LANGUAGE PLANNING

                                                                LANGUAGE PLANNING

                Background of language planning

•       Sir William Jones that almost all languages root back to one ‘proto’, or ‘parent’ language. The Proto-Indo-European language is an unrecorded language that is believed to be the ancestor of all Indo-European languages.

•       6900 spoken world languages, but during the 1990’s only 104 languages were granted official state in the then 195 political states (Daoust 1997:451-2). 

•       Nowadays, just over 60% of the World’s population speak one of the top 30 languages as their native tongue (Ethnologue, 2005).

•       Einar Haugen (1950’s)à Language Planning refers to “all conscious efforts that aim at changing the linguistic behaviour of a speech community” (Deumert, 2009: 371)

•       Language planning can be initiated to push a certain language towards a stipulated goal.

•       Language Planning can either encourage or dissuade people from speaking a language.

Theoretical division of language planning

Language Planning – definitions

•       According to Haugen (1950s): “all conscious efforts that aim at changing the linguistics behaviour of speech community”

•       According to Fishman (1987): "the authoritative allocation of resources to the attainment of language status and corpus goals, whether in connection with new functions that are aspired to, or in connection with old functions that need to be discharged more adequately"

•       Dictionary definition (dictionary.com): “ the development of policies and programs designed to direct or change language use, as though the establishment of an official language, the standardisation or modernisation of language, or the development or alternation of writing system.”

Dimensions of language planning:

•       Kloss (1967):

Corpus planning - internal structure of language à language standardisation (creation and establishment of a uniform linguistic norm)

Status planning - function of language, allocation of new functions, e.g. official, provincial, international

•       Haarmann (1990)

Prestige Planning – “creating a favourable psychological background which is crucial for the long-term success of language planning activities (…)” (Deumert, 2009)

Another new dimension:

Acquisition planning – promotion of language.

The process of language planning:

Haugen (1983)

1. Selection
2. Codification
3. Implementation
4. Elaboration/ Modernisation

                                                            References

•       Benton, R A (1981). Schools as agents for language revival in Ireland and New Zealand In: B Spolsky ed. 1986. Language and Education in Multilingual Settings, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters LTD.

•       Coluzzi, P (2007) Minority Language Planning and Micronationalism in Italy, 2007, Switzerland: International Academic Publishers

•       Cooper (1989) Language Planning and Social Change, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

•       Daoust, D. (1997), ‘Language planning and language reform’, in F.Coulmas (ed.), The Handbook of Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 436-532

•       Darquennes, J. (2007) Paths to Language Revitalization, Contact Linguistics and Language, Volume 30. Pgs 61-76

•       Deumert, A., (2009), Language Planning and Policy in R.Mesthire, J.Swann, A.Deumert, W.L.Leap eds. (2009), Introducing Sociolinguistics (2^nd edition), Edinburgh University Press