Language Planning and Policy [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

Language Planning and Policy Md. Jahurul Islam Definition: According to Weinstein (1980: 56) “Language planning is a government authorized, longterm, sustained, and conscious effort to alter a language’s function in a society for the purpose of solving communication problems.” Wardhaugh (1998) comments, ‘Language planning is an attempt to interfere deliberately with a language or one of its varieties.’ Deutsch (1968) documented the tremendous increase within Europe during the last thousand 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 thirty in the nineteenth century and increased to more than fifty-three after 1937 (Deutsch 1968). Each ‘new’ country wanted individual language 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. Need of LPP (Colonialism & Independence) - Resolve the problem of communication (lingua communis) - Developing nationalism Stages of LPP 1. Status planning changes the functions of a language or a variety of a language and the rights of those who use it Wardhaugh (1998). When the language of a minority is denied in educating their children, the language has no status. On the other hand, when a new language is declared to be used officially along with the previous ones, it has gained the status. 2. Corpus planning is concerned with developing a variety of a language or a language, usually to standardize it, and making it equipped with the scope of meeting every possible language functions. It involves: - Developing orthography, - New sources of vocabulary, - Creating dictionaries, - Producing literatures, - Deliberate cultivation of new uses, etc. It has been specifically important in countries like Indonesia, Israel, India, Pakistan, etc. 3. Acquisition/Education planning : It is the planning of how the language will be taught to the children of new generation 4. Usage planning : The targeted domains of language use 5. Esteem planning : American vs. English/ Chalit vs. Shadhu Who are involved in LPP efforts ? LPP 1 of 3

Politicians, linguists, educators, writers, national academics. According to (Cobarrubias 1983), there are four typical ideologies that may motivate actual decision making in language planning in a particular society: - Linguistic assimilation, - Linguistic pluralism, - Vernacularization, - Internationalism. Linguistic assimilation: 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. Linguistic pluralism: 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. Vernacularization: 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. Internationalism: 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. 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 is the language which is not ‘promoted’, nor even proscribed or restricted. For example: Amerindian languages in North America. A discouraged/proscribed language is 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. Two 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. - The problem of authentic data to be used for language planning decision. Some problems include: o Often census data are not reliable LPP 2 of 3

o o

Census in India is am 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.

Case studies: French and Turkish 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. 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. .................................

LPP 3 of 3