ABSTRACT
Multilingualism within the boundaries of states is the rule rather than the exception in the world today. The birth of most nations is the result of the political unification of diverse ethnic and linguistic groups. Recent history can furnish us with a great many examples in this respect, e.g. Nigeria, Papua-New Guinea. In the case of older established nations one can distinguish two groups. In one group ethno-linguistic differences have persisted over a lengthy period of time, e.g. Belgium with its French, Dutch (and German) speaking. populations. In the other group the differences have been minimised, resulting in an apparently monoethnic-monolingual nation.
