An official script is a writing system that is specifically designated to be official in the constitutions or other applicable laws of countries, states, and other jurisdictions. Akin to an official language, an official script is much rarer. It is used primarily where an official language is in practice written with two or more scripts. As, in these languages, use of script often has cultural or political connotations, proclamation of an official script is sometimes criticised as having a goal of influencing culture or politics or both. Desired effects also may include easing education, communication and some other aspects of life.
Below is a partial list of official scripts used in different countries. Those in italics are states that have limited international recognition.
Abkhazia – Cyrillic-based Abkhaz alphabet
Azerbaijan – Azeri Latin alphabet
Bangladesh – Bengali script
Brunei – Rumi script (Latin) and Jawi script
Ethiopia – Ge'ez script
Bosnia and Herzegovina:
Republika Srpska – Cyrillic
China, People's Republic of (mainland China) – Simplified Chinese
Hong Kong – Traditional Chinese (de facto) After the announcement of Simplified Chinese in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau didn't follow the change, making Traditional Chinese the de facto official script. (Hong Kong and Macau were still colonies at that time, and their current constitutions don't state whether Tradition Chinese or Simplified Chinese is to be used. Both places continued to use Traditional Chinese after handover.)
Macau – Traditional Chinese (de facto)
Inner Mongolia – Mongolian alphabet,Chinese
Tibet Autonomous Region – Tibetan alphabet,Mandarin
Xinjiang – Uyghur Ereb Yéziqi and Uyghur Latin Yéziqi
Guangxi – Zhuang Latin alphabet
Croatia – Croatian alphabet
Georgia – Georgian alphabet
India – Devanagari
Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Bhojpuri, Bhili, Magahi, Kurukh, Dogri, Konkani – Devanagari
Gujarati – Gujarati alphabet
Kashmiri – Perso-Arabic script, Devanagari
Kannada – Kannada alphabet
Kutchi language – Gujarati alphabet
Punjabi – Gurmukhi
Malayalam – Malayalam alphabet
Bengali – Bengali alphabet
Oriya – Oriya alphabet
Assamese language – Assamese script
Maithili – Devanagari
Tamil – Tamil alphabet
Telugu – Telugu alphabet
Tulu language – Kannada alphabet
Konkani language – Devanagari, Kannada alphabet
Lepcha language – Lepcha script
Limbu language – Limbu script
Meitei language – Bengali alphabet, Meitei Mayek script
Urdu – Perso-Arabic script
Kazakhstan – Cyrillic
Korea (both) – Hangul and hanja (South Korea)
Macedonia – Macedonian alphabet
Malaysia – Rumi script (Latin), Jawi script is recognised.
Moldova – Latin alphabet
Mongolia – Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet and Mongolian script
Montenegro – Cyrillic and Latin script
Nagorno-Karabakh – Armenian alphabet
Philippines – Latin script (de facto) Baybayin (traditional)
Russian Federation – Russian alphabet; see below
Serbia – Latin and cyrillic (Serbian Cyrillic script)
South Ossetia – Cyrillic
Republic of China (Taiwan) – Traditional Chinese
Transnistria – Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet
Turkey – Turkish Latin alphabet
Vietnam – Vietnamese latin alphabet
In Russian, the designation of Cyrillic as an official script (2001) has the consequence that the official languages of national Republics of Russia have to be written in the Cyrillic script in all official institutions and education. The passing of the law was met with particular resistance and criticism in the Republic of Tatarstan, as it replaced the Turkish Latin alphabet which the local government tried to promote in education after the dissolution of USSR.
In the USSR, numerous languages were Latinised during the 1920s–1930s. In the late 1930s the Latinisation campaign was canceled and all newly romanized languages were converted to Cyrillic.
