Editing Languages of Europe (section)

=== Language and identity, standardization processes ===
In the Middle Ages the two most important defining elements of Europe were ''Christianitas'' and ''Latinitas''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mark |first=Joshua |date=28 June 2019 |title=Religion in the Middle Ages |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1411/religion-in-the-middle-ages/ |access-date=15 December 2023 |website=World History Encyclopedia}}</ref>

The earliest dictionaries were glossaries: more or less structured lists of lexical pairs (in alphabetical order or according to conceptual fields). The Latin-German (Latin-Bavarian) ''[[Abrogans]]'' was among the first. A new wave of [[lexicography]] can be seen from the late 15th century onwards (after the introduction of the printing press, with the growing interest in standardisation of languages).{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The concept of the [[nation state]] began to emerge in the [[early modern period]]. Nations adopted particular dialects as their national language. This, together with improved communications, led to official efforts to standardise the [[national language]], and a number of language academies were established: 1582 ''[[Accademia della Crusca]]'' in Florence, 1617 ''[[Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft]]'' in Weimar, 1635 ''[[Académie française]]'' in Paris, 1713 ''[[Real Academia Española]]'' in Madrid. Language became increasingly linked to nation as opposed to culture, and was also used to promote religious and ethnic identity: e.g. different [[Bible translations]] in the same language for Catholics and Protestants.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The first languages whose standardisation was promoted included Italian (''[[questione della lingua]]'': Modern Tuscan/Florentine vs. Old Tuscan/Florentine vs. Venetian → Modern Florentine + archaic Tuscan + Upper Italian), French (the standard is based on Parisian), English (the standard is based on the London dialect) and (High) German (based on the dialects of the chancellery of Meissen in Saxony, Middle German, and the chancellery of Prague in Bohemia ("Common German")). But several other nations also began to develop a standard variety in the 16th century.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}