Difference Between Official Language and National Language

Official Language vs National Language

The concept of official and national language is not a very common one and is mainly used in countries that are multi linguistic in nature. In such countries, there are sections of population speaking languages different from the one that has been adopted as the national language as it is spoken by a majority of the people. Different administrative units of the country use different languages that are called official languages of divisions while there is a single national language. There is always the confusion between the official language and the national language in the minds of those who are outsiders, and they are bewildered to see so many languages being used in the country. This article attempts to highlight the features of official and national languages to differentiate between them.

What is National Language?

Every country of the world has a national language that reflects its collective identity to the world at large. A national language in any given country is given prominence over other languages spoken inside the country by the people. In fact, the language getting the honor of national language is often one that is spoken by the majority of the population of the country. National language of a country is the one in which the government corresponds with international organizations such as UN and other countries.

Talking of India, the national language is Hindi though it is a language spoken by mostly North Indians and is not spoken or understood by people living in other parts of the country.

What is Official Language?

Countries of the world are divided into regions called states or provinces where there may be people speaking an altogether different language. This is particularly the case in India where there are states having population speaking other than Hindi. The state language is given the status of the official language in that state.

但是，在某些语言中没有广泛使用的国家，这些语言可能会被授予官方身份以保护它们。例如，在新西兰，有一种名为毛利人的语言，只有不到5％的人口使用，但它被称为官方语言。

在美国，英国，法国，德国，意大利等国家中，人口的压倒性比例说明了民族语言，这是法院和议会中使用的语言。在印度，有很多地区语言。因此，中央政府和法院必须采用三语言公式，在该公式中是印地语，英语或所使用的区域语言。

What is the difference between Official Language and National Language? • Official language is the language patronized by the administration and used widely, not just for communication, but also for correspondence. • National language is the language spoken by a majority of the population of a country and reflects the national identity of a country. • There are 22 official languages in India; they are spoken on a regional basis in different states of the country. The national language of India is Hindi although it is spoken and understood mainly by people living in North and central India.