The best language for a motto is the one that best expresses the thought or sentiment the coat of arms is intended to convey. Usually that means your mother tongue, but any human language will do. In fact, even a fictitious (or extra-terrestrial) language might be appropriate if it conveys meaning to enough people.

Mottoes are often not something heralds pay all that much attention to. The heralds of the College of Arms usually don’t even bother to include the motto in the blazon, or technical description, of a coat of arms.

The one exception to this is when a motto (and it can be one of two or more) happens to be incorporated into the shield design. Since the shield is not usually the place for wording – the English heralds normally only incorporate wording into the pages of an open book – this is a rare occurrence.

[24] An armiger is someone who owns and bears a coat of arms.

[25] Boutell’s Heraldry, revised by J P Brooke-Little Warne).

[26] For an example, go to this page and go down to the third illustration.

In England especially, a motto is something that can be changed at will. A person will receive a grant of arms in which the illustration depicts one motto. The armiger’s [24] son might, however, prefer to adopt a different motto. Boutell [25] writes: “In England no authority is needed to use a motto.”

In other instances, a family or dynasty will retain the same motto over centuries.

The motto of the Plantagenet kings of England was Dieu et mon droit (“God and my right”, which is Norman French), and this still appears in the English version of the British royal arms.

This appears to have originated as a war-cry, as did the motto of the French kings, Montjoye Saint Denis, which appeared above the pavilion in the royal arms. [26]

The kings of Scots chose In defens (“In defence”, which is Latin), which still appears in the arms of Scotland and in the Scottish version of the arms of the United Kingdom. Also associated with the Scottish crown is Nemo me impune lacessit (“No-one harms me with impunity”, also Latin), the motto of the Order of the Thistle, which appears on the compartment of the arms of Scotland.
[27] A Complete Guide to Heraldry by A C Fox-Davies, revised by J P Brooke-Little (Nelson).

[28] When Fox-Davies was writing, the heraldic authority in Ireland was Ulster King of Arms in Dublin Castle. The Ulster Office has now been absorbed into the College of Arms, while the heraldic authority in Dublin is the Chief Herald of Ireland.

However, the lax English approach to mottoes is not universal. Within the same island, Scottish law decrees differently. Fox-Davies [27] writes specifically of Scotland (referring to the practice of Lyon Court), and then of Ireland: [28]

“The motto is included in the terms of the patent, and is consequently made the subject of grant. It therefore becomes inalienable and unchangeable without a rematriculation, and a Scottish patent moreover always specifies the position in which the motto is to be carried. This is usually ‘in an escroll over the same’ (i.e. over the crest), though occasionally it is stated to be borne on ‘a compartment below the arms’.

“The matter in Ireland is not quite the same as in either Scotland or England. Sometimes the motto is expressed in the patent – in fact this is now the more usual alternative – but the rule is not universal, and to a certain extent the English permissiveness is recognised. Possibly the subject can be summed up in the remark that if any motto has been granted or is recorded with a particular coat of arms in Ireland, it is expected that that shall be the motto to be made use of therewith.”

In the Netherlands, wapendiplomas issued by the Hoge Raad van Adel will often specify both the typeface and the colouring of a motto – details which, even in strict Scotland, are generally left to the artist’s or the armiger’s preference. Shown below is the motto of the province of Zuid Holland, which is prescrbed as being in “Latin” letters, red on gold.
Fox-Davies comments thus on German usage:

[29] “Nothing without God”.

“In Germany, a distinction appears to be drawn between their ‘Wahlsprüche’ (i.e. those which are merely dictated by personal choice) and their ‘armorial mottoes’ which remained constantly and heritably attached to the armorial bearings, such as the ‘Gott mit uns’ (‘God with us’) of Prussia and the ‘Nihil sine Deo’ [29] of Hohenzollern.”

Also in Germany one finds the phenomenon of mottoes spelt out as initials, and even as riddles. Examples given by Fox-Davies include W G W (Wie Gott will – “As God wills” and W D W (Wie du willst – “As thou wilt”), both of which are common. He also mentions another:

“The strange but well-known alphabet or vowel-motto ‘A.E.I.O.V.’, of the Emperor Frederick III has been variously translated, ‘Aquila Electa Juste Omnia Cincit’ (‘The chosen eagle vanquishes all by right’), ‘Aller Ehren Ist Oesterrich Voll’) ‘Austria is full of every honour’), or perhaps with more likelihood, ‘Austriæ Est Imperare Orbe Universo’ (‘All the earth is subject to Austria’).”

But as to the language one may or ought to use, this depends to a large extent on where an individual armiger comes from or what he wants to convey to the world, or the community represented by a corporate coat of arms.

Brooke-Little, in a footnote to Fox-Davies, notes:

“Of 125 mottoes adopted between 1965 and 1966, 88 were in Latin, 25 in English and 12 in other languages, notably, French, Welsh and Greek. Of an equal number of mottoes adopted between 1822 and 1824, 105 were in Latin, 14 in English and 6 in other languages, illustrating a slight switch from Latin to English, but nothing very significant.”

He notes regarding women:

“It appears to have been customary to deny women mottoes. The only example that I have found of a woman having a motto was that assigned to Baroness Holland (Catherine, wife of the Rt Hon. Henry Fox) when she was granted supporters on 14 May 1762; but in a way this is a bad example, as the motto Re E Marito was to be borne and and used by holders of the peerage. Recently, however, there has been a change of heart and, although emancipated woman is still denied shield and crest, [30] some gentle aphorism may be places on a scroll beneath her lozenge.”

[30] Even this restriction has now fallen away.

[31] From the Gaelic sluagh-ghairm, battle cry.

In Scotland one encounters slogans [31] or war-cries in Gaelic, but also in English (standard or dialect) and French (standard or Norman), as well as formal mottoes in English, French and Latin. Often an armiger will have both slogan and formal motto.
Now let’s look at South Africa. Here we have a great many languages, although in heraldic usage this country has tended to focus on European tongues, living or dead.

In the Eastern Cape, the Port Elizabeth Technical High School used to have two mottoes: “Do it now” in English, and the Afrikaans translation “Doen dit nou.”

Either might have been acceptable but having both was excessive, and when the school registered arms after changing its name to Newton Technical High School, it quite sensibly translated the motto into Latin: Nunc agita (perhaps more literally “Act now!”).

This was explained as being required by the rules of heraldry, but if anything the rules of heraldry require simplicity, rather than any specific language.

As it happens, Latin was appropriate because, in the past, it was a language understood by educated people from both the English-speaking and Afrikaans-speaking sectors of the population.

Nowadays fewer and fewer people follow Latin at all, but it remains appropriate, in many instances, for academic institutions, especially those teaching in both English and Afrikaans.

Many Afrikaans schools, especially those founded in the years of intense Afrikaner nationalist enthusiasm, have mottoes in that language, such as Handhaaf en bou (“Maintain and build,” used by many schools) and Blaas hoog die vlam (“Blow the flame high,” used by Hoërskool Despatch).

A motto in the language of the specific community being taught is often appropriate, and if enough people within that community understand it, abother language, perhaps from Africa.

[32] Perhaps already extinct; I have no information on whether Mrs Vaalbooi is still alive.

The Northern Cape Province has been timid about adopting a new name, but boldly sought out a motto in the near-extinct language [32] of the /’Auni Bushman people of the Kalahari. This motto, sa k//?a: !aisi ?uisi, was provided by Mrs Elsie Vaalbooi, the last /’Auni speaker alive.

The motto, appropriately enough, translates as: “Strive for a better life.”

In 2000 South Africa also adopted a Bushman motto, !KE E:/XARRA //KE. And since the majority of South Africans are speakers of one or other Bantu language, especially isiNguni and Sesotho, it can be expected that many coats of arms in our country will incorporate mottoes in those languages.

It is ironic that the mottoes of more than one of the “homeland” governments under apartheid were translations of the motto of the Union of South Africa, Ex unitate vires, even if they were in the local vernacular.

Examples are the mottoes of Transkei, Imbumba yamanyama (which is isiXhosa), and QwaQwa, Kopano ke matla (Sesotho sa Borwa).

In the wake of the cinematic success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it would not be surprising to find that people have adopted mottoes in one or other of the languages and scripts that J R R Tolkien invented, while others might take mottoes from the peoples encountered in the Star Trek TV series and movies, such as Vulcans and Klingons.

[33] Perhaps already extinct; I have no information on whether Mrs Vaalbooi is still alive.

Inscriptions in the runic [33] characters used by the Germans before the introduction of the Latin alphabet can be used, or indeed in any alphabet.

Brooke-Little mentions Greek as being used – probably Classical Greek – but Modern Greek, Hebrew, Chinese and any number of other languages and alphabets have also been used.

If you are not bound to a motto already specifically prescribed in an existing grant of arms, the choice is entirely yours.