Official Languages of the World

Can you name the national languages of every country in the world?

Source: Wikipedia

National languages only - not regional languages

Countries without a dejure official language, only a defacto one, are marked in red.

Bolivia has 37 official languages, and Zimbabwe 16 - this quiz includes the three most prominent

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Last updated: October 7, 2021

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First submitted	January 7, 2013
Times taken	192,453
Average score	53.8%
Rating	4.98

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Country	Language
Afghanistan	Pashto
Afghanistan	Persian (Darī)
Albania	Albanian
Algeria	Arabic
Algeria	Berber
Andorra	Catalan
Angola	Portuguese
Antigua and Barbuda	English
Argentina	Spanish
Armenia	Armenian
Australia	English
Austria	German
Azerbaijan	Azerbaijani
Bahamas	English
Bahrain	Arabic
Bangladesh	Bengali
Barbados	English
Belarus	Belarusian
Belarus	Russian
Belgium	Dutch
	French
	German
Belize	English
Benin	French
Bhutan	Dzongkha
Bolivia	Aymara
	Quechua
	Spanish
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian)
	Serbo-Croatian (Croatian)
	Serbo-Croatian (Serbian)
Botswana	English
Botswana	Tswana
Brazil	Portuguese
Brunei	English
Brunei	Malay
Bulgaria	Bulgarian
Burkina Faso	French
Burundi	English
	French
	Kirundi
Cambodia	Khmer
Cameroon	English
Cameroon	French
Canada	English
Canada	French
Cape Verde	Portuguese
Central African Republic	French
Central African Republic	Sango
Chad	Arabic
Chad	French
Chile	Spanish
China	Chinese (Mandarin)
Colombia	Spanish
Comoros	Arabic
	Comorian
	French
Costa Rica	Spanish
Croatia	Serbo-Croatian (Croatian)
Cuba	Spanish
Cyprus	Greek
Cyprus	Turkish
Czech Republic	Czech
D.R. Congo	French
Denmark	Danish
Djibouti	Arabic
Djibouti	French
Dominica	English
Dominican Republic	Spanish
East Timor	Portuguese
East Timor	Tetum
Ecuador	Spanish
Egypt	Arabic
El Salvador	Spanish
Equatorial Guinea	French
	Portuguese
	Spanish
Eritrea	Tigrinya


Estonia	Estonian
Eswatini	English
Eswatini	Swazi
Ethiopia	Afar
	Amharic
	Oromo
	Somali
	Tigrinya
Fed. States of Micronesia	English
Fiji	English
	Fijian
	Hindustani (Fiji Hindi)
Finland	Finnish
Finland	Swedish
France	French
Gabon	French
Gambia	English
Georgia	Georgian
Germany	German
Ghana	English

Country	Language
Greece	Greek
Grenada	English
Guatemala	Spanish
Guinea	French
Guinea-Bissau	Portuguese
Guyana	English
Haiti	French
Haiti	Haitian Creole
Honduras	Spanish
Hungary	Hungarian
Iceland	Icelandic
India	English
India	Hindustani (Hindi)
Indonesia	Malay (Indonesian)
Iran	Persian
Iraq	Arabic
Iraq	Kurdish
Ireland	English
Ireland	Irish
Israel	Hebrew
Italy	Italian
Ivory Coast	French
Jamaica	English
Japan	Japanese
Jordan	Arabic
Kazakhstan	Kazakh
Kazakhstan	Russian
Kenya	English
Kenya	Swahili
Kiribati	English
Kiribati	Gilbertese
Kosovo	Albanian
Kosovo	Serbo-Croatian (Serbian)
Kuwait	Arabic
Kyrgyzstan	Kyrgyz
Kyrgyzstan	Russian
Laos	Lao
Latvia	Latvian
Lebanon	Arabic
Lesotho	English
Lesotho	Sotho
Liberia	English
Libya	Arabic
Liechtenstein	German
Lithuania	Lithuanian
Luxembourg	French
	German
	Luxembourgish
Madagascar	French
Madagascar	Malagasy
Malawi	Chewa
Malawi	English
Malaysia	Malay
Maldives	Maldivian
Mali	French
Malta	English
Malta	Maltese
Marshall Islands	English
Marshall Islands	Marshallese
Mauritania	Arabic
Mauritius	Mauritian Creole
Mexico	Spanish
Moldova	Romanian (Moldovan)
Monaco	French
Mongolia	Mongolian
Montenegro	Serbo-Croatian (Montenegrin)
Morocco	Arabic
Morocco	Berber
Mozambique	Portuguese
Myanmar	Burmese
Namibia	English
Nauru	English
Nauru	Nauruan
Nepal	Nepali
Netherlands	Dutch
New Zealand	English
	Māori
	Māori
	New Zealand Sign Language
Nicaragua	Spanish
Niger	French
Nigeria	English
North Korea	Korean
North Macedonia	Albanian
North Macedonia	Macedonian
Norway	Norwegian
Norway	Sámi
Oman	Arabic
Pakistan	English
Pakistan	Hindustani (Urdu)
Palau	English
Palau	Palauan
Panama	Spanish
Papua New Guinea	English
	Hiri Motu
	PNG Sign Language
	Tok Pisin
Paraguay	Guaraní
	Spanish

Country	Language
Peru	Aymara
	Quechua
	Spanish
Philippines	English
Philippines	Filipino
Poland	Polish
Portugal	Portuguese
Qatar	Arabic
Rep. of Congo	French
Romania	Romanian
Russia	Russian
Rwanda	English
	French
	Kinyarwanda
	Swahili
St. Kitts and Nevis	English
St. Lucia	English
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	English
Samoa	English
Samoa	Samoan
San Marino	Italian
São Tomé and Príncipe	Portuguese
Saudi Arabia	Arabic
Senegal	French
Serbia	Serbo-Croatian (Serbian)
Seychelles	English
	French
	Seychellois Creole
Sierra Leone	English
Singapore	Chinese (Mandarin)
	English
	Malay
	Tamil
Slovakia	Slovak
Slovenia	Slovene
Solomon Islands	English
Somalia	Arabic
Somalia	Somali
South Africa	Afrikaans
	English
	Northern Sotho
	Sotho
	Southern Ndebele
	Swazi
	Tsonga
	Tswana
	Venda
	Xhosa
	Zulu
South Korea	Korean
South Korea	Korean Sign Language
South Sudan	English
Spain	Spanish
Sri Lanka	Sinhala
Sri Lanka	Tamil
Sudan	Arabic
Sudan	English
Suriname	Dutch
Sweden	Swedish


Switzerland	French
	German
	Italian
	Romansh
Syria	Arabic
Taiwan	Chinese (Mandarin)
Tajikistan	Persian (Tajik)
Tanzania	English
Tanzania	Swahili
Thailand	Thai
Togo	French
Tonga	English
Tonga	Tongan
Trinidad and Tobago	English
Tunisia	Arabic
Turkey	Turkish
Turkmenistan	Turkmen
Tuvalu	English
Tuvalu	Tuvaluan
Uganda	English
Uganda	Swahili
Ukraine	Ukrainian
United Arab Emirates	Arabic
United Kingdom	English
United States	English
Uruguay	Spanish
Uzbekistan	Uzbek
Vanuatu	Bislama
	English
	French
Vatican City	Italian
Venezuela	Spanish
Vietnam	Vietnamese
Yemen	Arabic
Zambia	English
Zimbabwe	English
	Northern Ndebele
	Shona

Level 34

Jan 8, 2013

in serbian=serbian, croatia=croatian, bosnia=croatian, serbian. there is no serbo croatian language. it does not egzist since 1991.

+33

Level 68

Jan 8, 2013

A language doesn't stop existing just because some government says so. Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Montenegrin are considered to be dialects of the same language by some, while others claim that they are different languages. Since there is no scientific definition of what the difference is between a language and a dialect, both claims are equally valid. The quiz has catered for that by letting you type either each language variety separately, or just typing a term that encompasses all of them.

Level 83

Jan 26, 2013

serbian works as an answer for most but if you type in Serbian alone you won't get Montenegrin.

Level 90

Jan 14, 2013

There are languages that are different because they are different. Then, there are languages that are different for political reasons. Serbocroatian is one of those. Before Yugoslavia broke up, these languages were considered to be one language. It was only after Yugoslavia broke up that they were considered separate languages. That is a fallacy to assume that they are separate languages because of politics.

However, Serbian is typically written in Cyrillic where Croatian is written in Latin, yet Hindi and Urdu are considered separate languages: spoken, they are the same language (with dialectal differences), but Urdu is written in Arabic and Hindi is written in Devanagari. Using that logic, it's not a fallacy to assume that Serbian and Croatian are separate languages.

Level 83

Jan 26, 2013

agree with dwo. Student of linguistics here. These languages were invented only to try and create an artificial difference between people who were at war with one another. Realistically, they are the same language. It would be like if the United States had a 2nd civil war, and those in the south declared that they spoke Confederalese and then decreed that all Southern dictionaries excise words like "pop" in favor of "soda," etc... a ridiculous and cynical exercise in the politics of war, not a natural evolution that would produce a truly distinct language.

Level 72

Jul 6, 2015

In the US South, neither "pop" nor "soda" are used...it's all Coke. Or more specifically, Co-cola. Soda is the East & West Coasts, w/an outpost in Milwaukee. Pop is the Midwest, although the dividing line between soda & pop runs north & south from Rochester, NY, through State College, PA, & south, roughly along the Appalachians.

Level 53

Feb 1, 2016

Yes Hindi is written in Devanagari, but Urdu is written in Shahmukhi not Arabic!

Level 71

Jun 13, 2016

kalbahamut, I see your politico-linguistic point, but as a student of Croatian, I can assure you that the differences between Serbian and Croatian are much bigger than the difference between Northern and Southern English in the US. Aside from the whole issue of using different writing systems, there is a growing difference in vocabulary. I'm guessing time will increase that; mostly because the Croats want it to.

Level 83

Feb 4, 2017

sam.. that's kind of my point though (because the Croats want it to). The differences are artificial and engineered. It's a false evolution of two dialects of the same language. My analogy to Northern/Southern American English was a hypothetical situation in which something similar *could* happen... not something that *has* happened.

Level 77

Feb 4, 2017

Sorry, Bobcat, but soda is definitely used in this part of the Upper South and in the Mid-South where we lived for a while. My college roommates from Michigan and Chicago thought I wanted an ice cream soda when I suggested we get a soda. They were calling it Coke back in the 1970s, but I have cousins in Michigan who still call it pop. I am noticing that the younger generations seem to prefer Coke as the generic word now, regardless of region. My late father-in-law, who grew up in the Ozarks, called it Co-cola.

Level 77

Jul 24, 2018

I forgot to add that when I was a girl in southern Missouri in the 1950s and '60s, everyone called it "sodie" as in, "Let's go to the store and get us a sodie." But when talking about a specific brand, cola was usually attached - Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola, RC Cola, Lotta Cola, etc.

Level 73

Oct 25, 2021

I don't know about the legitimacy, but that was an interesting piece of ethnography by bobcat.

Level 80

Feb 4, 2017

kalbahamut, it's a bit more complicated than that. While today's differences are in big part due to conscious political efforts, Serbian and Croatian are not a result of the recent wars. They are two distinct language standards that existed long before Yugoslavia (ok not that long, modern standardization dates to 19th century, but anyway...) Serbo-Croatian is still one language of course.

Level 83

Feb 6, 2017

Alright if you say so. My knowledge of the subject is limited, and a lot of it I got from Chris Hedges who is often full of crap.

Level 70

Mar 19, 2013

Isn't Qazaq also an alternate spelling of Kazakh?

Level 68

Mar 24, 2013

Hmm, I'll add that the next time I edit this quiz... Thanks!

Level 41

Dec 6, 2013

I was hoping that more than 1 percent of people would get Hiri Motu and 2 percent Tok Pisin for Papua New Guinea...

Level 81

May 28, 2014

I missed Tok Pisin even though I know I read something about how it evolved.

Level 67

May 23, 2017

Got Tok Pisin and guessed Motuan (which should be accepted) but missed Hiri Motu

Level 30

Dec 26, 2013

Since when is 'Irish' a language? Gallic, sure! Irish? Um....

+19

Level 61

Aug 11, 2019

Gaelic (not Gallic) is a group of languages which includes Irish, Scottish and Manx.

Level 15

Mar 23, 2022

It's definitely a language, if you want to be pedantic, be right.

Level 50

Jan 15, 2014

India has many more official language. They should be listed considering South Africa has so many listed

+11

Level 50

Sep 1, 2019

It only recognises English and Hindi at an official level, because yay diversity.

Level 83

Oct 25, 2021

I believe that in India, while there are many different languages given official status at the provincial level, at the national level it is only English and Hindi. For example the official languages of the province of West Bengal are English, Bengali, Urdu, Gurmukhi, Nepali, Ol-Chiki, Oriya and Hindi, from what I found. But that doesn't make all of these official languages of India. At least not in the sense used for this quiz.

Level 65

Mar 14, 2022

Ol Chiki is the script of the Santali language, not a language.

Level 22

Mar 3, 2014

What happened to Australia? I'm sorry

Level 29

May 26, 2017

Australia speaks English and so does the US (with some others like French, Spanish, etc.), Mexico, and apparently they count Canada but not his poor brother? How mean..

Level 50

May 26, 2019

Some countries don't have an official language, which is why they are not included on the quiz.

Level 76

Oct 16, 2021

Australia has no official languages.

Level 32

Mar 6, 2014

Got 86 of them

Level 64

Mar 28, 2014

It's funny how many of these you can get right just by adding an "ish" or "n" or "i" somewhere. Or even easier: Typing in the name of the country itself. Interesting quiz though, like it.

Level 39

Dec 12, 2018

Or even 'ian'.

Level 29

Jun 9, 2014

Hello quizmaster, I'd just like to say that Romansh is only a NATIONAL language of Switzerland, but not an OFFICIAL one! (it is co-official only at regional level in Graubunden Canton, like german in South Tyrol or Catalan in Catalonia). Even many people in Switzerland think it is an official language at national level, but it isn't. Source: I live in Switzerland

Level 29

Jun 9, 2014

Ah sorry Zefyrinus, I've realized now that this is not a Quizmaster's game! Very nice game by the way

Level ∞

Jun 9, 2014

According to the Federal Constitution of Switzerland, Romansh is a national language and also an official language for communicating with people who speak Romansh.

Level 29

Oct 29, 2014

I repeat that Romansh it is NOT an official language of Switzerland at national level. The fact that they allow Romansh people communicating to federal units in Romansh does not make it an official language. Only German, French and Italian are fully official and equivalent at national level, and every law must be translated into the three. I repeat that Romansh has the same relevance as REGIONAL LANGUAGES do in other countries. Here a link from the Swiss parliament that unfortunately is not available in English: http://www.admin.ch/opc/fr/classified-compilation/20062545/index.html

And I repeat that also many Swiss people make confusion on this topic and I get often contradicted.

Level 68

May 31, 2017

Poor Romansh. :(

Level 68

Jun 7, 2017

Now the QM has reinstated Romansh again. XD

Level 66

Jun 1, 2021

You can repeat it all you like, but the link you posted says "Le romanche est langue officielle". Even if it didn't, article 4 of the constitution clearly says:

Die Landessprachen sind Deutsch, Französisch, Italienisch und Rätoromanisch.

Le lingue nazionali sono il tedesco, il francese, l’italiano e il romancio.

Les langues nationales sont l’allemand, le français, l’italien et le romanche.

Las linguas naziunalas èn il tudestg, il franzos, il talian ed il rumantsch.

Level 50

Jun 29, 2014

Info about East Timor is not accurate. The official languages of the country do include Tetum, but not English, although it is widely spoken, due to the proximity to Australia. Portuguese is an official language, even if spoken by a minority of the population. Actually, considering East Timor's National Educational Programme, Portuguese is expected to be spoken by almost 70% of the population within a generation.

Level 50

Jun 29, 2014

Portugal has two official languages. Portuguese, obviously enough, but also Mirandese, spoken by 35000 people. The official languages of Spain include Spanish, incorrectly named for it should be Castellan (Castellano); Catalan; Basque; Galician and also Tenerifan, spoken in Tenerife.

Level 50

Feb 6, 2017

Fair enough, but the quiz doesn't recognize regional languages. Are they considered to be national languages, by the national government of Spain?

Level 41

Sep 10, 2018

Spanish is the only official language of Spain. The others are regional official languages.

La Constitución española de 1978.

Título preliminar

Artículo 3

El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. Todos los españoles tienen el deber de conocerla y el derecho a usarla.

Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas de acuerdo con sus Estatutos.

La riqueza de las distintas modalidades lingüísticas de España es un patrimonio cultural que será objeto de especial respeto y protección.

http://www.congreso.es/consti/constitucion/indice/titulos/articulos.jsp?ini=3&tipo=2

Level 77

Sep 17, 2014

Enjoyed this one, but I needed more time. My brain doesn't work as fast as it used to when I was young and carefree.

Level 37

Jan 9, 2015

ITA. The time on this is sillier than the countries quiz.

Level 77

Feb 4, 2017

I took it again and I still missed a few due to time running out. Another minute would really help.

Level 56

Apr 5, 2022

Try the map version of this quiz!

(yeah i know you're not really meant to advertise your own quizzes on other people's JetPunk but this one is related)

Level 15

Jan 7, 2015

i always figured that the official language of Australia was english..........i mean...thhats what everyone speaks

Level 68

Feb 8, 2017

As the years progress, that is less and less true. Australia is a country based on immigration, so the population of immigrants continues to rise, but there are many of these who chose to live among the enclaves of their own ex-pats, and many (particularly when they bring their elderly parents, etc) do not end up learning English. In fact, there are many areas (esp in Sydney and Melbourne) where you'll often see shops signs, etc, in only Mandarin or Vietnamese... But, no - no language has ever been written in to the Constitution. At the time, it was just assumed, since we based it on Westminster law. It's not expressly forbidden, like the creation of an official religion, but there just doesn't seem to be a need.

Level 37

Jan 9, 2015

Now I have something to memorize after the capitals. I hope you are working on something for once I get these to slide off my tongue....has to take us around the world and be very difficult, like countries and then capitals were the first time we tried. Thank you so much! They say use it or lose it, and you've taken 50 years off the age of my brain as I'm memorizing something new everyday. I read deeper things too but the memorization really makes the blood flow to the dead parts up there! :)

Level 68

Jan 9, 2015

Hahah! I was thinking of doing a currency quiz that also includes the smaller units like cents and pennies...

Level 64

Jan 23, 2016

Great idea! Is that quiz in the making?

Level 53

Feb 4, 2017

I am in complete agreement with you. My noggin feels like it has had a tune-up since beginning to memorize new information presented here.

Level 77

Feb 4, 2017

Absolutely correct, cyninoregon. This site should be mandatory for everyone over 50.

Level 77

Feb 4, 2017

Oh, and I forgot to add my thanks to Zefyrinus and QM, too.

Level 68

May 31, 2017

Level 66

Apr 5, 2015

please can you add Pedi or SiPedi for Northern Sotho, as that is it's other (indigenous) name. I was having a hard time with it. Also, as a favour, Ukrainean, and Belarussian. I would appreciate that.

Level 68

Apr 29, 2015

From what I've read, SiPedi/Sepedi/Pedi is a dialect, and "Northern Sotho" or "Sesotho sa Leboa" are the recommended names for the language. I'm no expert on this though.

I'll add the suggested variants for Ukrainian and Belarusian to the pipeline of changes.

Level 47

May 15, 2015

Very, very interesting quiz. One of the best I think.

However, I am sorry to say that nowhere in Icelandic law is Icelandic the official language of Iceland. It is by far de facto, but not officially. Strangely, Icelandic sign language is the official language of hearing impaired Icelanders.

Level 47

May 24, 2015

Act on the status of the Icelandic language and Icelandic sign language. Article 1:

"Icelandic is the national language of the Icelandic people and the official language in Iceland."

Level 47

May 24, 2015

Love this quiz! I would love to see a yellow-box version :D

Level 50

Feb 6, 2017

God, that would be brutal!!

Level 63

Jun 4, 2015

It's funny how former British colonies in Africa with barely any English speakers use English as their official language while the US with the largest English speaking population in the world doesn't.

Level 75

Jul 24, 2018

And Britain, which invented the English language, also doesn't have it as an official language

Level 61

Oct 24, 2015

Please accept Belarussian for Belarusian and Ukranian for Ukrainian. I made those mistakes.

Level 72

Nov 3, 2015

I think Ndebele should be accepted for Southern Ndebele.

Level 66

Nov 9, 2015

Zimbabwe now has 16 official languages.

Level 68

Aug 2, 2016

Huh, this is new. I think Zimbabwe will have to get the same treatment as Bolivia in this quiz. Some of the Zimbabwean languages are poorly defined too. Anyhow, this quiz seriously needs an update...

Level 43

Dec 18, 2015

Please accept Pashtu for Pashto.

Level 53

Feb 1, 2016

Should accept Hindi (or Hindustani) for India, Pakistan and Fiji.

Level 68

May 31, 2017

I've changed it so that Hindustani is accepted for all three.

Level 52

Feb 29, 2016

If you include New Zealand Sign Language, you should also include Papua New Guinean Sign Language ;)

Level 71

Jun 13, 2016

Hmm. I see it in Wikipedia, but there is no reference to official sources. It's also not in the CIA World Factbook entry, updated this month. But there are many news reports from May 2015 heralding its addition, so I'd suggest to the QM / Zefyrinus that it looks legit.

Level 68

May 31, 2017

It's just like you say, samiamco. I'll make it already filled in, until I can find better references.

Level 37

Aug 10, 2016

Got all of them on about my fourth try!

Level 45

Sep 30, 2016

could you accept Belorussian for Belarusian? That's how I was educated when I was younger.

Level 61

Feb 4, 2017

Missed Korean which would have gotten me the full 5pts. Annoying to forget that since it's just the country name!

Also South Africa is hogging all the languages. I guess it makes sense in post-apartheid SA to elevate all the major African languages into an official equality, but it looks odd next to e.g. India which has similar language diversity.

Level 53

Feb 4, 2017

Can you please accept Belarussian?

Level 68

May 31, 2017

Oops, it was supposed to be accepted, but I found a mistake in the type-ins. I've fixed it now.

Level 65

Feb 4, 2017

84; would have gotten a half dozen more if I had thought about it, especially in South America.

Level 80

Feb 4, 2017

I have a big issue with US not having an official language. English is the only language in which all legislation is published and the language used at courts, among other things. There's such thing as customary law.

Otherwise I would expect to see "Nauru ... none" in the capitals quiz, there's a much stronger case for this one.

Level 68

May 31, 2017

Well, for the US it's undisputable that English is the de facto "official" language, but when it comes to other countries it might be debatable what languages I should list for them if I opened up for this. So I need to base this on some kind of objective data. And for that reason I have chosen to only include whatever each country has defined as their official language.

Level 80

Jun 7, 2017

Fair enough, I guess I wasn't able to word it so neatly in my head before :)

Level 80

Feb 4, 2017

Slovenian should be accepted as well for Slovene.

Level 59

Feb 5, 2017

See above - September 2013.

Level 80

Feb 8, 2017

I see, I thought I had read all comments. I'll add correction there.

Level 68

May 31, 2017

I've decided to add Slovenian after all.

Level 21

Feb 6, 2017

Am I right in saying it isn't Filipino, but Tagalog?

Level 50

Feb 6, 2017

That's what I thought... I'm gonna go look it up...

Level 50

Feb 6, 2017

Alright, they are the same language (basically), and it's just that the "official" language is Filipino.

Level 60

Feb 7, 2017

New Zealand

Sign Language ?

Level 76

Oct 16, 2021

If you ever watch the New Zealand Prime Minister give a press conference, there is always a sign language translator alongside.

Level 60

Feb 7, 2017

I got 65

Level 48

Feb 8, 2017

Kicking myself because I put Afrikaan, forgetting the s. It's interesting because you can just add "ian" to most countries to get a language.

Level 75

Feb 9, 2017

can you accept belarussian (instead of with 1 s)?

Level 68

May 31, 2017

I've added this now.

Level 60

Apr 7, 2017

I missed japenese, but got guarani.

Level 67

May 23, 2017

Various spellings of Belarusian should be accepted, I have seen Belarussian and Belorussian used before and only guessed those two. Motuan should be accepted for Hiri Motu as it is the English name for the language, I guessed Motuan first.

Also, a note about Slovak/Slovene and the addition of -ian: I believe Slovakian is a correct equivalent but Slovenian isn't, but I'm not 100% sure.

Level 68

May 31, 2017

Belarusian with two S was supposed to be accepted, but it wasn't due to a mistake in the type-ins. I've fixed this now. But are you sure about Hiri Motu? There is a language called just Motu, on which Hiri Motu, the pidgin/creole language, is based on. The only thing I can find about "Motuan" is that it's the name of the people who speak Motu.

Level 80

Jun 7, 2017

Slovene and Slovenian are both commonly used as adjectives and nouns.

Level 67

May 23, 2017

Surprised so many people missed Quechua/Aymara, Malagasy, Amharic, Tigrinya, and Guaraní... I thought those were all common knowledge, especially Amharic, Quechua, and Aymara

Level 46

May 23, 2017

You thought wrong

Level 51

Oct 3, 2019

you've got to be joking

Level 68

Aug 1, 2020

For those who want a bigger challenge, here's a whole language series: Guess the language ;)

Level 41

May 27, 2017

I got Aymara, but forgot Mongolian! hahah!!

Level 75

Jun 5, 2017

Romansh is also an official language of Switzerland.

Level ∞

Jun 5, 2017

Accidentally removed from the grid with the last update. It will appear now.

Level 63

Jun 5, 2017

Wait, English isn't an official language of the UK? What's that all about?

Level 80

Jun 7, 2017

Not on paper.

Level 58

Sep 1, 2017

English is the de facto language of the UK - our (un-codified) constitution doesn't name an official language.

Level 64

Jun 5, 2017

102/114. I almost missed Seychellois Creole after typing just "Seychellois"; accept that also? The Creole portion isn't needed for "Seselwa"

Level 68

Sep 14, 2017

OK, I'll add just Seychellois to be accepted after the next update.

Level 75

Jun 6, 2017

So neither Haitian nor Creole work for Haiti (both which I tried). Can we make one or both of these work?

Level 85

Jul 25, 2017

I agree, Hatian Creole should work. I got lucky...I tried Creole and, when that didn't work, I put the cursor in front of Creole and began typing 'Hatian' but it accepted it at Haiti.

Level 68

Sep 14, 2017

loganite: Mind your I's. There's one on both sides of the T in Haiti.

buck1017: OK, I'll add just Haitian to be accepted after the next update.

Level 85

Oct 1, 2019

Did it again this time...typed Hatian, Creole, and Hatian Creole. Dang i's!!!

Level 85

Nov 3, 2019

I finally learned...Haitian Creole!!! Haitian...

Level 71

Jun 7, 2017

Love the work you put into this quiz! Would enjoy it more if you allowed a little more time.

Level 60

Jun 11, 2017

According to wikipedia Chile has no official language and it just ranks Spanish as a national language.

Level 68

Sep 14, 2017

That's odd, I can't find any mentioning of official or national languages of Chile on WP. But when I Google, all the sources say Spanish is the official language.

Level 75

Jun 14, 2017

Pashtun won't work... has to be Pashto, eh?

Level 70

Jun 18, 2017

Yeah, that got me too. Does seem a little harsh, but sure.

Level 68

Sep 14, 2017

OK, I'll allow this when the quiz gets updated.

Level 60

Jun 16, 2017

I just did further research and Ethiopia in their constitutions states that there is no official languages either.

Level 68

Sep 14, 2017

Hmm, I just looked this up now, and one document says that Amharic is the working language of the federal government. Though some other sources say that it's the official language of the government. :?

Level 85

Jul 25, 2017

I tried Seychelles Creole, surely that should be accepted? I also tried Nepalese instead of Nepali.

Level 68

Sep 14, 2017

OK, I have scheduled for both to be accepted in the future.

Level 85

Nov 3, 2019

Thanks! Absolutely love this quiz, by the way!

Level 65

Sep 14, 2017

Please accept "North Sotho" for "Northern Sotho"

Level 80

Dec 9, 2017

Harsh that I put Seychellois and didn't get it!

Level 68

Jun 23, 2018

Seychellois is accepted. Are you sure you typed it correctly? Hmm, or maybe it had been added after your comment.

Level 65

Feb 25, 2018

Not that it matters, but correct me if I'm wrong, in New Zealand, isn't English not considered an official language. When I went there a few months ago, I was told that there are only 2 official languages (Māori and NZ Sign Language), and that English, despite being the most widely spoken language, isn't formally designated as an official language. So if you're including English for New Zealand, you might as well include English for Australia, UK, US, Spanish for Mexico, etc. for the sake of consistency or otherwise remove English as an official language of NZ. Plus, should English be removed as an official language, it would probably confuse many people, and waste their time trying to figure out how to type 'English', which is always entertaining. +1 for accepting Seychellois

Level 68

Jun 23, 2018

Huh, that's interesting. I'll remove English.

Level 63

Jun 28, 2018

From what I see, English is the de facto official language, but it does not hold official official" status. It appears there is an effort to change that.

Level 75

Jun 27, 2018

English is acknowledged as an official language of New Zealand - see here.

Level 80

Jun 27, 2018

Of course it's an official language ...

Level 33

Jul 21, 2019

I am a New Zealander. We are taught there are 3 official language.

I am literally learning this may not be the case here...wth nz!

Level 61

Mar 10, 2018

India should be removed because India too nor has any official languages. Hindi is the most spoken language and English is used for official works, but they are not our national language. There are 22 recognized languages of India, if possible put all the 22 languages.

Level 68

Jun 23, 2018

According to Wikipedia, Hindi is the "official language of the government" and English a "subsidiary official language". I'm not really sure what exactly those terms mean though...

Level 21

Mar 10, 2018

Kurdish should be included; it is also an official language of Iraq.

Level 68

Jun 23, 2018

Ah, I've added it.

Level 44

Mar 23, 2018

Nice quiz you made!

Also a little question, how did you make a question have more than one answer? I've always had that dbout. One expample of this is South Africa.

Level 68

Jun 23, 2018

In Quiz Design, choose Manual Mode and you can merge cells. I used this to make the cell labeled "South Africa" take up several rows.

Level 86

Jun 29, 2018

Are New Zealand's laws written in sign language or Maori?

Level 76

Jul 8, 2018

I think when this quiz got changed, English must have somehow been removed from New Zealand.

Level 33

Jul 22, 2019

written in sign language? They can read words just like those who can hear!

Level 65

Aug 3, 2019

Sign languages are fully different languages from spoken languages. You don't have to be able to read a spoken language in order to understand and communicate with a sign language. I don't doubt that almost all sign language users can read another dominant language of their country, though.

I was wondering the same thing as someone2018 too, like maybe the government keeps a video archive of laws signed in NZSL.

Level 65

Jul 9, 2018

According to wikipedia, English is also an official language of Botswana alongside with Tswana.

Level 68

May 12, 2019

You're right. I don't know if it got removed from the quiz at some point earlier. I've made a change for it to be added in the next reset.

Level 17

Jul 24, 2018

I agree

Level 57

Jul 24, 2018

So English is not an official language in New Zealand but Maori and Sign Language are? What's up with that?

Level 67

Jul 24, 2018

Te Reo Maori was recognised as an official language in 1987, and NZ Sign Language achieved the same status in 2006. But there is currently no legislation that recognises English as an official language. Parliament is currently considering a draft bill to make it so, as it seems a bit daft.

Level 57

Jul 25, 2018

Fascinating! And I was so sure that I'd found an error in the quiz. Thanks for the info!

Level 67

Jul 24, 2018

When you try Pushtu, Pushtan, Pushti, Pushto, Pashtu, Pashtan, Pashti, and then give up... dang!

Level 65

Jul 24, 2018

Can you accept Creole?

Level 68

May 12, 2019

Sorry, no. Because there are hundreds of different creoles, so you need to specify which one it is.

Level 66

Oct 1, 2019

And 4-5 as official ones.

Level 83

Oct 25, 2021

Wikipedia says that Haitian Creole is "commonly referred to as simply 'Creole'".

Level 63

Jul 24, 2018

Can you just accept Creole? That doesn't seem any more generous than some of the other type=ins for this quiz.

Level 76

Jul 24, 2018

Hey Quizmaster, NZ parliament passed a bill in February this year officially recognizing English as an official language of New Zealand

Level 68

May 12, 2019

It seems as if the bill wasn't approved: https://www.quora.com/How-did-English-become-the-official-language-in-New-Zealand

I have trouble finding any official website stating that English would be an official language. Does anyone know any good links?

Level 64

Jul 24, 2018

Is the offical name Eswatini or Swaziland?

Level 38

Jul 24, 2018

No Welsh?

Level 68

May 12, 2019

Regional languages are not included in this quiz.

Level 49

Jul 25, 2018

Japan has no official language.

Level 68

May 12, 2019

I tried to look up your statement. It's really complicated: http://houseikyoku.sangiin.go.jp/column/column068.htm

The interesting part is this: 日本の国語は日本語であるとか、公用語は日本語であるなどと定める条文はないんだ。ただ、法律上「国語」という用例はあるし、そのような条文は日本語のことを国語といっているのだと理解できるよ。

To quickly Google translate that: There is no provision that states that Japanese national language is Japanese and official language is Japanese. However, there is an example in law called "national language", and it can be understood that such a clause means that Japanese is a national language.

Level 58

Jul 26, 2018

at least until other countries recognize it, can we still call "eSwatini" by the name "Swaziland"?

Level 71

Aug 6, 2018

Indeed, it's JetPunk policy to use the common English name as far as I know, so Swaziland should be the name used on this quiz. By the way, Israel is in the process of removing the official status of Arabic, though I'm not sure whether that law change has been completed yet. So maybe that can wait.

Level 30

Aug 19, 2018

Why does the UK not have English as our official language? we invented it!!!! Also, no White English speaking country has it as their official language either. Whats the conspiracy behind this?

Level 66

Mar 13, 2019

Do you think that people should petition their government to specify official languages just because of the colour their skin happens to be?

Level 80

Sep 28, 2019

That's debatable :) The shortest history of English language: "It was invented by the French"

Level 66

Oct 1, 2019

Canada, Malta and Ireland have English as official.

Level 37

Aug 21, 2018

Argentina has not got an official language. Instead of that, they use Spanish as de facto language.

Level 68

May 12, 2019

Hmm, I'm not sure anymore if this quiz used to include national languages or not. Now at least only official languages are included, so I'll schedule the answer for Argentina to be changed.

Level 24

Sep 28, 2018

c'mon guys FARSI is same as PERSIAN. In Iran, It is called as FARSI only . Not Persian

Level 68

May 12, 2019

"The Academy of Persian Language and Literature, however, has declared that the name Persian is more appropriate, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language#Name_of_the_language

However, Farsi should be an acceptable type-in for the language of Iran, which it apparently wasn't. This will be changed in the next reset of the quiz.

Level 21

Feb 4, 2019

It was easy until I got to south Africa. TOO many languages.

Level 74

Feb 8, 2019

shouldn't basque be the language for Andorra?

Level 68

May 12, 2019

Basque is only spoken in France and Spain.

Level 61

Mar 5, 2019

Norway has Samí as an official Language too. I know it is considered a minority Language in the other countries within Sápmi, but in Norway it has the same status as Norwegian.

Level 68

May 12, 2019

OMG things keep changing so fast. I hadn't even heard about this although Norway is my neighbor country.

Level 69

Mar 9, 2019

A lot of things has been changed now in 2019. Arabic is no longer an official language of Israel anymore but a "recognized language" and South Korea has now its sign language as one of its official languages like New Zealand does. You guys need to look up to things.

Level 68

May 12, 2019

I can't keep up! D: I've added these to be included in the next update.

Level 53

Mar 20, 2019

Please accept American

Level 49

Apr 21, 2019

Bhutanese should be accepted for Dzongkha, I think.

Level 68

May 12, 2019

Alright, I'll add that since Wikipedia mentions it.

Level 66

Sep 25, 2019

Kiribati is also called Kiribati (not confusing at all) and sometimes Kiribatese.

Level 80

Sep 28, 2019

Thank you for including de facto official languages now! There's not much practical (or even legal) difference between de jure and de facto official languages.

Level 41

Nov 3, 2019

Welsh is an official language of the UK.

Level 66

Nov 3, 2019

No, it is a regional language.

Level 60

Nov 3, 2019

THIS QUIZ NEEDS MORE TIME!!! I refuse to believe that you think we can actually get all of the spellings of these words right on the first try. And can you accept CREOLE as a type-in for all different types of Creole, rather than having us type in all the different types individually (again, taking up precious time that WE DON'T HAVE!!!)

Level 67

Feb 18, 2020

No need to shout!! And I just got 100 on tablet, if I was on a computer I could get them all in time, I'm atleast 1/3 slower on tablet (mainly more typos, on a bad typing day it is more like 1/2 as fast). In theory that is, I dont know them all, I think there are about 5 more I could get.

Level 62

Nov 3, 2019

Agree with Welsh, and also British Sign Language!

Level 45

Nov 3, 2019

Where's Igbo? Also what about Punjabi?

Level 80

Nov 12, 2019

Not official on national level

Level 67

Nov 5, 2019

Tough Quiz,116/117, only missed English.

Level 67

Nov 5, 2019

Luxembourgish. I tried this, depsite my thinking that it was a Homer Simpson answer, but must have spelled it wrong.

Level 61

Nov 12, 2019

Morisien should count for Mauritian creole

Level 68

Aug 1, 2020

Thanks! I've added this a type-in, it should work the next time the quiz is updated, if Quizmaster allows it.

Level 68

Nov 18, 2019

I tried Haitian and Creole separately, surely one of them must work

Level 51

Nov 21, 2019

Please ad "sapmi" as spelling for sami

Level 68

Aug 1, 2020

Sápmi is what they call their land, not their language.

Level 28

Dec 24, 2019

You should add Yucatec Mayan and Nahuatl in Mexico they're also de facto official languages

Level 68

Aug 1, 2020

Not at the national (federal) level.

Level 55

Mar 1, 2020

The United States has no "official language". Many individual states do but there is no official national language.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-official-language-of-the-united-states.html

Level ∞

Mar 1, 2020

"Countries without a dejure official language, only a defacto one, are marked in red."

Level 45

Mar 9, 2020

Why can't just creole work? Took me a while to figure I had to add prefixes, can we just allow it to fill in the most popular version of creole and then have to name the rest?

Level 24

Mar 19, 2020

Fijian is actually Hindi (Fijian). I would expect it to be changed

Level 68

May 15, 2020

Fijian is a completely different language on its own

Level 63

Mar 20, 2020

Why is the Netherlands in red?

Level 68

Aug 1, 2020

I don't know why the Quizmaster did this. :S The Wikipedia article says that Dutch is the official language.

Level 56

Mar 20, 2020

You should accept Amhara for Amharic

Level 68

Aug 1, 2020

Hmm, I'm not sure. Amhara is the name of the ethnic group who speak Amharic. I only checked the Wikipedia article, but that one doesn't list Amhara as an alternative name for the language.

Level 66

May 15, 2020

'Creole' should fit for Haiti, Mauritius, etc... e.g. without 'haitian"

Level 68

Aug 1, 2020

They are all different creole languages, so you need to specify which exact creoles they speak.

Level 75

Jul 3, 2020

Feeling a bit dumb as I forgot Afrikaans...

Level 74

Jul 17, 2020

Is there a reason that the sign languages are all filled in? It seems odd that they are treated differently than the other languages.

Level 68

Aug 1, 2020

Huh, the Quizmaster has changed this. I don't know what the reasoning is. :/

Level 35

Jul 20, 2020

After 20+ attempts I was finally able to remember all of them and passed the quiz with exactly 3:00 left!

Level 60

Aug 20, 2020

When you get Kinyarwanda, but not Bulgarian...at least I had 77.

Level 48

Sep 2, 2020

Sweden does not have an official language. It is de facto the majority language and it's official when Sweden represents outwards. There are five official minority languages though (finnish, yiddish, meänkieli, romani and sami).

Level 68

Sep 3, 2020

Swedish was officially made the "main language" in 2009. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20141110205547/http://www.riksdagen.se/sv/Dokument-Lagar/Lagar/Svenskforfattningssamling/Spraklag-2009600_sfs-2009-600/ ) It's unclear if this should be interpreted to mean the same thing as a national or official language.

Level 66

Sep 20, 2020

Truly puzzled that The Netherlands is now depicted as a de facto language rather than a de jure language, and wondering where the decision to note it as a de facto language came from.

I looked at the Dutch government's own website where it implicitly states that Dutch is indeed the official language, and that Fries (Frisian) is the second official language in that particular province. Papiamento and English are also considered as official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands.

Level 25

Nov 1, 2020

So you have two languages for India and half a dozen or more for South Africa. Really? Do you have any idea how many languages are spoken in India’s relatively small neighbour Pakistan let alone India? Here allow me to list them all(for Pakistan):

English, Urdu, pashto, Punjabi,Sindhi, saraiki, Baltit, Farsi, Hindko, Baluchi, Brahui etc. That’s not even exhaustive.

Now divide the land area of India by Pakistan, and multiply the languages above, and that’s APPROXIMATELY how many MAIN languages are spoken in India.

I don’t know that much about China, but seeing as how you missed Cantonese I’m guessing you made similar omission there as well. Please correct.

Level 68

Nov 4, 2020

Calm down. This quiz is about the official languages of countries, not languages with only regional status or no official status at all.

Level 34

Nov 27, 2020

In Vatican City write in latin.

Level 20

Dec 26, 2020

i forgot all the languages below tonga, tok pisin and northern sotho but then left out norwegian and urdu ahahahhaha

Level 51

Jan 7, 2021

Actually Vatican city has 4 official languages : italian, french, german and last but not least latin (so you should add an anwser)

Level 68

Jan 8, 2021

Some of those are working languages in various institutions, but they're not official languages of the Vatican City. Italian is the official language of the Vatican City, and Latin is the official language of the Holy See. What the difference between the Vatican City and the Holy See is, is a difficult question...

Level 23

Feb 9, 2021

Non British/Irish Europeans, how would you describe your proficiency in English? How much it is stressed to know it in your country and why? I've heard that most Europeans know English as a second language.

(From America so ignorant to this stuff)

Level 68

Jul 5, 2021

In Sweden it's taught from 4th grade normally. There are some who start even earlier. Finland has a similar situation, though I don't know the details. There's more American than Swedish shows on TV.

Level 54

Mar 3, 2021

88! I think that is pretty good!

Level 39

Apr 3, 2021

97/117

Level 61

Apr 29, 2021

Can you accept 'French Creole'?

Level 15

Jun 30, 2021

for Lebanon it isn't only Arabic, it's also French and English.

Level 68

Jul 5, 2021

What's your source for that? I can only see that French is a "recognized second language", so not an official or national language. I don't see any mention of English having an official status.

Level 80

Oct 7, 2021

115/119

South Africa and Ethiopia are killers

Level 79

Oct 8, 2021

Bunch of crap that Hindi doesn't work for Fiji

Level 68

Oct 11, 2021

Because some consider it a separate language. Hindustani however is accepted.

Level 65

Oct 8, 2021

Sami, that is not a single language, is not a national language in Norway. 3 different sami languages are official in some municipalities: Northern Sami in 8, Lule Sami in 1, and Southern Sami in 4.

Level 68

Oct 11, 2021

Thanks for the comment. Wikipedia was quite ambiguous whether it/they were official on the national level. But then I checked the source given, and it says that Sami is official only in the their areas administration. So not the whole country. I decided to remove Sami, but it will take a while before this change takes effect.

Level 80

Nov 8, 2021

Northern Sami is on the cover of passports though.

Level 71

Oct 12, 2021

It seems to me that 90% of the time, when a country only has one official language (and it's not a colonized language like English/Spanish/etc.) then it's just some form of the country name. Polish. Nepali. Albanian. Japanese. Lao. Malay. I can't even tell you how many I got just because I typed in the country name +ese/i/ian

Level 67

Oct 12, 2021

Got Hiri Motu, missed Afrikaans.

Level 44

Oct 24, 2021

India actually has 22+1(English) official languages namely, Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Meitei, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

Level 70

Oct 25, 2021

Mauritius has no official language as per our constitution. Mauritian Creole is the mother tongue of around 95% of the population and our most common day to day language. English is the most common working language with French as the second most common working language and it is also the second most popular language for conversations. French is the main language of our media. English and French are also very commonly used in conversations, specially among the younger generations. We are proudly trilingual (at least) and it is very common to hear many people using Mauritian Creole, French and English during a conversation. Bhojpuri is the mother tongue of around 5% of the population and is quite popular as the first or second language of the older generation of people of Indian origin (around two third of the population is of Indian origin, mainly the Hindu and the Muslim population).

Level 85

Oct 26, 2021

Interesting and educational.

Level 80

Nov 8, 2021

What language is used to publish laws, in parliament, courts etc? That's what makes it a de facto official language.

Level 16

Oct 28, 2021

great quiz. minor one, but Welsh (Cymraeg) is an official language of the UK

Level 48

Dec 14, 2021

This quiz does not count regional language, and Welsh is only official in Wales.

Level 23

Nov 4, 2021

very nice quiz

Level 15

Nov 9, 2021

This one was very hard nice quiz tho i really like it

Level 59

Nov 11, 2021

Taiwan (Republic of China) has passed the National Languages Development Law, now we Taiwanese have multiple national languages, including Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, Matsu, and Formosan languages. Also, Taiwan does not have an official language so national language is all we have.

By the way, Chinese is not a language but more like a language family since for example, Mandarin and Cantonese are definitely mutual unintelligible, so please do not include Chinese as a correct type in.

Level 25

Jan 31, 2022

Noice👌

Level 56

Feb 13, 2022

I almost feel bad for people who make these quizzes, so many arguments in chat…

Nice quiz though

Level 69

Mar 1, 2022

FYI Mali changed their official language to Bambara in January.

Level 79

Mar 8, 2022

I forgot English--the only language I know. LOL

Level 48

Mar 18, 2022

Czechia has both Czech and Slovak as official languages, according to Wikipedia.

Level 15

Mar 23, 2022

God help you if Papua New Guinea ever becomes fully plurinational and all 580+ languages become official

Level 54

May 3, 2022

Could Berbar be accepted for Berber

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