The nation-building process in the Arab world or Arabic-speaking world is of a recent history. Many modern Arab, Muslim and Western thinkers today think that nationalism in the Middle East is contingent on the Arabic language. In this paper, I will examine the works of thinkers who explored the role of language, standard/ local, in building the nation that they aspired to. I will consider two cases, that of Lebanon, and that of Egypt. Within the Lebanese context, I will examine the project of Antun Saade who realized the importance of language as a nation-building tool, explore his delimitation of the scope of language territory, and the reason he called for a Greater-Syrian Nation rather than a wider Arab Nationalism, or a more local Lebanese one. Comparatively, I will inspect the role of language in the project of the Lebanese poet/philosopher Said Aql who called for the use of a modified Latin alphabet, based on the Phoenician alphabet, to write the Lebanese dialect. Egypt could not go as far in calling for the use of Pharaonic language or hieratic signs. The Coptic language was under revival attempts, but was limited by its liturgical scope. Egyptian thinkers adopted other measures and features that are specific to "Egyptian Arabic". In this respect, the point of view of Taha Hussein as to the use of language to build the nation is notable, his own language, and his call for "Pharaonism" will be weighed against the "Phoenicianism" call.