‘When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.” Can you think of examples in history where a conquered people had their language taken away from them or had a language imposed on them?
In The Last Lesson, the teacher M. Hamel told the students about the importance of a language in the lives of the people. He implicitly stated that a language always keep the people united. He encouraged them to fight unitedly to win their freedom from slavery. In the words of M. Hamel: “When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language, it is as if they had the key to their prison.” In stating so M. Hamel is very much right.
There are examples in history where a conquered people who had held fast their language they could win back their freedom from their ruler. The biggest example in history is that of British on India who left the impact of English on us. History is replete with such examples of the races holding fast to their languages, that proved to be their keys to their prison. That is why, M. Hamel went on to say to his enslaved people of France in the school at the district of Alsace :
“We must guard it (the language) among us and never forget it.”
In other example, we can see that Spanish and Portuguese have been imposed on the people of Latin American countries.
