Asia List of multilingual countries and regions

a sign-board indicates direction sabarimala, pilgrim station in india. multilingual board written in hindi, malayalam, tamil, kannada, telugu , english (in order, top bottom)


there 23 official languages in states , territories of india (including hindi , english, languages official use in whole federation). largest, hindi, spoken natively 40% of population. english used, although in urban parts of country. large number of students high-school education bilingual — speaking own native language, in addition english, varying fluency, possibly hindi well, languages being compulsorily (in select states) taught in schools , colleges. see languages of india.
indonesia largest bilingual country in world, approximately 200 million people speak more 1 language. indonesian speak 746 different languages. javanese has users in terms of native speakers (about 80 million). interestingly, sole official (or so-called unity language ) indonesian has 30 million l1 speakers (compared indonesia 260 million population). role of indonesian important glue different ethnics , languages in indonesia. though indonesian considered nation s official language, regional governments have rights conduct regional languages study @ schools. many people in indonesia bilingual @ age. speak local native language families whereas official indonesian language used communicate people other regions , taught in schools compulsory subject.
in iran, persian sole official language, azerbaijani (along related varieties such qashqa , kalaj) has upwards of 15 million speakers. other minority languages include kurdish, turkmen, , balochi. assyrian spoken christian minority in vicinity of urmia. in southwestern iranian province of khuzestan, people speak khuzestani persian, khuzestani arabic, , standard persian, in addition own community languages such lur, qashqa i, domari or mandaic applicable.
in iraq, arabic official language of state, kurdish official language of north 4 million native speakers live. use of turkmen, assyrian, , armenian in education provided in constitution. other languages exist among christian communities north of , around baghdad, such aramaic.
in israel, arabic , hebrew both have official status (see languages of israel). jewish immigrants israel (especially europe) have different mother tongue, such arabic, amharic, yiddish, ladino, russian, romanian, polish, ukrainian, english, or french , many jewish immigrants latin america speak spanish , portuguese. native arab population of palestine speaks arabic. functionally, arabs in palestine speak hebrew. english spoken , understood second language both arabs , jews. officially, road signs must in arabic, hebrew, , romanized hebrew transliteration.
in lebanon, arabic official , national language; constitution provides conditions of using french provided law. many lebanese fluent in english , in french. armenian language used in armenian community.
in malaysia, people have working knowledge of malay , english. malay official language of country, along english in state of sarawak. malay , english compulsory subjects taught in public schools, , english language of instruction science , mathematics. chinese (mandarin) , tamil spoken chinese , indian communities respectively, , languages of instruction in chinese , tamil primary schools respectively. among chinese community, apart mandarin, several chinese dialects hokkien, cantonese , teochew , among indians, tamil spoken , dominant language. indigenous peoples of sabah , sarawak speak ancestral languages (dayak, iban etc.). however, not uncommon locals fluent in several of above languages. constitution provides use of sabah , sarawak languages in native courts or code of native law , custom.
pakistan. national language urdu; english allowed used official purposes until arrangements made replacement urdu there many regional languages , dialects (the latter unintelligible other dialects of same language ). many high-school , college educated pakistanis trilingual, being able speak english , urdu own regional language varying fluency.
philippines: philippine constitution. designates filipino national language and, along english, official languages. regional languages designated auxiliary official languages in regions shall serve auxiliary media of instruction therein. spanish , arabic designated promoted on voluntary , optional basis. people in native tagalog areas bilingual, while in non-tagalog areas common multilingual in filipino, english, , in 1 or more of regional languages, or in other cases in languages such spanish, minnan (hokkien), , arabic due factors such ancestry , religion. eleven regional languages recognised government auxiliary official languages in respective regions, while 90+ other languages , dialects spoken various groups.
republics of russia:

buryatia — russian , buryat official languages
altai republic — russian , altay official languages
tuva — russian , tyvan official languages
khakassia — russian , khakas official languages
sakha republic — russian , sakha official languages


singapore: english, mandarin chinese, malay , tamil official languages. malay national language. english main language used in singapore. english links different races, group diverse races communicate using english. of population can speak, read , write in english. in addition english, many singaporeans can speak respective ethnic language well, compulsory subject in school. in chinese communities, older generation speak own dialects besides mandarin and/or english.
sri lanka. sinhala , tamil official languages. english referred link language in constitution.
syria

rojava: constitution of de facto autonomous region designates kurdish, arabic , syriac official languages.


taiwan: mandarin official language, taiwanese commonly used in people (especially adults , elders). in hakka community, people trilingual in hakka, mandarin , taiwanese. 10 aboriginal languages spoken in mountain , eastern portion of island. promotion , use provided indigenous peoples basic law in 2017, law providing use of indigenous languages in 55 municipalities adopted.
tajikistan: tajik state language , russian, designated language of interethnic communication in constitution, spoken.
thailand: thai main , sole official language in thailand. there different dialects such phitsanulok, ayutthaya, suphan buri(traditional dialect), thonburi, standard thai influenced thai chinese in bangkok, isan influenced lao , used in northeastern area, southern thai spoken in southern provinces, northern thai spoken in provinces formerly part of independent kingdom of lanna. karen languages spoken along border burma, khmer near cambodia (and throughout central thailand), , malay in south near malaysia. thai hill tribes speak numerous small languages. also, there big population of chinese descent people in thailand , old generation use teochew first language. new generation tends speak them second language or may not know @ all,
kazakhstan: kazakh , russian both have official status—kazakh state language , russian officially used on equal grounds along kazak language .
kyrgyzstan: kyrgyz state language , russian used in capacity of official language .
united arab emirates: arabic official language of country, although english unofficial language accepted lingua franca on 89% of population migrant. has working knowledge of english. road signs written in both arabic , english. english dominant in higher education , required ability local jobs. english compulsory subject in public schools , language of instruction mathematics , science.
in uzbekistan, uzbek (official), tajik, , russian spoken. use of russian (alongside uzbek) foreseen notarized documents , civic records

in autonomous karakalpakstan, karakalpak language official one, alongside uzbek.


vietnam: vietnamese official language, , english commonly used , studied second language, in education, international relations, , media. in addition, french spoken small minority of people , elders used common second language. right use own language, in courts, foreseen in constitution.




^ constitution of afghanistan article 16
^ [ . world factbook. central intelligence agency. 2007-12-13. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html.]
^ brunei darussalam s constitution art. 82
^ victor mair languages on chinese banknotes//language log. institute research in cognitive science @ university of pennsylvania
^ new progress in human rights in tibet autonomous region archived 2011-09-05 @ wayback machine. state council information office 1998
^ language policy//special focus 2005: china s minorities , government implementation of regional ethnic autonomy law. // congressional-executive commission on china 2005 annual report
^ v. upholding ethnic equality , unity white paper on development , progress in xinjiang 2009
^ chapter basic law of hong kong special administrative region of people s republic of china
^ basic law of macao special administrative region of people s republic of china archived 2012-02-05 @ wayback machine. article 9
^ constitution of democratic republic of east timor art. 13, 159
^ official language act
^ peluncuran peta bahasa indonesia (not in english)
^ constitute . constituteproject.org. 
^ constitution of lebanon article 11
^ portail d actualités sur le liban . iloubnan.info. retrieved 2014-02-15. 
^ sarawak makes english official language along bm . themalaymailonline.com. 
^ sarawak recognise english official language besides bahasa malaysia . borneopost online - borneo, malaysia, sarawak daily news. 
^ sarawak adopts english official language . thesundaily.my. 
^ constitution of malaysia art. 161
^ art. 251 constitution of pakistan
^ constitution of republic of philippines article 14, sections 6, 7
^ constitution of buryatia art. 67(in russian)
^ constitution of altai republic art. 13(in russian)
^ constitution of tuva art. 5(in russian)
^ constitution of khakassia art. 69(in russian)
^ constitution of sakha republic art. 46(in russian)
^ constitution of singapore art. 153a
^ gupta, a.f. fischer, k., ed. epistemic modalities , discourse particles of singapore (doc). approaches discourse particles. amsterdam: elsevier: 244–263. 
^ cia - world factbook
^ constitution of rojava cantons article 9
^ indigenous peoples basic law art. 9, 12, 30
^ legislature passes bill preserve indigenous languages taiwan news 2017
^ constitution o tajikistan art. 2
^ constitution of kazakhstan article 7
^ constitution of kyrgyz republic article 10
^ adec reveals major changes abu dhabi schools curriculum | national . www.thenational.ae. retrieved 2016-04-08. 
^ О внесении изменений и дополнений в закон «О государственном языке Республики Узбекистан» see art. 12(in russian)
^ Новые правила заполнения форм ЗАГС (in russian)
^ constitution of karakalpakstan. chapter 1 art. 4(in russian)
^ constitution of vietnam article 5, 133