Language, culture, and national identity is the title of my paper, but its central subject is the situation of languages in cultures, written or spoken languages still being the main medium of these. More specifically, my subject is “multiculturalism” insofar as this depends on language. “Nations” come into it, since in the states in which we all live political decisions about how and where languages are used for public purposes (for example, in schools) are crucial. And these states are today commonly identified with “nations” as in the term United Nations. This is a dangerous confusion.
