Official Languages
Asia and Europe are the only two continents where most countries use native languages as their official languages, though English is also widespread.
- Abkhazia: Abkhaz, Russian
- Afghanistan: Persian, Pashto
- Armenia: Armenian
- Azerbaijan: Azerbaijani
- Bahrain: Arabic
- Bangladesh: Bengali
- Bhutan: Dzongkha
- Brunei: Malay, English
- Burma: Burmese
- Cambodia: Khmer
- China: Chinese
- Cyprus: Greek, Turkish
- East Timor: Tetum, Portuguese
- Georgia: Georgian
- India: Hindi, English
- Indonesia: Bahasa Indonesia
- Iran: Persian
- Iraq: Arabic, Kurdish
- Israel: Hebrew, Arabic
- Japan: Japanese
- Jordan: Arabic
- Kazakhstan: Kazakh, Russian
- Kuwait: Arabic
- Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyz, Russian
- Laos: Laotian
- Lebanon: Arabic, French
- Malaysia: Malay, English
- Maldives: Dhivehi
- Mongolia: Mongolia
- Nepal: Nepalese
- North Korea: Korean
- Oman: Arabic
- Pakistan: Urdu, English
- Philippines: Tagalog
- Qatar: Arabic
- Russia: Russian
- Saudi Arabia: Arabic
- Singapore: English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil
- South Korea: Korean
- South Ossetia: Ossetic, Georgian, Russian
- Sri Lanka: Sinhalese, Tamil
- Syria: Arabic
- Taiwan: Chinese
- Tajikistan: Persian
- Thailand: Thai
- Turkey: Turkish
- Turkmenistan: Turkmen
- United Arab Emirates: Arabic
- Uzbekistan: Uzbek
- Vietnam: Vietnamese
- Yemen: Arabic
Read more about this topic: Languages Of Asia
Famous quotes containing the words official and/or languages:
“Our medieval historians who prefer to rely as much as possible on official documents because the chronicles are unreliable, fall thereby into an occasionally dangerous error. The documents tell us little about the difference in tone which separates us from those times; they let us forget the fervent pathos of medieval life.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)