“Language is the soul of a people.”Mihai Eminescu · Publicistică · 1880 · Timpul, 1880
Language is the core of a people's identity, through which their collective spirituality is expressed and perpetuated.
Eminescu identifies language with the soul because through it collective thoughts, emotions, and values are transmitted. Without language, a people cannot think complexly, create culture, or resist assimilation. The mechanism is interiority: language is not just a communication tool, but a way of being. An example is diaspora communities that preserve their mother tongue to maintain a connection with their origins.
Eminescu tells us that language is more than words. It shapes how we perceive reality. For example, Romanian has words for shades of sadness that other languages lack. This means our language gives us unique thinking tools. If we lose these words, we also lose the ability to feel those shades. The next step is to see how this happens in education.
Why it matters Today, when English dominates globally, the idea warns us not to neglect our mother tongue. Losing it means losing a unique worldview.