In
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It can overlap with the sociology of l ...
, language planning (also known as language engineering) is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure or
acquisition
Acquisition may refer to:
* Takeover, the purchase of one company by another
* Mergers and acquisitions, transactions in which the ownership of companies or their operating units are transferred or consolidated with other entities
* Procurement, ...
of
languages
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
or
language varieties within a
speech community.
[Kaplan B., Robert, and Richard B. Baldauf Jr. ''Language Planning from Practice to Theory.'' Clevedon: Multilingual Matters ltd., 1997] Robert L. Cooper (1989) defines language planning as "the activity of preparing a normative
orthography,
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
, and
dictionary for the guidance of writers and speakers in a non-homogeneous speech community" (p. 8). Along with
language ideology and language practices, language planning is part of
language policy
Language policy is an interdisciplinary academic field. Some scholars such as Joshua Fishman and Ofelia García consider it as part of sociolinguistics. On the other hand, other scholars such as Bernard SpolskyRobert B. Kaplanand Joseph Lo Bianco ...
a typology drawn from Bernard Spolsky's theory of language policy. According to Spolsky, language management is a more precise term than language planning. Language management is defined as "the explicit and observable effort by someone or some group that has or claims authority over the participants in the domain to modify their practices or beliefs" (p. 4) Language planning is often associated with government planning, but is also used by a variety of
non-governmental organizations such as
grass-roots organizations as well as individuals. Goals of such planning vary. Better communication through
assimilation
Assimilation may refer to:
Culture
*Cultural assimilation, the process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture and customs
**Language shift, also known as language assimilation, the progre ...
of a single dominant language can bring economic benefits to minorities but is also perceived to facilitate their political domination.
[Cobarrubias, Juan. "Ethical Issues in Status Planning." ''Progress in Language Planning: International Perspectives''. Eds. Juan Cobarrubias and Joshua Fishman. New York: Mouton Publishers, 1983.] It involves the establishment of
language regulators
This is a list of bodies that consider themselves to be authorities on standard languages, often called language academies. Language academies are motivated by, or closely associated with, linguistic purism and prestige, and typically publish p ...
, such as formal or informal agencies, committees, societies or academies to design or develop new structures to meet contemporary needs.
Language ideology
Four overarching language ideologies are proposed to explain motivations and decisions.
;Internationalization
:the adoption of a non-indigenous language as a means of wider communication, as an official language or in a particular domain, such as the use of English in
India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
, Singapore, the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
, and
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
.
;Linguistic assimilation
:the belief that every member of a society, irrespective of their
native language, should learn and use the dominant language of the society in which they live. An example is the
English-only movement of some residents of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
.
;Linguistic pluralism
:the recognition and support of many languages within one society. Examples include the coexistence of
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
,
German,
Italian, and
Romansh in
Switzerland
; rm, citad federala, links=no). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzon ...
; and the shared official status of
English,
Malay,
Tamil, and
Mandarin Chinese in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. The coexistence of many languages may not necessarily arise from a conscious language ideology but rather the relative efficiency of communicating in a shared language.
;Vernacularization
:the
restoration and development of an indigenous language, along with its adoption by the state as an
official language. Examples include
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
in the state of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and
Quechua in
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
.
Goals
Eleven language planning goals have been recognized (Nahir 2003):
[Nahir, Moshe. "Language Planning Goals: A Classification." ''Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings.'' Eds. Paulston, Christina Bratt and G. Richard Tucker. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003]
# Language purification –
prescription of usage norms in order to preserve the "
linguistic purity" of language, protect language from foreign influences, and guard against perceived language deviation from within
#
Language revival – the attempt to restore to common use a language which has few or no surviving native speakers
#
Language reform – deliberate change in specific aspects of language or extralinguistic elements, such as
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
and
orthography, in order to facilitate use
# Language standardization – the attempt to garner
prestige for a regional language or dialect, developing it as the chosen
standard language
A standard language (also standard variety, standard dialect, and standard) is a language variety that has undergone substantial codification of grammar and usage, although occasionally the term refers to the entirety of a language that includes ...
of a
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
# Language spread – the attempt to increase the number of speakers of a language
# Lexical modernization – word coining or adaptation
# Terminology unification – development of unified
terminologies, mainly in technical domains
# Stylistic simplification – simplification of language usage in
lexicon
A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...
, grammar, and style. That includes changing the use of language in social and formal contexts.
# Interlingual communication – facilitation of linguistic communication between members of distinct speech communities
# Language maintenance – preservation of a group's native language as a first or
second language where pressures threaten or cause a decline in the status of the language
# Auxiliary-code standardization – standardization of marginal, auxiliary aspects of language, such as signs for the deaf, place names, or rules of
transliteration and
transcription
Types
Language planning has been divided into three types:
Status planning
Status planning is the allocation or reallocation of a language or dialect to functional domains within a society, thus affecting the status, or standing, of a language.
Language status
Language status is distinct from, though intertwined with, language prestige and language function. Language status is the given position (or standing) of a language against other languages.
[Edwards, John. "Language, Prestige, and Stigma," in ''Contact Linguistics''. Ed. Hans Goebel. New York: de Gruyter, 1996.] A language garners status according to the fulfillment of four attributes, described in 1968 by two different authors,
Heinz Kloss
Heinz Kloss (30 October 1904, in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt – 13 June 1987) was a German linguist and internationally recognised authority on linguistic minorities.
He coined the terms " Abstandsprache" and " Ausbausprache" to try to describe the di ...
and
William Stewart. Both Kloss and Stewart stipulated four qualities of a language that determine its status. Their respective frameworks differ slightly, but they emphasize four common attributes:
# Language origin – whether a given language is indigenous or imported to the speech community
# Degree of standardization – the extent of development of a formal set of norms that define 'correct' usage
# Juridical status
##Sole official language (e.g. French in France and Turkish in Turkey)
##Joint official language (e.g. English and
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans g ...
in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
; French, German, Italian and Romansh in Switzerland)
##Regional official language (e.g.
Igbo in
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...
;
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
in
Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdi ...
, India)
##Promoted language – lacks official status on a national or regional level but is promoted and sometimes used by public authorities for specific functions (e.g.
Spanish in
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex
, Offi ...
;
West African Pidgin English in
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...
)
##Tolerated language – neither promoted nor proscribed; acknowledged but ignored (e.g.
Native American languages in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
in the present day)
##Proscribed language – discouraged by official sanction or restriction (e.g.
Galician,
Basque and
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid ...
during
Francisco Franco's regime in Spain;
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...
;
[Wardhaugh, Ronald. "Planning," in ''An Introduction to Sociolinguistics''. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2008] indigenous American languages during the
boarding school era[cit]
Jennifer Jones, Dee Ann Bosworth, Amy Lonetree, "American Indian Boarding Schools: An Exploration of Global Ethnic & Cultural Cleansing"
Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture & Lifeways, 2011, accessed 25 January 2014)
#Vitality – the ratio, or percent, of users of a language to another variable, such as the total population.
[ Kloss and Stewart both distinguish six classes of statistical distribution. However, they draw the line between classes at different percentages. According to Kloss, the highest level of vitality is demarcated by 90% or more speakers, followed by 70%, 40%, 20%, 3%, and less than 3%. According to Stewart, the six classes are determined by the following percentages of speakers: 75%, 50%, 25%, 10%, 5%, and less than 5%.
William Stewart outlines ten functional domains in language planning:][Stewart, William A. "Sociolinguistic Typology of Multilingualism," in ''Readings in the Sociology of Language''. Ed. Joshua Fishman. The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1968.]
#Official – An official language "function as a legally appropriate language for all politically and culturally representative purposes on a nationwide basis." The official function of a language is often specified in a constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princip ...
.
#Provincial – A provincial language functions as an official language for a geographic area smaller than a nation, typically a province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...
or region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
(e.g. French in Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
)[Cooper, Robert L. ''Language Planning and Social Change''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.]
#Wider communication – A language of wider communication may be official or provincial, but more importantly, it functions as a medium of communication across language boundaries within a nation (e.g. Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
in India; Swahili language
Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Swahi ...
in East Africa)
#International – An international language functions as a medium of communication across national boundaries (e.g. English, formerly French as a diplomatic and international language)
#Capital – A capital language functions as a prominent language in and around a national capital (e.g. Dutch and French in Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
)
#Group – A group language functions as a conventional language among the members of a single cultural or ethnic group
#Educational – An educational language functions as a medium of instruction in primary
Primary or primaries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Primary (band), from Australia
* Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea
* Primary Music, Israeli record label
Works
* ...
and secondary
Secondary may refer to: Science and nature
* Secondary emission, of particles
** Secondary electrons, electrons generated as ionization products
* The secondary winding, or the electrical or electronic circuit connected to the secondary winding i ...
schools on a regional or national basis ( in West Pakistan and Bengali in East Pakistan)
#School subject – A school subject language is taught as a subject in secondary school or higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after compl ...
(e.g. Classical languages)
#Literary – A literary language functions as a language for literary or scholarly purposes ( Academese)
#Religious – A religious language functions as a language for the ritual purposes of a particular religion (e.g. Latin for the Latin Rite within the Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
; Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
for the reading of the Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...
)
Robert Cooper outlines two additional functional domains (mass media and work) and distinguishes three sub-types of official functions:
# A statutory language is a "de jure" official language
# A working language is used by a government for daily activities
# A symbolic language is used as a state symbol
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
Corpus planning
Corpus planning refers to the prescriptive intervention in the forms of a language, whereby planning decisions are made to engineer changes in the structure of the language.[Ferguson, Gibson. (2006). ''Language Planning and Education.'' Edinburgh University Press.] Corpus planning activities often arise as the result of beliefs about the adequacy of the form of a language to serve desired functions.[Hornberger, Nancy H. (2006). "Frameworks and Models in Language Policy and Planning", in Thomas Ricento, ''An Introduction to Language Policy'', Wiley-Blackwell, pp 24-41.] Unlike status planning, which is mostly undertaken by administrators and politicians, corpus planning is generally the work of individuals with greater linguistic expertise. There are three traditionally recognized types of corpus planning: graphization, standardization, and modernization.
Graphization
Graphization refers to development, selection and modification of scripts
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of handwriting)
** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of ha ...
and orthographic conventions for a language.[Liddicoat, Anthony J. (2005). "Corpus Planning: Syllabus and Materials Development," in Eli Hinkel, ''Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning'', Routledge, pp 993-1012.] The use of writing in a speech community can have lasting sociocultural effects, which include easier transmission of material through generations, communication with greater numbers of people, and a standard against which varieties of spoken language are often compared.[Ferguson, Charles A. (1968). "Language Development", in Charles A. Ferguson, Thom Huebner (1996), ''Sociolinguistic Perspectives: papers on language in society, 1959-1994'', Oxford University Press US, pp 40-47.] Linguist Charles A. Ferguson made two key observations about the results of adopting a writing system. First, the use of writing adds another form of the language to the community's repertory. Although written language is often viewed as secondary to spoken language, the vocabulary, grammatical structures and phonological structures of a language often adopt characteristics in the written form that are distinct from the spoken form. Second, the use of writing often leads to a folk belief that the written language is the 'real' language, and speech is a corruption of it. Written language is viewed as more conservative, while the spoken form is more susceptible to language change. Isolated relic areas of the spoken language may be less innovative than the written form, or the written language may have been based on a divergent variety of the spoken language.
In establishing a writing system for a language, corpus planners have the option of using an existing system or designing a new one. The Ainu
Ainu or Aynu may refer to:
*Ainu people, an East Asian ethnic group of Japan and the Russian Far East
*Ainu languages, a family of languages
**Ainu language of Hokkaido
**Kuril Ainu language, extinct language of the Kuril Islands
**Sakhalin Ainu la ...
of Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the no ...
chose to adopt the Japanese language
is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...
's katakana syllabary
In the linguistic study of written languages, a syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) moras which make up words.
A symbol in a syllabary, called a syllabogram, typically represents an (optio ...
as the writing system for the Ainu language. Katakana is designed for a language with a basic CV syllable structure, but Ainu contains many CVC syllables which cannot easily be adapted to this syllabary. Therefore, Ainu uses a modified katakana system, in which syllable-final codas are consonants by a subscript
A subscript or superscript is a character (such as a number or letter) that is set slightly below or above the normal line of type, respectively. It is usually smaller than the rest of the text. Subscripts appear at or below the baseline, whil ...
version of a katakana symbol that begins with the desired consonant.
An example of an original script includes the development of the Armenian script in 405 AD by St. Mesrop Mashtots. Though the script was modeled after the Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as ...
, it distinguished Armenian from the Greek and Syriac alphabet
The Syriac alphabet ( ) is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century AD. It is one of the Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and shares similarities with ...
s of the neighboring peoples. Likewise, in the early 19th century, Sequoyah
Sequoyah (Cherokee language, Cherokee: ᏍᏏᏉᏯ, ''Ssiquoya'', or ᏎᏉᏯ, ''Se-quo-ya''; 1770 – August 1843), also known as George Gist or George Guess, was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American polymath of the Ch ...
(Cherokee) designed an orthography for Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
in the Southeast of the present-day United States. It uses some Latin characters but also introduces new ones.
Standardization
The process of standardization
Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...
often involves one variety of a language taking precedence over other social and regional dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that ...
s of a language.[Christian, Donna (1988). "Language Planning: the view from linguistics", in Frederick J. Newmeyer, ''Language: the socio-cultural context'', Cambridge University Press, pp 193-211.] Another approach, where dialects are mutually intelligible, is to introduce a poly-phonemic written form that is intended to represent all dialects of a language adequately but with no standard spoken form. If one dialect is chosen, it comes to be perceived as supra-dialectal and the 'best' form of the language.
Choosing the standard language has important social consequences, as it benefits the speakers whose spoken and written dialect conforms closest to the chosen standard.[Wiley, Terrance G. (2003). "Language Planning and Policy," in Sandra McKay, Nancy H. Horberger, ''Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching'', Cambridge University Press, pp 103-147.] The chosen standard is generally spoken by the most powerful social group within society, and it is imposed upon other groups as the form to emulate, making the standard norm necessary for socioeconomic mobility. In practice, standardization generally entails increasing the uniformity of the norm, as well as the codification of the norm.
By contrast, English has become standardized without any planning. The process began when William Caxton introduced the printing press in England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
in 1476. This was followed by the adoption of the south-east Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...
dialect, spoken in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, as the print language. Because of the dialect's use for administrative, government, business, and literary purposes, it became entrenched as the prestigious variety of English. After the development of grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
s and dictionaries in the 18th century, the rise of print capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
, industrialization
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
, urbanization
Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...
, and mass education
Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all people and is imposed by the government. This education may take place at a registered school or at other places.
Compulsory school attendance or compulsory schooling ...
led to the dissemination of this dialect as the cultural norm for the English language.
Modernization
Modernization occurs when a language needs to expand its resources to meet functions. Modernization often occurs when a language undergoes a shift in status, such as when a country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whil ...
gains independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the s ...
from a colonial power or when there is a change in the language education policy. The main force in modernization is the expansion of the lexicon
A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...
, which allows the language to discuss topics in modern semantic domains. Language planners generally develop new lists and glossaries to describe new technical terms, but it is also necessary to ensure that the new terms are consistently used by the appropriate sectors within society. While some languages, such as Japanese and Hungarian, have experienced rapid lexical expansion to meet the demands of modernization, other languages, such as Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
and Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
, have failed to do so. Such expansion is aided by the use of new terms in textbooks and professional publications. Issues of linguistic purism
Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the prescriptive practice of defining or recognizing one variety of a language as being purer or of intrinsically higher quality than other varieties. Linguistic purism was institutionalized th ...
often play a significant role in lexical expansion, but technical vocabulary can be effective within a language, regardless of whether it comes from the language's own process of word formation or from extensive borrowing from another language.[ While Hungarian has almost exclusively used language-internal processes to coin new words, Japanese has borrowed extensively from English to derive new words as part of its modernization.
]
Acquisition planning
Acquisition planning is a type of language planning in which a national, state or local government system aims to influence aspects of language, such as language status, distribution and literacy through education. Acquisition planning can also be used by non-governmental organizations, but it is more commonly associated with government planning.
Acquisition planning is often integrated into a broader language planning process in which the statuses of languages are evaluated, corpuses are revised and the changes are finally introduced to society on a national, state or local level through education systems, ranging from primary schools to universities. This process of change can entail an alteration in student textbook formatting, a change in methods of teaching an official language, or the development of a bilingual language program, only to name a few. For example, if a government chooses to raise the status level of a certain language or change its level of prestige, it can establish a law which requires teachers to teach only in this language or that textbooks are written using only this language's script. This, in turn, would support the elevation of the language's status or could increase its prestige. In this way, acquisition planning is often used to promote language revitalization, which can change a language's status or reverse a language shift, or to promote linguistic purism. In a case where a government revises a corpus, new dictionaries and educational materials will need to be revised in schools in order to maintain effective language acquisition.
The education sector
The education ministry or education sector of government is typically in charge of making national language acquisition
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language (in other words, gain the ability to be aware of language and to understand it), as well as to produce and use words and sentences to ...
choices based on state and local evaluation reports. The duties of education sectors vary by country; Robert B. Kaplan
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, ho ...
and Richard B. Baldauf describe the sectors' six principal goals:
# To choose the languages which should be taught within the curriculum
In education, a curriculum (; plural, : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to ...
.
# To determine the amount and quality of teacher training.
# To involve local communities.
# To determine what materials will be used and how they will be incorporated into syllabi.
# To establish a local and state Educational assessment, assessment system to monitor progress.
# To determine financial costs.
Problems
Although acquisition planning can be useful to governments, there are problems which must be considered.[Thorburn, Thomas. "Cost-Benefit Analysis in Language Planning." ''Can Language Be Planned?'' Ed. Rubin, Joan, and Björn H. Jernudd. Hawaii: The University Press of Hawaii, 1971] Even with a solid evaluation and assessment system, the effects of planning methods can never be certain; governments must consider the effects on other aspects of state planning, such as economic and political planning. Some proposed acquisition changes could also be too drastic or instituted too suddenly without proper planning and organization. Acquisition planning can also be financially draining, so adequate planning and awareness of financial resources is essential. Therefore, it is important that government goals be organized and planned carefully.
Multilingualism
There is also growing concern over the treatment of multilingualism in education, especially in many countries which were once colonized. Choosing the language of instruction which would be most beneficial to effective communication on the local and state level requires thoughtful planning, and it is surrounded by debate. Some states prefer to teach only in the official language, but some aim to foster linguistic and thus social diversity by encouraging teaching in several first language, (native) languages. The use of a single language of instruction supports national unity and homogeneity[Fishman, Joshua A. "The Impact of Nationalism on Language Planning," ''Can Language Be Planned?'' Ed. Rubin, Joan, and Björn H. Jernudd. Hawaii: The University Press of Hawaii, 1971] whereas the incorporation of different languages may help students to learn better by offering alternative perspectives.
Non-governmental organizations
In addition to the education sector, there are non-governmental sectors or organizations that have a significant effect on language acquisition, such as the Académie française of France or the Real Academia Española of Spain. These organizations often write their own dictionaries and grammar books, thus affecting the materials which students are exposed to in schools. Although these organizations do not hold official power, they influence government planning decisions, such as with educational materials, affecting acquisition.
Ireland
Before the partition of Ireland, a movement began which aimed at the restoration of Irish language, Irish, as the nation's primary language, based on a widespread sentiment for Irish nationalism and cultural identity.[Macnamara, John. "Successes and Failures in the Movement for the Restoration of Irish," ''Can Language Be Planned?'' Ed. Rubin, Joan, and Björn H. Jernudd. Hawaii: The University Press of Hawaii, 1971] During and after colonisation, Irish had competed with English and Scots language, Scots; the movement to restore the language gained momentum after the Irish War of Independence. The Conradh na Gaeilge, Gaelic League was founded to promote the acquisition of Irish in schools, thus "de-Anglicizing" Ireland. Immediately after The Irish Free State gained independence in 1922, the League declared that Irish must be the language of instruction for at least one hour in primary schools in the state. Irish-speaking teachers were recruited, and preparatory colleges were established to train new teachers.
The program implementation was mostly left to the individual schools, which did not consistently carry it out. Additionally, educating a generation is a long process, for which the League was not prepared. There was no consensus as to how the Irish language should be reinstituted; the League and schools did not develop a system assessment plan to monitor progress. Thus the movement lost strength, and the number of native Irish speakers has been in steady decline.[Mac Giolla Chriost, Diarmait. "Micro-level Language Planning in Ireland." ''Language Planning in Local Contexts'' Ed. Anthony J. Liddicoat and Richard B. Baldauf, Jr. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd., 2008]
Case study: Quechua in Peru
Status planning
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
's history of language planning begins in the 16th century with Spanish colonization. When the Spanish first arrived in Peru, Quechua languages, Quechua served as a language of wider communication, a lingua franca, between Spaniards and Peruvian natives. As the years passed, Spaniards asserted the superiority of the Spanish language; as a result, Spanish gained prestige, taking over as a language of wider communication and the dominant language of Peru.[Coronel-Molina, Serafin M. "Functional Domains of the Quechua Language in Peru: Issues of Status Planning." University of Pennsylvania] In 1975, under the leadership of President Juan Velasco Alvarado, the revolutionary government of Peru declared Quechua an official language of the Peruvian state, "coequal with Spanish."[Hornberger, Nancy and Kendell A. King. "Authenticity and Unification in Quechua Language Planning." University of Pennsylvania: 1998.] Four years later, the law was reversed. Peru's 1979 constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princip ...
declares Spanish the only official language of the state; Quechua and Aymara are relegated to "official use zones," equivalent to Stewart's provincial function described above. Quechua has officially remained a provincial language since 1979. Today, Quechua also serves a limited international function throughout South America in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador; communities of Quechua speakers outside Peru enable communication in Quechua across borders. Still, because of Quechua's low status, Spanish is almost always used as the lingua franca instead. Recently, Quechua has also gained ground in the academic world, both as a school subject and a topic of literary interest.
Corpus planning
The three main types of corpus planning are all evident in the development of Quechua languages in Peru since the colonial era. Graphization has been in process since the arrival of the Spanish in the region, when the Spanish imperialists attempted to describe the exotic sounds of the language to Europeans.[Coronel-Molina, Serafin M. (1996). "Corpus Planning for the Southern Peruvian Quechua Language." ''Working Papers in Educational Linguistics,'' 12 (2), pp 1-27.]
When Quechua was made an official language in Peru in 1975, the introduction of the language into the education and government domains made it essential to have a standard written language. The task of adopting a writing system proved to be a point of contention among Quechua linguists. Although most agreed to use the Latin alphabet, linguists disagreed about how to represent the phonological system of Quechua, particularly in regards to the vowel system. Representatives from the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua, Peruvian Academy of the Quechua language and the SIL International, Summer Institute of Linguistics wanted to represent allophones of the vowels /i/ and /u/ with separate letters and , which creates an apparent five-vowel system. They argued that this makes the language easier to learn for people who are already familiar with written Spanish. However, other Quechua linguists argued that a three-vowel system was more faithful to the phonology of Quechua. After years of debate and disagreement, in 1985 Quechua linguists proposed the Pan-Quechua alphabet as an accurate representation of the language, and this was adopted in intercultural bilingual education programs and textbooks. However, the Peruvian Academy and the SIL both refused to adopt it and continued to propose new alphabets, leaving the issue unsettled. For more information, see Quechua languages#Writing system, Quechua writing system and Quechuan and Aymaran spelling shift. Another disagreement was about how to reflect the phonological differences apparent in different dialects of Quechua. For example, some distinct dialects utilize Aspiration (phonetics), aspirated and glottalization, glottalized versions of the voiceless uvular plosive, voiceless uvular stop /q/, while others do not and some language planners found it important to reflect these dialectal differences.
The search for a unified alphabet reflects the process of standardization. Unlike other cases of standardization, in Quechua this has been applied only to the written language, not to the spoken language, and no attempt was made to change the spoken language of native speakers, which varied by regions. Rather, standardization was needed to produce a uniform writing system to provide education to Quechua speakers in their native language.
Language planners in Peru have proposed several varieties to serve as the supradialectal spoken norm. Some saw Qusqu-Qullaw as the natural choice for a standard since it is recognized as the form which is most similar to that spoken by the Incas. Others favor Ayacucho Quechua since it is more conservative, whereas Qusqu-Qullaw has been influenced by contact with the Aymara language.
Rodolfo Cerrón Palomino proposed a literary standard, Southern Quechua that combines features of both dialects. This norm has been accepted by many institutions in Peru.
Lexical modernization has also been critical to the development of Quechua. Language planners have attempted to coin new Quechua words by combining Quechua morphemes to give new meanings. Generally, loanwords are considered only when the words cannot be developed through existing Quechua structures. If loanwords are adopted, linguists may adjust them to match typical Quechua phonology.
Acquisition planning
Since Quechua is no longer an official language of Peru, Quechua literacy is not consistently encouraged in schools.[Hornberger, Nancy "Quechua Literacy and Empowerment." ''Indigenous Literacies in the Americas'' Ed. Hornberger, Nancy. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996] Peru's education system is instead based on Spanish, the nation's official language. Despite its low prestige, Quechua is still spoken by millions of indigenous Peruvians, a great deal of whom are bilingual in Quechua and Spanish. There is a desire to preserve the uniqueness of Quechua as a language with its own attributes and representations of culture. Some argue that promoting a diverse literacy program gives students diverse perspectives on life, which could only enhance their educational experience. Before 1975, Peru had bilingual education programs, but Quechua was not taught as a subject in primary and secondary schools. After the 1975 education reform, Quechua and Spanish both had standing in bilingual programs, but only in restricted speech communities. These experimental programs were then canceled due to a change in government planning, but again reinstated in 1996. Even with national intercultural bilingual education programs, teachers at local schools and members of the community often prefer using Spanish, destabilizing support for bilingual education. This underscores the importance of community support as a goal for the education sector as mentioned earlier. Some believe that due to Spanish's higher national prestige, it is more socially and economically beneficial to learn and speak Spanish. It is debatable whether these education programs will benefit education or raise the status of Quechua.
See also
*Abstand and ausbau languages
*Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation
*Language death
*Language policy
**Inclusive language
**Gender-neutral language
**Political correctness
*Linguistic relativity
*Language shift
*Linguistic imperialism
*Linguistic purism
*Linguistic rights
*Interlinguistics
*Languages in censuses
References
Further reading
* Bastardas-Boada, Albert
"Language planning and language ecology: Towards a theoretical integration."
2000.
* Cobarrubius, Juan & Joshua Fishman, eds. ''Progress in Language Planning: International Perspective''. The Hague: Mouton, 1983.
* Cooper, R. L. ''Language Planning and Social Change''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
* Hult, F.M., & Johnson, D.C. (eds.) (2015). ''Research Methods in Language Policy and Planning: A Practical Guide.'' Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell .
*Kadochnikov, Denis (2016). Languages, Regional Conflicts and Economic Development: Russia. In: Ginsburgh, V., Weber, S. (Eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 538-580.
*Rubin, Joan, Björn H. Jernudd, Jyotirindra Das Gupta, Joshua A. Fishman and Charles A. Ferguson, eds. ''Language Planning Processes''. The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1977.
*
*Silva, Diego B. (2019)
Language policy in Oceania
''Alfa, Rev. Linguíst.'' 63 (2).
Relevant journals
*''Current Issues in Language Planning'' (Routledge
Home page
* ''Language Policy'' (Springer
Home page
* ''Language Problems and Language Planning.'
Home page
External links
Articles on language planning in West Africa
(Journal of West African Languages)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Language Planning
Applied linguistics
Concepts in language policy
Linguistic rights
Language varieties and styles
Language regulators,
Sociolinguistics
Interlinguistics