I am a Patriot, Not a Nationalist

Q

Should every country have only one official national spoken and written language?
https://www.quora.com/Should-every-country-have-only-one-official-national-spoken-and-written-language/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-2

Hans-Georg Lundahl

amateur linguist

9.IV.2024

Why?

No, I definitely disagree.

Finland has Finnish and Swedish, I think they could add Sapmi.
Sweden could add Finnish of at least the Meänkieli type, and two versions of Sapmi.

While I support Ukraine against Russian agression, I think Zelensky did the wrong thing to abolish Russian and a few more as coofficial.

A model that’s workable is regional official languages. In Spain Castilian or Spanish is official all over the country. However, Galician is co-official in Galicia, Catalan in Barcelona and on the Baleares, Basque in Basque country and Navarre.

The Roman Empire had Latin and Greek as official everywhere (though eventually each half of it tended to neglect the language of the other half). It also had Copt, Syriac, probably Brythonic, as near official and definitely in full use in some places, like Egypt, North Syria and Palestine, Britannia.

In Sweden, the distinction would work out like this: a Nationalist has more in common with Finland Swedes and with Minnesota Swedes than with Torne Finns and Lapps. A Patriot has more in common with Torne Finns and Lapps (peoples in the same kingdom) than with Finland Swedes and Minnesota Swedes. Though, admittedly, on a personal level I'd be more of a "nationalist" than a "patriot" with this distinction. I mean politically.