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Aggie Wang (411038022)

 Definition

Language Planning VS Language Policy

Types of Language Planning

Ideologies
OUTLINE
Process of Language Planning

Language Status

Important Issues

Case Studies

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 Weinstein (1980):
Language planning is a government
Wardhaugh (1998): authorized, long-term, sustained,
Language planning is an attempt to inte and conscious effort to alter a
rfere deliberately with a language or one language’s function in a society for
of its varieties. the purpose of solving communication
problems.
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Each ‘new’ country wanted individual la
nguage and the government of the
countries (Finnish, Welsh, Norwegian,
Romanian, etc.) have had to plan to
develop or promote certain languages
and sometimes to hinder or demote
others.
Deutsch (1968) documented the
tremendous increase within Europe during
the last 1000 years in what he calls ‘fully-
fledged national languages.’ They were six in
950 AD: Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic,
Anglo-Saxon, and Church Slavonic.
They were 30 in the 19th century and
increased to more than 53 after 1937.
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 more general linguistic, all conscious efforts that
political and social goals aim at changing the
underlying the actual linguistic behavior of a
language planning process speech community

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TYPES 1. Status Planning

2. Corpus Planning
→develop the functions of a language

3. Acquisition Planning
(Kloss, 1967)

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 refers to all efforts
undertaken to change
the use and function of a
language or language variety
within a given society
official language, mass media,
educational, international,
religious, literary…
the internal structure of the
language. Activities include
a writing system for a
spoken language, initiating
spelling reforms, creating
new terms and publishing
grammar books /
dictionaries
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Examples of Corpus Planning
Modernization: develop grammar, vocabulary…, for modern purposes
e.g. Hindi, Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia / Melayu

Graphization: establish a new writing system or refine the existing one

e.g. pinyinization of the Chinese script, Turkish language reform

Lexicalization: selection of an appropriate vocabulary often involves a

purist tendency
Examples of Corpus Planning
e.g. the replacement of foreign loanwords or borrowings from Persian,
English, etc. with words from classical Sanskrit in standardizing Hindi
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National Language: a language of a political, cultural and social unit. It is
generally developed and used as a symbol of national unity. Its functions
are to identify the nation and unite its people.

Official Language: a language used for government business. Its function is

primarily utilitarian rather than symbolic.

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 National Language Official Language

Paraguay Guarani & Spanish Spanish

English & Swahili

Tanzania Swahili
(Joint Official Languages)

Vanuatu Bislama (a Pacific Creole) Bislama, French & English

Hindi & English

18 reginal languages
*India
(State Official Languages)
(Regional Official Languages)
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(https://reurl.cc/OEDMkv) 11
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Official_language%28s%29_by_country_in_the_world.png) 12
 1. Selection
PROCESS 2. Codification

3. Elaboration of Function /
Modernization

(Haugen’s Model, 1983) 4. Acceptance /

Implementation

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When a particular variety is selected as the one to be developed into a
standard language, it may be an existing variety. Such as the one used in
an important political/commercial center and it could be an amalgam of
various varieties. The choice is a matter of great social and political
importance. The chosen variety necessarily gains prestige and so do the
speakers. However, in some cases the chosen variety has been one with no
native speakers at all. For instance, Classical Hebrew in Israel and the two
modern standards for Norwegian.

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Some agency such as an academy does the process of codification. The
production of written dictionaries and grammar books plays an
important role to 'fix' the variety , it makes everyone to agrees on what is
correct. Once codification is done , it becomes necessary for many
ambitious citizens to learn the correct forms and not to use in writing any
'incorrect' forms that may exist in their native variety.

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It must be possible to use the selected variety in all the functions associated
with central governmental institutes. For example, in parliament and law
courts, in bureaucratic, educational and scientific documents of all kinds
and, of course, in various forms of literature. This may require extra
linguistic items to be added to the variety, especially technical words. It
is also necessary to develop new conventions for using existing forms, how
to formulate examination Qs, how to write formal letters etc.

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The variety has to be accepted by the relevant population as the variety of
the community – usually in fact as the national language. Once this has
happened, the standard language serves as:
a strong unifying force for the state
a symbol of independence
a marker of its difference from other states

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IDEOLOGIES
1. Linguistic Assimilation

2. Linguistic Pluralism

3. Vernacularization

(Cobarrubias, 1983) 4. Internationalization

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It is the belief that everyone, regardless of origin, should learn the

dominant language of the society. France applied it to various peoples

within its borders. The USA used in Guam and the Philippines. The

Hellenization of Macedonia and the Russification of the former USSR are also

a form of linguistic assimilation.

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It is the recognition of more than one language: territorially based, or

individually based or a combination of the two. It might be complete or

partial, that is, all or only some aspects of life can be conducted in

more than one language in a society. Examples include- Belgium, Canada,

Singapore, South Africa and Switzerland.

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It is the restoration or elaboration of an indigenous

language and its adoption as an official language. Examples include -

Bahasa Indonesia in Indonesia; Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea;

Hebrew in Israel; Tagalog/Pilipino in Philippines; and Quechua in Peru.

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It is the adoption of a non-indigenous language of wider communication

either as an official language or for such purposes as education or trade. For

example, English in Singapore, India, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

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LANGUAGE STATUS
▪ A language may have official status even on a regional basis. Examples
include Igbo, Yoruba and Huasa in Nigeria; German in Belgium; and Marathi
in Maharashtra in India.
▪ A language might be ‘promoted’, which lacks official status, but used by
various authorities for specific purposes. There are many languages in
Canada and in various parts of the USA are the examples of this.
A tolerated language: not ‘promoted’, nor even proscribed or restricted.
For example: Amerindian languages in North America.
A discouraged/proscribed language: the one against which there are
official sanctions or restrictions. Such as: Basque in the early years of
Franco’s regime in Spain; and Macedonian in Greece. Minority languages
might be tolerated or proscribed.
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IMPORTANT ISSUES
▪ Language Rights of the immigrants. Both the UNESCO and the UN
have declared that the ethnic groups have the right to maintain their languages.
▪ Right Kind of Data.
The problem of authentic data to be used for language planning decision. Some
problems include:
 Often census data are not reliable
 Census in India is an example. Responses are often politically motivated.
 Information vary from time to time- during WW-II, people suppressed their
German ethnicity in North America. Again, in the 1960s and 1970s, ability
of speaking Spanish was a matter of pride in North America. Recently,
Canadians claim to be bilinguals

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French: The country has a single national language and does almost
nothing for any other languages. People have little interests in studies of
finding out how many people speak Provencal or Breton, nor even are they
interested in doing anything for or against Basque.
The immigrant groups like Algerians or Vietnamese want to preserve their
language, they must try to do it with their own resources as the state never
takes interests since French widely to be the proper language of instruction
in schools (with only exception of German in Alsace).
English in England and Japanese in Japan are also single national languages.

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Turkish: Turkey provides a good example of very deliberate language
planning designed to achieve certain national objectives within a very short
time. In 1928, Kemal Ataturk deliberately adopted the Roman script for his
new modern Turkish. This eventually disjointed the Turks from the Islamic
past and unified to a concept of modern Turkey. As only 10% of the total
population was literate, he faced almost no objection. He had to create
vocabulary now. Then in 1930s, he came up with the ‘Sun Language Theory’
which said that Turkish was the mother tongue of the world, and when
Turkish borrowed from others, it is only taking back own things. At present,
this language is full of borrowings, particularly from English, French and
other European languages. Evidently, corpus planning worked very well in
modern Turkey.
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References

▪ Wardhaugh, R. (1986). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Limited.

▪ Tibategeza, E.R. (2009). Language-in-education planning in Tanzania: a sociolinguistic analysis.

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