language, and immigrant languages, under the 2021 Language Act.
Languages of Pakistan
Languages of Pakistan: Urdu (national) and English (official) alongside regional tongues Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki, Balochi; 2023 census mother-tongue shares and language policy history.
Languages of Papua New Guinea
Languages of Papua New Guinea: over 840 living languages, the most of any country, split between ~200 Austronesian and ~550 Papuan languages, with Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, and English as national languages and many languages endangered.
Languages of Russia
Languages of Russia: over 155 languages spoken in the Russian Federation, with Russian as the state language of the state-forming people, republic state languages, census data, schooling in 74+ native languages, and 2024-2025 policy documents.
Languages of science
Languages of science: the vehicular languages of research, from Arabic and Latin through French, German, and English to today's Global English, including German's WWI-era collapse, publishing share trends, and inequities for non-native speakers.
Languages of Scotland
Languages of Scotland: English (main language), Scots and Scottish Gaelic (indigenous), plus British Sign Language and 150+ community languages. 2022 census: 46.2% some Scots skills, 2.5% Gaelic; Gaelic and Scots gained official status under the Scottish Languages Act 2025.
Languages of Singapore
Languages of Singapore: four official languages under Article 153A (English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil), Malay as national language, English as working language; home-language shift to 58.1% English in 2025.
Languages of South Africa
The languages of South Africa are the twelve official languages listed in the 1996 Constitution, including isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, English, and South African Sign Language.
Languages of South America
Languages of South America: Spanish and Portuguese dominate, above about 108 indigenous families and isolates (Arawakan, Quechuan, Tupian and others), with contact languages, endangerment, and 2022-2032 UNESCO revitalization efforts.
Languages of Spain
Languages of Spain: Castilian Spanish is the state official language; Catalan-Valencian, Galician, Basque and Aranese are co-official by autonomy statutes; Asturian and Aragonese protected. Covers constitutional framework, speaker figures, education models and EU recognition.
Languages of Sri Lanka
Languages of Sri Lanka: Sinhala and Tamil are the official and national languages, English the link language under Chapter IV of the 1978 Constitution. Sinhala is Indo-Aryan, Tamil Dravidian; 2024 census literacy reaches 97.4% in at least one language.
Languages of Sweden
The languages of Sweden (Språk i Sverige) are an estimated 150 to 205 tongues, with Swedish as the main language and five recognized national minority languages.
Languages of Switzerland
The languages of Switzerland are the four national languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. German, French, and Italian are official federally, while Romansh is official in dealings with its speakers.
Languages of Taiwan
Languages of Taiwan (臺灣語言): Austronesian indigenous languages, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, Taiwan Mandarin, and Taiwan Sign Language. 2020 census: Mandarin primary/secondary use 96.8%, Hokkien 86.0%; all national languages face transmission crisis under the 2019 National Languages Development Act.
Languages of the Caribbean
Languages of the Caribbean: over 70 languages across 29 territories, with official English, Dutch, French, Haitian Creole, Papiamento/u, and Spanish; 23 creoles, endangered Amerindian languages, and revitalization efforts distinguish the region.
Languages of the Caucasus
The languages of the Caucasus number about fifty, including three indigenous families: Kartvelian, Northwest Caucasian, and Northeast Caucasian, with only Georgian written since the 5th century.
Languages of the European Union
Languages of the European Union: 24 official languages of equal status under Regulation No 1/1958 and Article 342 TFEU, with English, French and German as procedural languages, about €1 billion yearly translation costs, and English retained after Brexit.
Languages of the Netherlands
Languages of the Netherlands: Dutch is official; Frisian is second official language in Fryslân; NGT, Papiaments and English on the BES islands, Limburgish and Low Saxon regional languages, plus Yiddish and Romanes, with 2019-2024 CBS home-language statistics.
Languages of the Philippines
Languages of the Philippines: over 100 distinct Austronesian languages plus official Filipino and English. Tagalog leads home use (39.9% of households, 2020 census); MTB-MLE ran 2009-2023 before RA 12027 reversed it.
Languages of the Roman Empire
Languages of the Roman Empire: a multilingual system dominated by Latin in the West and Greek in the East, with no imposed official language policy. Local languages such as Gaulish, Aramaic, Coptic, and Punic persisted; Caracalla's 212 CE edict inscribed plurilingualism into Roman law.
Languages of the United Kingdom
Languages of the United Kingdom: English dominant (91.1% main language in England and Wales, Census 2021), native minority languages Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Irish, Ulster Scots, Cornish, and Manx, plus immigrant languages led by Polish, Romanian, Panjabi, and Urdu.