Nationalization of Languages

Languages in Human History

As our early ancestors moved out into different parts of the world, languages became diversified and wonderfully varied. Similar patterns of diversification and adaptation attended every branch of the human family as people spread throughout the world, over thousands of years. Languages grew in importance as people used different symbol systems to represent them, creating writing systems to leave markings on caves, monuments, parchment, and papyrus.

Early merchants and traders spoke several languages and carried with them translators to assist them in their travels. Languages were learned and used as needed. Eventually, merchants must have found that in a given territory where a certain language was used, their trading profits were greater. The association of particular languages with successful trading spots was perhaps the beginning of the association of particular languages with nationalism.

Such association of languages with the greatness or high status of a community, country, or region began to change as early civilizations and empires started to dominate others. Rich and powerful groups of people began to define themselves as members of the same community. Some of the markers of distinction they chose were cultural and linguistic, especially languages in various literary forms. Other indicators of high status may have been dress and adornment, art and architecture, and military might. Languages thus joined flags, banners, and other national symbols as objects of pride and a willingness to protect them against “the other,” those who did not carry the same flags and symbols and did not speak the same language.

Nation-States and their Languages Emerge in Tandem

The cultural and political importance of languages in relation to one another was a phenomenon that did not develop until well-defined nation-states and empires had emerged. Distinctions between the concepts of nation and state can be traced back to the Greek and Roman civilizations. For the Greeks, the term polis is better aligned with the current conception of nation: This is a population situated in a sociopolitical area, sharing a culture and history. For the Romans, the concept of res publica aligns with the current definition of state; referring to the legal and political authority regulating the citizens. Historical linguist Robert McColl Millar explains that before the early modern period, nations could be considered a part of larger states—giving as example the fact that several ethnic groups were ruled by one dynastic state.

...