Official language after unifying the country in 221 BC. Classical Chinese would remain the standard written language for the next 2000 years. Standardization of the spoken language received less political attention, and Mandarin developed on an "ad hoc" basis from the dialects of the various imperial capitals until being officially standardized in the early twentieth century. According to an undated chart by the American pro-English-only organization known as U.S. English, 178 countries have an official language at the national level. Among those, English is the most common with 67 nations giving it official status. French is second with 29 countries, Arabic is
Official languages of Puducherry Official languages of Puducherry French was the official language of Puducherry under the Treaty of Cession 1956. The Pondicherry Official Language Act, 1965 without mentioning French added the Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu as the official languages along with English. French was the official language of the "Établissements français dans l'Inde" (French India) and it remained as de jure official language of Pondicherry U.T by the "Article XXVIII" of Traité de Cession which states that, As of today, still the official gazette of Puducherry is published with French; albeit, with a marginal use . After independence, the new official languages got