Slide 1

SOCIOLINGUISTICS
LESSON 5

INSTRUCTOR: LE NGUYEN NHU ANH

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Slide 2

LESSON 5
NATIONAL
LANGUAGES AND
LANGUAGE
PLANNING

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Slide 3

Lesson Contents
Key takeaways:

National and official languages

Planning for a national official language

Developing a standard variety in Norway

The linguist’s role in language planning

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Slide 4

Example 1

Spanish: Guaraní:
highly regarded by the indigenous American Indian
upper class, language of language, 90% of population,
literature, 60% of population, L language of solidarity, love,
H language of administration, humour, poetry, regarded as
education, legal business real national language
1960s: Official language 1960s: National language
1992: Official language

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Slide 5

National and official languages

Example 2

A multilingual Pacific Bislama

republic, 80 islands, 200000 national language, English-
population, independence lexified creole (from a
from Britain & France in 1980 Melanesian plantation
pidgin), lingua franca in
Vanuatu, politically
acceptable

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Slide 6

National and official languages

National language Official language

A national language is the language of An official language is a language which
a political, cultural and social unit. may be used for government business.
• Developed and used as a symbol of • Functions: primarily utilitarian
national unity. (sometimes can also be symbolic).

• Functions: identify the nation and

unite people.

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Slide 7

National and official languages

Governments do not always recognise the distinctions made by sociolinguists => terms
used for political purposes
• Paraguay:
• official languages: Spanish, Guaraní
• national language: Guaraní
• Tanzania:
• official languages: Swahili, English
• national language: Swahili
• Vanuatu:
• official languages: Bislama, English, French
• national language: Bislama

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Slide 8

National and official languages

Monolingual nations: the same language serves both purposes

Multilingual nations: choice to satisfy political+social goals & practical and utilitarian
needs
• Asserting the nation hood of a newly independent or established nation
 national language
Ex: Swahili in Tanzania, Hebrew in Israel, Malay in Malaysia, Indonesian in Indonesia.

•Internal and external functions of government business  official languages

• Example: + Ivory Coast, Chad: French

+ Israel: Arabic

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Slide 9

National and official languages

• Choice of national language is problematic  official languages

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Slide 10

National and official languages

Official status and minority languages
English is not legally the official language of England, the USA, or New Zealand
 de facto official language
Maori and New Zealand Sign Language are legally official languages of New Zealand
 de jure official language

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Slide 11

National and official languages

Official status and minority languages
Example 3

Maori activist Now has the right to address

Insist on addressing the the court in Maori – court
court in Maori provides interpreter
1987, Maori declared official
status

Dun Mihaka

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Slide 12

National and official languages

Official status and minority languages

English: official language of UK Welsh activists protested against

Welsh: recognized officially in Wales, the dominance of English
not Britain

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Slide 13

National and official languages

Official status and minority languages
The costs in terms of providing services and information in all official languages are
considerable
 Most governments count them carefully.
It seems unlikely other minorities will earn such rights easily.

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Slide 14

National and official languages

Official status and minority languages
The National anthem of South Africa: written in 5
languages (Zhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans, English)

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Slide 15

National and official languages

What price a national language?
The development of a single national language  symbolise the unity of a nation
• establish a distinct national identity
• secure independence from colonial rule
• in multilingual countries, a symbolic unifying function
Numerical dominance is not always the case, political power is more important

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Slide 16

National and official languages

What price a national language?
The Philippines
• Gained independence in 1946
• Pilipino (now Filipino) declared national language
• Closely based on Tagalog, 12 mil native speakers
• Tagalog speakers: political and economic powers, capital area
• Relabelled Filipino to gain wide acceptance

Tagalog Cebuana Ilocano

12 mil 10 mil 5 mil

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Slide 17

National and official languages

What price a national language?
Indonesia
• Indonesian: a standardised variety of Malay, previously a trade language, chosen as
national language, a useful neutral linguistic choice in many situations
• Javanese, language of political and social elite, complex linguistically marked system

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Slide 18

National and official languages

What price a national language?
Linguistic diversity of Indonesia

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Slide 19

Planning for a national official language

Form, functions and attitudes
1. Selection: choosing the variety/code
2. Codification (corpus planning): standardizing structural/linguistic features
3. Elaboration: extending functions in new domains
4. Securing its acceptance (status planning/prestige planning): enhancing prestige,
developing pride/loyalty

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Slide 20

Planning for a national official language

Form, functions and attitudes
Table 5.1 Steps in language planning

Form Function and attitudes

Social Selection Acceptance
Linguistic Codification Elaboration

Source: From Haugen 1966a: 934.

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Slide 21

Planning for a national official language

Tanzania
The major languages of Tanzania

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Slide 22

Planning for a national official language

Tanzania

 No worries (Swahili)

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Slide 23

Planning for a national official language

Tanzania
1. Selecting a code:
- Swahili, a language of the Bantu language family: widely used as lingua franca throughout
the country
Reasons:
• Language of primary education
• 96% of Tanzania’s languages are Bantu languages
• Lingua franca of the anti-colonial political movement for independence
 social cement between different groups

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Slide 24

Planning for a national official language

Tanzania
2. Codifying and elaborating Swahili:
• Standardising begun by British administration in the 1920s
• Zanzibar, a southern variety of Swahili, as basis
• Codification: developing a standard spelling system, describing the grammar, writing a
dictionary to record vocabulary
• After independence, used in more contexts (education, administration, politics, law)
• Vocabulary expanded for new contexts

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Slide 25

Planning for a national official language

Tanzania
3. Attitudes to Swahili:
• High status and positive attitudes
• Neutral: not identified with any particular tribe
• Strong loyal

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Slide 26

Developing a standard variety in Norway

1814

It’s over between us

Goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend

You have been the one
You have been the one for me

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Slide 27

Developing a standard variety in Norway

Danish: Norwegian dialects:

H language L varieties
Upper-class: (1) Danish with No standard Norwegian
Norwegian pronunciation in language
formal situations, (2) compromise Lower-class
with local Norwegian dialects in Norwegian dialects (Danish
informal situations influence)

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Slide 28

Developing a standard variety in Norway

Selecting a code
• Standard Danish : language of H domains, of “oppressors”, not widely used in
informal interaction, negative attitude from Norwegian
• Regional Norwegian dialects : lack of forms and functions, choosing one dialect
would create negative attitudes from others
2 approachs in developing a standard written variety of Norweigan
1. Selecting a variety based on Danish, with orthographic and morphological
modifications based on educated urban Norwegian speech  Bokmål
2. Creating a new Norwegian written standard using a range of rural Norwegian
dialects  Landsmål  Nynorsk

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Slide 29

Developing a standard variety in Norway

Codification and elaboration
Nynorsk:
• Ivar Aasen wrote a grammar and a 40000-word
dictionary for the new Norwegian standard.
• Common grammatical patterns identified in
different dialects
• Vocabulary chosen from different regions (avoiding
Ivar Aasen
as much Danish influence as possible. (1812-1896)
Norwegian philologist,
• Extending functions using rural dialect resources lexicographer,
playwright, and poet.
• Creating new words from dialect forms

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Slide 30

Developing a standard variety in Norway

Codification and elaboration
2 distinct written varieties: Bokmål & Nynorsk
• Efforts of uniting the two decreased after WWII due to political differences
• Identical syntax
• Different words and spelling
• Pronouncements made by the Norwegian Language Council about spellings and words
• Official documents printed in both varieties
• Schoolchildren taught to read and write both
• Local councils decide which is the main instruction in local schools

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Slide 31

Developing a standard variety in Norway

Acceptance
Nynorsk Bokmål
• Welcomed by Norwegian nationalists • Used in most books

• Rejected by influential city-dwellers • Language of instruction in most schools

• 1885: voted as equal with Danish • Has urban and sophisticated connotations

• 1944: chief language of instruction for 34.1% of

all schoolchildren  decreases to 13.4% by 2008

• Continue to be displaced by Bokmål

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Slide 32

Developing a standard variety in Norway

Language planning is a fascinating mixture of political and social considerations, as well as
linguistic ones.
Linguistic landscape: the "visibility and salience of languages on public and commercial
signs in a given territory or region" (Landry and Bourhis 1997:23)
• ‘Top-down’ signs are official signs, designed by public authorities
• ‘Bottom-up’ signs are non-official signs, usually produced by individuals or groups.

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Slide 33

Developing a standard variety in Norway

‘Top-down’ signs

‘Bottom-up’ signs

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Slide 34

Developing a standard variety in Norway

Linguistic landscape:
• Alternative classification: a continuum from official to non-official signs

official non- official

An analysis of the linguistic landscape can provide useful clues to the gap which
often exists between official language policy and actual linguistic practices.

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Slide 35

Developing a standard variety in Norway

Example 6

Portuguese, Tetun: official languages

In 2002, UN peace-keeping forces arrived  English
2010 analysis:
• Portuguese: dorminant language
• English: 60% of signs surveyed (monolingual English),
15% (English and other languages)
• Tetun: no evident on official signs

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Slide 36

The linguist’s role in language planning

1. Codification of orthography
• Previously influenced by the church (through missionaries)
• Spelling reform by government
2. Developing Vocabulary
3. Acceptance
4. Acquisition planning
• Organised efforts to spread a linguistic variety by increasing
the number of its users
• Language-in-education planning

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Slide 37

Summary

Language planning: deliberate language change.

• introduction of new labels
• reform of spelling systems
• the provision of advice on non-sexist terminology
•the development of national languages and standard dialects
Language planner: develop a policy of language use which will solve
the problems appropriately in particular speech communities.

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Slide 38

References

• Cooper (1989)
• Crystal (2010)
• Eastman (1983)
Resources • Garvin and Mathiot (1956)
• Haugen (1966a)
• Kaplan and Baldauf (2005)
• Rubin and Jernudd (1971)
• Trudgill (2000)

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