But as long as languages don't have any symbol, and symbols help with recognition, is it maybe just a lesser of evils? It's clear that English originates from

But as long as languages don't have any symbol, and symbols help with recognition, is it maybe just a lesser of evils? It's clear that English originates from the UK and Portuguese originates from Portugal. Not to mention that sites often do have country variants -- the Brazilian Portuguese gets the Brazilian flag. And if a site is only for US and Mexican customers, a US flag makes sense rather than UK because it'll also use US currency. And a flag icon also helps your eye quickly find the localization drop-down mixed in with a bunch of other stuff in the footer.