Language Planning and Policies Summary

Steve Nicolle

Language Planning and Policies Summary

Some Definitions
Language planning

all conscious efforts that aim at changing the linguistic behaviour of a speech community (Mesthrie
et al 2009: 371)

overt, directed, purposeful language change brought about in order to solve some identified
problem (Lewis 2011:12)

Language policy

the more general linguistic, political and social goals underlying the actual language planning
process (Mesthrie et al 2009: 371)

what governments (or organizations both national and international) do through legislation,
policies, or legal decisions to determine how languages are used (which languages may be used for
what purposes), to cultivate second language skills in chosen languages, or to establish minority
language rights (Lewis & Henson 2013)

Note that some scholars distinguish between overt and covert language policy, where overt
language policy refers to the official rules and legislation while covert language policy would refer
to the societal norms.

Types of language planning

Language planning can be subdivided into the following four areas:
Status planning Decisions and activities aimed at changing the functions or uses of languages (or language
varieties) within a particular speech community
Example: the decision to use Hebrew as a medium of instruction in Jewish schools in Palestine from the end
of the 19th century
Corpus planning Decisions and activities required to fit the forms and structures of languages to the
assigned functions
Examples: designing an orthography, creating new words, publishing dictionaries
Acquisition planning Decisions and activities required to enable current or potential users of the language
to implement the status and corpus decisions, including activities aimed at helping people to learn the
language, or to acquire specific skills (such as literacy) in the language
Examples: Mother Tongue Education programmes, language revitalization activities
Prestige planning Decisions and activities aimed at creating positive attitudes towards the language, which
are vital to the long-term success of other language planning activities.
These four areas of language planning do not exist in isolation. Activities aimed at changing the functions of
a language (status planning) often require changes in the form or structure of the language (corpus
planning), and may also involve education and training (acquisition planning). Status planning activities will
only succeed if positive attitudes towards the language are adopted (through prestige planning) by both the
speakers of the language and others in the wider society such as government officials, teachers, pastors.

Language Planning and Policies Summary

Steve Nicolle

The process of language planning

The American linguist Einar Haugen (1966, 1987) suggested that language planning typically consists of the
following 4 stages, which are usually (but need not be) sequential:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Selection
Codification
Implementation
Elaboration

In these notes (based on Mesthrie et al 2009: 375380) I will suggest ways in which these 4 stages are
implemented in a typical language development (including Bible translation) project.
Selection
To choose certain linguistic forms or language varieties over others, and promote them as being the
norm, is the basis of most language planning activities. Language planning can thus be understood as a
normative response to linguistic diversity. (Mesthrie et al 2009: 375)
Selection describes the process of choosing a certain language variety to be used for certain functions in a
society. At the national level, this includes the choice of a national or official language; at the local level, this
includes choosing which dialect of a language to use as the medium of instruction in a Mother Tongue
Education programme in local primary schools. In the context of Bible translation, it includes deciding which
languages to start a Bible translation project in, and which dialect to choose in situations where various
dialects are spoken.
In selecting a dialect for some educational or religious purpose, a survey should be conducted to determine
which dialects of a language are mutually intelligible (testing for comprehension) and which are viewed as
adequately prestigious (testing for acceptability). This usually results in the selection of one dialect (known
as monocentric selection). In certain situations, a new standard variety may be created which incorporates
features of a number of different dialects (known as polycentric selection). This tends to happen with large
language communities where no existing dialect is either comprehensible or acceptable to all speakers, but
for social and political reasons the community wants to use a single variety for official purposes. An example
is Unified Basque (Euskara batua) which was created from the four main Basque dialects spoken in the
south-west of France and the north-west of Spain. The variety of Luhya used in the Luhya Bible translation
in Kenya is another example.
Codification
Having selected a variety for a certain range of functions, this variety is then codified in terms of how it is
written (graphization), its grammar (grammatication) and its vocabulary (lexicalization).
Graphization: Where a language variety is being used in a written form for the first time, the development
of an orthography is a crucial activity. The orthography must adequately represent the structure of the
language (including its phonology if an alphabetic or syllabic system is chosen), it must be easy to read and
write, and it must be acceptable to the community. For these reasons, orthography development should
involve collaboration between linguists, literacy specialists, and community representatives.
Grammatication: Codifying the rules of the grammar typically occurs in the case of national languages and
languages which are learned as a second language, but this activity does not always happen with languages
which are only used in a local context by mother-tongue speakers. A linguist may write a grammar of a
minority language, but this will be descriptive (documenting as far as possible the variation in how the
language is spoken) rather than prescriptive (defining how the language should be used).
Lexicalization: As we saw in Un it 5, language contact is an almost universal phenomenon, and a typical
result of language contact is borrowing of words and expressions. In situations where a language is being
promoted to an official function of some kind (e.g. educational, religious) lexicalization often involves

Language Planning and Policies Summary

Steve Nicolle

making decisions about which words are authentic and which words are loanwords. This is particularly the
case where language is associated with a particular ethnic or political identity.
The typical product of lexicalization is a dictionary. There are many different kinds of dictionaries: Some
record as many words as possible, including those borrowed from other languages, whilst others only
include authentic words (although the criteria for making this distinction are not always clear). There are
monolingual dictionaries (with definitions in the same language), bilingual dictionaries (usually with
definitions in a national language, that is Local National, but sometimes also with a reverse list of words
in the national language and the local language equivalents, that is, National Local), pedagogical
dictionaries (for use in teaching the language in schools), picture dictionaries, and so forth. Usually
dictionaries are published as books, but increasing dictionaries are available online. 1

Implementation
Implementation typically involves materials production (books, newspapers, pamphlets, websites, radio
broadcasts, etc.) in the codified language variety. This is usually done by the state in the case of national
languages, and by a combination of local communities (through language committees or similar
organizations) and government and/or religious organizations in the case of local languages.
Implementation can also include activities such as language festivals and other cultural events where the
language is used, incentives (for example, bonuses or promotions for teachers and civil servants who learn
the language), and laws requiring the use of the language in certain situations.
Successful language development projects usually involve a wide range of implementation activities.

Elaboration
Elaboration (also called modernization) covers all aspects of corpus planning which the language is
developed to meet the needs of modern society. One important are is the development of new vocabulary
(lexicalization), in particular terms for technological items such as mobile phones and computers. New
words may already be in use, either borrowings from another language, extensions of meaning of existing
words, or (less often) neologisms. In Bible translation projects, new terms may be needed for a number of
cultural and theological concepts.

Decision making for language planning and language policies

Our initial definitions of language planning mentioned changing the linguistic behaviour of a speech
community and solving some identified problem. In order to change existing behaviour, it is necessary to
know what that behaviour is; and in order to identify a problem, information is required.
One way in which information can be obtained is through the use of questionnaires. The value of a
questionnaire depends on the kinds of questions that are asked. The language questions in the 2006
Canadian Census (extract on the next page) are regarded by Mesthrie et al (2009: 3823) as an example of
best practice. They allow the Canadian government to obtain information on topics which are important
for language planning, such as knowledge of Canadas Official Languages (Q 13) and other languages (Q 14),
languages spoken at home and the number of people living in bilingual homes (Q 15), maintenance of other
languages (Q 16 particularly in relation to indigenous languages of Canada, many of which are
endangered), and language use in the workplace (Q 48).

The use of computer databases (e.g. FieldWorks, Toolbox) makes it easy to publish dictionaries in different
formats. For example, the 2nd edition of the trilingual DigoEnglishSwahili dictionary compiled by the Digo
Language and Literacy Project (BTL Kenya) is published by the German publisher Rdiger Kppe in a printed form
(DigoEnglishSwahili) with a CD containing a DigoEnglishSwahili list and an EnglishDigo list, with links to
sound files for many words.

Language Planning and Policies Summary

Steve Nicolle

Questions from the Canadian Census (reproduced in Mesthrie et al 2009: 3823)

Canada has two Official languages: English and French. In addition, Canada has a number of indigenous
minority languages; Canada also accepts a large number of international immigrants for whom English or
French is not their mother tongue, and some descendants of early immigrants (for example from Germany
and Ukraine) continue to speak the languages of these early immigrant communities.
In 2006, the census included the following questions:
Q 13

Can this person speak English or French well enough to conduct a conversation?
English only / French only / Both English and French / Neither English nor French

Q 14

What language(s), other than English or French, can this person speak well enough to conduct a
conversation?
None / Specify ______________________

Q 15a What language does this person speak most often at home?
English / French / Other, Specify ________________________
Q 15b Does this person speak any other languages on a regular basis at home?
None / Yes, English / Yes, French / Yes, Other, Specify ______________________
Q 16

What is the language that this person first learned at home in childhood and still understands?
English / French / Other, Specify ________________________

Q 48a In this job, what language did this person use most often?
English / French / Other, Specify ________________________
Q 48b Didi this person use any other languages on a regular basis in this job?
No / Yes, English / Yes, French / Yes, Other, Specify ________________________

Sources and References

Haugen, Einar. (1966). Linguistics and language planning. In: W. Bright (ed.) Sociolinguistics: Proceedings of
the UCLA Sociolinguistics Conference, 1964. The Hague: Mouton. 5071.
Haugen, Einar. (1987). Language planning. In: U. Ammon, N. Dittmer & J. K. Mattheier (eds.) Sociolinguistics:
An international handbook of the science of language and society, vol. 1. Berlin / New York: de Gruyter.
626637.
Lewis, M. Paul. (2011). Perspectives on Community-based Language Development. Draft.
Lewis, M. Paul & Bonnie Henson. (2013). Introduction to Language Development. Unplublished course
materials. Dallas: SIL International.
Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert & William L. Leap. (2009). Introducing Sociolinguistics (Second
edition). Amsterdam: John Benjamins / Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.