The author suggests that most cultural studies programmes are ill at ease with the question of language inasmuch as they appear to disregard the link between language and identity. Other disciplines in the humanities too have tended to neglect the question of linguistic an cultural identity. The underlying reason is that the norm for identity remains territory and that territory refers to the nation. So, when borders start shifting and languages become mixed, the homogeneity of identity is under threat, and language becomes translation, a 'bizarre language' permanently on the move between two places. But in contemporary communication societies, the author argues, proximity or movement in space is no longer a necessary condition for communication to occur. Thus, among the principles that allow for a better distinction between virtual and traditional identities, the principles of language and communication become central. In the new world, language options are much more open, with competition and selection between languages replacing the single option of the national language. Translation - including its institutionalization and its new technologies - therefore has a strong impact on the very nature of communities and their identities by conditioning interaction and communication.