Language planning and policy

One very natural response to the variation that often occurs when two different languages meet is to call for a political solution.

When a nation considers or implements laws to control a language, this is called language planning.

Language planning: a deliberate, systematic, and theory-based attempt to solve the communication problems of a community by studying the various languages or dialects it uses, and developing a policy concerning their selection and use; also sometimes called language engineering or language treatment. Corpus (‘body’ of the language) planning deals with norm selection and codification, as in the writing or grammars and the standardization of spelling; status planning deals with initial choice of language, including attitudes toward alternative languages and the political implications of various choices.

TYPES OF LANGUAGE PLANNING

CORPUS LANGUAGE PLANNING

Corpus planning: is the planning, changing and standardizing the actual components of the language: spelling, vocabulary, pronunciation, letter system (orthography), grammar, etc. Efforts to rid English of gender bias is an example of this, as is the different attempts to standardize the English language.

STATUS LANGUAGE PLANNING

Status planning: is different. It is linked to the official recognition which a national governments attaches to various languages, and or to restrict the use of minority languages. This is where the government chooses a language and a dialect of that language over other languages. This decision confers status and privilege on both the language and dialect, and THE PEOPLE WHO SPEAK THAT LANGUAGE AND DIALECT.

Status planning issues include: the designation of an official language or languages of instruction in schools, in the government, on ballots etc.

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION LANGUAGE PLANNING

A third type of language planning is called: Language acquisition planning:

That is, the language policy decisions concerning the teaching and use of language and their careful formulation by those empowered to do so, for the guidance of others.

For example how much Russian, Ukrainian, or even English is taught in schools in Ukraine.

HOW ARE LANGUAGE POLICIES CREATED?

How are language policies created? Sometimes there are centralized groups of scholars who work to create the policies either inside the country or outside of it. Again though it is almost always the people in power who create the policy.

PROMOTING LANGUAGE POLICY

The stated reasons for promoting language change from one variety to another, or from one language to another, often sound noble and usually cite a greater good for all the people of a nation. There is, however, more at issue than just language. Two important points to remember are:

• Remember, language involves social interaction and social behavior.

• Language can become a weapon for political power and social control.

Motivations for using language as an instrument of social control are influenced by scholarly and popular attitudes toward language variation and multilingualism. The image of the Tower of Babel, that is of a fall from a unified, holy language to the condition of language chaos, so many languages, is frequently used in countries where there are deep majority group fears and prejudices directed at a minority.

In societies where the majority of the population is monolingual—that is they speak only one language—a good example is the United States, and English, people view monolingualism as an ideal, natural state, where as multilingualism is viewed as a temporary, unnatural condition.

Other people see multilingualism as the natural state and any language defining policy as a dangerous threat to their own language, if its not the majority.

This is interesting because language planning is most frequently done to attempt to solve conflicts over language.

Topics for individual reports (5-6 minutes speech for the mark - obligatory task):

1. Ukrainian language policy before 20^th century.

2. Ukrainian language policy in the 20^th century.

3. Ukrainian language policy in the 21st century.

4. Surzhyk. How to avoid.