ABSTRACT
Linguistic pluralism has never served as a point of departure in theory building or state formation. The European nation states, built around unitary symbols, were modes for state formation for the developed world. While the nation state model has been collapsing in Europe, leading to the creation of new structures like the European Economic Community, later the European Union with its Parliament, the developing countries of the world have been trying during decolonisation to build their countries in the image of their former colonial masters. While the new structures in the developed world required the use of multiple languages, the developing countries were busy imposing restrictions on choice of language use. The new European structure operates with eleven official languages, and countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America grapple with a three-language formula. Pressure to adopt a single colonial language became a logical development, whether as a neutral language or as a language of international communication.
