Formal Arabic dominates government, education and written public communication. Hassaniya Arabic is the main Mauritanian Arabic variety used in everyday life, but the constitution does not list Hassaniya separately from Arabic. Pulaar, also written Pular or Poular, Soninké and Wolof have national-language status without being co-official languages. The 2023 RGPH5 language records reported Arabic for 74.5% of valid responses, Pulaar for 16.8%, Soninké for 3.3%, Wolof for 1.4% and other languages for 4%; ANSADE cautions that these figures describe valid records and are not population estimates. Zenaga and Imraguen are also documented in Mauritania, but neither has constitutional national-language status and no current reliable speaker figures were established. French is not an official constitutional language, yet it remains a practical working language in technical, economic and parts of administrative documentation. No general enforceable right to receive public services in Pulaar, Soninké or Wolof was established in the available evidence. The Constitution protects cultural diversity, equality and freedom of expression and assigns the state a role in preserving and promoting national languages. Law No. 2022-023 provides for a gradual multilingual education approach that began experimentally. Teacher training has involved five Écoles normales d'instituteurs, with regional links for Pulaar in Hodh Ech Chargui, Hodh El Gharbi, Assaba, Gorgol, Brakna and Tagant, Soninké in Guidimakha and Wolof in Trarza; Nouakchott is also included in training. Preparation began in 2023/2024, pilot teaching started in the 2024–2025 school year, 60 teachers had been trained by May 2025 and 89 had received multilingual-didactics training by December 2025. In April 2026, the Institut national pour la promotion et l’enseignement des langues nationales reported textbooks for primary and secondary education in Pulaar, Soninké and Wolof. Availability remains uneven because the programme is still being expanded and consolidated. The state provides the school and teacher pathway, and no individual user fee was documented in the reviewed sources. The Agence Mauritanienne d'Information has provided official information through a platform in Pulaar, Soninké and Wolof since January 2025, while Arabic remains central to public information. Coverage and regularity of individual radio and television services were not reliably verified. Hassaniya carries the T'heydinn oral tradition, and Mahadra transmits traditional knowledge and oral forms of expression. The Ministère de l'Éducation nationale et de la Réforme du Système éducatif, the language institute, AMI, the Ministère de la Culture, des Arts, de la Communication et des Relations avec le Parlement and the Secrétariat Général du Gouvernement are relevant public bodies for education, language promotion, information, culture and official documentation.
Language in Mauritania
Arabic is Mauritania's only official language, while Arabic, Pulaar, Soninké and Wolof are recognized as national languages. Hassaniya Arabic is the dominant everyday variety, and French remains widely used in technical, economic and parts of administrative work. Language access differs by region, institution and setting.
Tip
Choose the working language for each task instead of treating Mauritania as linguistically uniform. Use formal Arabic as the safest starting point for official and educational matters, confirm whether French or a national language is accepted in the specific institution, and expect regional differences in multilingual schooling and information access.