This week’s pod has two contrasting stories on language adoption. In the first instance, the intention is to encourage bilingualism; in the second, it’s to promote nationalism.
Belgium hasn’t had a revolution since 1830 (see pic), after which a new constitution established French as the national language. Today, Dutch and German are also recognized. But another, slower revolution may be taking place, with language again the weapon of choice. The country’s Dutch-speaking Flemish majority want out, and they did well in enough in parliamentary elections to advance that agenda. The French-speaking Walloon minority are less independence-minded, perhaps because they’re not so well-off.
Belgium’s capital, Brussels, is the only place where the two language groups intermingle. Now a Brussels-based organization is urging Belgians to adopt people from across the linguistic divide. OK, so it’s just online adoption, but the idea is to rekindle Belgium’s former affection for multilingualism. More on Belgium’s language battles here and here.
In Montenegro, the government has adopted a language that may not be a language at all. But as the saying goes, “a language is a dialect with an army and navy” (the quote is often attributed, wrongly, to Max Weinreich). As of 2006, Montenegro has been its own country, with the toys to prove it, like the Gazelle helicopter pictured above — see the Montenegrin flag on the tail. This means that it can call its dialect of Serbo-Croatian a language in its own right. After all, the Serbs have Serbian, the Croats Croatian and the Bosnians Bosnian. In reality, Montenegrin is even less distinguishable from Serbian than Croatian or Bosnian are. But this is the Balkans, and languages, just like everything else, get balkanized.
Finally, a discussion with David Wolman on what happens to spelling in the age of Spell Check and Google’s did you mean function. Do we need bother to learn how to spell, or at any rate, spell well?
Wolman is the author of a history of English spelling, Righting the Mother Tongue. Check out my previous interview with him here.
the world in words 
(re the Montenegrin language)
Well, I believe there are Americans who refer to their language, the one I’d call English whether it’s spoken in England, Scotland or New South Wales, as “American”.
I may be missing something, but I’ve never heard anyone here in the U.S. refer to American English as “American”.
Well that’s as may be but there’s no denying it exists! H L Mencken uses it all the time. Even the little concise dictionary at my elbow has it. The big OED has citations from 1787 to 2000, eg: “A lifelong USN sailor, he didn’t like depending on anything except people who spoke American and wore Navy Blue” (Tom Clancy).