Talk:Official languages of the United Nations

With Bengali, Esperanto and Turkish included in the proposal section shouldn't German be there?
There seem to be a few different reasons for inclusion, like importance/economy/area/size, number of speakers and historican reasons, and German seems to be just as good of a candidate as many others. Other personal proposals include Italian and Japanese. Perhaps these were not included (partly) because of the Second World War, or at least Germany which has only relatively recently been reunited. Portuguese may not be included (yet) because Portugal is only one, small country and Brazil is only a single former colony, but the rise of Brazil in both economy and population, and the importance of Western European countries in general also, plus the importance of the language in Africa, and also in Asia, may be enough reasons for its inclusion, as it for example has many more (native) speakers than both French and Russian. Parallels can easily be drawn to the UN Security Council (the correlation between the languages of the members of it and the official languages of the UN is astounding). Personally I'm all for a number of first language speakers approach to who should be members, meaning some of my favourites are Mandarin, Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Hindu, Arabic and Russian. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.247.145.184 (talk) 11:54, 3 November 2012 (UTC)


 * The correlation between the official languages and the Security Council is NOT astounding, but rather it is a necessity. In many cases, the Security Council of the U.N. is the only part that can get anything done. English and French were already international languages of diplomacy, thus covering the U.S. and the U.K, as well as Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth. Then Russian and Chinese were necessities, because those two countries are permanent members of the Security Council. Finally, Spanish was a necessity for the Security council, not primarily for Spain, but because of the large number of Spanish-speaking countries in South America and Central America, and a few in Africa, too. Arabic was added later because of the large number of Arabic-speaking countries in Southwest Asia and North Africa.24.156.77.8 (talk) 04:51, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Esperanto isn't a realistic or even serious proposal
Esperanto doesn't really deserve its own section since Esperanto is kind of a niche project that honestly doesn't have any hope of becoming a UN language, unlike, say Hindustani, German, Portuguese, or Japanese. jackbrown (talk) 22:29, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

ILO official laguages
ILO official laguages are only three Spanish/French/English. This should be adressed in this article. Also it should be stated why — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.157.40.35 (talk) 09:06, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Portuguese & French
It's been noted that Portuguese “is not an international language, used in diplomacy and business the way that French is”. How correct is this? in Diplomacy that may be correct, although French is declining as a diplomatic language, but what about Business? French used in Business? As a personal view, even in Europe, although the knowledge of the language seems somewhat on the rise in IT, due to French government efforts, it was quite irrelevant in Business. Although now, at least in here, it has some value for IT professionals, for instance. But all in all, even Portuguese has importance in Business not only in South America, but in Africa. ---Pedro (talk) 11:40, 9 July 2012 (UTC)


 * I agree with Pedro. Portuguese is now spoken officially in five continents. Macau, China, where Portuguese is co-official with Cantonese, is now the Asian gateway to the Portuguese speaking world. The Chinese understand the importance of the knowing the Portuguese language, as they themselves are enthusiastically learning it. And it so happens that China is Brazil's biggest trading partner. China is also doing tons of trade with Angola and Mozambique in Africa, both of which are officially Portuguese speaking nations whose economies are growing by leaps and bounds. Angola is already said to be the Brazil of Africa at this moment. There are about 10,000 speakers of Portuguese in Goa, India. Even India understands the importance of using the Portuguese language to do business with the Portuguese speaking world. And the Portuguese language is co-official in East Timor. In terms of global economic clout, Portuguese is without a doubt is more important than French. There are far more native speakers of Portuguese worldwide (260 million) than there are native speakers of French (77 million). The Portuguese language is now undeniably of paramount importance on the world stage, and should be made the 7th official United Nations language. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.234.25.147 (talk) 17:49, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

Not a forum
People, please, stop bringing out your own ideas as to what language should or should not be official at the UN, and stop exploring the reasons why the current official languages were chosen. Do that on some forum out there. Here we need reliable sources on stuff related to the official languages of the UN, and thoughts on how to structure the article, and such. Most other stuff simply is not beneficial.--$\color{Blue}\mathcal{M}$$\color{Blue}\vec{( e\ ,}$$\color{Blue}t )$ = ? 12:35, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I agree. It's like "that's the way it is and this article is made just to show how it is. Period."189.25.127.105 (talk) 23:07, 10 March 2013 (UTC)
 * I think that you two are so wrong that you both have termites in your brains!24.156.77.8 (talk) 04:58, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Should be translated
Doesn't it seem ironic that the page on UN Languages is not translated into every language specified? Kupiakos (talk) 20:39, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Better Chinese link?
I can't help but think that the link to Chinese Language should just skip the middleman and go directly to Standard Chinese. It is the official variant of the Chinese Language group recognized by the U.N. and I could see some getting confused due to that language group containing several variant languages. At least IMO, it would make more sense than the current link. 70.57.82.154 (talk) 09:11, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

The six languages are official languages in more than half the states in the world (about one hundred).[citation needed]

Well, referencing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_official_languages_by_state and looking at country's official languages, I found the following.

Algeria: Arabic Antigua and Barbuda: English Argentina: English/Spanish Armenia: Russian Australia: English Austria: English Bahamas: English Bahrain: Arabic Bangladesh: Arabic Barbados: English Belarus: Russian Belize: English/Spanish Benin: French Bolivia: Spanish Botswana: English Brunei: English Burkina Faso: French Burundi: French Cameroon: English/French Canada: English/French Central African Republic: French Chad: French/Arabic Chile: French/Spanish China: Chinese Colombia: Chinese/Spanish Comoros: French/Arabic Costa Rica: French/Spanish Cuba: Spanish Democratic Republic of the Congo: French Djibouti: French/Arabic Dominica: English/Spanish Dominican Republic: English/Spanish Ecuador: Spanish Egypt: Arabic El Salvador: Spanish/Arabic Equatorial Guinea: French/Spanish Eritrea: English/Arabic Federated States of Micronesia: English Fiji: English France: French Gabon: French Gambia: English Georgia: English Ghana: English Greece: English Grenada: English Guatemala: English/Spanish Guinea: French Guinea-Bissau: Spanish Guyana: English Haiti: French Honduras: Spanish India: English Iraq: Arabic Ireland: English/Arabic Israel: English Ivory Coast: French Jamaica: English Japan: English Jordan: Arabic Kazakhstan: Arabic/Russian Kenya: English Kiribati: English Kuwait: Arabic Kyrgyzstan: Arabic/Russian Lebanon: Arabic Lesotho: English Liberia: English Libya: Arabic Liechtenstein: Arabic Luxembourg: French Madagascar: French Malawi: English Malaysia: English Mali: French Malta: English Marshall Islands: English Mauritania: French/Arabic Mauritius: English/French Mexico: French/Spanish Monaco: French Mongolia: French Morocco: Arabic Namibia: English Nauru: English New Zealand: English Nicaragua: Spanish Niger: French Nigeria: English North Korea: English Oman: Arabic Pakistan: English/Arabic Palau: English Panama: Spanish Papua New Guinea: English Paraguay: Spanish Peru: Spanish Philippines: English/Spanish Qatar: Arabic Republic of the Congo: French/Arabic Romania: French Russia: Russian Rwanda: English/French Saint Kitts and Nevis: English Saint Lucia: English Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: English Samoa: English Saudi Arabia: Arabic Senegal: French/Arabic Serbia: French Seychelles: English/French Sierra Leone: English Singapore: English/Chinese Solomon Islands: English Somalia: Arabic South Africa: English South Korea: English South Sudan: English Spain: English/Spanish Sudan: English/Arabic Swaziland: English Syria: Arabic Tajikistan: Arabic/Russian Tanzania: English Togo: French Tonga: English Trinidad and Tobago: English Tunisia: Arabic Turkey: Arabic Turkmenistan: Russian Tuvalu: English Uganda: English United Arab Emirates: Arabic United Kingdom: English/Arabic United States: English Uruguay: English/Spanish Uzbekistan: Russian Vanuatu: English/French Vatican City: French Venezuela: Spanish Vietnam: Spanish Yemen: Arabic Zambia: English/Arabic Zimbabwe: English Afghanistan Albania Andorra Angola Azerbaijan Belgium Bhutan Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Cambodia Cape Verde Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark East Timor Estonia Ethiopia Finland Germany Hungary Iceland Indonesia Iran Italy Laos Latvia Lithuania Macedonia Maldives Moldova Montenegro Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Nepal Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal San Marino São Tomé and Príncipe Slovakia Slovenia Sri Lanka Suriname Sweden Switzerland Thailand Ukraine

Total 144/194 (74%) have one of the six UN languages as their official or de facto official language.

Wikidogx (talk) 23:40, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

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UN News website: Portuguese and Swahili
The UN News website (https://news.un.org/en/) has pages for news in Portuguese and Swahili, as well as the organisation's six official languages. I'm not sure what the status of these languages is, but perhaps an appropriately worded reference to the news site could be added to the article. Jcspurrell (talk) 21:15, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

German Translation Section
Though not an official language, the UN has a German translation department in New York (http://www.un.org/depts/DGACM/german.shtml). Perhaps an appropriately worded reference to this could be added to the article. Jcspurrell (talk) 21:15, 21 March 2018 (UTC)


 * I have read somewhere that the Security Council has a seventh official language. I do not remember which one it is, but it is worth looking into. Because of the large populations of speakers, and the importance of their home countries in the business of the Council, these see seem to be good candidates for the seventh: Hindustani, German, Japanese, and Portuguese. Remember that Portuguese is not only spoken in Portugal and Brazil, but also in some scattered countries like Angola and Mozambique.24.156.77.8 (talk) 05:09, 3 August 2018 (UTC)

Spanish
Is it possibly to tidy up the Language Day section?

It says the UN Spanish language day is on 12th October.

The Wikipedia article — and the UN, itself — says it’s 23rd April.

Cuddy2977 (talk) 06:38, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

New Images
I believe this article could benefit from an image. Owen250708 (talk) 09:21, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

Lead section: possible bloat?
I'm wondering what is happening to the intro section? A previous revision was much more concise and on point:

The official languages of the United Nations are the six languages that are used in UN meetings and in which all official UN documents are written. In alphabetical order, they are:
 * Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic)
 * Chinese (Mandarin Chinese in simplified Chinese characters)
 * English (British English with Oxford spelling)
 * French
 * Russian
 * Spanish

The overabundant elaborations in the intro are obfuscating this simple information structure. In the case of English, crucial information (British English, Oxford Spelling) was even lost during the edits. I personally relied on that piece of info, when deciding which English variant to choose (so I went ahead and restored it, with an up-to-date official UN source).

Enumerating why each language was selected - or worse, where it is used - does not seem like intro material. Some elaboration might not be inappropriate I guess; but might be better to move it in the article body. Filling the intro with links to countries and territories does not seem very relevant. The links to the individual language articles should be enough to figure out where (and why) they are used. Indeed, it looks like many, if not all, wikilinks to countries and geographic regions might as well be copy-pasted from the respective language articles. All these links should be removed from the intro, I think - they are superfluous, and are duplicating information from the corresponding language articles (where they truly belong). (Note: Duplication opens up opportunities for mistakes, and potentially out-of-sync or outdated information; now or in the future.)

(As an aside: I'm wondering if all the additions and modifications are sourced properly/reliably. One recent source (www.humanrightscareers.com) looks like ad placement for some employment website).

DangerousToGoAlone (talk) 11:47, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

Spanish as an official language of the League of Nations?
Are there any documents confirming that Spanish was an official language of the League of Nations? When I tried to find one, I ended up finding contemporary documents saying that Spanish was not an official language instead. I am unable to find any similarly strong sources stating that Spanish was an official language of the League at any time.
 * https://archives.ungeneva.org/spanish-as-an-official-language-of-the-league
 * The earliest document, dated November 1920, is a request from Spain to the League to make Spanish an official language.
 * The next document, dated 14 June 1921, is the International Labour Office telling the League that the ILO is (apparently) surprised to read in the newspaper that Spanish has been made an official language of the ILO.
 * The last document, dated 22 June 1921, is a reply from the League to the ILO saying that the newspapers' announcements have "no foundation in fact".
 * https://www.jstor.org/stable/1945096?seq=2
 * This journal from 1926 says that in November 1920, the League's Assembly explicitly voted against making Spanish an official language.

If no objections, I will remove Spanish being an official language of the League of Nations from the article and add that it was voted against. Zowayix001 (talk) 04:09, 19 January 2024 (UTC)