National language(s)

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

i once tried to learn a bit of Manx - never managed to do it properly, though

and nurv, Scots as in Robbie Burns is different to cots Gaelic, the gaelic is the original scottish language, which i think is not spoken anmore, and scots is, as sun-star said, merely a dialect of english (think Rab C Nesbitt)

[Nurvingiel]

Originally Posted by Hemel

There's Unified Revised, Common, and Modern/Trad - and I have a feeling there might be variations too. Unified Revised and Common are the ones most used ... speakers of different versions can understand each other, even though when written the versions in some cases can look wildly different.

Being protected means it's recognised under a European charter, and must be protected from extinction, and there's some funding now for its promotion too. There're some five or six languages protected this particular way - I'm not sure about Manx, although it is used as an official language, alongside English, on the Isle of Man

Thanks Hemel, and Sun-star.

I wonder if Russian native languages are protected.

[Baby-K]

I think we beat the lot of you - with 11 national languages (second only to India I think):

Republiek van Suid-Afrika (Afrikaans)
Republic of South Africa (English)
IRiphabliki yeSewula Afrika (IsiNdebele)
IRiphabliki yaseMzantsi Afrika (IsiXhosa)
IRiphabliki yaseNingizimu Afrika (IsiZulu)
Rephaboliki ya Afrika-Borwa (Sepedi)
Rephaboliki ya Afrika Borwa (Sesotho)
Rephaboliki ya Aforika Borwa (Setswana)
IRiphabhulikhi yeNingizimu Afrika (SiSwati)
Riphabuliki ya Afurika Tshipembe (Tshivenda)
Riphabliki ra Afrika Dzonga (Xitsonga)
Riphabliki ra Afrika Dzonga (Zulu)

And eight non-official languages: Fanagalo, Lobedu, Northern Ndebele, Phuthi, Sign Language, Khoe, Nama, and San.

It's a multi-lingual nation and everyone speaks at least two of the official languages - Afrikaans, English, IsiXhosa and IsiZulu being most common.

Some ethonologue report lists these as the spoken / living languages in SA, I have no clue how they get to it, or if it takes into account the number of immigrant languages spoken or jus native languages:

AFRIKAANS
BIRWA
CAMTHO
ENGLISH
FANAGOLO
GAIL
HINDI
KORANA
KXOE
N/U
NAMA
NDEBELE
OORLAMS
RONGA
SOTHO, NORTHERN
SOTHO, SOUTHERN
SWAHILI
SWATI
TSHWA
TSONGA
TSOTSITAAL
TSWANA
URDU
VENDA
XHOSA
XIRI
ZULU