The desire to use language as a sign of national identity

is a very natural one, and in result language has played a 【B1】 __

prominent part in national moves. Men have often felt the 【B2】 __

need to cultivate a given language to show that they are

distinctive from another race whose hegemony they resent. 【B3】 __

At the time the United States split off from Britain, for 【B4】 __

example, there were proposals that independence should be

linguistically accepted by the use of a different language from 【B5】 __

those of Britain. There was even one proposal that Americans 【B6】 __

should adopt Hebrew. Others favoured the adoption of

Greek, though, as one man put it, things would certainly be

simpler for Americans if they stuck on to English and made 【B7】 __

the British learn Greek. At the end, as everyone knows, the 【B8】 __

two countries adopted the practical and satisfactory solution

of carrying with the same language as before. 【B9】 __

Since nearly two hundred years now, they have shown 【B10】 __

the world that political independence and national identity

can be complete without sacrificing the enormous mutual

advantages of a common language.

【B1】