Official Script

An official script is a writing system that is specifically designated to be official in the constitutions or other applicable laws of countries, states, and other jurisdictions. Akin to an official language, an official script is much rarer. It is used primarily where an official language is in practice written with two or more scripts. As, in these languages, use of script often has cultural or political connotations, proclamation of an official script is sometimes criticised as having a goal of influencing culture or politics or both. Desired effects also may include easing education, communication and some other aspects of life. Some countries which have an official script are:

• Azerbaijan - Azeri Latin alphabet
• Ethiopia - Ge'ez script
• Nagorno-Karabakh - Armenian alphabet
• In Bosnia and Herzegovina:
  • Republika Srpska - Cyrillic
• China, People's Republic of (mainland China) - Simplified Chinese
  • Hong Kong - Traditional Chinese (de facto) After the announcement of Simplified Chinese in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau didn't follow the change, making Traditional Chinese the de facto official script. (Hong Kong and Macau are still colonies at that time, and their current constitutions didn't state that whether Tradition Chinese or Simplified Chinese is to be used. Both places continued to use Traditional Chinese after handover.)
  • Macau - Traditional Chinese (de facto)
  • Inner Mongolia - Mongolian alphabet
  • Tibet Autonomous Region - Tibetan alphabet
  • Xinjiang - Uyghur Ereb Yéziqi and Uyghur Latin Yéziqi
  • Guangxi - Zhuang Latin alphabet
• China, Republic of (Taiwan) - Traditional Chinese (de facto)
• Croatia - Croatian alphabet
• Georgia - Georgian alphabet
  • Separatist government of Abkhazia - Cyrillic-based Abkhaz alphabet
  • Separatist government of South Ossetia - Cyrillic
• India - Devanagari
  • Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Bhojpuri, Bhili, Magahi, Kurukh, Dogri - Devanagari
  • Gujarati - Gujarati alphabet
  • Kashmiri - Sharada script
  • Kannada - Kannada alphabet
  • Kutchi language - Gujarati alphabet
  • Punjabi - Gurmukhi
  • Malayalam - Malayalam alphabet
  • Bengali - Bengali alphabet
  • Oriya - Oriya alphabet
  • Assamese language - Assamese script
  • Maithili - Tirhuta
  • Sora - Sora Sompeng
  • Tamil - Tamil alphabet
  • Telugu - Telugu alphabet
  • Sinhala language - Sinhala alphabet
  • Gondi language - Gondi alphabet
  • Angika language - Kaithi
  • Saurashtra language - Saurashtra alphabet
  • Tulu language - Kannada alphabet
  • Konkani language-Devanagari, Kannada alphabet, Malayalam alphabet
  • Mundari - Bengali alphabet
• Kazakhstan - Cyrillic
• Korea (both) - Hangul and hanja (South Korea)
• Macedonia - Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet
• Moldova - Latin alphabet
  • Separatist government of Transnistria - Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet
• Mongolia - Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet and Mongolian script
• Montenegro - Cyrillic and Latin script http://www.vlada.me/biblioteka/1118659920.doc
• Russian Federation - Russian alphabet
• Serbia - Cyrillic
• Turkey - Turkish Latin alphabet
• Vietnam - Vietnamese alphabet

In the Russian Federation, the designation of Cyrillic as an official script (2001) has the consequence that the official languages of national Republics of Russia have to be written in the Cyrillic script in all official institutions and education. The passing of the law was met with particular resistance and criticism in the Republic of Tatarstan, as it replaced the Turkish Latin alphabet which the local government tried to promote in education after the dissolution of USSR.