It provides a culturally acceptable symbol of unity. Linguistic diversity can seem problematic to those working for political unification. It is potentially divisive. But finally it is important to remember that the story of how Swahili became the national language of Tanzania might be told rather differently by a group whose tribal vernacular was a competing lingua franca.
the same processes and steps are relevant in the deliberate development of a particular dialect for use as national language in a monolingual country, as we shall see in the next section in relation to Norway, a country with relatively small and homogeneous population.