European States and Status of State Languages De Jure and De Facto

Abstract

This article deals with the issue of understanding the term ‘state language’ through the lens of the relationship between the concepts De Jure and De Facto. Based on their possible relationship which occurred at the constitutional level and practice of European states, I was able to create four groups (De Jure and De Facto are the same, non De Jure but De Facto, transition group, and special cases of De Jure and De Facto). By using these four groups, I was able to categorize a research sample consisting of 42 European countries. This not only managed to portray the linguistic situation regarding state languages in Europe but also offered one of the supporting options for determining, within the framework of official language designation and language planning, which of the dominant languages in a country could truly be the state language. The main output of this article is thus a table that divides the 42 states into these four groups, containing data on the state language and its constitutional status for each state.