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National languages, language policy, and language planning - Coggle…
National languages, language
policy, and language planning
2.4.2. Planning for a national official language
Language planning: A deliberate, systematic attempt to address the communication issues of a society by studying the varieties (languages/ dialects), and developing a policy concerning their form, selection and/ or use.
4 interrelated steps
Selection: choosing the variety or code to be developed.
Codification: standardizing its structural or linguistic features. - “corpus planning”
Elaboration: extending its functions for use in new domains - developing the linguistic resources for handling new concepts and contexts.
Securing its acceptance: Steps may be needed to enhance its prestige and to encourage people to develop pride in the language or loyalty towards it - “status planning” or “prestige planning”.
2.4.2.1. Form, functions and attitudes
Corpus planning (based on the allocation of its use) - it is aimed at developing that language (or variety) for the functioning in all areas in society.
Status planning: (based on the importance of the language); it changes the function of a language (or variety) and the rights of those using it
2.4.2.2. Case study: Tanzania
Faced the dilemma to choose
1 language from over 100 Indigenous languages
Choosing English for a newly independent nation seemed inappropriate
Chose Swahili, a language of the Bantu language family
independence in 1961
Before Independence -Standardizing Swahili
was begun by the British administration
In the 1920s, a southern variety of Swahili was being used in primary education, administration.
Codification:
developing a standard spelling system
describing the grammar
writing a dictionary to record its vocabulary.
After independence in 1961
was used in more and more contexts for education, administration, politics and law.
vocabulary was expanded by borrowing freely from Arabic and English
intended to be used for post- primary education, in the Higher Courts, and in all areas of government.
In 1984: the government decided not to extend Swahili- medium education to secondary and tertiary education.
English is still used in education for these levels.
Prestige and positive attitudes: unifying the people of Tanzania to work for independence
The charisma of Nyerere (anti-colonial activist): used extensively in his speeches and his political writings - increased its status.
“neutral” status: not identified with a particular tribe - the language which united them in working towards uhuru (freedom).
An economical solution: language to use for local administration and primary education.
the story of how Swahili became the national language: might be told rather differently by a group whose tribal vernacular was a competing lingua franca.
side 19
2.4.2.3. Developing a standard variety in Norway
Upper- class people
Danish with Norwegian pronunciation in formal situations
a compromise between that and local Norwegian dialects in informal contexts.
slide 21
No standard Norwegian language
Lower- class : Norwegian dialects, with Danish influence
Faced with a diglossia situation
H language - Danish
L varieties - a range of Norwegian dialects
Selected a variety based on Danish
with some orthographic and morphological modifications based on educated urban Norwegian speech.
developed into Bokmål
independence in 1814 from Denmark
Created a new Norwegian written standard
by drawing on a range of rural Norwegian dialects
Was first called Landsmål (language of the country), and later Nynorsk (new Norwegian).
The Nynorsk solution
involved amalgamating features from several dialects
the brainchild of Ivar Aasen
-----Wrote a grammar and a 40,000-word dictionary as the new Norwegian standard.
-----identified common grammatical patterns in different dialects
-----chose vocabulary from a range of different regions - least “corrupted” or “contaminated” by Danish.
------Rural dialect resources - functional elaboration, or extending the use of Norwegian
Rural dialect resources - functional elaboration, or extending the use of Norwegian
First half of 20th century- tried to bring the two closer together (into Samnorsk or united Norwegian) through continued codification efforts.
After the Second World War, change in attitude among Bokmål supporters in particular -another spelling reform in 1981 introduced more conservative forms into Bokmål.
Almost identical syntax, share many morphological variants
Differ mainly in the form and in spelling
Pronouncements are made by the Norwegian Language Council about which spellings of particular words are officially sanctioned.
Official documents are printed in both varieties
Schoolchildren are taught to read and write both
Local councils decide which variety is to be used as the main vehicle of instruction in the local schools.
Norwegian nationalists
Many influential educated city dwellers
Government support was essential, and necessary to persuade influential public figures to endorse and to use the new variety in public contexts.
Its peak in 1944 - Nynorsk was the chief language of instruction for 34.1% of all schoolchildren
Mixed fortunes - by 2008 – the language of instruction for only 13.4% of pupils in primary school.
Many people use both Bokmål and Nynorsk depending on the context.
Bokmål forms continue to displace Nynorsk forms.
---- used in most books and by most schools as a medium of instruction.
---- has urban and sophisticated connotations
---- Make government intervention and language planning irrelevant in the long run
The government makes deliberate choices, to accelerate the process of language standardization and to legislate on the status of particular varieties.
-> Language policy development and planning is a fascinating mixture of political and social considerations, as well as linguistic ones
2.4.4. The linguist’s role in language planning
Samuel Johnson’s 40,000-word dictionary was a landmark in the codification of English
Ivar Aasen in Norway created a composite variety of Norwegian (Landsmål/ Nynorsk) from a range of dialects.
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was the most influential proponent of the vernacularisation of Hebrew.
Francis Mihalic wrote the first authoritative grammar and dictionary of Tok Pisin in the 1950s
Harry Orsman completed the first dictionary of New Zealand English on historical principles in 1997.
the nuts and bolts of language planning are handled by committees, commissions or academies
the focus of much language planning activity has altered to establish their autonomy, to including concern for minority and endangered languages
2.4.4.1. Codification of orthography
Missionaries - often good linguists who produced a spelling system that accurately represented the pronunciation of the language.
---- The Samoan orthography is strictly a more precise representation of its sound system – one symbol is used for one sound
Printers and publishing houses
Wellington printers have preferred the macron
Auckland printers have favored the double vowel.
Governments often get involved with spelling reform
---- the steady replacement of anglicized spellings by Welsh names.
2.4.4.2. Developing vocabulary
Hebrew faced the problem of finding words for everyday colloquial things that had previously been referred to in people’s vernacular languages
A language will need vocabulary for more specialized or formal domains,
In advising others on usage, Maori Language Commission faced the dilemma of which of these options to recommend
a word borrowed from English
an equivalent Māori word that is perhaps not well known or with a slightly different meaning that could be adapted
a word newly created from Māori resources
The Commission - not simply a mechanical one of making Māori a more suitable instrument for official communication and modern education.
Coining words is another solution.
Commission can have a sense of humor
2.4.4.3. Acceptance
Certain linguistic forms be adopted by the media and used in schools
But people have to accept and use them.
(The Norwegian government’s ambivalence between Bokmål and Nynorsk in Norway)
The next step in the process involves the politicians and the people as much as the sociolinguist.
A variety which begins with some status always has a useful head- start.
2.4.4.5. Acquisition planning
Acquisition planning - Spread a linguistic variety by increasing the number of its users.
---- language- in- education planning. the most widespread method
2.4.3. Linguistic landscapes in social and political context
slide28
Nikolas Coupland - all linguistic landscaping is generated “from above”, since people’s reasons for choosing what to portray are influenced by language ideologies.
An analysis of the linguistic landscape can provide useful clues as to the gap that often exists between official language policy and actual linguistic practices.
An analysis in 2010 of the linguistic landscape in Dili
8 different languages, with Portuguese - dominant official language.
Tetun - the Indigenous official language
Monolingual English signs accounted for 60% of the signs surveyed, and signs involving English and another language accounted for a further 15%.
-> Gap between official language policy and actual language practice
2.4.1. National and official languages
A national language is the language of a political, cultural and social unit; symbolizes national unity.
An official language is used in government business; its function is practical, and it is not symbolic.
One language could serve both functions.
Two official languages and one national language
Paraguay (Guaraní and Spanish (official languages), Guarani (national language))
Tanzania (Swahili and English (official languages), Swahili (national language)).
Three official languages and one national languages (Bislama)
Vanuatu: Bislama, English and French (official languages), Bislama (national language)
In multilingual countries government declares a particular language to be the national language for political reasons.
If this national language cannot serve all the internal and external functions of government business,.. -> identify one or more official languages
The identification of official languages may also be necessary when the choice of national language is problematic.
To declare an official language can be problematic
---- India (The whole country - 14 regional languages as official languages in addition to English and Hindi, Different states have their own official languages)
2.4.1.1. Official status and minority languages
English:
a world language and international lingua franca
an official language in many countries - Pakistan, Fiji, Vanuatu, Jamaica and the Bahamas ….
Often shares official status with an Indigenous language - Malay in Malaysia, Swahili in Tanzania and Gilbertese in Kiribati
NOT legally an official language of England, the USA, or New Zealand.
not been considered necessary to legislate that the language of the majority is an official language
In New Zealand:
English is de facto (in fact or actuality) the official language of government and education
Māori and New Zealand Sign Language have legal or de jure status as official languages.
Māori - official language in 1987
--- cosmetic procedure aimed at quietening the demands of Māori activists
--- a first step in a process to encourage the use of Māori in an increasing number of official institutional domains such as the law courts, official government ceremonies and transactions, and in education
In Wales
Welsh has official status under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011,
Equal treatment to English and Welsh, producing all public documents and signage in both languages
not have official status in the rest of Britain
Riots over language issues
In Canada: 1968– 69 Official Languages Act declared both French and English official languages and gave them equal status in all aspects of federal administration; friction between the French- speaking and English- speaking communities
Costs in terms of providing services and information in all official languages are considerable
2.4.1.2. What price a national language?
“One nation, one language” many regarded as a way of symbolizing the unity of a nation
very few languages with this kind of status before about 1500 - Then the number increased dramatically,
In some multilingual countries, a national language
a lingua franca and official language
a symbolic unifying function
A single dominant group, the issue of which language to choose
as the official language to represent the nation generally doesn’t arise
Numerical dominance is NOT always what counts >< Political power is the crucial factor.
In the Philipines:
Tagalog - 12 million speakers
Cebuano- over 10 million speakers
Ilocano - over 5 million speakers
The choice of Tagalog reflected the political and economic power of its speakers who were concentrated in the area which included the capital, Manila.
Re- labelling as Filipino in 1987 to gain acceptance more widely,