science

Working language

Working language is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Working language rather than just read about it. In short: A working language (also procedural language) is a language that is given a unique legal status in a supranational company, society, state or other body or organization as its primary means of communication. It is primarily the language of daily correspondence and conversation, since the organization usually has members with various differing language backgrounds.

Key takeaways

Working language belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Working language to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Working language from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A working language (also procedural language) is a language that is given a unique legal status in a supranational company, society, state or other body or organization as its primary means of communication. It is primarily the language of daily correspondence and conversation, since the organization usually has members with various differing language backgrounds. Most international organizations have working languages for their bodies. For a given organization, a working language may or may not also be an official language.

United Nations working languages Originally, English and French were the working languages at the UN. Later, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish were added as working languages in the General Assembly and in the Economic and Social Council. Currently, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish are the working languages of the Security Council.

Examples of common international organizations

English and French The International Criminal Court has two working languages: English and French. The Council of Europe, the OECD, and NATO also have English and French as their two working languages. The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) has English and French as official languages, with Arabic, Russian, and Spanish as additional working languages.

Portuguese and Spanish The Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), Mercosur, and the Latin American Integration Association have two working languages: Portuguese and Spanish.

Other groups with one or two working languages The Pacific Alliance and the Central American Integration System have Spanish as their sole working language. The Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples Secretariat has English as its sole working language, though communications are also published in Russian. Although many circumpolar indigenous people speak either an Inuit dialect, a variety of Saami or a Uralic language, English is likely to be the second or third language that many of them will have in common. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has two working languages: Russian and Chinese. The government of East Timor has Indonesian and English as working languages alongside its official languages (Tetum and Portuguese) and 15 other recognized local languages The state of Goa in India has Marathi as its working language, but only Konkani has official status in the state. English is the working language in ASEAN and the Commonwealth of Nations. Greenland has demoted Danish from a co-official language to a working language for pragmatic reasons, since spoken and written Danish remains dominant across several sectors of society, such as health care and higher education.

English, French, and Spanish The World Trade Organization, the International Federation of Journalists, the International Telecommunication Union, the International Maritime Organization, the International Labour Organization, NAFTA, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the Free Trade Area of the Americas all have three working languages: English, French, and Spanish.

Other groups with three or more working languages The European Commission has three working languages: English, French, and German. FIFA has four working languages: English, French, German, and Spanish. Formerly, French was the organization's sole official language. Currently, English is the official language for minutes, correspondence, and announcements. The African Union currently uses Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swahili. The Southern African Development Community has four working languages: Afrikaans, English, French, and Portuguese. The Nordic Council has three working languages: Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. The Council refers to the languages as dialects of a "united Scandinavian language". The Organization of American States has four working languages: English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The International Organization of Turkic Culture has three working languages: English, Turkish, and Russian.

See also Heritage language Lingua franca International auxiliary language List of official languages of international organizations

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Working language

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Working language claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Working language before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Working language ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Working language

In research: Working language appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Working language in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Working language is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Concepts in language policy, Language varieties and styles, Sociolinguistics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Working language outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Working language in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Working language means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Working language out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Working language in simple terms?

Why does Working language matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Working language?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Working language.