It is the aim of this chapter to reveal ways in which standard language ideology has been shaping multilingual practices and conceptions of multilingualism across Europe. At the same time, it serves as a resumé of the findings from the regional case studies in this volume, with an attempt to provide a typology of standard languages cultures in Europe.

This article draws upon data from 1880 students across Europe, gathered through an online survey. It aims at identifying general trends regarding their beliefs about multilingualism: Are these still shaped by the dominant standard language ideology (SLI)? In the article, results from factor analysis that examined underlying dimensions of beliefs about multilingualism and language learning are presented. These dimensions are evaluated differently by subsamples of students. On the one hand, students are divided by national backgrounds; for instance, Central European students differ from Belgian students. On the other hand, variables such as geographical mobility play an equal role: Students who consider moving to another country differ in their beliefs from their peers who prefer to stay in their home countries.

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This article introduces a new concept called “Language Making”. The term covers all kinds of processes in which speakers or non-speakers collectively conceptualize linguistic entities. Such processes are usually perpetual, they operate based on language ideologies and attitudes, and they bring about functional and structural norms which determine the boundaries of linguistic entities such as languages, dialects or varieties. The article discusses the significance of standardization, language policy and planning, and of stakeholders and agency for processes of Language Making. Raising the question as to why a new concept is needed in the first place, the article concludes with a demarcation of Language Making from opposite processes which may be called “un-Making” of Languages.

Starting from the central DYLAN question as to the conditions under which Europeans consider multilingualism as an advantage or as a drawback, the present chapter primarily discusses the historical aspects of European multilingualism. Methodically, many of the aspects dealt with are based on an analytical grid which illustrates the interrelations between the four research areas: “domains”, “language attitudes”, “language policies” and “contexts”. The fifth area “tranversal issues” (Geneva, Vienna, Berlin) and especially the aims of the Berlin research team run at right angles to this, touching on all four areas and offering a historical retrospective which provides a general overview of past and present forms of European multilingualism. Perhaps surprisingly, we depart from the assumption that the often invisible occurrences and forms of multilingualism in European history can be illuminated by taking a detour into comparative research into European standardisation histories. Thematically, the article uses examples to focus on indexicality and the social aspects of (individual) multilingualism by conducting a comparative analysis of certain periods (16th, 19th/20th and 21st century) and of distinguishable occurrences/forms (prestigious, plebeian) and trends/concepts (territoriality, non-standard, correctness, egalitarian). The mechanisms operative in the fields of linguistic attitudes and usages during the various European standardisation periods are considered from a macro-perspective. One of the focuses here is on the varied and context-specific traditions of foreign language learning from the Middle Ages where multilingualism was part of self-evident practice up to the present day and on the rediscovery of European multilingualism (19th century) which was, for example, accompanied by a fundamental critique (from the late 19th century onwards) of the principle of territoriality and uniformity. Among other things, the final section presents proposals for the periodisation of the different stages of standardisation in Europe.