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Poll: How important do you think it is for a country to have an official language?
Persoa que publicou o fío: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
PERSOAL DO SITIO
Nov 10, 2025

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How important do you think it is for a country to have an official language?".

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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 07:43
Membro (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Important Nov 10, 2025

It is important, but it is not the only factor contributing to cohesion and unity. History plays an equally important, if not more important, role. In Europe, for instance there are countries with several official languages without problems between the various regions (Switzerland and Norway, for example), but then there are others where different languages further exacerbate rivalries between regions (I am thinking of Belgium and Spain, for example). In Portugal, there are two official language... See more
It is important, but it is not the only factor contributing to cohesion and unity. History plays an equally important, if not more important, role. In Europe, for instance there are countries with several official languages without problems between the various regions (Switzerland and Norway, for example), but then there are others where different languages further exacerbate rivalries between regions (I am thinking of Belgium and Spain, for example). In Portugal, there are two official languages, Portuguese and Mirandese, the latter spoken only in a very small region by around 10 to 15 thousand people. ▲ Collapse
 
Philip Lees
Philip Lees  Identity Verified
Greece
Local time: 09:43
Greek to English
Other Nov 11, 2025

Why only one? Is the question intended to imply there should be only one official language per country? Given the poor linguistic level of many ProZ poll questions, it's hard to tell.

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:

In Portugal, there are two official languages, Portuguese and Mirandese, the latter spoken only in a very small region by around 10 to 15 thousand people.

And in the UK there is English and Welsh.

My passport has section headings in English and in French, but my UK driving license has English and Welsh (Trwydded Yrru).

A lot of people probably don't know that Britain has a second official language.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language

"The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gave the Welsh language official status in Wales. Welsh and English are de jure official languages of the Senedd (the Welsh parliament)."
 
expressisverbis
expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 07:43
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Other Nov 11, 2025

That’s correct. Portugal has two official languages, Portuguese and Mirandese.
Still, with the way things are going, my impression is that European Portuguese seems to be slowly disappearing.
 


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Poll: How important do you think it is for a country to have an official language?






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