List of language regulators

This is a list of bodies that consider themselves to be authorities on standard languages, often called language academies. Language academies are motivated by, or closely associated with, linguistic purism and prestige, and typically publish prescriptive dictionaries, which purport to officiate and prescribe the meaning of words and pronunciations. A language regulator may also have a more descriptive approach, however, while maintaining and promoting (but not imposing) a standard spelling. Many language academies are private institutions, although some are governmental bodies in different states, or enjoy some form of government-sanctioned status in one or more countries. There may also be multiple language academies attempting to regulate and codify the same language, sometimes based in different countries and sometimes influenced by political factors.

Many world languages have one or more language academies or official language bodies. However, the degree of control that the academies exert over these languages does not render the latter controlled natural languages in the sense that the various kinds of "simple English" (e.g. Basic English, Simplified Technical English) or George Orwell's fictional Newspeak are. They instead remain natural languages to a considerable extent and are thus not formal languages such as Attempto Controlled English. They have a degree of standardization that allows them to function as standard languages (e.g. standard French). The English language has never had a formal regulator anywhere, outside of private productions such as the Oxford Dictionary.

Natural languages

Language	Territory	Regulator(s)	Founded
Amis	Republic of China	Council of Indigenous Peoples
Afrikaans	South Africa Namibia	Die Taalkommissie (The Language Commission)	1909
Akan	Ghana	Akan Orthography Committee (AOC)
Albanian	Albania Kosovo	Academy of Sciences of Albania, Tirana
Arabic	Arab League	Academy of the Arabic Language (مجمع اللغة العربية)
	Algeria	Supreme Council of the Arabic language in Algeria (المجلس الأعلى للغة العربية بالجزائر‎)
	Egypt	Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo (مجمع اللغة العربية بالقاهرة)
	Iraq	Iraqi Academy of Sciences (المجمع العلمي العراقي)
	Jordan	Jordan Academy of Arabic (مجمع اللغة العربية الأردني)
	Libya	Academy of the Arabic Language in Jamahiriya
	Morocco	Academy of the Arabic Language in Morocco	1960
	Saudi Arabia	Academy of the Arabic Language in Riyadh (المجمع للغة العربية بالرياض)
	Somalia	Academy of the Arabic Language in Mogadishu
	Sudan	Academy of the Arabic Language in Khartum
	Syria	Academy of the Arabic Language in Damascus (مجمع اللغة العربية بدمشق)
	Tunisia	Beit Al-Hikma Foundation (مؤسسة بيت الحكمة)
	Israel Palestine	Academy of the Arabic Language in Israel (مجمع اللغة العربية)
Aragonese	Aragon	Academia de l'Aragonés (Academy of the Aragonese)	2013
Armenian	Armenia	Armenian National Academy of Sciences (Հայաստան)
Assamese	India	Asam Sahitya Sabha (অসম সাহিত্য সভা)
Asturian	Asturias	Academy of the Asturian Language (Academia de la Llingua Asturiana)	1980
Azerbaijani	Azerbaijan Iran	Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (Azərbaycan Milli Elmlər Akademiyası)
Basque	Basque Country Navarre French Basque Country	Euskaltzaindia, often translated as Royal Academy of the Basque language	1918
Belarusian	Belarus	The Jakub Kolas and Janka Kupala Institute of Language and Literature at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus	1929
Bengali (Bangla)	Bangladesh	Bangla Academy (বাংলা একাডেমি)
	India	Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi (পশ্চিমবঙ্গ বাংলা আকাদেমি)
Berber	Morocco	Royal Institute of Amazight Culture
	Algeria	Haut-Conseil à l'amazighité
		Algerian Academy of Amazigh Language
Bhojpuri	India	Bihar (Bhojpuri Academy) Delhi (Maithili - Bhojpuri Academy, Delhi) Madhya Pradesh (Bhojpuri Sahitya Academy)
Central Bikol	Philippines	Academia Bicolana defunct
Bosnian	Bosnia and Herzegovina Sandžak	University of Sarajevo
Breton	Brittany	Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg	2010
Bulgarian	Bulgaria	Institute for Bulgarian Language at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Burmese	Myanmar	Myanmar Language Commission
Catalan	Catalonia	Institute for Catalan Studies (Institut d'Estudis Catalans)	1907
	Valencian Community	Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (Valencian Language Academy)	2001
Cebuano	Philippines	Visayan Academy of Arts and Letters (Akademyang Bisaya)
Cherokee	Cherokee Nation	Council of the Cherokee Nation (ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ)
Standard Chinese	China	State Language Work Committee (国家语言文字工作委员会)
	Republic of China	National Languages Committee (國語推行委員會)
	Singapore	Promote Mandarin Council (讲华语运动理事会)
	Malaysia	Chinese Language Standardisation Council of Malaysia (马来西亚华语规范理事会)
Cornish	Cornwall	Cornish Language Partnership (Keskowethyans an Taves Kernewek)	2005
Croatian	Croatia	Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics (Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje)	1948
	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Czech	Czech Republic	Institute of the Czech Language (of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) (Ústav pro jazyk český (Akademie věd České republiky))	1946
Danish	Denmark	Dansk Sprognævn (Danish Language Council)	1955
Dalecarlian	Dalarna County	Ulum Dalska
Divehi	Maldives	Dhivehi Academy
Dutch	Netherlands Belgium Suriname	Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union)	1980
Dzongkha	Bhutan	Dzongkha Development Commission (རྫོང་ཁ་གོང་འཕེལ་ལྷན་ཚོགས)
English	None	None official, but the Oxford English Dictionary is the principal historical dictionary of the English language.
Estonian	Estonia	Emakeele Seltsi keeletoimkond (Language Board at the Mother Tongue Society) sets rules and standards, authoritative advice is given by the Institute of the Estonian Language (Eesti Keele Instituut)	1993
Faroese	Faroe Islands	Faroese Language Council (Málráðið)
Filipino	Philippines	Commission on the Filipino Language (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino)
Finnish	Finland	Institute for the Languages of Finland
French	France	Académie française Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France	1635
	Belgium	Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique (Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium)
	Quebec	Office québécois de la langue française (Québec Office of the French Language)	1961
Galician	Galicia	Royal Galician Academy (Real Academia Galega)	1906
Georgian	Georgia (country)	Cabinet of Georgia
German	Germany Austria Switzerland South Tyrol Belgium Alsace Liechtenstein Luxembourg Namibia Syddanmark Opole Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship	Council for German Orthography (Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung)	2004
Greenlandic	Greenland	The Greenland Language Secretariat (Oqaasileriffik)
Greek	Greece Cyprus	Center for the Greek Language (Κέντρον Ελληνικής Γλώσσας)	1994
Guarani	Paraguay	Guarani Language Academy (Guarani Ñe’ ẽ Rerekuapavẽ)
Gujarati	India	Gujarat Sahitya Akademi (ગુજરાત સાહિત્ય અકાદમી)
Hakka	Republic of China	Hakka Affairs Council (客家委員會)
Haitian Creole	Haiti	Akademi Kreyòl Ayisyen (Haitian Creole Academy)
Hebrew	Israel	Academy of the Hebrew Language (האקדמיה ללשון העברית)	1890
Hindi	India	Central Hindi Directorate (केन्द्रीय हिन्दी निदेशालय)
Hmar	India	Hmar Literature Society
Hungarian	Hungary Slovakia Transylvania Zakarpattia Oblast Vojvodina Burgenland	Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics (Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont)	1949
Icelandic	Iceland	Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies	1962
Igbo	Nigeria	Society for Promoting Igbo Language and Culture
Indonesian	Indonesia	Language Development and Fostering Agency (Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa)
Inuktitut	Canada	Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
Irish	Ireland Northern Ireland	Foras na Gaeilge (Irish Institute)	1999
Italian	Italy San Marino Switzerland Vatican City Monaco Corsica Istria County Eritrea Libya	Accademia della Crusca (Academy of the bran)	1583
Japanese	Japan	National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (国立国語研究所)	1948
Kabiye	Togo	Kabɩyɛ Akademii (Académie kabiyè)
Kannada	Karnataka	Various academies and Government of Karnataka
Kashubian	Poland	Commission of the Kashubian Language [1]
Kazakh	Kazakhstan	Ministry of Culture of Kazakhstan
Khmer	Cambodia	Royal Academy of Cambodia (រាជបណ្ឌិត្យសភាកម្ពុជា)
Korean	South Korea	National Institute of the Korean Language (국립국어원/國立國語院)	1991
	North Korea	The Language Research Institute, Academy of Social Science (사회과학원 어학연구소)
	China	China Korean Language Regulatory Commission (중국조선어규범위원회/中国朝鲜语规范委员会)
Kven	Norway	Kainun institutti – kvensk institutt
Kurdish	Kurdistan	Kurdish Academy (ئەکادیمیای کوردی)	1971
Kyrgyz	Kyrgyzstan	National Committee for State Language under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic (Кыргыз Республикасынын Президентине караштуу Мамлекеттик тил боюнча улуттук комиссия)
Lao	Laos	Educational Science Research Institute, Ministry of Education and Sports (ສະຖາບັນຄົ້ນຄວ້າວິທະຍາສາດການສືກສາ ກະຊວງສຶກສາທິການ ແລະ ກີລາ) Institute of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, National University of Laos (ສະຖາບັນວິທະຍາສາດສັງຄົມ ຄະນະອັກສອນສາດ ມະຫາວິທະຍາໄລແຫ່ງຊາດລາວ)
Latin	Holy See	Pontifical Academy for Latin (Pontificia Academia Latinitatis) (ecclesiastical Latin)
		International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy: botanical Latin)
		International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature: zoological Latin)
Latvian	Latvia	Latvian State Language Center (Valsts Valodas Centrs)	1992
Lithuanian	Lithuania	Commission of the Lithuanian Language (Valstybinė lietuvių kalbos komisija)	1990
Lusoga	Uganda	Lusoga Language Authority (LULA)
Luxembourgish	Luxembourg	Council for the Luxembourgish Language (Conseil fir d'Letzebuerger Sprooch)
Macedonian	North Macedonia	Linguistics and Literary Science Department at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Malagasy	Madagascar	Foibe momba ny teny at the Akademia Malagasy (http://www.tenymalagasy.gov.mg/)
Malay	Malaysia	Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (The Institute of Language and Literature)
	Brunei	Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Brunei (Language and Literature Bureau)
	Singapore	Majlis Bahasa Melayu Singapura (Malay Language Council, Singapore)
Malayalam	India	Kerala Sahitya Akademi (കേരള സാഹിത്യ അക്കാദമി)
Maltese	Malta	National Council for the Maltese Language (www.kunsilltalmalti.gov.mt)
Manx	Isle of Man	Coonceil ny Gaelgey	1985
Māori	New Zealand	Māori Language Commission (Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori)
Marathi	India	Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad (महाराष्ट्र साहित्य परिषद)
Meitei (officially called Manipuri)	India	Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation (ꯗꯥꯏꯔꯦꯛꯇꯣꯔꯦꯠ ꯑꯣꯐ ꯂꯦꯡꯒ꯭ꯋꯦꯖ ꯄ꯭ꯂꯥꯅꯤꯡ ꯑꯦꯟ꯭ꯗ ꯏꯝꯄ꯭ꯂꯤꯃꯦꯟꯇꯦꯁꯟ)
		Manipuri Sahitya Parishad (ꯃꯅꯤꯄꯨꯔꯤ ꯁꯥꯍꯤꯇ꯭ꯌ ꯄꯔꯤꯁꯗ)
Mirandese	Portugal	Anstituto de la Lhéngua Mirandesa (Institute of the Mirandese Language)	2000
Mixtec	Mexico	Academy of the Mixtec Language (Ve'e Tu'un Sávi)
Khalkha Mongolian	Mongolia	Council of the official state language (Төрийн хэлний зөвлөл). Decisions have to be confirmed by the Mongolian government.
Chakhar Mongolian	China	Council for Language and Literature Work
Nepali	Nepal	Nepal Academy (नेपाल प्रज्ञा–प्रतिष्ठान)
Northern Frisian	North Frisia	Nordfriisk Instituut
Norwegian (Riksmål/Bokmål)	Norway	Norwegian Academy	1953
Norwegian Bokmål Norwegian Nynorsk		Norwegian Language Council
Occitan	Occitania France Spain Monaco Italy	Conselh de la Lenga Occitana (Occitan Language Council), Congrès Permanent de la lenga occitana (the permanent congress of occitan language), Institut d'Estudis Aranesi (Aranese)	1996
Odia	India	Odisha Sahitya Akademi (ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସାହିତ୍ୟ ଏକାଡେମୀ)
Pashto	Afghanistan	Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan
	Pakistan	Pashto Academy
Persian	Iran	Academy of Persian Language and Literature (فرهنگستان زبان و ادب فارسی)	1935
	Afghanistan	Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan
	Tajikistan Uzbekistan	Rudaki Institute of Language and Literature
Paiwan	Republic of China	Council of Indigenous Peoples
Polish	Poland	Polish Language Council (Rada Języka Polskiego), of the Polish Academy of Sciences	1996
Portuguese	Portugal	Lisbon Science Academy, Class of Letters
	Brazil	Brazilian Academy of Letters
	Galicia	Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language
Quechua	Peru	High Academy of the Quechua Language (Qheswa simi hamut'ana kuraq suntur)	1954
Rohingya	Arakan (Rakhine State)	Rohingya Language Academy (𐴌𐴟𐴇𐴥𐴝𐴚𐴒𐴙𐴝 𐴎𐴟𐴁𐴝𐴕 𐴀𐴠𐴑𐴝𐴋𐴠𐴔𐴞)
Romanian	Romania	Institutul de Lingvistică al Academiei Române (Institute for Linguistics of the Romanian Academy)
	Moldova	Academy of Sciences of Moldova (Академия де Штийнце а Молдовей)
Romansh	Switzerland	Lia Rumantscha
Russian	Russia Belarus Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Moldova Tajikistan	Russian Language Institute (Институт русского языка)	1944
Scots	Scotland	Scots Language Centre (Center for the Scots Leid)
Scottish Gaelic	Scotland	Bòrd na Gàidhlig (The Gaelic Board)	2006
Secwepemctsín	Canada	Secwepemc Cultural Education Society
Serbian and Montenegrin	Serbia Montenegro	Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language
Sindhi	Pakistan	Sindhi Language Authority [2]
Sinhala	Sri Lanka	Hela Havula (හෙළ හවුල)
Slovak	Slovakia	Ľudovít Štúr Institute of Linguistics (Jazykovedný ústav Ľudovíta Štúra) at Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovenská akadémia vied)
Slovene	Slovenia	Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Somali	Djibouti Ethiopia Somalia	Regional Somali Language Academy
Sorbian	Germany Czech Republic Poland	Serbski institut [3]
Spanish	Spain Colombia Ecuador Mexico El Salvador Venezuela Chile Peru Guatemala Costa Rica Philippines Panama Cuba Paraguay Bolivia Dominican Republic Nicaragua Argentina Uruguay Honduras Puerto Rico United States Equatorial Guinea Israel	Association of Spanish Language Academies (constituted by the Royal Spanish Academy plus 23 other separate national academies in the Spanish-speaking world and an Israel-based committee for Judaeo-Spanish.)	1713
Swahili	Tanzania	Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa
	Kenya	Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa
Swedish	Sweden	Swedish Language Council Swedish Academy	1941
	Finland	Swedish Language Department of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland (Svenska språkbyrån)
Tamil	India	Thanjavur Tamil University and Official Language Commission of Government of Tamil Nadu
	Sri Lanka	Department of Official Languages, Sri Lanka
	Singapore	Tamil Language Council, Singapore
	Malaysia	Malaysia Tamil Language Standardisation Council (மலேசியத் தமிழ் மொழியின் காப்பகம்)
Tatar	Tatarstan	Institute of Language, Literature and Arts of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan [4]
Telugu	India	Telugu Academy and Official Language Commission of Government of Andhra Pradesh
Tetum	East Timor	National Institute of Linguistics at the National University of East Timor
Thai	Thailand	Royal Society of Thailand (ราชบัณฑิตยสภา)
Tibetan	Tibet Autonomous Region	Committee for Tibetan Language Affairs [5]
	India	Committee for the Standardisation of the Tibetan Language
Tulu	India	Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy
Turkish	Turkey Cyprus Northern Cyprus	Türk Dil Kurumu (Turkish Language Association)	1932
Ukrainian	Ukraine	NASU Institute of Ukrainian Language	1991
Urdu	Pakistan	National Language Promotion Department (اِدارۀ فروغِ قومی زُبان)
	India	National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (قومی کونسل برائے فروغ اردو زبان)
Urhobo	Nigeria	Urhobo Studies Association
Vietnamese	Vietnam	Institute of Linguistics of Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences
Võro	Estonia	Võro Institute
Waray	Philippines	Sanghiran san Binisaya ha Samar ug Leyte (Academy of the Visayan Language of Samar and Leyte) defunct
Welsh	Wales	Welsh Language Commissioner (Aled Roberts)	2012
West Frisian	Friesland	Fryske Akademy (Frisian Academy)	1938
Wolof	Senegal	Centre de linguistique appliquée de Dakar (Center of Applied Linguistics of Dakar at the Cheikh Anta Diop University)
Yiddish	United States Sweden Russia	YIVO (YIVO does not regulate or hold any sway over the Yiddish used in Ultra-Orthodox circles where the Yiddish language is most used in current times. The orthography and pronunciation of Yiddish in the Ultra-Orthodox communities is dramatically different from the standardized version of Yiddish devised by YIVO. A prime example of this is the spelling of the name for the Yiddish language in Yiddish itself. YIVO promotes the spelling "ייִדיש", while the spelling "אידיש" is more commonly used in most Ultra-Orthodox contexts.)	1925
Yoruba	Nigeria	Yoruba Academy	October 2007

Auxiliary languages

Esperanto

See also: International auxiliary languages

Apart from the Akademio de Esperanto, most auxiliary languages, also known as constructed languages (Conlangs) have no true linguistic regulators, language academies.

Esperanto and Ido have been constructed (or planned) by a person or small group, before being adopted and further developed by communities of users through natural language evolution.

Bodies such as the Akademio de Esperanto look at questions of usage in the light of the original goals and principles of the language.

Language	Regulator(s)
Esperanto	Akademio de Esperanto
Ido	Uniono por la Linguo Internaciona Ido
Lingua Franca Nova	Asosia per Lingua Franca Nova
Lojban	Logical Language Group
Volapük	Kadäm Volapüka

Other constructed languages

Language	Regulator(s)
Klingon	Marc Okrand
Talossan	Comità per l'Útzil del Glheþ

Interlingua

The auxiliary language Interlingua has no regulating body, as its vocabulary, grammar, and orthography are viewed as a product of ongoing social forces. In theory, Interlingua therefore evolves independent from any human regulator. Interlingua's vocabulary is verified and recorded by dynamically applying certain general principles to an existing set of natural languages and their etymologies. The International Auxiliary Language Association ceased to exist in 1954, and according to the secretary of Union Mundial de Interlingua "Interlingua doesn't need its Academy".

Other bodies

These bodies do not attempt to regulate any language in a prescriptive manner and are primarily concerned with aiding and advising the government on policies regarding language usage.

• Hong Kong: Official Language Division Civil Service Bureau Government of Hong Kong – concerned with matters concerning government language policy
• Macau: Departamento dos Assuntos Linguísticos of the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau of the Government of Macau –concerned with matters concerning government language policy

See also

• Proposals for an English Academy
• Language policy
• Language revival
• Language planning
• Linguistic purism
• Languages in censuses