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 the United Nations the UN may be more likely to grant a vote on adding Hindi as an official language. But as of now, the international community does not seem to see enough benefit to overcome the potential political issues that adding Hindi as official language of the UN could cause. Malay is an Austronesian language spoken throughout the Malay Peninsula and large swaths of Southeast Asia. Malay is an official language of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia (which is the 4th most populous nation in the world), Singapore, East Timor, Christmas Island, Cocos Islands and is a recognized minority language in Thailand where is