There are not many countries in Europe which are, or have ever been, linguistically homogeneous, the main exceptions being Iceland and Portugal; most countries have one or more linguistic minorities. The total number of linguistic minorities in the European Union alone comes to about fifty. Many countries have also experienced some kind of conflict over languages. Only very rarely have language issues been resolved in a way which both the majority and the minority find satisfactory.

One of these rare cases is Finland, where the circumstances of the Swedish-language minority are so well ordered that they could serve as an example for Europe and the whole world. Finland is a society which mostly functions very well in two languages, Finnish and Swedish, even though the minority language accounts for a mere six per cent of the population.

Language was originally a subordinate factor in the definition of ethnic identity, religion being considered more important. It only took on greater significance in ethnic identity about two hundred years ago, when the eighteenth-century German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder proclaimed that language was what made mankind. Herder himself did not perceive this as a political issue, but his words created a veritable revival, especially in the more peripheral eastern parts of Europe which were multilingual. The concept of 'mother tongue' evolved into a mass movement which would ultimately change the world completely.