Background - The Ada Programming language led through original Ada standardization; felt to be an excellent language for high-reliability systems, though the proper use of the language remains the key - for example, the absence of exception handling in the implementation of Ada in the Ariane 5 Flight 501 may have contributed to the failure during the maiden flight of that vehicle. Ada's DoD mandate, began to be de-emphasized in 1988 with a migration to use of more COTS tools. 

Programming languages have proliferated for years, often for the oddest reasons, and continue to do so. Standardization for commercial aviation. Assessment in 2000.  Status in 2003 - a 'risk'. Ada today. Emphasize how quickly can happen even with strong government backing and industry support. Simply put, technologies (including those based on languages) rapidly evolve, and that pace is increasing.

religious war - cultural and historical differences between combatants, giving the impression that the conflict is primarily about religious differences' - fights that are not necessarily over substance, but are over turf.

What is a language, anyway? Simply put, it's a system for communications. They have syntax and semantic rules to compose parts of the language into things that have meaning.

Consider list of languages by number of native speakers, languages in use on the internet

Consider the timeline of programming languages, and a comparison of programming languages

Talk about the business case for programming languages, and how a 'critical mass' needed to be established to stay in business. Also, the percentage of technical staff focussed on marketing vs new product development. Examine language use in repositories today, and taught in universities.

Use of language as Poka-Yoke for code.

Challenge of dictating tool to suppliers - you will pay for it.