alternative_be✅🖖🏻<p>So what I want to write about is this: I wonder when, why and how new <a href="https://todon.nl/tags/languages" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>languages</span></a> emerge or are born. I know this sounds sort of cryptic, but bear with me! Once upon a time <a href="https://todon.nl/tags/Afrikaans" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Afrikaans</span></a> emerged and was no longer considered a variant of <a href="https://todon.nl/tags/Dutch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Dutch</span></a>. After the war in <a href="https://todon.nl/tags/ExYugoslavia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ExYugoslavia</span></a>, new countries emerged and we no longer spoke of Serbo-Croat, but of <a href="https://todon.nl/tags/Bosnian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Bosnian</span></a> <a href="https://todon.nl/tags/croation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>croation</span></a> and <a href="https://todon.nl/tags/Serbian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Serbian</span></a> languages. I sometimes fear the same could happen to <a href="https://todon.nl/tags/Dutch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Dutch</span></a>. When one variant of a language develops in a natural way into another, I don’t feel that’s problematic. However, when politics and purposely orchestrated manoeuvres come into play, that is something that worries me. And that is something that I want to write about. <a href="https://todon.nl/tags/linguistics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>linguistics</span></a></p>