This collection of eleven articles addresses in diverse ways the role of language in the construction of social, regional, national, and supranational identities. The contributions are not based on a common theoretical concept and common methodology. The approaches to the subject vary greatly, ranging from a subtle empirical sociolinguistic study embedded in the theoretical framework of variational linguistics and the theory of language maintenance and language loss, to articles exploring aspects of language policies and political science, to an anthropological contribution.