Official Bilingualism

Official bilingualism refers to the policy adopted by some states of recognizing two languages as official and producing all official documents, and handling all correspondence and official dealings, including Court procedure, in the two said languages. It is distinct from personal bilingualism, the capacity of a person to speak two languages.

Famous quotes containing the word official:

    “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)