An official language is a language having certain rights to be used in defined situations. These rights can be created in written form or by historic usage.
64-788: MCOT Public Company Limited (MCOT; Thai : บริษัท อสมท จำกัด (มหาชน) , romanized : bris̄ʹạth xs̄mth cảkạd (mh̄āchn) ), formerly known as the Mass Communication Organization of Thailand , is a Thai state-owned public broadcaster . It owns and operates a number of radio and television stations in Thailand. It is based in Bangkok . At present, MCOT runs seven national , one international , 52 provincial , one district radio station , two television channels (terrestrial free-to-air; until 2020), and 2 satellite television channels. (until 2017) Their motto
128-567: A dominant language in all aspects of society in Thailand, Thai initially saw gradual and later widespread adoption as a second language among the country's minority ethnic groups from the mid-late Ayutthaya period onward. Ethnic minorities today are predominantly bilingual, speaking Thai alongside their native language or dialect. Standard Thai is classified as one of the Chiang Saen languages—others being Northern Thai , Southern Thai and numerous smaller languages, which together with
192-665: A bill to parliament to statutorily recognise English as an official language. As of May 2020, the bill had not progressed. During the 2023 New Zealand general election , New Zealand First leader Winston Peters promised to make English an official language of New Zealand. The official language of Nigeria is English, which was chosen to facilitate the cultural and linguistic unity of the country. British colonial rule ended in 1960. Urdu and English both are official languages in Pakistan. Pakistan has more than 60 other languages. Filipino and English both are official languages of
256-570: A co-official language, but the proposal was rejected by nearly three-quarters of the voters. The official language of Malaysia is the Malay language ( Bahasa Melayu ), also known as Bahasa Malaysia or just Bahasa for short. Bahasa Melayu is being protected under Article 152 of the Constitution of Malaysia. Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands (a constituent country within
320-455: A de facto national language usually evolves. English is the most common official or co-official language, with recognized status in 51 countries. Arabic , French , and Spanish are official or co-official languages in several countries. An official language that is also an indigenous language is called endoglossic , one that is not indigenous is exoglossic . An instance is Nigeria which has three endoglossic official languages. By this,
384-541: A form of the Aramaic language (the so-called Official Aramaic or Imperial Aramaic) as the vehicle for written communication between the different regions of the vast empire with its different peoples and languages. Aramaic script was widely employed from Egypt in the southwest to Bactria and Sogdiana in the northeast. Texts were dictated in the native dialects and written down in Aramaic, and then read out again in
448-533: A four-way distinction among stops and affricates . The maximal four-way occurred in labials ( /p pʰ b ʔb/ ) and denti-alveolars ( /t tʰ d ʔd/ ); the three-way distinction among velars ( /k kʰ ɡ/ ) and palatals ( /tɕ tɕʰ dʑ/ ), with the glottalized member of each set apparently missing. The major change between old and modern Thai was due to voicing distinction losses and the concomitant tone split . This may have happened between about 1300 and 1600 CE, possibly occurring at different times in different parts of
512-486: A minority. South Africa has twelve official languages that are mostly indigenous. Due to limited funding, however, the government rarely produces documents in most languages. Accusations of mismanagement and corruption have been leveled against the Pan South African Language Board , established to promote multilingualism, develop the 11 official languages, and protect language rights in
576-421: A national level. On the other extreme, Bolivia officially recognizes 37 languages, the most of any country in the world. Second to Bolivia is India with 22 official languages . South Africa is the country with the third lead with 12 official languages that all have equal status; Bolivia gives primacy to Spanish , and India gives primacy to English and Hindi . The selection of an official language (or
640-481: A somewhat special status but are not official languages. For instance, at least 5% of the broadcasting time of privately owned TV channels must be translated into Russian (a similar privilege is granted to Arabic), warnings must be translated to several languages, and signs are mostly trilingual (Hebrew, Arabic and English), and the government supports Yiddish and Ladino culture (alongside Hebrew culture and Arabic culture). The Official Language Law recognizes Latvian as
704-530: A syllable that formerly began with a voiceless consonant (including glottalized stops). An additional complication is that formerly voiceless unaspirated stops/affricates (original /p t k tɕ ʔb ʔd/ ) also caused original tone 1 to lower, but had no such effect on original tones 2 or 3. The above consonant mergers and tone splits account for the complex relationship between spelling and sound in modern Thai. Modern "low"-class consonants were voiced in Old Thai, and
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#1732773250158768-584: Is "Always Serving the Public". On their website MCOT uses the slogan "Digitally beyond" (Nov 2014). On 10 November 1952, MCOT was established as Thai Television Company Limited. "Thorathat" is the Thai word for television, despite Thailand having no television services at the time. Television services under the name Thai Thorathat (Channel 4) started on 24 June 1955 in time for national day celebrations. In 1977 TTV Radio and Thailand Color Television Channel 9 moved to
832-506: Is based on the register of the educated classes by Central Thai and ethnic minorities in the area along the ring surrounding the Metropolis . In addition to Central Thai, Thailand is home to other related Tai languages . Although most linguists classify these dialects as related but distinct languages, native speakers often identify them as regional variants or dialects of the "same" Thai language, or as "different kinds of Thai". As
896-507: Is based on the dialect of the central Thai people, and it is written in the Thai script . Hlai languages Kam-Sui languages Kra languages Be language Northern Tai languages Central Tai languages Khamti language Tai Lue language Shan language others Northern Thai language Thai language Southern Thai language Tai Yo language Phuthai language Lao language (PDR Lao, Isan language ) Thai has undergone various historical sound changes. Some of
960-519: Is shown on commercial breaks and test transmissions. The clock in Thailand was not in colour until 1974. Originally the clock was based on the clock tower in Bangkok in black and white. In 1974 the clock was yellow on blue. Until the introduction of 24-hour broadcasting in 2002, MCOT used the PM5544 test pattern during the off-air hours of TV9 and EBU Colorbars on Channel 3. Until 2002, MCOT used
1024-486: Is the language of television, education, news reporting, and all forms of media. A recent research found that the speakers of the Northern Thai language (also known as Phasa Mueang or Kham Mueang) have become so few, as most people in northern Thailand now invariably speak Standard Thai, so that they are now using mostly Central Thai words and only seasoning their speech with the "Kham Mueang" accent. Standard Thai
1088-801: Is the sole official language in Bulgaria . Following the Constitution Act, 1982 the (federal) Government of Canada gives equal status to English and French as official languages. The Province of New Brunswick is also officially bilingual, as is Yukon . Nunavut has four official languages: English, French, Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun . The Northwest Territories has eleven official languages: Chipewyan/Dené , Cree , English , French , Gwich’in , Inuinnaqtun , Inuktitut , Inuvialuktun , North Slavey , South Slavey , and Tłı̨chǫ (Dogrib). All provinces, however, offer some necessary services in both English and French. The Province of Quebec with
1152-609: The Basic Law of Hong Kong and the Official Languages Ordinance , both Chinese and English are the official languages of Hong Kong with equal status. The variety of Chinese is not stipulated; however, Cantonese , being the language most commonly used by the majority of Hongkongers , forms the de facto standard. Similarly, Traditional Chinese characters are most commonly used in Hong Kong and form
1216-518: The Constitution of Afghanistan , the Afghan government gives equal status to Pashto and Dari as official languages. English is the de facto national language of Australia, while Australia has no de jure official language, English is the first language of the majority of the population , and has been entrenched as the de facto national language since European settlement , being
1280-618: The Official Language Act (Quebec) and Charter of the French Language defines French, the language of the majority of the population, as the official language of the provincial government. Ethiopia has five official languages (Amharic alone until 2020) Amharic , Oromo , Somali , Tigrinya , and Afar , but Amharic is the de facto sole official language which is used by the government for issuing driving licenses, business licenses, passport, and foreign diplomacy with
1344-547: The Philippines , Belgium , Switzerland , and the European Union are examples of official multilingualism. This has been described as controversial and, in some other areas where it has been proposed, the idea has been rejected. It has also been described as necessary for the recognition of different groups or as an advantage for the country in presenting itself to outsiders. Following Chapter 1, Article 16 of
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#17327732501581408-550: The United States , Mexico , and Australia ) have never declared de jure official languages at the national level. Other nations have declared non-indigenous official languages. Many of the world's constitutions mention one or more official or national languages . Some countries use the official language designation to empower indigenous groups by giving them access to the government in their native languages. In countries that do not formally designate an official language,
1472-496: The de facto standard for written Chinese, however, there is an increasing presence of Simplified Chinese characters particularly in areas related to tourism. In government use, documents written using Traditional Chinese characters are authoritative over ones written with Simplified Chinese characters. The Constitution of India ( part 17 ) designates the official language of the Government of India as Hindi written in
1536-620: The Devanagari script. Although the original intentions of the constitution were to phase out English as an official language, provisions were provided so that "Parliament may by law provide for the use ... of ... the English language". The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists has 22 languages, which have been referred to as scheduled languages and given recognition, status and official encouragement. In addition,
1600-640: The Government of India has awarded the distinction of classical language to Tamil , Sanskrit , Kannada , Telugu , Malayalam and Odia . The official language of Indonesia is the Indonesian language ( Bahasa Indonesia ). Bahasa Indonesia is regulated in Chapter XV, 1945 Constitution of Indonesia. On 19 July 2018, the Knesset passed a basic law under the title Israel as the Nation-State of
1664-482: The Hakka Basic Act to make Hakka an official language of Taiwan . According to the constitution of Timor-Leste , Tetum and Portuguese are the official languages of the country, and every official document must be published in both languages; Indonesian and English hold "working language" status in the country. The official language of Ukraine is Ukrainian . The de facto official language of
1728-574: The Jewish People , which defines Hebrew as "the State's language" and Arabic as a language with "a special status in the State" (article 4). The law further says that it should not be interpreted as compromising the status of the Arabic language in practice before the enactment of the basic law, namely, it preserves the status quo and changes the status of Hebrew and Arabic only nominally. Before
1792-555: The Khmer system first before the Thai borrowed. Old Thai had a three-way tone distinction on "live syllables" (those not ending in a stop), with no possible distinction on "dead syllables" (those ending in a stop, i.e. either /p/, /t/, /k/ or the glottal stop that automatically closes syllables otherwise ending in a short vowel). There was a two-way voiced vs. voiceless distinction among all fricative and sonorant consonants, and up to
1856-662: The Kingdom of the Netherlands). In the province of Friesland , Frisian is the official second language. While Dutch is therefore the official language of the Caribbean Netherlands (the islands Bonaire , Saba and Sint Eustatius ), it is not any of the three islands' main spoken language: Papiamento is the most often spoken language on Bonaire, while English is on both Saba and Sint Eustatius. These languages can be used in official documents (but do not have
1920-677: The Northwestern Tai and Lao-Phutai languages, form the Southwestern branch of Tai languages . The Tai languages are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family , which encompasses a large number of indigenous languages spoken in an arc from Hainan and Guangxi south through Laos and Northern Vietnam to the Cambodian border. Standard Thai is the principal language of education and government and spoken throughout Thailand. The standard
1984-730: The Philippines. Polish is the official language of Poland . Russian is the official language of the Russian Federation and in all federal subjects , however many minority languages have official status in the areas where they are indigenous. One type of federal subject in Russia, republics , are allowed to adopt additional official languages alongside Russian in their constitutions. Republics are often based around particular native ethnic groups and are often areas where ethnic Russians and native Russian-language speakers are
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2048-602: The Philips PM5534 (PM5544 with clock) during off-air hours. Currently both stations broadcast 24 hours a day. Thai language Thai , or Central Thai (historically Siamese ; Thai: ภาษาไทย ), is a Tai language of the Kra–Dai language family spoken by the Central Thai , Mon , Lao Wiang , Phuan people in Central Thailand and the vast majority of Thai Chinese enclaves throughout
2112-491: The Thai-speaking area. All voiced–voiceless pairs of consonants lost the voicing distinction: However, in the process of these mergers, the former distinction of voice was transferred into a new set of tonal distinctions. In essence, every tone in Old Thai split into two new tones, with a lower-pitched tone corresponding to a syllable that formerly began with a voiced consonant, and a higher-pitched tone corresponding to
2176-577: The United Kingdom is English . In Wales , the Welsh language , spoken by approximately 20% of the population, has de jure official status, alongside English. English is the de facto national language of the United States. While there is no official language at the federal level, 32 of the 50 U.S. states and all five inhabited U.S. territories have designated English as one, or
2240-532: The addition that Court documents are in Amharic, and the constitution is written in Amharic, making Amharic a higher official language in the country. According to the Finnish constitution, Finnish and Swedish are the national languages of the republic, giving their speakers the right to communicate with, and receive official documents from, government authorities in either of the two languages in any part of
2304-587: The country aims to protect the indigenous languages although at the same time recognising the English language as its lingua franca. In spatial terms, indigenous (endoglossic) languages are mostly employed in the function of official languages in Eurasia , while mainly non-indigenous (exoglossic) rest of the world. Around 500 BC, when Darius the Great annexed Mesopotamia to the Persian Empire , he chose
2368-492: The country – making those languages de facto official . Speakers of Sámi languages have those same rights in their native area ( Sámi homeland ). German is the official language of Germany . However, its minority languages include Sorbian ( Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian ), Romani , Danish and North Frisian , which are officially recognised. Migrant languages like Turkish, Russian and Spanish are widespread but are not officially recognised languages. According to
2432-447: The country. In practice, government is conducted in English. The four national languages of Switzerland are German , French , Italian and Romansh . At the federal level German, French and Italian are official languages, the official languages of individual cantons depend on the languages spoken in them. Mandarin is the most common language used in government. After World War II the mainland Chinese-run government made Mandarin
2496-499: The country. It is the sole official language of Thailand . Thai is the most spoken of over 60 languages of Thailand by both number of native and overall speakers. Over half of its vocabulary is derived from or borrowed from Pali , Sanskrit , Mon and Old Khmer . It is a tonal and analytic language . Thai has a complex orthography and system of relational markers . Spoken Thai, depending on standard sociolinguistic factors such as age, gender, class, spatial proximity, and
2560-500: The early twentieth century. The following languages are official ( de jure or de facto ) in three or more sovereign states. In some cases, a language may be defined as different languages in different countries. Examples are Hindi and Urdu, Malay and Indonesian, Serbian and Croatian, Persian and Tajik. Some countries—like Australia , the United Kingdom and the United States —have no official language recognized as such at
2624-733: The enactment of the aforementioned basic law, the status of official language in Israel was determined by the 82nd paragraph of the " Palestine Order in Council " issued on 14 August 1922 , for the British Mandate of Palestine , as amended in 1939: This law, like most other laws of the British Mandate, was adopted in the State of Israel, subject to certain amendments published by the provisional legislative branch on 19 May 1948. The amendment states that: In most public schools ,
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2688-404: The following five languages: Bengali , Chinese , English , Korean and Spanish . The same languages are also on ballot papers in certain parts of the state (namely, New York City ). Opponents of an official language policy in the United States argue that it would hamper "the government's ability to reach out, communicate, and warn people in the event of a natural or man-made disaster such as
2752-436: The lack thereof) is often contentious. An alternative to having a single official language is "official multilingualism ", where a government recognizes multiple official languages. Under this system, all government services are available in all official languages. Each citizen may choose their preferred language when conducting business. Most countries are multilingual and many are officially multilingual. Taiwan , Canada ,
2816-528: The local patois as pronounced in Guangdong Ayutthaya , the old capital of Thailand from 1351 - 1767 A.D., was from the beginning a bilingual society, speaking Thai and Khmer . Bilingualism must have been strengthened and maintained for some time by the great number of Khmer-speaking captives the Thais took from Angkor Thom after their victories in 1369, 1388 and 1431. Gradually toward the end of
2880-489: The main teaching language is Hebrew, English is taught as a second language, and most students learn a third language, usually Arabic but not necessarily. Other public schools have Arabic as their main teaching language, and they teach Hebrew as a second language and English as a third one. There are also bilingual schools which aim to teach both Hebrew and Arabic equally. Some languages other than Hebrew and Arabic, such as English, Russian, Amharic , Yiddish and Ladino enjoy
2944-551: The most significant changes occurred during the evolution from Old Thai to modern Thai. The Thai writing system has an eight-century history and many of these changes, especially in consonants and tones, are evidenced in the modern orthography . According to a Chinese source, during the Ming dynasty , Yingya Shenglan (1405–1433), Ma Huan reported on the language of the Xiānluó (暹羅) or Ayutthaya Kingdom, saying that it somewhat resembled
3008-463: The native language at the places they were received. The First Emperor of Qin standardized the written language of China after unifying the country in 221 BC. Classical Chinese would remain the standard written language for the next 2000 years. Standardization of the spoken language received less political attention, and Mandarin developed on an ad hoc basis from the dialects of the various imperial capitals until being officially standardized in
3072-541: The official language, and it was used in the schools and government. Under the Development of National Languages Act, political participation can be conducted in any national language, which is defined as a "natural language used by an original people group of Taiwan", which also includes Formosan languages , the Taiwanese variety of Hokkien and Hakka . According to Taiwan's Legislative Yuan, amendments were made to
3136-535: The only language spoken in the home for 72% of Australians . Article 21 of Azerbaijani Constitution designates the official language of the Republic of Azerbaijan as Azerbaijani Language . After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the then Head of the State Sheikh Mujibur Rahman adopted the policy of 'one state one language'. The de facto national language , Bengali , is
3200-767: The only, official language, while courts have found that residents in the 50 states do not have a right to government services in their preferred language. Public debate in the last few decades has focused on whether Spanish should be recognized by the government, or whether all business should be done in English. California allows people to take their driving test in the following 32 languages: Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Croatian, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese , Khmer, Korean, Laotian, Persian , Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Tagalog/Filipino, Thai, Tongan, Turkish, and Vietnamese. New York state provides voter-registration forms in
3264-415: The period, a language shift took place. Khmer fell out of use. Both Thai and Khmer descendants whose great-grand parents or earlier ancestors were bilingual came to use only Thai. In the process of language shift, an abundance of Khmer elements were transferred into Thai and permeated all aspects of the language. Consequently, the Thai of the late Ayutthaya Period which later became Ratanakosin or Bangkok Thai,
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#17327732501583328-639: The present Huai Khwang headquarters in Bangkok and merged to form the Mass Communication Organization of Thailand (MCOT). In 1970, with the launch of Chong Sam (Channel 3), its newest station, while the original Thai Thorathat (Channel Four) network was renamed Chong Kao (Channel 9). Witthayu Tor Tor Tor ("TTV Radio") later became Radio MCOT on 25 March 1977 and became the nation's first 24-hour radio station. Color television began in 1970 on Channel 3 and 1974 on Channel 9. Channel 9
3392-492: The royal vocabulary according to their immediate environment. Thai and Pali, the latter from Theravada Buddhism, were added to the vocabulary. An investigation of the Ayutthaya Rajasap reveals that three languages, Thai, Khmer and Khmero-Indic were at work closely both in formulaic expressions and in normal discourse. In fact, Khmero-Indic may be classified in the same category as Khmer because Indic had been adapted to
3456-719: The same status as Frisian). Low Saxon and Limburgish , languages acknowledged by the European Charter , are spoken in specific regions of the Netherlands. New Zealand has three official languages. English is the de facto official language, accepted as such in all situations. The Māori language and New Zealand Sign Language both have restricted de jure official status under the Māori Language Act 1987 and New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006. In 2018, New Zealand First MP Clayton Mitchell introduced
3520-525: The sole official language of Bangladesh according to the third article of the Constitution of Bangladesh . The government of Bangladesh introduced the Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 to ensure the mandatory use of Bengali in all government affairs. Belarusian and Russian have official status in the Republic of Belarus . Belgium has three official languages: Dutch , French and German . Bulgarian
3584-477: The sole official language of Latvia, while Latgalian is protected as "a historic variant of Latvian" and Livonian is recognized as "the language of the indigenous (autochthonous) population". Latvia also provides national minority education programmes in Russian , Polish , Hebrew , Ukrainian , Estonian , Lithuanian , and Belarusian . In 2012 there was a constitutional referendum on elevating Russian as
3648-535: The terminology "low" reflects the lower tone variants that resulted. Modern "mid"-class consonants were voiceless unaspirated stops or affricates in Old Thai—precisely the class that triggered lowering in original tone 1 but not tones 2 or 3. Modern "high"-class consonants were the remaining voiceless consonants in Old Thai (voiceless fricatives, voiceless sonorants, voiceless aspirated stops). The three most common tone "marks" (the lack of any tone mark, as well as
3712-569: The three tones of Old Thai were split have since merged into five in standard Thai, with the lower variant of former tone 2 merging with the higher variant of former tone 3, becoming the modern "falling" tone. หม ม หน น, ณ หญ ญ หง ง ป ผ พ, ภ บ ฏ, ต ฐ, ถ ท, ธ ฎ, ด จ ฉ ช Official language 178 countries recognize an official language, 101 of them recognizing more than one. The government of Italy made Italian official only in 1999, and some nations (such as
3776-448: The trials had been long over, the digital channels are (said to be) still active in test form. In addition, MCOT would introduce regional television channels for each province in Thailand . Each of these regions will have its own dedicated television channel with localised content compared to national television making it about 80 television channels for a digitised MCOT as part of the state broadcaster's three-year restructuring plan. MCOT
3840-423: The two marks termed mai ek and mai tho ) represent the three tones of Old Thai, and the complex relationship between tone mark and actual tone is due to the various tonal changes since then. Since the tone split, the tones have changed in actual representation to the point that the former relationship between lower and higher tonal variants has been completely obscured. Furthermore, the six tones that resulted after
3904-508: The urban/rural divide, is partly mutually intelligible with Lao , Isan , and some fellow Thai topolects . These languages are written with slightly different scripts, but are linguistically similar and effectively form a dialect continuum . Thai language is spoken by over 69 million people (2020). Moreover, most Thais in the northern (Lanna) and the northeastern (Isan) parts of the country today are bilingual speakers of Central Thai and their respective regional dialects because Central Thai
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#17327732501583968-453: Was a thorough mixture of Thai and Khmer. There were more Khmer words in use than Tai cognates. Khmer grammatical rules were used actively to coin new disyllabic and polysyllabic words and phrases. Khmer expressions, sayings, and proverbs were expressed in Thai through transference. Thais borrowed both the Royal vocabulary and rules to enlarge the vocabulary from Khmer. The Thais later developed
4032-428: Was expected to launch its digital terrestrial television services nationally in 2012. MCOT launched digital terrestrial television in 2013, with full service in 2014. In March 2011, MCOT announced that it is also possible that MCOT may be planning to switch to DVB-T2 in some occasion. All Analogue television Stations was switched off in 2020 Broadcasting on MCOT's 3rd MUX of 5 (UHF Channel 40 for Bangkok) The logo
4096-537: Was renamed Modernine TV in 2002. In 2005, the Ministry of Finance announced their plan to digitize free-to-air television broadcasts nationwide. Trial broadcasts were undertaken, involving 1,000 households in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area . MCOT has prepared at least three new channels exclusively for digital television , besides the two initial channels, Modernine TV and Channel 3. Though
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