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It can't simply be "court language". Peter III of Russia could barely speak Russian, but that didn't make German the official language of Russia during his rule
by eesmith 3y ago
It can't simply be "court language". Peter III of Russia could barely speak Russian, but that didn't make German the official language of Russia during his rule. I'm certain if I dug further I could find more such cases.
If the US had a king, and thus a court, would that automatically make English the official language of the US?
No, because https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_official_languages_by_country_and_territory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_official_languages_by_... say Japan has no official language (de facto Japanese) and they do have royalty, so it doesn't appear that simple.
My assumption is that 'official' requires some formal decree, but I saw no mention of that in the article.
- tuatoru 3y agoThe court language of Russia in the 1760s was French. France was The European Superpower until the aftermath of Napoleon's empire.
- hef19898 3y agoAnd French continued to be the language of diplomats until up to WW1.
- eesmith 3y agoAhh, thank you. But French wasn't the official language of Russia, right?
- clarionbell 3y agoConcept of official language is a very new thing. At least in it's current form. It's kind of like 'state' it sort of fits on older institutions, but isn't an exact fit.
- eesmith 3y agoYes. That is why I made the top-level comment - I think the author should have highlighted what made it "official" some 1,000 years ago.