Although an intrinsic part of historical research, language itself is not in the very focus of historiography, but rather a by-product of studying identity building, e. g. in the context of nationalism or regionalism. This is particularly the case when it comes to standardization processes that can reveal a lot about strategies of converting a language into one that “counts”. The workshop seeks to deepen reflection on how languages that are treated as “minor” because they lack either a stable orthography and grammatical norms or prestigious fields of application (e. g. science or literature) cope with the threat of cultural or political marginalization. The main examples which are discussed from a historiographic and philological perspective refer to Eastern Europe (Russian, Yiddish, Belarusian), but the workshop also deals with two Western European cases (Occitan and Catalan). Opening key note by Michael D. Gordin (Princeton); funded by the LMU Mentoring Program.