Transcript Language Planning and Policy

Mohsen A Hamisa
 Language Planning
 “All conscious efforts that aim at changing the linguistic
behavior of a speech community. It can include anything
‘from proposing a new word to a new language”
“Language Planning is a body of ideas, laws and
regulations(language policy), change rules, beliefs, and
practices intended to a achieve a planned change( or to stop
change from happening) in the language use in one or more
communities”
 Language policy
 “refers to the more general linguistic, political and social
goals underlying the actual language planning process”
 corpus planning
 “those aspects of language planning which are primarily
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linguistic and hence internal to language”.
Some of these aspects related to language are:
1) orthographic innovation, including design,
harmonization, change of script, and spelling reform;
2) pronunciation;
3) changes in language structure;
4) vocabulary expansion;
5) simplification of registers;
6) style, and 7) the preparation of language material
(Bamgbose 1989)
 1. Unstandardized oral language,
 2. Partly standardised or unstandardised
written language.
 3. Young standard language,
 4. Archaic standard language,
 5. Mature modern standard language,
 Status Planning
“refer to all efforts undertaken to change the use and
function of a language (or language variety ) within a
given society.
“concerns itself with the conscious choice of the
variety(ies) that will become the official language(s) of
the state, the medium of its institutions, and the means
for interaction between state and citizens.”
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1. Official
2. Provincial
3. Wider communication
4. International
5. Capital
6. Group
7. Educational
8. School subject
9. Literary
10. Religious
11. Mass media
Work place
 3. Prestige Planning
 “ Is directed towards creating a favorable psychological
background which is crucial for the long-term success
of language planning activities”
 4. Acquisition Planning
 “ All efforts that aim to spread and promote the
learning of a language”
 1 . Selection.
 2. Codification.
a. graphisation
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( logographic, syllabic, or alphabetic)
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b. grammatication.
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c. lexicalisation.
 3. Implementation.
“ Marketing Techniques by the government”
4. Elaboration.(modernisation)
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 1. Identification of the problem and fact-finding.
 Specification of goals (development of a language policy).
 Production of possible solutions, cost-benefit analysis of the alternative
solutions and rational choice of one solution (decision-making stage).
 Implementation of the solution.
 Evaluation of the solution, that is, comparing predicted and actual
outcomes.
 What is your mother tongue?
My father's home language was Swazi, and my mother's home language
was Tswana. But as I grew up in a Zulu-speaking area we used mainly Zulu
and Swazi at home. But from my mother's side I also learned Tswana well.
In my high school I came into contact with lots of Sotho and Tswana
students, so I can speak these two languages well. And of course I know
English and Afrikaans. With my friends I also use Tsotsitaal.
 Advantages of Cost-benefit analysis
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1. forces the language planner to specify goals.
2. identify problems.
3. clarify consequences.
4. provides an extra peace of information that can be
taken into account for the decision making process.
Difficult to Apply for two reasons:1. the long timeframe of many language-planning
decisions.
2. benefits of language planning are not calculable
in monetary terms.
 The instrumental approach(Linguistic engineering).
 The sociolinguistic approach.
 Language Planning and non-linguistic goals.
 “Chinese characters are probably the most difficult script in
the world. ... I believe that the strength and prosperity of
the country depends upon the physical sciences which can
grow and flourish only if all people – men and ' women, old
and young – are eager to learn and sensible. To them to be
eager to learn and sensible depends upon the
phonetization of the script ... it depends upon having a
simple script that is easy to learn and write. As a result, this
will save more than ten years time. If all that time is
applied to the study of mathematics, physical sciences,
chemistry and other practical studies, how can there be any
fear that our country will not be rich and strong,”
 Language assimilation
 Language pluralism
 Vernacularisation
 Internationalization
 Norway
 Under the Danish Domination , The Danish language
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was the language of Norway.
By the time of independence There were three spoken
languages in Norway:1. educated urban classes used a variety of Danish.
2. Artisans and working-class used rural dialects.
3. The farming community used 100% Norwegian
dialect.
Revolutionary by the dialectologist Ivan Aasen.(Landsmal)
Reformist by the schoolteacher Knud Knudson. (Riksmal)
In 1885, the Norwegian parliament recognised both languages.
In 1929 The names of the two varities were changed
Landsmal became Nynorsk “New Norwegian”, and Riksmal
became Bokmal “Book Language”
 In the twentieth century, the idea of fusing the two verities
emerged and was conducted by the government in the shape of
reforming.
 The fusing procedures:
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1. gradually incorporate more Nynorsk forms into Bokmal.
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2. To replace the archaic dialectal forms in Nynorsk with the
more modern forms found in contemporary dialects.
The emerged standard from the fusion was named “Folkemalet”
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 In 1981, a new official reform of Bokmal resulted in the
acceptance of most conservative non-Nynorsk forms
back into Bokmal.
 After the second world war Nynorsk was described as a
minority language.
 Sami Languages in norway.
 There are three different Sami languages spoken by
30,000 Sami.
 In 1990, The Norwegian Parliament recognized it and
gave it equal rights with the Norwegian language.
 In Sampi area all law regulations, official
announcements have to be in Sami language.
More than twenty languages are spoken throughout the
country.
 Nguni (Ndebele, Swati, Xhosa, Zulu)
 Sotho (Pedi, South Sotho, Tswana)
 Tsonga and Venda
 former official languages English and Afrikaans
 six European immigrant languages (Dutch, German,
Greek, Italian, Portuguese and French),
 Five Indian languages (Tamil, Hindi-Bhojpuri, Telugu,
Gujarati and Urdu)
 English and Afrikaans were the official languages.
 The other indigenous languages had regional co
official status.
 African National Congress (ANC) adopted English.
 Then (ANC) adopted a pluralist approach.
 Neville Alexander proposed creating Nguni,(based
on Ndebele, Swazi, Xhosa, and Zulu) and a standard
Sotho (based on Pedi, south sotho, and south Tswana)
 1. The official languages of the Republic are Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati,
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Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.
2 . Recognising the historically diminished use and status of the indigenous
languages of our people, the state must take practical and positive measures to
elevate the status and advance the use of these languages
4The Pan South African Language Board must –
a. promote and create conditions for the development and use of
i. all official languages;
ii. the Khoi, Nama and San languages; and
iii. sign language.
promote and ensure respect for languages, including German, Greek, Gujarati,
Hindi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and others commonly used by
communities in South Africa, and Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit and others used
for religious purposes.
(Constitution of South Africa,
1996)
 In spite of The Curriculum Framework for General and
Further Education and Training and the Curriculum
2005 promotion of multilingualism in curriculum and
multilingual skills in schools, schools were singlemedium and taught additional languages only as a
second language.
 Financially and practically schools were not able to
fulfill the multilingual provisions.
 The parents views were in odds with the multilingual
provisions.
 In courts level the constitution states:
“ Every accused has a right to a fair trial which includes
the right to be tried in a language that the accused
person understands, or if that is not practicable, to have
the proceedings interpreted in that language”
 (b) The prosecutor read out the following charge.
 Prosecutor (English): The charge against the accused is that
he contravened section 2b of act 41 of 1971 read with section
10(3) in that on [date] at or near Warwick avenue in the
district of Durban he had wrongfully and unlawfully in his
possession a prohibited dependence-producing substance
to wit a small quantity of dagga (marijuana).
How do you plead?
 Interpreter (Zulu): Do you find yourself guilty?
 Accused (Zulu): I do have a case against me.
 Interpreter (English): I plead guilty.