Flag icons for languages

The use of flag icons, particularly national flags, for languages is a common practice. Such icons have long been used on tourist attraction signage, and elsewhere in the tourism space, but have found wider use in website localization where UX limitations have become apparent.

Mixed flags
Sometimes the flags of international linguistic communities, such as the flag of the International Organisation of La Francophonie or the flag of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries or the flag of the Commonwealth of Nations, may be used, but they are not as widely recognized as national flags. When more than one country is a major user of a language, a diagonally divided flag may be used. Examples of this are the flags of the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada to indicate the English language, or the flags of China and Taiwan (Republic of China) to represent the Chinese language (Mandarin), or the flags of France, Belgium, and Canada to represent the French language, or the flags of Spain and Mexico to represent the Spanish language, or the flags of Portugal and Brazil to represent the Portuguese language.

Writing systems
Where two written standards exist for a single language, national flags can be used to distinguish between them: for example, the Flag of Taiwan for Traditional Chinese and the Flag of the People's Republic of China for Simplified Chinese.

Political motivations
Some Euronet ATMs (automated teller machines) display the Irish flag as a symbol for the English language (usually UK flag or English flag). In the media, this was speculated to be a response to Brexit, with the Republic of Ireland as one of the only two Anglophone nations left in the European Union (another being Malta). Dr. Oetker have been observed doing the same. The Irish flag is more usually used to signify the Irish language.

Criticism
The use of flag icons for languages has been criticized as poor design. The symbolism of a national flag introduces politicization, and often ambiguity.

Belying the nation-state concept, many languages are natively spoken in several countries, and many countries have several major languages. Alternatives include using the native names of languages or their language codes, possibly under a generic symbol of translation such as the Language Icon.