Montana

Legal Status of official English in Montana

Official English Law in Montana

1-1-510. English as official and primary language of state and local governments.

(1) English is the official and primary language of:

  • (a) the state and local governments;
  • (b) government officers and employees acting in the course and scope of their employment; and
  • (c) government documents and records.

(2) A state statute, local government ordinance, or state or local government policy may not require a specific foreign language to be used by government officers and employees acting in the course and scope of their employment or for government documents and records or require a specific foreign language to be taught in a school as a student’s primary language.

(3) This section is not intended to violate the federal or state constitutional right to freedom of speech of government officers and employees acting in the course and scope of their employment. This section does not prohibit a government officer or employee acting in the course and scope of employment from using a language other than English, including use in a government document or record, if the employee chooses, or prohibit the teaching of other languages in a school for general educational purposes or as secondary languages.

(4) This section is not intended to limit the use of any other language by a tribal government. A school district and a tribe, by mutual agreement, may provide for the instruction of students that recognizes the cultural identity of Native American children and promotes the use of a common language for communication.


LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN MONTANA

803,031 English
44,331 All languages other than English combined
12,953 Spanish or Spanish Creole
9,416 German
9,234 Other Native North American languages
3,298 French (incl. Patois, Cajun)
1,335 Scandinavian languages
759 Italian
711 Japanese
610 Russian
528 Chinese
478 Korean
421 Tagalog
364 Serbo-Croatian
332 Greek
293 Polish
226 Vietnamese
163 Portuguese or Portuguese Creole
148 Arabic
138 Navajo
135 Hungarian
102 Thai
91 African languages
74 Hebrew
58 Miao, Hmong
53 Hindi
28 Laotian
26 Gujarathi
25 Urdu
20 Persian
10 French Creole
7 Mon-Khmer, Cambodian
4 Armenian
2 Yiddish