OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

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OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. A LANGUAGE used for official purposes, especially as the medium of a national government. English is not the statutory or de jure official language of either the UK or the US, but is the de facto official language. It is, however, the sole statutory official language of Namibia; with FRENCH, it is one of the two statutory official languages of Canada; with Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Tamil, it is one of the four statutory official languages of Singapore; and with Chinese, French, RUSSIAN, and SPANISH is one of the five official languages of the UNITED NATIONS. See NATIONAL LANGUAGE.