The Official Languages Ordinance is an ordinance of Hong Kong enacted for the purpose of specifying the status and use of official languages of the territory. Both Chinese and English are declared official languages with equal status in the ordinance, and are to be used in communication between the government and members of the public.[2] It dictates that all ordinances would be enacted and published in both languages,[3] and allows judicial officers the choice of using either language in court proceedings.[4]
While no law existed prior to 1974 to designate official languages in Hong Kong, by practice, English was the sole language used in all branches of the British colonial government. Under public pressure, the Official Languages Ordinance was enacted in 1974 to declare that both English and Chinese may be used in communication between the government and the public. Despite the usage of different dialects in spoken Chinese, the government chose not to specify a dialect as an official language, instead indicating "Chinese" as an official language, allowing any dialect to be used. Since most of the local population spoke Cantonese, it became the most frequently used dialect in official communication.[5]
Referencesedit
^"Enactment History of Cap. 5 Official Languages Ordinance". Cap. 5 Official Languages Ordinance. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
^"Official Languages Ordinance, Official languages and their status and use (Cap 5, Section 3)". HKSAR Department of Justice. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
^"Official Languages Ordinance, Enactment of Ordinances in both official languages (Cap 5, Section 4)". HKSAR Department of Justice. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
^"Official Languages Ordinance, Judicial proceedings (Cap 5, Section 5)". HKSAR Department of Justice. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
official, languages, ordinance, ordinance, hong, kong, enacted, purpose, specifying, status, official, languages, territory, both, chinese, english, declared, official, languages, with, equal, status, ordinance, used, communication, between, government, member. The Official Languages Ordinance is an ordinance of Hong Kong enacted for the purpose of specifying the status and use of official languages of the territory Both Chinese and English are declared official languages with equal status in the ordinance and are to be used in communication between the government and members of the public 2 It dictates that all ordinances would be enacted and published in both languages 3 and allows judicial officers the choice of using either language in court proceedings 4 Official Languages OrdinanceLegislative Council of Hong KongLong title An Ordinance to provide for the official languages of Hong Kong and for their status and use CitationCap 5Enacted byLegislative Council of Hong KongCommenced15 February 1974Legislative historyIntroduced bySecretary for Home Affairs Denis Campbell BrayIntroduced11 January 1974First reading30 January 1974Second reading13 February 1974Third reading13 February 1974Amended by1975 1980 1987 1988 1989 1992 1994 1995 1997 1998 1999 2011 2017 1 Status Current legislationHistory editWhile no law existed prior to 1974 to designate official languages in Hong Kong by practice English was the sole language used in all branches of the British colonial government Under public pressure the Official Languages Ordinance was enacted in 1974 to declare that both English and Chinese may be used in communication between the government and the public Despite the usage of different dialects in spoken Chinese the government chose not to specify a dialect as an official language instead indicating Chinese as an official language allowing any dialect to be used Since most of the local population spoke Cantonese it became the most frequently used dialect in official communication 5 References edit Enactment History of Cap 5 Official Languages Ordinance Cap 5 Official Languages Ordinance Retrieved 22 March 2018 Official Languages Ordinance Official languages and their status and use Cap 5 Section 3 HKSAR Department of Justice Retrieved 2 June 2020 Official Languages Ordinance Enactment of Ordinances in both official languages Cap 5 Section 4 HKSAR Department of Justice Retrieved 2 June 2020 Official Languages Ordinance Judicial proceedings Cap 5 Section 5 HKSAR Department of Justice Retrieved 2 June 2020 Peter Dickson and Alister Cumming 1996 National Profiles of Language Education in 25 Countries PDF National Foundation for Educational Research p 41 Archived from the original PDF on 7 May 2012 Retrieved 17 July 2013 External links edit nbsp The full text of Official Languages Ordinance 1974 at Wikisource Full text of the Official Languages Ordinance nbsp nbsp This article relating to law in Hong Kong is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte nbsp This linguistics article is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Official Languages Ordinance amp oldid 1159040104, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
