Language conditions our socio-political world in fundamental ways. How public institutions deal with linguistic diversity, and how they distribute linguistic benefits, has an important impact on an individuals’ life. This article studies the value of language in multilingual environments by evaluating the debate on linguistic justice through the capabilities approach. It studies the value of language to assess what principles of justice are required to secure individual freedom. First, we explore the value of language within the framework proposed by the capabilities approach. Second, we assess the role of language in enabling the development of certain capabilities. As a first attempt to comprehensively address the relationship between linguistic justice and the capabilities approach, it evaluates how linguistic justice theories fare in fostering four capabilities from Martha Nussbaum’s list. We provide a conceptually sound normative assessment of the role played by language within the capabilities framework, and how it translates into policy.