1645: Language of Those who Avoided Colonization Jun 16, 2019

Colonization, whether medieval or modern, will likely have an effect on the language of the colonized, but this is not why many never-colonized places have little linguistic influence. In Bhutan, a country which has never been colonized, the official language is Dzongkha. This language is related to Tibetan, but will feature influence from the totally unrelated Nepali, which is spoken by some in Bhutan, but mainly Nepal, where the territory has never been colonized either. That said, the influence is minor—Dzongkha and other Bhutanese languages are pretty Tibetan—but the nations are not easily traverse due to mountainous terrain, and Bhutan especially has a weak economy, and does not have much trade with its neighbors. All of these other factors could play a role in language development, but often do not.