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Language Planning
A summary
By Elizabeth Demissie, Beniyam Jembere and Chimdi Wakuma

Submitted to: Dr. Zelealem Leyew Addis Ababa University 11/26/2009

Summary on Language Planning

By

Elizabeth Demissie Beniyam Jembere Chimdi Wakuma

To

Zelealem Leyew (Phd)

Addis Ababa University Institute of Language Studies

Department of African Languages and Applied Linguistics

Language Planning and Standardization Course (ALAL 601)

Addis Ababa November 2009

Contents
1. What is Language Planning? 2. Concepts of Language Planning 2.1. Instrumental approach 2.2. Socio- linguistic approach
3. Ideologies of Language Planning

3.1 Linguistic Pluralism 3.2 Linguistic Assimilation and Nationalism 3.3 Internationalism 3.4 Verncularization
4. The Aims of Language Planning 4.1 Extra-Linguistic Aims 4.2 Semi-Linguistic Aims 4.3 Linguistic Aims

5. Language Related Problems which trigger Language Planning 6. Factors Affecting Language Planning 7. Who Is Involved In Language Planning Efforts And How? 8. Language Planning Types 8.1. Status planning 8.2. Corpus planning 8.2 . Acquisition planning

9. Criteria of Language Choice in Language Planning

10. Stages in Language Planning References

1. What is Language Planning?

According to Fishman (1972), Language Planning is a systematic activity of regulating and improving existing languages or creating new common regional, national or international languages. Similarly Fasold (1987:246) explains the idea of Language Planning as language determination, to refer to choices of languages to be used for specific purposes. In any country, for instance, there is a tendency of selecting a given language to be functioning in such areas as education, media, courts and others. Many other scholars define Language Planning in their own ways. The prominent scholars in Language Planning, Rubin and Jernudd (1971: xvi), on the other hand, define it as follows. Language planning is a deliberate language change; that is; changes in the system of language code or speaking or both that are planned by organizations that are established for such purpose or given a mandate to fulfill such purpose. As such, language planning is focused on problem solving and is characterized by the formulation and evaluation of alternatives for solving language problems to find the best (or optimal, most efficient) decision. Moreover, Kaplan and Baldauf (1997:3), who also consider Language planning as an attempt to change the way in which it is used, remarks that Language Planning is also a means of preventing change to take place. Their definition is stated as indicated hereafter.

Language planning is a body of idea, laws, and regulations (language policy), change rules, believes, practices intended to achieve a planned change (to stop change from happening) in the language use in one or more communities. Generally, it is possible to say that Language Planning is an area which deals with language related problems and its solutions. It is a calculated 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.

2. Concepts of Language Planning

According to Fasold (1987:250) there are two concepts of language planning -the instrumental approach and the social-linguistic approach. Let us discuss these approaches one after the other. 2.1. The instrumental approach sees language fundamentality as a tool. This approach is just like a work. For example, a work for mechanics is so simple provided that mechanical tools are standardized. Likewise, communication would be easier if languages are standardized. According to the advocators of this approach, as Fasold (ibid) states, some languages are better than others in their balance of beauty, clarity, elasticity and economy and these should be chosen over less adequate languages where possible. When impossible, Language Planning should be used to improve the quality of the inadequate language.

2.2. The socio- linguistic approach begins with the recognition of a social problem that is connected with language. In this approach there is no need of attempt to improve the esthetic and functional quality of languages as instrumental tools. Rather, there is seeing language as a resource that can be used in improving social life. This way of practicing Language Planning would attempt to determine which of the available linguistic alternative is most likely to improve a problematic situation.

3. Ideologies of Language Planning

As Daoust (1997:441) explain by referring Cobarrubias (1983) there are language ideologies which motivate the undertaking of language reforms. These are: 3.1 Linguistic Pluralism Linguistic pluralism promotes the coexistence of different language groups and their right to maintain and cultivate their languages on an equitable basis. For example, French is officially recognized in the south, Flemish in the North, German in the East. 3.2 Linguistic Assimilation and Nationalism Nationalism often favors linguistic assimilation to make sure that every member of a speech community is able to use the dominant language. This is a cause for a dominant language to gain prestige and become superior over the minor languages. In extreme case, linguistic minorities are given little or no rights. This kind of ideology has occurred in France in which the government planned to eliminate the non standard French varieties; which has resulted in modern Language Policy by France revolution. In Russia and Indonesia the same situation has happened. 3.3 Internationalism Internationalism is the ideology which consists in adopting a non indigenous language of wider communication either as an official language or as language of

instruction which underlies the language planning policies of several postcolonial countries. For example, in Gabon, French is the sole official language, in Cameroon, both French and English are official languages, in Haiti both the Creole and French are official languages. 3.4 Verncularization Vernacularization is the situation in which indigenous or national languages are restored or modernized and officially recognized instead of or alongside an international language of wider communication. For example, In Madagascar, both French and Malagasy enjoy official status. In Israel, Hebrew was revived and installed as a national language.

4. The Aims of Language Planning

Like any other activities, Language Planning has its own aims. Scholars in this area have come up with various types of classification of the goals. Rabin (1971, 277-279)), for instance, classifies the aims of Language Planning as: ExtraLinguistic aims, Semi-Linguistic aims and Linguistic aims. It is important to discuss each of them as follows. 4.1 Extra-Linguistic Aims these are treated as typical instances of Language Planning and appear to concern sociolinguists and political scientists. Its said that their implementation often involves teaching a language to a large number of people. These aims are classified as: Horizontal- this is concerned with change in area of use. The area of use can be geographical (country, province, etc.) and communal (with mixed population). Vertical- such an aim is about change in social use like 1. Between classes, 2. Between town and country, settled and nomads, etc. and 3. In specific uses like literary vs spoken, or religious vs vernacular use.

 Diachronic- this type of aim is said to be radical. It is involved in the revival of dead language, the use of written language for speaking or of a spoken language for writing, the creation of a new language block and surprisingly the killing, or allowing to die, an existing language. 4.2 Semi-Linguistic Aims- these aims represent the most frequent type of planned language change. Even though it seems difficult to which discipline this study could belong, strong sociological and psychological factors seem to be contained in them. Added to this fact, there is no doubt that the linguists do the research in most cases. The Semi-linguistic aims are categorized as: Writing- this is aimed at first, changing the writing system (e.g. from logographic to alphabetic script, from diacritic to linear representation of vowels), second changing features of the writing system (e.g. introduction of capitals; new single graphs instead of digraphs; abolition of special initials or final graphs; abolition of word-divider), and third, Para-orthographical transliteration). Spellingthis is concerned with systemization and unification, simplification, phonemization (especially of etymological spelling), word boundary spelling changes (e.g. dividing prepositions, articles, and the like from nouns). Pronunciation- is about the unification of the regional or social allophones and the like that are not affecting the distribution or number of phonemes. Restrictions in speaking- it is the use of politeness forms and the avoidance language taboos. 4.3 Linguistic Aims- this the province of the normative linguist, in collaboration with the literary practitioner. The aims are classified as: change (e.g. pronunciation, standards of

Vocabularystandardization

aims at: 1. the enlargement of vocabulary, 2. Vocabulary ( as technical, non-technical and dialectal), 3.

Sociosemantics (decisions on sources of vocabulary enlargement), the sources could be foreign, native, older forms of the same language, regional dialect (borrowing), closely related languages (adaptation), vulgar and slang forms (admissibility). Structure- such a change is related to the phonology, morphology and syntax. Style- this is concerned with such styles as Traditional vs Europeanized style(specified according to domain of language use), high style vs simple straight forward writing and original national prestige literatures ways of reading like in modernized spelling or translation.

5. Language Related Problems which trigger Language Planning

Language planning deals with language related problems and its solutions. To find out the solutions, the problems should be identified first. Okoth Okombo by quoting Webb and Kembo-Sure (2000) identifies four language based problems. These language related problems are: Restricted access to knowledge and skills Low productivity and ineffective performance in the workplace Inadequate conflict Linguistic and cultural alienation Basically, language related problems are not exactly language problems; rather they are problems in different domains. The problems appear out of using the language in different domains like education, economy, politics or social life. political participation by the public, manipulation,

discrimination, and exploitation by the ruling powers, national division and

The whole idea of Language Planning, as a policy matter belongs not only to the restricted domains of language, but also to wider field of public policy. It is also part of the wider social engineering and used to achieve other goals like political participation or national integration. For example Tanzania used language planning to reduce multilingualism at national level. Language Planning is a solution to language related problems. To handle the problems appropriately, governments Language Policy and Planning Intervention should be done carefully by considering their context.

6. Factors Affecting Language Planning

Language planning is a future oriented activity. It plans for the future, so it might fail somewhere. To minimize this risk of failure, it should consider the fact of language within its context, in addition to language use and linguistic rules. According to Rubin and Jernudd (1971) the following are the contextual factors to be considered.
Economic variables and interests- should be considered because language

is a resource
Political variables- are the other factors that should be seen carefully

because language can be used as an expression of vested interests through problems of language
Demographic variables- the number the speaker of the language, their

living places and the like should be considered

Psychological variables- include the attitude of the society towards the

language because it can affect the process of planning

Social variables and interests-

the sociolinguistic variables are included

here to be consider in the planning

7. Who Is Involved In Language Planning Efforts And How?

A question of who is the actor in Language Planning activity? may arise. To answer this, it of great importance to have a look at the view of such scholars as Kaplan and Baldauf (1997); they explain that language planning activity involves many actors because it has inter-disciplinary nature. The following are among the major ones: Because Language Planning typically responds to problems that are sociopolitical in nature, sociologists or political scientists may first identify and assess the need for some sort of action. Linguists can properly participate in the needs assessment stage to determine if the languages or dialects chosen adequately address the problem. And may suggest ways in which syntax or morphology may be standardized, or may assist in expanding technical vocabularies. Educators incorporate Language Planning legislation into action and develop programs to fulfill the needs identified. Writers keep up the tradition of writing in a dying language or complete written works in a previously unwritten language. This stylistic expansion makes possible the formulation of governmental documents in the planned language. National language academies may oversee one or more phases of the language planning process. According to Fasold (1987:25) governments are in a position to make the widest ranging, but not the most successful, decisions that influence language. By the leadership of government there were individuals and organization who took charge in their language planning processes. He also added lists of language planning agents by citing Jernudd (1973) in addition to government 1. National, but non governmental agencies

2. non national and non governmental agencies a new papers proof reading function
3. the individual author, letter writer etc

8. Language Planning Types

There are two major types of planning according to Wolff (2000:332), status planning and corpus planning. 8.1. Status planning is sometimes also referred to as social or external planning, it is geared at establishing and developing the functional usage of a particular language or languages within a state. In addition, according to Mutasa (2006,119) it is a role given to language which involves the maintenance, extension or restriction of the range of uses of a language for particular function, or even the introduction of an official language. Status planning is usually carried out by non-language experts usually politicians and the considerations in the decisions are often quite political rather than social linguistic. Christine Macnab (1988:140) states that status planning has great relationship with level of importance that is given to languages with respect to other languages or the language needs of a national government. This type of planning refers the change of language in the functions only. In status planning comparing different varieties has its own advantage. It involves the choice of languages to be used as official language(s) and of educational and other cultural purposes (media, religion). The status of these languages may be found codified in the constitution of the country. For any language variety, to be considered in Language Planning for the acquisition of particular functional roles or status in the society, it must fulfill certain requirements in terms of standardization including modernization and cultivation. There must be codification in terms of a standard orthography, a reliable reference grammar, a comprehensive monolingual dictionary, sufficient and adequate reading materials and teacher-training manuals. In particular, its

vocabulary should undergo continuous expansion in some controlled way with regard to new terminology for use of the language in education and regional or nationwide communication. All these requirements of actual language materials are the corpus of the language that need to be planned and implemented. 8.2 Corpus planning is the other type of language planning which is sometimes also referred to as linguistic or internal planning and is geared at establishing and developing vocabulary, morphology and spelling, or adoption of new scrip Wolff (2000:333). It shows the planning of changes in the structure of the language or language variety. There are three traditionally recognized types of corpus planning: graphization, standardization, and modernization. Graphization Graphization refers to development, selection and modification of scripts and orthographic conventions for a language. In establishing a writing system for a language, corpus planners have the option of using an existing system or inventing a new one. Standardization Standardization is the process by which one variety of a language takes precedence over other social and regional dialects of a language. This variety comes to be understood as supra-dialectal and the best form of a language. The standard that is chosen as the norm is generally spoken by the most powerful social group within the society, and is imposed upon the less powerful groups as the form to emulate. Modernization

Modernization is a form of Language Planning that 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 gains independence from a colonial power or when there is a change in the language education policy. The most significant force in modernization is the expansion of the lexicon, which allows the language to discuss topics in modern semantic domains. Language planners generally focus on creating 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. However, Language Planning policy can never be corpus oriented or status oriented exclusively, because corpus and status planning cannot be separated. 8.3 Acquisition planning according to Hornberger (in Ricento, 2006:28) the other type of Language Planning is acquisition planning. It is introduced 20 years later by Cooper in 1989. The main focus of acquisition planning is to influence the allocation of users or the distribution of languages by means of creating or improving opportunity or incentive to learn them, or both.

9. Criteria of Language Choice in Language Planning

In language planning activity choice made from different languages and/or variants. Haugen (in Fasold, 1987: 256) proposed three criteria for language choice decisions. These are:
a. Efficiency to refer the languages easiness to use and learn b. Adequacy to refer the degree of the languages precision of linguistic

forms to convey information

c. Acceptability connected with the local status of the language. This

sociological component of

evaluation deals with the acceptance of the

language by the members of the society

10. Stages in Language Planning

The question how is language planning done? is connected with the planning and implementation stages of a large planning process. Different scholars give different stages of planning. Rubin puts it (in Fasold, 1987:252) in four steps.
1. Fact finding- a substantial amount of background information should be

available before any planning decisions are made.

2. Planning- here the actual decisions are made. The planner will establish

goals, select the means (strategies), and predict the outcomes.

3. Implementation the planning decisions are carried out 4. Feedback -at this step, the planner finds out how well the plan has

worked. Scholars who deal with Language Planning have their own particular approaches of listing the stages to be followed in Language Planning. Since it consumes time to discuss all in detail and this might not be relevant, they are briefly indicated. Based on the authors discussed in Chumbow (1987:17) the different stages of planning are the following. Haugens (1969) puts four stapes in the planning model. These are: 1. Selection of norms 2. Codification of norms 3. Elaboration of function 4. Propagation Fishman et al (1971) makes the stapes three. 1. Policy formation 2. Codification and elaboration 3. Implementation Similarly Jerudd (1973) places the process in three steps model. 1. Determination of policy 2. Development of norms 3. Implementation

After discussing all these, Chumboow (ibid) himself puts the process into two major stages. These are 1. Policy formulation 2. Policy implementation In the policy formulation stage he includes fact finding, policy decision, outline of implementation, and cost benefit analysis. And in the implementation codification, elaboration, reforms, dissemination and evaluation are included.

References Chumbow B. (1987) Towards Language Planning Models for Africa. Journal Of West African Languages XVII; 1: Nigeria University Of Ilorin. Cobarrubius, J. and Fishman J. (eds.)(1983) Progress in Language Planning: International Perspective. The Hague: Mouton. Daoust D. (1997) Language Planning and Language Reform: in Coulmas F. (1997). The Hand Book of Sociolinguistics. Blackwell publishers. Dittmar, N. (1976). Sociolingustics; A Critical Survey of Theory and Application. USA;Wheeling Illinois. Fasold, R. (1987). The Sociolinguistics of Society. Oxford; Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Fishman J.A (1972) Advances in the Sociology of Language (Volume II) Mouton, The Hague, Paris. Kaplan R. and Baldauf R.(1997). Language Planning From Practice to Theory. Great Britain: Multilingual Matters.

Okombo D. Language Policy: The Forgotten Parameter in African Development and Governance Strategies. Mutasa, D.E. (ed) (2006) African languages in the 21st century. simba Guru publishers. Magwa, W(2006) Towards an African Renaissance in language planning. In Mutasa Davie E. (ed) (2006) African languages in the 21st century. Simba Guru publishers. Nurse, D. and Bernd H. (2000). African Languages, An Introduction. Cambridge university press. Rabim, C. (1971). A tentative Classification of Language-planning Aims: In Rubin, J. and Jernudd, H. Can Language Be Planned? University Press of Hawaii. Rubin J. and Jernudd B. (1971). Can Language Be Planned? Sociolingustic theory and Practice for developing Nation. USA, The University Press of Hawaii. Strauss, Anselem H. (1972) Language and identity, in Language in Education A source book: Prepared by the language and learning course Team at the Open University; Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. Webb,v. and Kembo-Sure E. (2000). African voices, an introduction to language and linguistics of Africa. Oxford University Press. Wolff H. (2000). Language and Society: In Nurse, D. and Bernd H. African

Languages, An Introduction. Cambridge university press.