Language Planning and Policy
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Covers many issues – orthography,
education, administration, international
communication, language rights
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Mainly concerned with national government
policy but not always – churches,
universities, local govts.
continued
General – language planning is the
deliberate attempt to change linguistic
behaviour (deliberate language change)
 Or to stop it changing
 Language policy – general principles behind
such attempts
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General Questions
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Is language planning possible?
 Is planning in general possible? – record of
planned economies is very poor
 What about planned languages?
 Yes, sometimes – but often at a high cost –
money, minority/majority rights,
bureaucracy Quebec’s “language police”
continued

Is language planning desirable? – many
sociolinguists would say no

Compare fate of English vs French
Corpus Planning
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Internal structure and features of languages
–pronunciation, spelling, syntax

Changes in Malay – compare place names

In English – no central control – Oxbridge
and the Times, BBC – regional accents of
news readers
continued
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Writing systems sometimes a problem –
which system? Political implications

Central Asia/Azerbeijan – shift from
Cyrillic to Roman (but not Arabic) – each
script linked with political ideology
continued
Spelling reforms – modest American
reforms in English, reforms in
Malay/Indonesian, proposals for German
 New words – often a political or religious
issue – divergence of Hindustani – “native”
words in Icelandic and French
 Codifying and teaching grammar

Example: Icelandic
Language Institute – 36 terminology
committees -- keeping English out by
inventing new Icelandic words
 Computer – tolva – combines words for
number and prophetess
 frioD jofur -- thief of peace (pager)
 TV screen – sk jar cow’s amniotic sac
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Standardisation
Standard linguistic rules – local, national,
regional, national
Range of standardisation
 Oral languages without writing systems –
not used in education or for “high”
purposes, lot of variation –Aslian languages
 Partial standardisation – written language,
used in primary education – Yoruba, Tamil

continued
Restricted standardisation – language is not
used in law or higher education or is used
for religion but not for science – Arabic?
Hebrew?
 Mature standardisation – language is used
in all types of communication – how many?
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Status planning

Relationship between languages – often
reflects political conflict and status of those
who speak (or granparents) spoke the
language

Northern Ireland – demands for official
recognition of Irish (and then Ulster Scots)
continued
Allocation of functions
 National or official – symbolic or
ceremonial
 Malay in Singapore (national anthem)
 Irish (political parties – a chara (Oh friend)
in letters
 Welsh, Maori, African languages in South
Africa
continued
Provincial – French in Quebec, Welsh,
Catalan, Iban in Sarawak
 Lingua franca – Swahili, Lingala
 Group – Roma, Yiddish
 Educational – Latin, Sanskrit, Pali ,
Classical Arabic

continued
Literary – Hebrew, Latin
 Religious – Sanskrit etc
 Mass media
 Industrial, services
 Also prestige and acquisition planning –
cintai bahasa
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Language planning
processes: selection

Choice of language or variety for certain
functions
 originally gradual and unplanned – East
Midlands dialect – standard English
 Parisian French, Kano Hausa
continued

Deliberate creation of standard language
from a specific dilaect, Basque, Indonesian,
Bahasa Melayu from Johore-Riau, Pilipino
from Tagalog
 Most powerful or numerous dialect
becomes the standard
 Not always – Tuscan – standard Italian
Codification

Creation of linguistic standards or norms
 Graphisation – writing system
 Grammatication – syntax and morphology
 Lexicalisation – new words
 Done by language academies, government
bodies, individuals
Implementation

Production of written materials
 Extension of domains
 Marketing
 Enforcement – official or unofficial,
occasionally violent
Case studies
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Indonesia – many different languages – Javanese
largest numbers of speakers but many varieties –
admin language Dutch – Malay a trade language

National language before independence – Malay

Dutch – no international value, fear of Javanese
domination
continued
Singapore – dominant Chinese population –
but spoke stigmatised dialects – no natural
resources
 Multilingual policy – some free choice –
encouragement of 2 H varieties
 Linguistic variety reduced –
English/Mandarin bilinguals dominant
group

continued
Malaysia – dominant Malay group
 No role for minority vernaculars – spoke
stigmatised varieties
 Malay national and official language
 Modified in recent years

continued

Timor Leste
 Local language Tetum – a L variety
 Official language Portuguese
 1975 occupied by Indonesia – then
independent – Portuguese became the
national language
Modernisation

Lexical enrichment
 Borrowing (often politically motivated)
 Extension of existing words
 neologisms
conclusion
Language planning – successful when supported
by social or economic forces or political interests
– French, Catalan, Mandarin in Singapore
 Less successful if opposed by economic or
political forces – Irish, Welsh, anti-Singlish, antirojak
 Often unsuccessful – preserve Aboriginal or
Amerindian languages
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