The notion of ‘formulaic language’ in terms of analytical tool appears relevant from a historical perspective, e.g. with respect to early-modern state building. Centralization of political power and homogeneity of legal and other institutional arrangements – two key features of the modern state – was preceded by or, as in some cases, went hand in hand with conceptual innovation, linguistic standardization, and new ways to talk and write about politics and statesmanship in diplomatic and legal context. For example, the two, emerging Nordic states – Denmark and Sweden – are cases in point. However, neither Denmark nor Sweden were homogenous entities from an ethnic and cultural point of view. Denmark enclosed both what would eventually (re-)emerge as independent Norway, as well as substantial parts of what today is southern Sweden. Seventeenth-century ‘Sweden’ included not only future Finland but also large parts of today’s Baltic Republics and slices of Northern Germany. Differentiation in terms of identity, legal definitions, and institutional arrangements was typical to the processes involved with formation of the state but also, considering the modern period, concerns about the moral improvement of the subjects. Our focus in this paper is how cultural diversity and ideas about modern nationhood and moral improvement reflect in formulaic sequences at administrative level. From an empirical point of view we hold that border regions of different types provide particularly interesting cases with respect to formulaic language. We draw on empirical illustration – petitions and so called five-year reports by local governors – from the 17th- 19th centuries and the Swedish-Danish region of Halland.