Languages of Austria Languages of Austria The languages of Austria include German, the official language and "lingua franca"; Austro-Bavarian, the main dialect outside Vorarlberg; Alemannic, the main dialect in Vorarlberg; and several minority languages. German is the national official language and constitutes a "lingua franca" and "de facto" second language: most Austrians other than (mostly rural) seniors are able to speak it. It is the language used in media, in schools, and formal announcements. The variety of German used, Austrian German, is partially influenced by Austro-Bavarian and uses many "Germanized" words. Alemannic is spoken in Vorarlberg. Vorarlberg uses a High Alemannic, the same
Official language of privately owned TV-channels must be translated into Russian (a similar privilege is granted to Arabic), warnings must be translated to several languages, signs are mostly trilingual (Hebrew, Arabic and English), and the government supports Yiddish and Ladino culture (alongside Hebrew culture and Arabic culture). The Constitution of Latvia (or Satversme) designated Latvian as the state language. In 2012 there was initiative to hold a referendum on constitutional amendments, elevating Russian as a state language. Kristīne Jarinovska in her analysis describes the proposal in the following way: It proposed several constitutional amendments for introducing Russian as Latvia's second official language—i.e.,