“A country where the language is not loved is a country without a soul.”Mihai Eminescu · Publicistică · 1880 · Românul, 1880
Active love for the national language is the vital soul of a country.
Eminescu defines a country's soul through attachment to its language. If the language is neglected or despised, the country becomes an empty space without cultural cohesion. The mechanism is active love: it is not enough to speak the language, you must cherish it. An example is a country where young people prefer to read and write only in English, thus losing the nuances and richness of their mother tongue.
Eminescu was not talking about an abstract language, but about the language lived daily. When a parent gently corrects their child, they are not just teaching grammar, but passing on an attachment. This active love shows in choosing to read a poem over a foreign text. It creates an emotional bond that keeps culture alive. The next step is to understand how this bond is lost when language is treated only as a tool.
Why it matters In the digital age, where English dominates content, the idea calls us to invest in local culture. Without love for the language, we lose diversity and identity.