national language

A national language is a language (or language variant, i.e. dialect) which represents the national identity of a nation or country. A national language is used for political and legal discourse.Some countries have more than one national language, such as Canada which uses both French and English. A national language declared as such by legislation is the same as an Official language. It is different for that reason from the national predominant language, which is a national language only through de facto use or by historical association with a particular nation.
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