Culture of Austria Tyrol has linguistically and culturally more in common with German-speaking Switzerland and Baden-Württemberg or Swabia in Southwest Germany as it is an Alemannic dialect like Swiss German or Swabian German. As part of its historic cultural heritage of being a multinational state for centuries (Habsburg Monarchy, Austrian Empire, later Austria-Hungary), modern Austria is not entirely homogenously German-speaking, but has within its borders, albeit small, autochthonous minorities of different native tongue: Hungarian is the most widely spoken of the recognized minority languages spoken in Austria (mostly in Burgenland, where it is an official language, and in Vienna; about 40,000 speakers (0.5%
Official language Official language An official language is a language given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a country's official language refers to the language used within government (judiciary, legislature, administration). Since "the means of expression of a people cannot be changed by any law", the term "official language" does not typically refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government. About half the countries of the world have declared one or more official languages. The government of Italy officialised Italian only in 1999, and some nations (such as the