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Anno Dracula series

The Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman—named after Anno Dracula, the series' first novel—is a work of fantasy depicting an alternate history in which the heroes of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula fail to stop Count Dracula's conquest of Britain, resulting in a world where vampires are common and increasingly dominant in society. While Dracula is a central figure in the events of the series, he is a minor character in the books and usually appears in only a few climactic pages of each book. While many of the characters from Newman's Diogenes Club stories appear in the Anno Dracula novels, they are not the same as the ones in those stories, nor is the Diogenes Club itself the same.

The series is known for its carefully researched historical settings and the author's use as supporting characters of historical people and fictional characters of the appropriate period. The metafictional style was inspired by the Wold Newton Universe of Philip José Farmer; Neil Gaiman helped develop the series (and was originally going to be its co-author). Gaiman has also credited the series as being one of the main influences on his short story "A Study in Emerald". Entries in the series have won the Dracula Society's Children of the Night Award, the Lord Ruthven Award and the International Horror Guild Award, and have been short-listed for the Bram Stoker Award and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. The series consists of six novels and a number of short stories and novellas.

Vampires in Anno Dracula
Newman's series presents vampires as more or less natural beings, passing on a biological change through the sharing of blood. "We are natural beings, like any other," Geneviève says. "There's no magic." (Though when confronted with the vampire's inexplicable inability to cast a reflection, she allows, "Maybe a little magic.... Just a touch.") Despite this, genetic studies have shown that the DNA of an individual before and after becoming a vampire does not change, despite the obvious change in their body and its abilities. Additionally, the vampire Cagliostro is said to be able to perform genuine acts of magic. Vampires are also capable of shapeshifting, and in the case of Dracula himself, to possess the bodies of others if his original is destroyed, as displayed in Johnny Alucard, when Dracula, assumed dead after Dracula Cha Cha Cha, returns after having lain dormant in a younger vampire he turned at one point.

Newman's series brings together characters from a large number of legends and fictional works that portray the vampires in many different ways. He tries to explain this in part through the concept of "bloodline", in which particular vampiric traits are passed on from vampire to vampire. A characteristic of Dracula's bloodline is shape-shifting, however because becoming a vampire isn't automatically like Dracula, many vampires experience partial shape-shifting and die because of that. However an interesting sidenote is that to "create" a new bloodline you have to be bitten by many different vampires during your mortal life then when you die as a mortal you resurrect as a new type of vampire, such as a shape-shifting vampire. This is how Dracula became a vampire in the novels, and this explains why his power over shape-shifting is in his complete control, unlike other vampires in his bloodline. Lord Ruthven, the British prime minister, says of Dracula:

"There's grave-mould in his bloodline, Godalming. That's the sickness he spreads. Think yourself lucky that you are of my bloodline. It's pure. We may not turn into bats and wolves, my son-in-darkness, but we don't rot on the bone, either, or lose our minds in a homicidal frenzy."

Some vampires have an aversion to crucifixes, holy water and the like, but Newman portrays this a superstition; vampires without such "silly ideas" show no ill effects from religious symbols. Garlic, too, is only effective against vampires who believe their own folklore. However, silver is deadly to all of Newman's vampires.

One trait that vampires share is an almost instantaneous healing ability. "Vampire physiology is such that wounds inflicted with ordinary weapons heal almost immediately," vampire expert Dr. Jekyll says in Anno Dracula. "Tissue and bone regenerate, just as a lizard may grow a new tail. Silver has a counteractive effect on this process." In some bloodlines, if silver is used complete regeneration may not be possible, which is what happened to Moldavian who was shot with silver; however certain bloodlines could completely regenerate even if silver is used. Dr. Jekyll also says that "any major breach of the vital organs seems to produce true death," explaining why a stake through the heart is an effective tactic.

Sunlight is also dangerous to vampires, particularly to the "new-born"—those recently turned into undead. For vampire "elders", those with years or centuries of experience, sunshine may be tolerable though still strength-sapping. There is no firm agreement on what makes a vampire an elder; a rough consensus was outlasting one's natural lifetime followed by another lifetime, or two centuries. Two-thirds of the vampire elders in Newman's universe come from the Romanian area of the Southern Carpathians; however, there are non-Caucasian vampires, such as the Chinese Assassin and Prince Mamuwalde.

Newman's vampires do need to drink blood for sustenance, though the taking of blood need not be fatal and is often voluntary. However, if the blood has a disease, or is dead blood it can make any vampire sick. Indeed, several characters in Anno Dracula are vampiric prostitutes who service "warm" men in exchange for coin or, preferably, quaffs of their blood. Animal blood is also used by vampires as a second-rate substitute for human blood. As Tom Ripley muses:

"In his ignorance, Tom had thought the dead needed blood to survive the way the living needed water. It wasn't true. Warm blood could be like dope, or alcohol, or sex, or espresso, or sugar. Anything from a desperate addiction to a mild weakness. When the red thirst was on them, their famed powers of insight and persuasion turned to fuzz and fudge."

Nor are vampires the only supernatural beings to inhabit Newman's universe. Zombies exist, but are said to be types of vampires caused by an epidemic bloodline that damages the brain and requires the vampire to chew blood from flesh rather than drink it from the vein; like 'normal' zombies, they spread their infection through simple biting and can only be killed by destroying the brain. Werewolves, ghosts, and non-vampire immortals also exist; as do artificial life such as Dr. Moreau's animal-human hybrids, and Frankenstein's monster, automaton assassins, and golems; extraterrestrial or genetically-engineered species, such as triffids and Audrey II, also exist. An octopoidal elder claims to be a Martian, and the Great Old Ones are also vaguely hinted at existing in this universe via the existence of the Esoteric Order of Dagon. Griffin's invisibility formula and Jekyll's ability to transform into Hyde also exist. Several "warms" are also said to have the vampire powers of precognition and telepathy, or the ability to perform acts of genuine magic. However, for the most part, vampires are the center-stage of Newman's paranormal setting.

Anno Dracula (1888)
By 1888, Dracula has married the widowed Queen Victoria, and rules as Prince Consort. Many notable fictional vampires have come out of hiding and gained new social status. But all is not going smoothly for the new regime: Jack the Ripper stalks Whitechapel, murdering vampire prostitutes. Charles Beauregard, a (non-vampire) agent of the Diogenes Club, is sent to track the murderer down, and finds himself enmeshed in a plot to free England from Dracula's rule.

Unusually for the series, several of the borrowed characters in Anno Dracula have no links to the period. To give just two examples: the heroine Geneviève Dieudonné is recycled from Newman's own Warhammer novels (first appearing in 1989 Drachenfels, written under the name Jack Yeovil), and Carl Kolchak has a brief cameo as a reporter following the Ripper case. (Newman has said that if he had realised he would get so many sequels out of the premise, he would have saved Kolchak up for a story set in the character's native 1970s.)

First published in October 1992, Anno Dracula has won the Dracula Society's Children of the Night Award, the Lord Ruthven Assembly's Fiction Award, and the International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel, and was short-listed for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy classifies Anno Dracula as "recursive fantasy", and further describes the work as not "strictly steampunk, but echoing in gaslight romance terms steampunk's dense reworking of a 19th century London.".

The 30th anniversary edition (Titan Books) includes a new novella, "Anno Dracula 1902: The Chances of Anything Coming From Mars."

Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron (1917)
Set during World War I. The Graf von Dracula, after being expelled from the United Kingdom in 1897, spread his brand of unstable vampirism (and with it raging lycanthropy) throughout the Russian Imperial Family. He now leads Germany and the Central Powers against the Entente, with vampires—now a part of everyday life—fighting (and dying) on both sides. The Red Baron of the title is the historical ace fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, who in this altered history leads a squadron of monstrous flying vampires.

First published in November 1995, The Bloody Red Baron was shortlisted for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, Long Form.

Anno Dracula: Dracula Cha Cha Cha (or Judgment of Tears) (1959)
Every vampire who is anybody is flocking to Rome for Dracula's wedding, but there is a mysterious vampire killer on the loose. Events are complicated by the arrival of a British secret agent called Bond (but not James Bond), on the trail of a Russian spymaster who never goes anywhere without his cat. The films of Federico Fellini are an influence on the setting and atmosphere, and several of his characters appear in the novel.

First published November 1998.

Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard
Set in the 1980s, Johnny Alucard tells the tale of the titular vampire in America. The novel is a collection of reworked short stories and novellas written and published by Newman in a variety of ways in between 1998 and 2013, with some new material.

It includes references to Taxi Driver, Ms. 45, Spider-Man, Blade, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Deathmaster, Elvira, The Light at the End, Death Wish, Convoy, Vampirella, Natural Born Killers, Badlands, Nocturna, Cruising, Vampire Junction, The Addiction, The Keep, and The Lost Boys, as well as taking its title from a character in the film Dracula AD 1972.

Publication of Johnny Alucard was extensively delayed, until its eventual release in September 2013.

"Coppola's Dracula" (1976)
Francis Ford Coppola is making the film for which he will always be remembered—an adaptation of Dracula starring Marlon Brando as Dracula and Martin Sheen as Jonathan Harker. (It is a variation of Apocalypse Now, complete with all the famous quotes and mishaps during filming, albeit in Romania instead of the Philippines.) The film crew is befriended by a young-looking vampire, who leaves with them when they return to America. (online)

Coppola's Dracula won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Long Fiction, and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction.

First appeared in The Mammoth Book of Dracula, 1997.

"Castle in the Desert" (1977)
The story's first-person narrator, a private investigator, investigates the death of his ex-wife, found at the bottom of her swimming pool with an iron spike driven through her forehead, and the disappearance of her daughter, last seen falling in with a crowd of vampire cultists. (The private investigator, though not named in the story, is clearly Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, and his ex-wife is the recurring character Linda Loring, whom Marlowe married in Chandler's unfinished final novel Poodle Springs—after initially rejecting the idea because he knew it would not last.) (online)

"Andy Warhol's Dracula" (1978)
New York. Johnny Pop, the young-looking vampire who came to America with Coppola's film crew, finds his place in his new homeland, on his way to becoming the next Dracula. He becomes rich (creating a drug ring that sells "drac", derived from vampire blood) and socially successful (befriending many successful locals, including Andy Warhol), but risks losing it all when the many enemies he makes along the way join forces against him. (online)

"Who Dares Wins" (1980)
April 30, 1980. The Romanian Embassy in London has been taken over by "freedom fighters" who want Transylvania to become a homeland for the undead. As Special Air Service troops mass for an assault, vampire/journalist Kate Reed is invited into the embassy to meet the leader of the terrorists. (The equivalent event in our history involved the Iranian embassy: see Iranian Embassy Siege.) (online)

"Who Dares Wins" includes an appearance by Richard Jeperson, the central character in one of Newman's other main sets of stories, the Diogenes Club series.

"The Other Side of Midnight" (1981)
Orson Welles receives funding from a mysterious source to film the ultimate version of Dracula, and hires a private detective to find out why. (The title combines those of two of Welles' movies: Chimes at Midnight and The Other Side of the Wind, the latter of which was left uncompleted at Welles' death in 1985. Welles also appeared as a minor character in Dracula Cha Cha Cha.)

"The Other Side of Midnight" was shortlisted for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, Short Form.

"You Are the Wind Beneath My Wings" (1984)
1984. A covert mission using undead agents to unseat the Ceaușescu regime in Romania.

"A Concert for Transylvania" (1990)
First published as part of Johnny Alucard.

Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories
A collection of short stories, the last of which is set in the Anno Dracula universe. It was published on 1 February 2017. The final story of the collection is largely identical to the opening chapter of the novel One Thousand Monsters.

Anno Dracula: One Thousand Monsters (1899)
The fifth instalment in the series, set in Tokyo. A ship of vampires, led by Genevieve Dieudonne, Captain Kostaki, Sergeant Dravot and Princess Christina Light, are exiled from England, seek refuge in Japan, and are trapped in Yōkai Town, a ghetto where Tokyo's vampires are kept out of sight and out of mind.

Anno Dracula 1999 Daikaiju (1999)
Like One Thousand Monsters, this novel is set in Tokyo, where vampire schoolgirl Nezumi and other unusual guests arrive to "see in the new millennium" at a party in the town's old yōkai ghetto.

Red Reign (1888)
Written in 1991, this novella was the first work in the series. It was later expanded into the novel Anno Dracula.

First published in The Mammoth Book of Vampires, 1992.

"Dead Travel Fast"
Published in the anthology Dead Travel Fast (2005), this story features an untold tale of Dracula's deeds during the events of the original novel. Although it is not technically an Anno Dracula story, as it occurs before the events of Anno Dracula diverge from those in Dracula, it may still be considered as an adjunct to the series. In the story, Dracula visits the manufacturers of one of the earliest automobiles.

"Vampire Romance" (1923)
Set in 1923, Geneviève Dieudonné is recruited by Winthrop and the Diogenes Club to attend a meeting of elders in Mildew Manor. There, the elders are seeking to elect a new "King of the Cats" to replace Dracula.

First published in the new, Titan Books printing of The Bloody Red Baron.

"Aquarius" (1968)
Set in the Swinging London of 1968. Kate Reed, in her capacity as an associate member of the Diogenes Club, investigates a series of murders apparently committed by a vampire and targeting living women. The killings fan the flame of anti-vampire hatred, already at a dangerous level due to Enoch Powell's recent Rivers of Blood speech (which, in this timeline, is not a metaphorical title).

First published in the new, Titan Books printing of Dracula Cha Cha Cha.

Anno Dracula - 1895: Seven Days in Mayhem (1895)
In 2017 Titan Comics launched a five-part Anno Dracula comics miniseries, titled Anno Dracula - 1895: Seven Days in Mayhem written by Newman with art by Paul McCaffery. It is set in 1895, towards the end of Dracula's rule in Great Britain.

Prospective film adaptations
In a 2000 interview, Newman said that he had scripted an Anno Dracula movie for Stuart Pollok and André Jacquemetton, who originally wanted Daniel Day-Lewis and Isabelle Adjani for Beauregard and Geneviève, and then Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche after they became too old. Other of Newman's suggestions were Jane Horrocks as Katie Reed, Helena Bonham Carter as Penelope Churchward, Colin Firth as Arthur Holmwood, Christopher Lee as Mycroft Holmes, Richard E. Grant as John Seward, and Harvey Keitel as Count Dracula.

According to an interview on May 16, 2008, the rights to an Anno Dracula movie had been optioned, and Newman had written a script, but "I don't know if there's much movement on it...Over the years, I've had a few comics people say they'd be interested and even an occasional game nibble, but no one has ever come up with a solid deal." Upon publishing extracts of the script in an updated version of the first book, Newman revealed the film would have used the likeness of Peter Cushing to represent the head of the deceased Van Helsing, establishing elements of the Hammer Productions Dracula film series as the backdrop for the film adaptation's events, specifically an imagined alternate ending to the 1958 Dracula film.

In a 2017 interview with fellow critic Mark Kermode while promoting 1895, Newman expressed hope in an eventual film or television adaptation, but cited the production of other Victorian literary pastiches such as Penny Dreadful and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as having an impact on the viability of the project.

title: Anno Dracula series


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Timeline of Afghan history

This is a timeline of Afghan history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Afghanistan and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Afghanistan. See also the list of heads of state of Afghanistan and the list of years in Afghanistan.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Timeline of Afghan history


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Talk:Oil crisis

Removed references to oil being used to generate electricity. Oil fired plants are a very minor source of electric power, with most plants being coal or gas fired.
 * Well, if you use oil-powered trains to get your coal to the power station... (and oil-powered cars to get the workers to the coalpit etc etc) :) cferrero

 * I think the commercial "knock-on" effects can more accurately be attributed to what are described as consumer effects, e.g. high petrol prices, which is significant for manufacturing, i.e. in shipping, etc. Graft 00:12 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I removed the link to the California_electricity_crisis, because as the discussion above demonstrates oil has very little to do with electric power. SimonP 04:04 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)

The link was there to highlight the energy crisis similarity (especially the supplier withdrawal and consumer price regulation, which both have in common), even if oil is not used to generate electricity, they do compete on things like home heating, and a rise in the price of one is often correlated with a rise in the other dml

 * So we actually don't have an article about the oil crisis on it's own? You get redirected to energy crisis but that's not the same. Shouldn't there be an oil crisis on it's own? I got some nice information here:  Lantern

 * I'm new to editing wikipedia, But i think "Oil crisis" should not be redirected to "Energy crisis". They're very different. Could someone remove that redirect or propose a stub for oil crisis?  lennartvdm
 * I thought I did this... Redirecting to Hubbert peak theory, which I think is the most appropriate place. Graft 12:58, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Oil crisis


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Talk:Timeline of Afghan history

[Untitled]
This is NOT a timeline of the history of Afghanistan, but a pathetic attempt by the Ghilzai tribal Pashtuns (the same who gave rise to the Communist regime in Kabul and later the Taliban) to rewrite the history of the Afghan nation. The Hotak were not monarchs but simple tribal raiders. It was Ahmad Shah Durrani of the civilized Abdali Pashtuns who established the state of Afghanistan in 1747, that lasted until 1978 (to include president Muhammad Dawood) when the Ghilzai Communists and then the Ghilzai Taliban, took over the country and destroyed it. This "timeline" completely ignores the period between 1747 and 1800--the time when Afghanistan was the nucleus of the Durrani Empire. It does so, because the author is a narrow-minded Ghilzai who is likewise angry at the fact that the Coalition liberation of Afghanistan brought an end to the reign of terror by the Taliban Ghilzais. Some "fidelity" to history here!!! The Ghilzai activists have dominated any topic in the Wikipedia written about Afghanistan and adultrated them. The remove anything that is written to reflect the true and documented history of Afghanistan in an attempt to rewrite it in favor of the violent Ghilzais.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.108.203.61 (talk) 02:13, 29 August 2011 (UTC) Please be aware with this article that Afghanistan was a Nation before the US took over, and therefore any article claiming that the United States is 'Nation Building' in Afghanistan is firstly factually incorrect and secondly not a neutral point of view (ie. against wikipedia NPOV policy). --snoyes 06:10 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC)

--

I understand. How do you suggest we describe this process that Afghanistan is undergoing? There is a coalition of nations attempting to bring Afghanistan toward a different make-up. The timeline I am working on will be examining events from the Taliban years through the International invasion. I hope then to keep the timeline up-to-date as we move into the future. I am happy to entertain a different name for the article. What do you suggest? Kingturtle 07:09 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC)

 * how about Afghanistan timeline ? Martin

 * Afghanistan timeline it will be. Kingturtle 04:03 Mar 27, 2003 (UTC)

--

I realize this article is an orphan. March 25, 2003 will be the day I am happy enough with the content to liberate the articles from the orphanage. Until then, I am typing in information and playing with formats a little. Also, I am still debating what to name this article. Also, don't let what I just said stop you from adding this article to another article. Kingturtle 03:54 Mar 12, 2003 (UTC)

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It frustrates me that my only media resources are from western outlets. For example, finding accurate numbers of Afghan injuries and deaths is near impossible. Kingturtle 21:10 Mar 15, 2003 (UTC)

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Please help build the timeline. I have many sources and over the next few months I will fill the months and years. Kingturtle 04:03 Mar 27, 2003 (UTC)

The timeline is huge! So large it needs an overview timeline. — Sverdrup 21:08, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * What is an overview timeline? Kingturtle 22:57, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Let's say a sentence per linked timeline to condensely describe what happened during this period. Or maybe a timeline with a sentence per decade covering the same span of years. Timelines are often overviews, but this timeline is a bit too detailed to, for example, be an overview of the 20th century in Afghanistan. — Sverdrup 12:44, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * Look at Timeline of the September 11, 2001 attacks for an example. The top level is a list of timelines as well as an overview timeline. — Sverdrup 12:46, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Fragmented
This is extremely difficult to navigate - can't we put some of these into fewer articles? Mark Richards 23:54, 13 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Fragmented how? What do you have in mind to change it? Kingturtle 23:59, 13 May 2004 (UTC)

I don't know exactly, but at times there is one article per month, with only a couple of things in each one - could we give some kind of navigation of major events, so that readers could get an impression, then click for details? Mark Richards 04:07, 14 May 2004 (UTC)

Sounds just like what I said. I found another example: Timeline of LGBT history has a timeline on top, with links to more details per-year. ✏ Sverdrup 00:16, 18 May 2004 (UTC)
 * It is not uncommon for wikipedia timelines to be divided up into timeframes. For example: Timeline of United States history, Timeline of Canadian history, Sports timeline, List of years in literature, Timeline of trends in music, Architecture timeline, etc. I realize some of the subpages are not fully formatted, but I am working on them. I realize that there should be a single page that highlights the most important items. I can get working on that idea. Or someone else can too :) Kingturtle 03:04, 18 May 2004 (UTC)

It seems to me many of these articles with just a few entries could be combined. Afghanistan timeline June 2002 through Afghanistan timeline October 2002, for example, only have a few entries each (or less) and could easily be combined. I'm sure we can get all of 2002 into 2 (maybe 3) articles, which I think would be infinitely better. The only reason to have separate articles is if they are get too long, and these are in no danger of doing that. Does anyone object to doing so? -R. fiend 17:00, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * four years on.. and I am doing this on a lazy easter saturday!! Jez t e C 08:54, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Did you know...?
...that nothing happened in Afghanistan after October 2004? This is the problem with pet projects such as this that are solely the work of one person: once that person stops editing all coverage of the topic halts, leading to a level of intolerable inconsistency. Perhaps all the articles in the series since the US invasion need to be trimmed down to significant facts, making them maybe half a dozen articles in total. Every death of every soldier, every roadside bomb, etc are not notable. -R. fiend 14:19, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Afghans of antiquity
Yima the Aryan, Zarathushtra the Pakhtrian, Panini the Gandhari, Maues the Saka, Rustam Sakzai, Kanishka the Kushan, Toramana the Hephthalite, Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar, Avicenna of Balkh, Shahab ud Din Muhammad of Ghor, etc. were also greatest Afghans.

timelines of Afghanistan
There seemed to be many different articles pointing to timelines of Afghanistan. I have merged a lot of these into 2001 in Afghanistan / 2002 in Afghanistan / 2003 in Afghanistan / 2004 in Afghanistan / 2005 in Afghanistan / 2006 in Afghanistan / 2007 in Afghanistan / 2008 in Afghanistan / 2009 in Afghanistan Comments for particular years on each page please Jez t e C 08:52, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Daoud becomes President
The end of Monarchy in Afghanistan and the start of the Presidency of Daud, i.e. the 1973 coup, needs to be in this timeline. Also to call Nadir Shah a reactionary in the timeline is emotional, not neutral. --132.185.144.122 (talk) 18:23, 18 January 2010 (UTC) --132.185.144.122 (talk) 18:23, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Template talk:History of Afghanistan
Some useful information may be gleaned from this page on the timeline of Afghanistan going back into antiquity. Template talk:History of Afghanistan .Intothefire (talk) 16:26, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

title: Talk:Timeline of Afghan history


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Talk:List of official languages

Mexico
Mexico has no "official" language; the Constitution does not states any as such. However, 63 indigenous languages (plus Spanish) are recognized as "national" languages (2003 General Law of Linguistic Rights of Indigenous Peoples). Ajusco —Preceding undated comment added 15:16, 27 March 2009 (UTC).

French in 6 continents
For Portuguese you consider East Timor as in Ocenia (while it is more commonly attributed to Asia, for example by UN) and Macau separately. If you consider Macau (part of China now) for Portuguese you should consider Pondichéry (part of India) for French: so French is present officially in all 6 continents.

Pondichery and Macau are not countries. So, it is better not considered them. Jj.

Does anyone know where to get info on the official language(s) of Ghana? The CIA world fact book says:

English (official), African languages (including Akan, Moshi-Dagomba, Ewe, and Ga)

But I was pretty sure that some of those african languages were official (besides just English). It would also be useful to have a complete list of the recognized african languages (I believe there are at least 15 recognized languages, and another 60 or so unrecognized languages).

About the inclusion of Hong Kong and Macau in the PRC (an obvious fact for me)User:Efghij: If you keep specifying Hong Kong and Macau, please specify Açores and Madeira (Portugal) and ALL Spanish regions, among other self-governing parts of many countries. Why is this case special?Marco NevesMarco Neves

On the subject of Portuguese being official on five continents again - Macau is a S.A.R, meaning a dependent territory, and therefore not conventionally considered in the list of sovereign countries. in the same vein, East Timor, while it does have Portuguese as an official language, is not considered to be in Oceania, rather in Asia, by numerous international entities ( the U.N, as said above, the European Union, and ASEAN ). Therefore, should not Portuguese be listed as official in 4, not 5 continents? Maik RazorwingMaik Razorwind Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away..... (talk) 13:24, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Therefore, Portuguese is official

Louisiana has no official language

?which is why I took the liberty to delete the state of Louisiana from the list. Louisiana?s current constitution (1974) says that the "right of the people to preserve, foster, and promote their respective historic linguistic and cultural origins is recognized" (see Article XII, Section 4 at http://senate.legis.state.la.us/Documents/Constitution/). Furthermore, all contracts and other documents written in French are recognized as legally binding. See also for more information James Crawford?s page on Louisiana: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/can-la.htm

According to the New Mexico wikipedia page, it also does not have an official language.

"New Mexico is commonly thought to have Spanish as an official language alongside English, due to the widespread usage of Spanish in the state. Although the original state constitution of 1912 provided for a temporarily bilingual government, New Mexico has no official language."

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Please stop edit-warring. If you've got a source that says Ireland has two official languages, with Irish as "the" official language, give me a link. -- ヤギ

 * I'm Portuguese and not particularly interested in the linguistic situation in Ireland, but I've learnt and repetedly see printed in many books and sources that:

 * Ireland is a mostly English-speaking country;
 * Ireland has two official languages: Irish Gaelic and English;
 * Irish Gaelic (or Irish) is considered the first official language, having superior legal value than English, which is one of the few (if not the only) cases in which an official language has a superior value to that of another (even in Spain, regional languages have exactly the same official value as Spanish in their own regions). Marco NevesMarco Neves

--- Kurdish is an official language in Iraq!!!
 * Yes (according to demographics of Iraq), and thanks for your excitement!!! Tuf-Kat

The 1937 Irish constitution Art.8.1. The Irish language as the national language is the first official language''.

Art.8.2. The English language is recognised as a second official language.''

(emphasis yours -- ヤギ )

All legislation, etc in the Irish language is treated as superior to anything in the Englsh language. etc etc etc. JtdIrL 06:32 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC)

 * The constitution of Ireland states that Irish will be the first official language and the next section states English is their second official language. This does not mean Irish (or Gaelic) is THE official language, but it was obviously the first established and I am not arguing on that point.

 * The fact is, any country with more than one official language would say "this is our first official language, this is our second official language, this is our tenth official language". There is no reason to make a special case for Ireland, they simply have two official languages like many countries. Article reverted. -- ヤギ
 * [just a remark: countries with more than one official language usually don't establish an order for those languages; Ireland, actually, is one of the few which does that.]Marco NevesMarco Neves

Cant you read english? Irish is THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. Number 1. The first. English is A second. Number two. Inferior in law. Takes second place in law. In the case of a clash, the Irish language version comes out tops.

One is THE language, one is rated as a second, to which if Ireland wanted to, Outer Mongolian could be added as an equal language to english. It is not an equality. One is THE language. One is a secondary language. JtdIrL 06:40 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC) Cant you read english? Irish is THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. Number 1. The first. English is A second. Number two. Inferior in law. Takes second place in law. In the case of a clash, the Irish language version comes out tops.

One is THE language, one is rated as a second, to which if Ireland wanted to, Outer Mongolian could be added as an equal language to english. It is not an equality. One is THE language. One is a secondary language. JtdIrL 06:40 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC)

 * I am perfectly capable of understanding English. Ireland has two official languages.  It is not rocket science. -- ヤギ

 * Please leave the entries on Ireland uniform to the other entries until a consensus has been reached. -- ヤギ

You want me to leave the entries to Ireland incorrect? Are you joking? There is no question of leaving entries about something as fundamental, as basic and as easy to understand as what the Irish constitution says about relative status of two languages incorrect. I wouldn't leave a page that said Rome was the capital of France untouched. Or that England is a republic. There is no question of letting a page that contain a fundamental mistake about Ireland sit with that error. As you still don't seem capable of grasping the facts, let me spell them out one more time.

Irish = ' The NATIONAL LANGUAGE' 'THE first official language.' Art.8.1. English = merely 'recognised' as A second official language, not ;THE national language, not 'A' national language, not even another ''first official language'. Instead it is demoted to A SECOND official language. In any quiz, if someone is asked - What is the national language of Ireland?, if they answer english they are told wrong answer. The national language is Irish. English is a secondly, inferior, grade II language.

Personally I don't agree with the way the constitution treats english, and would love to change it. But my personal feelings are irrelevant, the Official language of Ireland is Irish. English is a secondary language, not the official one. JtdIrL 07:20 Mar 7, 2003 (UTC)

From Iraq's constitution:

Article 7 [Languages]

(a) Arabic is the official language.

(b) The Kurdish language is official, besides Arabic, in the Kurdish Region.

I should have read before editing that, my mistake. -- ヤギ

"in the Republic of Ireland what is the state's official national language is actually spoken by only a small proportion of people"

Isn't the "national language" of a country the language most of the population speaks? From what I have read the terms "national language" and "official language" are seperate and should not be used interchangably. -- ヤギ

And Puerto Rico? In the list of states?

this is not NPOV and misleading. Puerto Rico is not a state, (not an incorporated territory like Guam and American Samoa or the english speaking territory of Virgin Islands). It is a self governing commonwealth associated with US since 1952. Spanish is and has been the first language (mother tongue)of Puerto Rico, English is a symbolic second language due to Puerto Rico's political association with US (English is taught in schools as a foreign language and not as a common, majority or national language). Puerto Rico has its own National Academy of Spanish Language (http://www.acaple.org) separate from the the USA National Academy of Spanish Language as well. Puerto Rico should be listed under state or province (since it is not fully sovereign) but separate from US (since it a self governing commonwealth in political association with US).

Swedish is an official language of Finland, but not of Sweden. There is a current Government Bill that has been put to Parliament, which is proposing to make Swedish the official language, but it has run into heavy critisism and it seems unlikely that it will pass. Just two years ago the Swedish Parliament passed an act recognizing several minority lanugages, and these are the only languages that have any kind of official recognition in Sweden. Swedish is so far merely the de facto standard language of Sweden, and it does not have an official status. /Mic

Just out of interest, I notice that English isn't listed as an official language of Great Britain. As far as I know it should be (certainly Welsh has official status in Wales, and I'm sure English does too, so I'd be surprised if it's not official in the rest of Britain). Also, should it be the whole United Kingdom or just Great Britain (or even the individual countries)? Magnus 17:28 Apr 16, 2003 (UTC)

According to a 1995 Parliamentary answer, there is "no concept of an official language enshrined in English or Scottish law". The Welsh Language Act enshrines the principle that "in the conduct of public business and the administration of justice in Wales, the English and Welsh languages should be treated on a basis of equality", but does not quite make it an "official language". See this PDF for an argument that Welsh should be made an official language. Furthermore, under the definition offered at official language, neither the UK nor Wales can have an "official language" as there is no written constitution. As with so many things in the UK, English is our "official language" only by longstanding convention. --rbrwr - Anyone know what Inuvialuktun, an official language of the Northwest Territories of Canada, is? It is not listed in Inuit, Inuktitut, or Eskimo-Aleut. Rmhermen 23:53, Aug 8, 2003 (UTC)

Dutch/Flemish
Look, I know the Dutch say "there's no such place as Belgium", but nevertheless Flemish is a distinct language with a distinct (and longer) cultural tradition, and the fact that Flemings and Dutchmen can make themselves mutually understood far more easily than (say) Danes and Swedes or Serbs and Croats does not make Dutch into one of the languages of Belgium. I suggest that we allow the fact of a distinct literary tradition to come through, or we lose touch with such things as Til Eulenspiel. PML.

 * I am from the Dutch Wikipedia, I am from Belgium, I speak Dutch (not flemish). Dutch is one of the 3 offical languages of Belgium and the main language of about 60% of the population. Flemish is not a offical language of Belgium. Giskart 09:54 Mar 13, 2003 (UTC)

 * Zelfs als Vlaams echt een andere taal zou zijn, wat het niet is, dan is het nog niet een officiële taal van een land. Dan kun je evengoed gaan zeggen dat ze in België "Limburgs, Antwerps, Gents, Brussels, en West-Vlaams spreken (al geef ik wel toe dat West-Vlaams soms wel als een andere taal klinkt) Giskart 09:54 Mar 13, 2003 (UTC)

And why would we split Dutch and Flemish? Together we are a lot stronger. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.144.100.44 (talk) 11:50, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism alert. Dutch supremacists appear to be denying the existence of Flemish, and making out that Belgium has Dutch as an official language. PML.

 * A remark: I've learned that Flemish and Dutch were united and are today two "dialects" of the same language - neerlandese. This is, I've heard the official situation, similar to that of Catalan: Catalan is called Valencian in Valencian Community but is, nevertheless, Catalan. Dutch and Flemish are two different names for the same language and, at the same time, two dialects of that language. Marco NevesMarco Neves

Flanders, the Netherlands and Suriname have a treaty called Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union). This treaty fixes the spelling used in education and by the government. Some other languages (Portuguese) also have such a treaty. --Otto ter Haar 09:58, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Moldovan language
Dear Sir, The Moldovan (Moldavian) language don't exist ! This "language" is only an invention of the Russian invaders. The language of the people in the so-called Moldova is the Romanian language. Best regards, Sorin Demetrescu 17.09.2003

 * No, of course it doesn't exist, it is just the official name of the Romanian language in Moldova. :)
 * See Moldovan language about this. Bogdan 12:10, 17 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Irish/English "secondary"
Under the Irish constitution, Article 8 1.	The Irish language as the national language is the first official language.

2.	The English language is recognised as a second official language.

3.	Provision may, however, be made by law for the exclusive use of either of the said languages for any one or more official purposes, either throughout the State or in any part thereof. garryq 13:32, 9 May 2004 (UTC)

The OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT 2003 ( http://www.acts.ie/en.act.2003.0032.4.html#partiii-sec11 ) does enable the use of Irish only in stationery and public announcements. Nevertheless, it confirms that both languages are official and that any person may use either language in contacting the government and expect a reply in that language I am sure the State will now use Irish much more in the Gaeltacht, but English has not been downgraded or replaced. The Constitution and practicalities ensure that. The situation is not analogous to Qu&eacur;bec where the promotion of French has been by a near-criminalising of non-Francophone and by suspending the Constitution (via the notwithstanding clause) garryq 14:18, 9 May 2004 (UTC)

Languages missing from list
Some languages are not given entries even though they are mentioned as co-official languages under other entries. Bislama is one of these. Also, Bulgarian appears out of alphabetical sequence.

Kashubian of Poland is missing

Portuguese in Galicia
The Portuguese language is not official in Galicia, texts in Portuguese don't have legal value.--Rocastelo 18:11, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC) n

Iceland
Why doesn't Iceland have a place their? The ancient Icelandic should definetely be there with the others, as its a very interesting language and obviously the official language of the country, as anyone who has been there knows (but you don't have to go there to know that).

Korean in South Korea
I am more and more unsure about the legal status of Korean in South Korea. As far as I can determine, it has no explicit status in written law. However, during the recent controversy surrounding President Roh Moo-hyun's proposed special law to move the capital, the argument that the prominent national symbols—Seoul being the capital, the national anthem, Korean as the "official" language—are included in the unwritten "Customary Constitution" (관습헌법) was used by the Constitutional Court of South Korea to overrule the proposed special law as being unconstitutional. Naturally, this raised a whole political debate about the validity of the "Customary Constitution" argument, and if we merely follow the Court's decision and say that Korean is the official language of South Korea, we may risk choosing a side in an ugly battle. How should we deal with this situation? Please direct your comments to Talk:South Korea. Thanks. --Iceager 01:02, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Well, I have been reminded that earlier this year (2005) the "Basic Law on national language" (국어기본법) was passed, and although I haven't been able to find its content anywhere, according to the press reports at the time it specified Korean as the official language and Hangul as the official script. I completely forgot about this. Never mind then... --Iceager 01:16, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

Vatican City
I think if there is no law in a country that says the equivalent of "X is the/a official language" or something very similar, then the country doesn't belong in this list. Countries where languages are merely de facto or traditionally official don't belong here. (Thus the U.S. isn't shown under English, Sweden is not listed under Swedish etc.)

By this measure I am having doubts that Latin is an official language of the State of the Vatican City. So far I haven't been able to uncover mention of a law that says Latin is official there. Does any one know one way or the other? I have also raised this question in Talk:Latin and Talk:Vatican City. -- Cam 06:59, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Australia
It appears that English is not de jure official in Australia. See recent discussion in Talk:Australia. When their article gets edited I will change it here. --Cam 17:10, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

De facto versus de jure
I suggest that we follow the Britannica practice of recognizing "de facto" and well as "de jure" official languages. For example, English is not the official language de jure of the United States. But Britannica apparently recosgnizes "official" any language in which the government of a country conducts most of its business. I propose a similar policy, with de facto and de jure clearly labelled as such. David Cannon 22:39, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Sounds reasonable, but by "official language" I think one means "official by law". And so any situation in which it is implicitly understood that a specific language is to be used for all formal purposes (for practical rather than symbolic reasons), should be denoted in the list as de facto official, as opposed to legally sanctioned. "De jure official" is an unnecessary pleonasm, while "de facto official" is an apt description of an actual situation. Note also that certain extinct languages are official solely as a symbolic gesture (such as Sanskrit, Latin or Manx), but we don't describe these as "de facto unofficial". //Big Adamsky 22:47, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

 * This definition is kind of a big deal, since it involves every country and state table. Could some kind of formal vote be taken about what our policy should be? --Cam 00:11, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

 * I think we should put also the de facto official languages. In fact, often where only one language is spoken nobody needed to proclaim it the official language. The source about the de facto use of a language shouldn't be based on Britannica, which is a tertiary source, but on the laws of that country: the language/s in which are officially written the laws and the other official acts of government is/are the de facto official language/s of that country. Lele giannoni (talk) 17:32, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Malaysian official language
There's only one official language and that's Malay. I've removed Malaysia from Chinese, English and Tamil list. See Article 152 of the Malaysian Constitution. __earth 02:16, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Kosovo
Kosovo is not (as yet) a sovereign state. I believe it therefore does not belong to this list. Should it remain here, as far as I know from a few months I spent there dealing with local legal matters, all current legislation is issued in albanian, serbian and english. Therefore, Kosovo should be added under the serbian, and probably the english extra. --81.57.232.80 03:11, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

It says about Kosovo "Independence is disputed.", even though it doesn't say so about Palestine, the indipendence of which is definetly disputed. That either has to be added to all countries not unanimously recognized, or removed completely. Quantastizium 21 Dec 2017

Russian language in Ukraine
Russian is not an official language of Ukraine. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 152.66.237.197 (talk) 19:51, 6 December 2006 (UTC).

Mandarin
Can anyone tell me about countries which have Mandarin as the official language? Wikipedia doesn't say the third. It just says China and Taiwan.

210.49.166.193 06:03, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Singapore (along with Malay, Tamil and English).--Fitzwilliam 07:54, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Zimbabwe
Ndebele is also an official language of zimbabwe The third official language is Shona

Just a bit more info

Mexico
This article states that Mexico's official language is Spanish. The Wikipedia article for Mexico states that Mexico does not have an official language. Which is correct? --JoeIcarus 18:51, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Spanish in Europe and Africa
Why is it said in the ranking that Spanish is official in two European and two Asian countries? As far as I know, Spanish is official in one European country (Spain) and one African country (Equatorial Guinea). So which are the second ones? On the other hand, it might be official again soon in one Asian country (Philippines). --Purplefire 02:44, 28 October 2007 (UTC) Spanish is official in Africa in 3 countries: Equatorial Guinea, Gabon (Cocobeach) and Spain (Ceuta, Melilla, and Canary islands are geographically in Africa). In Europe is official in Spain. In Andorra is official de facto (the most spoken language of the country).
 * The only way for Spanish to be an official language in the Philippines is via constitutional amendments which hasn't happened since the constitution was approved in 1987. -- Howard  the   Duck  05:43, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Intentional desinformation on languages in Moldova
User 212.182.118.70 keeps undoing edits on official languages in Moldova (the same goes for a good number of pages related to Moldova on Wikipedia), thus intentionally desinforming the reader. I do not want to violate the 3-revert rule (which I have done by now, I guess with four edits on 4 November). Could someone advise, what could be done in this case, please? Thank you. Moldopodo 19:00, 4 November 2007 (UTC)Moldopodo

FRENCH
French is official in Lebanon (Asia) and in French Guinea (South America) with some islands.

Problems
I noticed some problems with this article. I'm not going to attempt to fix them myself since I consider this entire article to be a problem due to unsupported assertions (see WP:NOR and WP:V).

 * At the bottom of the By number of continents: section there is a line which reads:
 * numerous other languages, of which German (6 countries)

this edit changed that line line from:
 * numerous other languages, of which German (6 countries) and Italian (4 countries) spoken in the most countries

-- Boracay Bill (talk) 02:26, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * The Official languages of sovereign countries section lists 7 countries for German and 5 (or perhaps 7) countries for Italian.
 * The Official languages of sovereign countries has a wikilink in its title. Note that WP:MOS says: "Avoid using links inside headings themselves (e.g. ). Instead, link from the first occurrence of the term in the prose of the section."

What is an official language?
Should not the article begin by explaining what it means by a country's "official language"?

If "official language" means one declared by law to be such, the United States has no official language. I strongly suspect that the same holds for several Commonwealth countries where English is the predominant language of the people. The same may perhaps be true also of very many countries in which a single language is dominant: has Japan legislated Japanese as the official language, or Germany German ... ?

But if an "official language" is one in which the country's laws are promulgated, then English is indeed the official language of the United States, Australia, etc., Italian is the official language of Vatican City State (not Latin: none of its laws and official regulations has ever been promulgated in Latin), and English (as well as Amharic) is an official language of Ethiopia.

For this article to be of value, surely it must state clearly what it is about. Lima (talk) 05:23, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

 * I think an official language is one which is officially so: by statute or such. A de facto official language is one which functions as an official language without being officially so.  Many such are listed here, with the appropriate note. Tb (talk) 15:12, 24 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Then, I think, this definition should be stated at the start. And, if that's what "official language" is to mean in this article, I wonder if it wouldn't be better not to mix the official languages that are officially so with de-facto official languages (ones that merely function as official languages, either solely, as in the United States, or along with another, as in Ethiopia).  Lima (talk) 10:57, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
 * The definition of "official language" for purposes of this article should be concisely stated in the first few sentences of the article's lead section. The definition for purposes of this article should not conflict with the definition given in the Wikipedia article on official language. That article says, in part, "True official languages are those designated as such by a regulation or law, such as the Māori Language Act or the Welsh Language Act 1967. However many languages are considered to be de facto official languages, meaning that although a language may have no official status in a particular country, it is the most commonly used language in that country and the one usually used in official settings." Defining both de-jure and de-facto flavors of official language and stating that de-facto languages mentioned would be designated as such would be fine. Supporting sources should be cited for language designations in this article, of course. -- Boracay Bill (talk) 23:37, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Suggested Terms

 * official - a language that is designated as official by local law (e.g French is the official language of France.)
 * co-official - one of two or more languages that is designated as official by local law (e.g. German, French, Italian, and Romansh are co-official languages of Switzerland.)
 * predominant - the language that is most widely used in speech and print (e.g. The United States has no official language, but English is predominant there.)
 * widely-recognized - a language that is widely recognized in commerce and/or government activities. (e.g. Although English is predominant in the United States, Spanish is also widely-recognized by evidence of the many government documents available in Spanish.) --Danorton (talk) 15:54, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

 * officially-recognized - a language that is not necessarily an official language, but is recognized by some decree or formal policy (e.g. Although the Mohawk Indian language is not widely-recognized in the United States, it is officially-recognized in Franklin County, New York according to federal government Language Minority practices mandated by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.) --Danorton (talk) 16:10, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Sounds great. Only problem (same as with a lot of other lists): does WP:NOR allow this kind of internal definitions? -- Jao (talk) 16:20, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

I don't believe that such definitions reflect original research, but instead enforce consistency (WP:MOS) and reflect a consensus understanding of terms used. The terms should not rely on personal opinion: e.g. if one is to claim a language as officially-recognized, the claim should be supported with proper external references to facts that support such claim. --Danorton (talk) 16:38, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Vague, Controversial, and/or Self-Contradictory Terms

 * de-facto official - I believe that many readers consider de-facto to be mutually exclusive with official. (Although a language might be the de-facto language in government, unless it's decreed so, it's not official.)  I believe that use of the Suggested Terms above will avoid this conflict and controversy. --Danorton (talk) 16:25, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Australia
There is no de jure official language in Australia but there are other laws and regulations to note it as the de facto official language. For example various laws and regulations state that petitions to Parliament, patents, business records, financial statements, food nutritional labels, materials safety information, etc "must be in English". 203.7.140.3 (talk) 02:50, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Namibia
In the article on Namibia it says that German, Afrikaans and Oshiwambo are just recognised regional languages, whereas only English is official. This article currently mentions German, Afrikaans and English as official languages of Namibia. Additionally, the article contradicts itself by stating that German is official in only one continent. I think that we should remove Namibia from German and Afrikaans. Marcoscramer (talk) 17:02, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
 * The Namibia article's infobox says, "German and Afrikaans were official languages until independence in 1990. The majority of the population speaks Afrikaans as a second language, while Oshiwambo is the first language of half the population. German is spoken by 32% of the European community whereas English is only spoken by 7%.", citing Namibia CIA World Fact Book as a supporting source. Article 3 of Namibia's 1990 constitution says, in part, "1) The official language of Namibia shall be English." I'll edit this article to reflect this and to cite Namibia's constitution as a supporting source. -- Boracay Bill (talk) 21:31, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Subnational entities mentioned in the listo of sovereign countries
Currently a number of subnational entities are mentioned in the list of official languages of sovereign countries. These should be removed and only be mentioned int he list of official languages of subnational entities. Marcoscramer (talk) 17:02, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

 * Me too, I've verified this inconsistency. We should remove the "part of" in the first list and put them in the second part. In the second part there is another inconsistency: under English and Russian are indicated all the regions where these languages are official, although English and Russian are official in the entire country. However, under French, German or Italian are not indicated the swiss cantons and other subnational entities. Lele giannoni (talk) 17:50, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Spanish is official in 20 countries, not 24
Spanish is official in 20 countries (or 21 if you count Puerto Rico separately), why does the article says 24? Easyboy82

Spanish is also official in USA (New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Miami, etc). It is also official in Gabon (in Cocobeach). In Andorra is official "de facto". It is the most spoken language of the country. There is a similar situation in Belize, where it is the most spoken language. At the same time, it is official in Rapa Nui (Easter island). So, it is also official in Oceania.

 * Fixed it, although according to List of countries where Spanish is an official language it's 21 excluding Puerto Rico (which we should do because it's a list of soveriegn states). -- Jao (talk) 15:25, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * There is an editor who is adding a few extra countries to the lists of Spanish as an official language. Official does not mean de facto. Spanish is not official in the U.S. except for a couple states where it's co-official. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and not a sovereign state. Easter Island is part of Chile and not a separate state. Catalan is the only official language of Andorra, and English is the only official language of Belize. Yes, Spanish may be widely spoken, but official and commonly spoken are not the same. The U.S. does not have an official language, but English is the national language. Kman543210 (talk) 11:10, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that explains the discrepancy between 20 and 21. I'll remove Belize right away. -- Jao (talk) 12:05, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

I did a little more research, and Spanish is actually not an official language in any U.S. state, the territory of Puerto Rico. New Mexico is thought to have Spanish an official language, but New Mexico does not have an official language (it has special status in some states but not official). As for whether Miami, Florida actually has it as a co-official language, I can't verify that, but that wouldn't matter since it's only a city. So it is official in 20 sovereign countries, 21 countries if you count Puerto Rico. I haven't been able to verify whether it is official in a specific region of Gabon yet, so if I find that it is, I'll add it to the sub-national identities section. I'm going to remove New Mexico from the list. Kman543210 (talk) 00:29, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

New Discussion
A discussion has been started at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Countries/Lists of countries which could affect the inclusion criteria and title of this and other lists of countries. Editors are invited to participate. Pfainuk talk 13:46, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Maltese in Australia?
Since when? just wondering... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.169.103.1 (talk) 19:45, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Dutch
The only Wikipedia pages that seem to be free of errors are the simple physics and math pages. This is a case in point. ONE example: how is Dutch official in five sovereign countries? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.108.147.206 (talk) 03:05, 3 March 2010 (UTC)
 * What in Earth's name are you talking about? The list gives The Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname, which are correct - that is 3 countries. sephia karta  |  dimmi  17:08, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Are you serious? Here's cutting and pasting for you: Number of countries with the same official language

This is a ranking of languages by number of sovereign countries in which they are official.

* 55 countries: English o largest: India, Nigeria, United Kingdom * 30 countries: French o largest: France, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Canada * 24 countries: Arabic o largest: Egypt, Sudan, Algeria * 22 countries: Spanish o largest: Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Argentina * 10 countries: Russian o largest: Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus * 10 countries: Portuguese o largest: Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola * 7 countries: German o largest: Germany, Austria, Switzerland * 5 countries: Dutch o largest: Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname

More than HALF these numbers are wrong. And for God's sake, somebody back in October added Urdu as a language of 12 Asian countries. There have been lots of edits since then but apparently nobody knows anything about what they're writing on Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.68.250.156 (talk) 00:57, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Ah there, you're right, that's wrong. You know that you are very welcome to correct mistakes like that when you encounter them? sephia karta  |  dimmi  11:32, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

The 5 countries are the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba altough the last two are not entirely sovereign. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.144.100.44 (talk) 16:11, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

It would make the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.249.49.241 (talk) 17:12, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Scots and Ulster Scots
Is there a reason why Scots and Ulster Scots are listed as co-languages in parentheses but are not entries in the list, or is this just a mistake? Epa101 (talk) 21:24, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Palestinian National Authority
The PNA is a government, not a country. What is meant in this spot is the State of Palestine which itself is not a sovereign country and so doesn't make its way onto this list. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gtheule (talk • contribs) 01:27, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Number of countries with the same official language
In that list languages like Bengali, Urdu, Nepali has been listed as official in 2 to 3 countries. I don't know if Bengali is official in any third country and also Nepali and Urdu are official at the national level in Nepal and Pakistan respectively. In India both are state level languages. But still if they are included in this list then I think French language entries must include India because French is an official language in Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry or Puducherry and so by the logic used in determining number of countries this is right. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 223.176.16.78 (talk) 02:00, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Added: "Official language by country, compiled from the above" (only using the list in original article)
Posted on Azolnai Google Drive  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Azolnai (talk • contribs) 22:55, 11 July 2012 (UTC)

Philippines
Article XIV, Section 7 of the 1897 constitution says, "For purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English."

It goes on to say, "The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein."

It goes on to say "Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis."

This article lists English (with Filipino) and Filipino (with English) as official languages in the Philippines.

The article also lists Aklanon, Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilocano, Kinaray-a, Surigaonon, Tagalog, Waray-Waray (with one another and with Filipino and English) as official languages in the Philippines. In support, the article cites this source, which says that the Department of Education has brought the total number of languages approved for use in teaching grades kindergarten to 3 to 19 (Aklanon, Bikol, Cebuano, Chabacano, Hiligaynon, Iloko, Ivatan, Kapampangan, Kinaray-a, Maguindanaoan, Maranao, Pangasinense, Sambal, Surigaonon, Tagalog, Tausug, Waray, Yakan, Ybanag -- 10 of these 19 [Chabacano, Ivatan, Kampangan, Maguindanaoan, Maranao, Pangasinense, Sambal, Tasuf, Yakan, Ybanag] are not mentioned in this article; I presume that Iloko/Ilocano and Waray/Waray-Waray are equivalent).

This article also lists Spanish and Arabic as official languages in the Philippines.

The List of countries where Arabic is an official language article does not mention the Philippines.

The List of countries where Spanish is an official language article mentions that Chavacano, a Spanish Creole language, is spoken in the Philippines as a regional language but is not official.

I propose that
 * The individual assertions that regional languages designated for use by the Department of Education languages are official languages in the Philippines be removed from this article.
 * The assertion that Arabic is an official language in the Philippines be removed from this article.
 * The assertion that Spanish is an official language in the Philippines be removed from this article.

Any discussion? Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 23:07, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

UK dubiousness
Previous discussion here contained the apparently supported assertions that Because of this, I've placed a Disputed-inline regarding English as an official language in the UK. At the very least, it seems to me that whatever is asserted needs to be clarified and supported. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 02:42, 5 May 2014 (UTC)
 * According to a 1995 Parliamentary answer, there is "no concept of an official language enshrined in English or Scottish law".
 * The Welsh Language Act enshrines the principle that "in the conduct of public business and the administration of justice in Wales, the English and Welsh languages should be treated on a basis of equality", but does not quite make it an "official language".
 * See this PDF for an argument that Welsh should be made an official language.
 * [U]nder the definition offered at official language, neither the UK nor Wales can have an "official language" as there is no written constitution. As with so many things in the UK, English is our "official language" only by longstanding convention.

India
Official languages of India are treated very inconsistently. See Languages with official status in India. We should either be listing Hindi and English only, or else all the 22 languages listed in "Eighth Schedule". Right now, some languages like Gujarati are on the list, but, say, Assamese is off. 2620:0:1000:1C02:5EC:47EB:5A51:5E43 (talk) 17:36, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

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Duplicate table
It looks like the section is a table that duplicates the article List of languages by the number of countries in which they are recognized as an official language, despite there being a hatnote that points there. The two aren't currently in sync. Please comment at. —[ Alan M 1 (talk) ]— 04:16, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:List of official languages


text:
Mandarin

Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:

Language

 * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
 * Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
 * Taiwanese Mandarin, Standard Chinese as spoken in Taiwan
 * Mandarin (late imperial lingua franca), the spoken standard of the Ming and Qing dynasties of China

Biological species

 * Mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata), a sweet, orange-like citrus fruit
 * Mandarin duck (Aix galericulata), a perching duck species found in East Asia
 * Mandarin dogfish, two species of small shark in the genus Cirrhigaleus off East Asian coast
 * Mandarinfish (disambiguation), various fishes
 * Mandarin vole (Lasiopodomys mandarinus), a species of vole found in China and the Korean Peninsula
 * Spotted mandarin (disambiguation), various species

Arts, entertainment, and media

 * The Miraculous Mandarin, a one-act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók
 * Mandarin (character), a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe
 * Wenwu, a version of the Mandarin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
 * Trevor Slattery, a version of the Mandarin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
 * Aldrich Killian (Marvel Cinematic Universe), a version of the Mandarin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
 * Mandarin (SRMTHFG), a character in the animated TV series Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!
 * Mandarins Drum and Bugle Corps, a drum and bugle corps from Sacramento, California, United States
 * The Mandarin (website), an Australian online magazine
 * MTV Mandarin, a 24-hour music channel owned by MTV Networks Asia Pacific

Novels

 * The Mandarin (novel), an 1880 novel by the Portuguese writer José Maria de Eça de Queirós
 * The Mandarins, 1954 novel by Simone de Beauvoir
 * Mandarin (Elegant novel), a 1983 novel by Robert Elegant
 * Mandarin (Havan novel), a 2008 novel by John Havan

Clothing

 * Mandarin gown or cheongsam, a Chinese style of dress
 * Mandarin collar, a short shirt or jacket collar that is not folded from Qing era China
 * Mandarin square, a badge worn by officials in Imperial China

Companies

 * Mandarin Airlines, a subsidiary of China Airlines
 * The Mandarin, former name of Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, a Hong Kong hotel
 * Mandarin Films, a film production company of Hong Kong
 * Mandarin Restaurant, an all-you-can-eat Chinese-Canadian buffet chain in Ontario, Canada
 * Mandarin Software, a British software developer / publisher

Other uses

 * Mandarin (bureaucrat), a bureaucrat of Imperial China (the original meaning of the word)
 * by extension, any senior government bureaucrat
 * Mandarin cuisine, another name for Beijing cuisine
 * Mandarin (Jacksonville), a 19th-century community, since absorbed into the city limits of Jacksonville, United States
 * Mandarin High School, a high school in the southern part of Jacksonville, Florida, United States
 * Mandarin porcelain, a wide range of porcelain that was made and decorated in China exclusively for export to Europe and later to North America
 * Mandarin paradox, an ethical parable

title: Mandarin


text:
Talk:Mandarin

Removed redirect
I have removed the redirect from this talk page to Talk:Mandarin (linguistics) so that questions such as the one below may be asked about the disambiguation page, and other Mandarin topics not related to the lanuage. Flibirigit 19:47, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

The Mandarin (restaurant)
I cannot find an article on Wikipedia for The Mandarin (restaurant). Does anyone know if one exists. Also, I cannot find it on the disambiguation page. Flibirigit 21:01, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Why does the redirect from Madarin exist?
Is it sufficiently often misspelled without the first "n" to warrant a redirect? How will people ever become aware they've misspelled it if they manage to link it to the right article anyway? -- JackofOz (talk) 22:58, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

What does it mean?
Is there an actual meaning to the word or is it just randomly tacked on as an identifier? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.10.222.30 (talk) 13:32, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Italics

 * I find it would be helpful for readers if the disambiguation page points out the relationships between the terms "Modern Standard Mandarin", "Mandarin" and "Standard Chinese", as these terms deserve to be mentioned on their own right and yet they could confusingly point to same thing.
 * After reading MOS:ITAL, I think it is valid to emphasize the first two terms by italics on this circumstance. I also find WP:MOSDAB have specific limitations on italicization on introductory lines and links, which may not apply to this circumstance.
 * Thanks and Happy Friday. Lovewhatyoudo (talk) 10:00, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes it is very confusing to search for Mandarin and discover that China's official language has practically no native speakers. More explanation needed for the novice.169.231.23.59 (talk) 01:39, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

A matter of emphasis
I came here looking for the article about the article about the bureaucratic office by this name, & failed to find it buried near the bottom. (I managed to find it linked in the article about the language.) Since it is the original meaning of this word, & from whence all these other terms are known, wouldn't it be more useful to the reader to put this link at the top? -- llywrch (talk) 20:17, 2 September 2019 (UTC)
 * It used to be that way. There also too many MOS:DABNOENTRYs, e.g. the Clothing section, making it harder to find the right "Mandarin".  Kanguole 21:20, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Mandarin


text:
User:Александър

Hello world, my name is Alexander (Александър in my native language) and I've been around since 2003. I am active mainly on BG Wikipedia, so if you have any questions, do not hesitate to drop me a line there.

bg:Потребител:Александър

title: User:Александър


text:
Rate–distortion theory

Rate–distortion theory is a major branch of information theory which provides the theoretical foundations for lossy data compression; it addresses the problem of determining the minimal number of bits per symbol, as measured by the rate R, that should be communicated over a channel, so that the source (input signal) can be approximately reconstructed at the receiver (output signal) without exceeding an expected distortion D.

Introduction

Rate–distortion theory gives an analytical expression for how much compression can be achieved using lossy compression methods. Many of the existing audio, speech, image, and video compression techniques have transforms, quantization, and bit-rate allocation procedures that capitalize on the general shape of rate–distortion functions.

Rate–distortion theory was created by Claude Shannon in his foundational work on information theory.

In rate–distortion theory, the rate is usually understood as the number of bits per data sample to be stored or transmitted. The notion of distortion is a subject of on-going discussion. In the most simple case (which is actually used in most cases), the distortion is defined as the expected value of the square of the difference between input and output signal (i.e., the mean squared error). However, since we know that most lossy compression techniques operate on data that will be perceived by human consumers (listening to music, watching pictures and video) the distortion measure should preferably be modeled on human perception and perhaps aesthetics: much like the use of probability in lossless compression, distortion measures can ultimately be identified with loss functions as used in Bayesian estimation and decision theory. In audio compression, perceptual models (and therefore perceptual distortion measures) are relatively well developed and routinely used in compression techniques such as MP3 or Vorbis, but are often not easy to include in rate–distortion theory. In image and video compression, the human perception models are less well developed and inclusion is mostly limited to the JPEG and MPEG weighting (quantization, normalization) matrix.

Distortion functions
Distortion functions measure the cost of representing a symbol $$x$$ by an approximated symbol $$\hat{x}$$. Typical distortion functions are the Hamming distortion and the Squared-error distortion.

Hamming distortion

 * $$ d(x,\hat{x}) = \begin{cases}

0 & \text{if } x = \hat{x} \\ 1 & \text{if } x \neq \hat{x} \end{cases} $$

Squared-error distortion

 * $$ d(x,\hat{x})=\left( x-\hat{x}\right)^2 $$

Rate–distortion functions
The functions that relate the rate and distortion are found as the solution of the following minimization problem:

 * $$\inf_{Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)} I_Q(Y;X) \text{ subject to } D_Q \le D^*.$$

Here $$Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)$$, sometimes called a test channel, is the conditional probability density function (PDF) of the communication channel output (compressed signal) $$Y$$ for a given input (original signal) $$X$$, and $$I_Q(Y;X)$$ is the mutual information between $$Y$$ and $$X$$ defined as

 * $$I(Y;X) = H(Y) - H(Y\mid X) \, $$

where $$H(Y)$$ and $$H(Y\mid X)$$ are the entropy of the output signal Y and the conditional entropy of the output signal given the input signal, respectively:

 * $$ H(Y) = - \int_{-\infty}^\infty P_Y (y) \log_{2} (P_Y (y))\,dy $$

 * $$ H(Y\mid X) =

- \int_{-\infty}^\infty \int_{-\infty}^\infty Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x) P_X (x) \log_2 (Q_{Y\mid X} (y\mid x))\, dx\, dy. $$

The problem can also be formulated as a distortion–rate function, where we find the infimum over achievable distortions for given rate constraint. The relevant expression is:

 * $$\inf_{Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)} E[D_Q[X,Y]] \text{ subject to } I_Q(Y;X)\leq R. $$

The two formulations lead to functions which are inverses of each other.

The mutual information can be understood as a measure for 'prior' uncertainty the receiver has about the sender's signal (H(Y)), diminished by the uncertainty that is left after receiving information about the sender's signal ($$H(Y\mid X)$$). Of course the decrease in uncertainty is due to the communicated amount of information, which is $$I \left(Y;X \right)$$.

As an example, in case there is no communication at all, then $$H(Y\mid X) = H (Y)$$ and $$I(Y;X) = 0$$. Alternatively, if the communication channel is perfect and the received signal $$Y$$ is identical to the signal $$X$$ at the sender, then $$H(Y\mid X) = 0$$ and $$I(Y;X) = H(X) = H(Y)$$.

In the definition of the rate–distortion function, $$D_Q$$ and $$D^{*}$$ are the distortion between $$X$$ and $$Y$$ for a given $$Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)$$ and the prescribed maximum distortion, respectively. When we use the mean squared error as distortion measure, we have (for amplitude-continuous signals):

 * $$D_Q = \int_{-\infty}^\infty \int_{-\infty}^\infty

P_{X,Y}(x,y) (x-y)^2\, dx\, dy = \int_{-\infty}^\infty \int_{-\infty}^\infty Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)P_{X}(x) (x-y)^2\, dx\, dy. $$

As the above equations show, calculating a rate–distortion function requires the stochastic description of the input $$X$$ in terms of the PDF $$P_X (x)$$, and then aims at finding the conditional PDF $$Q_{Y\mid X}(y\mid x)$$ that minimize rate for a given distortion $$D^{*}$$. These definitions can be formulated measure-theoretically to account for discrete and mixed random variables as well.

An analytical solution to this minimization problem is often difficult to obtain except in some instances for which we next offer two of the best known examples. The rate–distortion function of any source is known to obey several fundamental properties, the most important ones being that it is a continuous, monotonically decreasing convex (U) function and thus the shape for the function in the examples is typical (even measured rate–distortion functions in real life tend to have very similar forms).

Although analytical solutions to this problem are scarce, there are upper and lower bounds to these functions including the famous Shannon lower bound (SLB), which in the case of squared error and memoryless sources, states that for arbitrary sources with finite differential entropy,

 * $$ R(D) \ge h(X) - h(D) \, $$

where h(D) is the differential entropy of a Gaussian random variable with variance D. This lower bound is extensible to sources with memory and other distortion measures. One important feature of the SLB is that it is asymptotically tight in the low distortion regime for a wide class of sources and in some occasions, it actually coincides with the rate–distortion function. Shannon Lower Bounds can generally be found if the distortion between any two numbers can be expressed as a function of the difference between the value of these two numbers.

The Blahut–Arimoto algorithm, co-invented by Richard Blahut, is an elegant iterative technique for numerically obtaining rate–distortion functions of arbitrary finite input/output alphabet sources and much work has been done to extend it to more general problem instances.

When working with stationary sources with memory, it is necessary to modify the definition of the rate distortion function and it must be understood in the sense of a limit taken over sequences of increasing lengths.

R(D) = \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} R_n(D) $$ where

R_n(D) = \frac{1}{n} \inf_{Q_{Y^n\mid X^n} \in \mathcal{Q}} I(Y^n, X^n) $$ and

\mathcal{Q} = \{ Q_{Y^n\mid X^n}(Y^n\mid X^n,X_0): E[d(X^n,Y^n)] \leq D \} $$ where superscripts denote a complete sequence up to that time and the subscript 0 indicates initial state.

Memoryless (independent) Gaussian source with squared-error distortion
If we assume that $$X$$ is a Gaussian random variable with variance $$\sigma^2$$, and if we assume that successive samples of the signal $$X$$ are stochastically independent (or equivalently, the source is memoryless, or the signal is uncorrelated), we find the following analytical expression for the rate–distortion function:

 * $$ R(D) = \begin{cases}

\frac{1}{2}\log_2(\sigma_x^2/D ), & \text{if } 0 \le D \le \sigma_x^2 \\ 0, & \text{if } D > \sigma_x^2. \end{cases} $$

The following figure shows what this function looks like:

Rate–distortion theory tell us that 'no compression system exists that performs outside the gray area'. The closer a practical compression system is to the red (lower) bound, the better it performs. As a general rule, this bound can only be attained by increasing the coding block length parameter. Nevertheless, even at unit blocklengths one can often find good (scalar) quantizers that operate at distances from the rate–distortion function that are practically relevant.

This rate–distortion function holds only for Gaussian memoryless sources. It is known that the Gaussian source is the most "difficult" source to encode: for a given mean square error, it requires the greatest number of bits. The performance of a practical compression system working on—say—images, may well be below the $$R \left(D \right)$$ lower bound shown.

Memoryless (independent) Bernoulli source with Hamming distortion
The rate-distortion function of a Bernoulli random variable with Hamming distortion is given by:
 * $$ R(D) = \left\{ \begin{matrix}

H_b(p)-H_b(D), & 0 \le D \le \min{(p,1-p)} \\ 0,        & D > \min{(p,1-p)} \end{matrix} \right. $$ where $$H_b$$ denotes the binary entropy function.

Plot of the rate-distortion function for $$p=0.5$$:

Connecting rate-distortion theory to channel capacity
Suppose we want to transmit information about a source to the user with a distortion not exceeding D. Rate–distortion theory tells us that at least $$R(D)$$ bits/symbol of information from the source must reach the user. We also know from Shannon's channel coding theorem that if the source entropy is H bits/symbol, and the channel capacity is C (where $$C < H$$), then $$H-C$$ bits/symbol will be lost when transmitting this information over the given channel. For the user to have any hope of reconstructing with a maximum distortion D, we must impose the requirement that the information lost in transmission does not exceed the maximum tolerable loss of $$H-R(D)$$ bits/symbol. This means that the channel capacity must be at least as large as $$R(D)$$.

title: Rate–distortion theory