Language Planning

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Language planning is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure, or acquisition of a language or language variety within a speech community. It is often associated with government planning, but is also used by a variety of non-governmental organizations, such as grass-roots organizations and even individuals. The goals of language planning differ depending on the nation or organization, but generally include making planning decisions and possibly changes for the benefit of communication. Planning or improving effective communication can also lead to other social changes such as language shift or assimilation, thereby providing another motivation to plan the structure, function and acquisition of languages.

Types of language planning

Language planning has been divided into three types:

1. Status planning : Status planning is the allocation or reallocation of a language or variety to functional domains within a society, thus affecting the status, or standing, of a language.
2. Language status : Language status is a concept distinct from, though intertwined with, language prestige and language function. Strictly speaking, language status is the position or standing of a language vis-à-vis other languages. A language garners status according to the fulfillment of four attributes, described in the same year, 1968, by two different authors, Heinz Kloss and William Stewart. Both Kloss and Stewart stipulated four qualities of a language that determine its status. While Kloss and Stewart’s respective frameworks differ slightly, 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

1. Sole official language (e.g. French in France and English in the United Kingdom)
2. Joint official language (e.g. English and Afrikaans in South Africa; French, German, Italian and Romansh in Switzerland)
3. Regional official language (e.g. Igbo in Nigeria; Marathi in Maharastra, India)
4. 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; West African Pidgin English in Cameroon)
5. Tolerated language – neither promoted nor proscribed; acknowledged but ignored (e.g. Native American languages in the United States)
6. Proscribed language – discouraged by official sanction or restriction (e.g. Basque, Catalan during Francisco Franco’s regime in Spain; Macedonian in Greece)

• Vitality – the ratio, or percent, of users of a language to another variable, like 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 first class, the highest level of vitality, is demarcated by 90% or more speakers. The five remaining classes in decreasing order are 70-89%, 40-69%, 20-39%, 3-19% and less than 3%. According to Stewart, on the other hand, the six classes are determined by the following percentages: 75%, 50%, 25%, 10%, 5%, and less than 5%.Together, origin, degree of standardization, juridical status, and vitality dictate a language’s status.

3. Functional domains

William Stewart outlines ten functional domains in language planning:

1. Official – An official language “function[s] as a legally appropriate language for all politically and culturally representative purposes on a nationwide basis.” Often, the official function of a language is specified in a constitution.
2. Provincial – A provincial language functions as an official language for a geographic area smaller than a nation, typically a province or region (e.g. French in Quebec)
3. Wider communication – A language of wider communication is a language that may be official or provincial, but more importantly, functions as a medium of communication across language boundaries within a nation (e.g. Hindi in India; Swahili language in East Africa)
4. International – An international language functions as a medium of communication across national boundaries (e.g. English)
5. Capital – A capital language functions as a prominent language in and around a national capital (e.g. Dutch and French in Brussels)
6. Group – A group language functions as a conventional language among the members of a single cultural or ethnic group (e.g. Hebrew amongst the Jews)
7. Educational – An educational language functions as a medium of instruction in primary and secondary schools on a regional or national basis (Urdu in West Pakistan and Bengali in East Pakistan)
8. School subject – A school subject language is a language that is taught as a subject in secondary school or higher education (e.g. Latin and Ancient Greek in English schools)
9. Literary – A literary language functions as a language for literary or scholarly purposes (Ancient Greek)
10. 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; Arabic for the reading of the Qu’ran)