Language politics is a term used to describe political (and sometimes social) consequences of linguistic differences between people, or on occasion the political consequences of the way a language is spoken and what words are used. It means language can express some authority. Examples include:

• Recognition (or not) of a language as an official language
  Official language
  An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
  
  . Generally this means that all official documents affecting a country or region are published in languages that are 'official', but not in those that are not. Evidence in a court of law may also be expected to be in an official language only.
• In countries where there are more than one main language, there are often political implications in decisions that are seen to promote one group of speakers over another, and this is often referred to as language politics. An example of a country with this type of language politics is Belgium
  Belgium
  Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
  
  .
• In countries where there is one main language, immigrants seeking full citizenship
  Citizenship
  Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
  
   may be expected to have a degree of fluency in that language ('language politics' then being a reference to the debate over the appropriateness of this). This has been a feature of Australian politics.
• At various times minority language
  Minority language
  A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities.-International politics:...
  
  s have either been promoted or banned in schools, as politicians have either sought to promote a minority language with a view to strengthening the cultural identity of its speakers, or banning its use (either for teaching, or on occasion an entire ban on its use), with a view to promoting a national identity based on the majority language. An example of recent promotion of a minority language are Welsh
  Welsh language
  Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
  
   or Leonese
  Leonese language
  The Leonese language is the endonym term used to refer to all vernacular Romance dialects of the Astur-Leonese linguistic group in the Spanish provinces of León and Zamora; Astur-Leonese also includes the dialects...
  
   by the Leonese City Council, an example of official discouragement of a minority language is Breton
  Breton language
  Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
  
  .
• Language politics also sometimes relates to dialect
  Dialect
  The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
  
  , where speakers of a particular dialect are perceived as speaking a more culturally 'advanced' or 'correct' form of the language. Politicians may therefore try to use that dialect rather than their own when in the public eye. Alternatively, at times those speaking the dialect perceived as more 'correct' may try to use another dialect when in the public eye to be seen as a 'man/woman of the people'.
• To promote national identity, what are strictly dialects of the same language may be promoted as separate languages to promote a sense of national identity (examples include Danish
  Danish language
  Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
  
   and Norwegian
  Norwegian language
  Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
  
  , and Serbian
  Serbian language
  Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
  
   and Croatian
  Croatian language
  Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
  
   - the latter two also use different scripts for what is linguistically the same language - Cyrillic
  Cyrillic alphabet
  The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
  
   for Serbian and roman script
  Latin alphabet
  The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
  
   for Croatian). Whether or not something is a language can also involve language politics, for instance, Macedonian
  Political views on the Macedonian language
  The existence and distinctiveness of the Macedonian language is disputed among the politicians, linguists and common people from the neighboring countries...
  
  .
• The use of 'he' and other words implying the masculine in documents has been a political issue relating to women's rights
  Women's rights
  Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
  
  .
• The use of words which are considered by some to have negative implications to describe a group of people e.g. Gypsies (or even more negatively, 'Gypos') instead of Romani, or indeed using the term 'Gypsies' to cover Traveller
  Irish Traveller
  Irish Travellers are a traditionally nomadic people of ethnic Irish origin, who maintain a separate language and set of traditions. They live predominantly in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.-Etymology:...
  
   peoples as well as Romanies.
• 'Political correctness
  Political correctness
  Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
  
  ' issues often stem from the use of words. For instance, some may object to the person in charge of an organisation being referred to as 'chairman', on the grounds that it implies a man must be in charge.
• Co-existence of competing spelling systems for the same language, associated with different political camps. E.g.
  • Debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters
    Debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters
    The debate on traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters is an ongoing debate concerning Chinese orthography among users of Chinese characters. It has stirred up heated responses from supporters of both sides in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and among overseas...
    
    
  • Simplification of Russian orthography
    Reforms of Russian orthography
    The reform of Russian orthography refers to changes made to the Russian alphabet over the course of the history of the Russian language.- Early Changes :...
    
    ; proposals for such a reform were viewed as subversive in the late years of the Russian Empire, and were implemented by the Bolshevik
    Bolshevik
    The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
    
    s in 1918, after which the "old orthography" became associated with the White movement
    White movement
    The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
    
    .
  • The two spelling systems for the Belarusian language
    Belarusian language
    The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...
    
    , one of which is associated with the country's political opposition.

xxxLanguage also in political matters used to parsue,to unify,to organise,to criticise aiming to reach the time of unifying all member of such political party.

• • The Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet preserved in the Transnistria
    Transnistria
    Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
    
    .