To keep alive its rich culture it has built linguistic defences to prevent erosion from outside influence. All in English.”At least a score more European languages, repositories of history and culture, face the same problem. But this raises a wider question about modern-day nation states: can they encompass a multiplicity of languages and still appear coherent? In the European context a single dominant language was historically seen as the indispensable glue that keeps citizens together. Instead of thinking that a nation is only unified by one language, a modern-day nationalism would represent its semantic diversity.

Source: The Guardian February 27, 2018 18:22 UTC