Language Planning, Theory and Practice

•Introduction (Lara Calder-Potts)

•Theoretical Division in Language Planning (Sol Saul-Díaz)

•Effective Language Planning in Catalonia (Yury Villalonga-Stanton)

•The Irish Situation (Jessica West)

•Conclusions (Laura Vuillaume-Stap)

INTRODUCTIONLanguage Planning, Theory and Practice:

Language Planning

...is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure or acquisition of a language or language variety within a speech community.

...is any political attempt to change the status of a language in some way or develop new ways of using it.

Language Planning:GoalsThe desire for:

◦Unification;◦Modernisation;◦Democratisation;◦Improved communication.

Decision making is motivated by:◦Linguistic assimilation◦Linguistic pluralism◦Vernacularisation◦Internationalisation

Language Planning:Decolonisation and Minority Languages ‘Stable Diglossia’ - During the colonisation of Africa (c.

1652-1800) it was felt that a major European language should be used in formal domains, while local languages could serve other functions. ◦ Linguistic diversity was seen to impede national development

whereas linguistic homogeneity was linked to modernisation. Decolonisation gave way to many developing nations,

within which the problems and processes of nationhood became more apparent.

1960s – Language policy and planning research origins◦ E.G. Joshua Fishman; Charles Ferguson.

 “The key to successful nationhood is a combination of cultural and ethnic unity, a defined geographical boundary and a common linguistic identity among citizens.” (Fishman)

Language Planning:The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

Post WWII Europe did not cultivate a favourable environment for minorities.

1948 United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights:“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set out in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.” (Article 2)

1976 - The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights extended the prohibition on language-based discrimination.

1981 - Council of Europe adopted Recommendation 982 on the Educational and Cultural Problems of Minority Languages and Dialects in Europe.

23 June 1992 - Adoption of the Charter for European Regional or Minority Languages with 5 abstentions but no oppositions .

The Charter’s Preamble:◦ Part I – General provisions◦ Part II – Objectives and principles◦ Part III – Measures to promote the use of regional or minority

languages in public life◦ Part IV – Application of the Charter◦ Part V – Final Provisions

Language Planning:The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

THEORETICAL DIVISION IN LANGUAGE PLANNING

Language Planning, Theory and Practice:

Language Planning: Theoretical DivisionTheoretical Linguistics’ core fields

are:◦Syntax;◦Phonology;◦Morphology;◦Semantics.

Theoretical Linguistics is also concerned with the search for an explanation of linguistic universals.

Language Planning:Extended DefinitionLanguage Planning is often associated with

government planning, but is also used by a variety of NGOs

Authorities must recognise ethical and moral as well as linguistic obligations when making recommendations

Planning decisions made for the benefit of communication can lead to other social changes such as language shift or assimilation

Different types of Planning:◦ Status◦ Corpus◦ Acquisition

Language 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.

Important societal domains:◦ Government;◦ Assembly/Parliament;◦ Courts;◦ Administration;◦ Education;◦ Business;◦ Media.

Language Planning:Corpus Planning

...refers to the prescriptive intervention in the forms of a language, whereby planning decisions are made to engineer changes in the structure of the language.

Three groups of Corpus Planning:◦Graphisation◦Standardisation◦Modernisation

Language Planning:Acquisition Planning

... is a type of language planning in which a national, state or local government system aims to influence aspects of language, such as language status, distribution and literacy through education.

The Education Sector’s six principal goals:◦ To decide what languages should be taught within the

curriculum◦ To determine the amount and quality of teacher training◦ To involve local communities◦ To determine what materials will be used and how they

will be incorporated into syllabi◦ To establish a local and state assessment system to

monitor progress◦ To determine financial costs.

EFFECTIVE LANGUAGE PLANNING IN CATALONIA

Language Planning, Theory and Practice:

Language Planning:Key Dates in Catalan Linguistic History 1970 – 78: Prohibition in teaching minority languages

disappears.◦ Ley General de Educación (4-8-1970)◦ Decreto 1433/ 1975 30th May

1978 – 79 &1981 - 82: Approved ‘Estatut d’Autonomia’. ◦ Real Decreto: 2092/ 1978 23rd June◦ Ley Orgánica 4/1979 18th December: ‘Estatut de Catalunya’

establishes article 3:3“La Generalitat garantizará el uso normal y oficial de ambos idiomas, tomará las medidas necesarias a fin de asegurar su conocimiento y creará las condiciones que permiten llegar a su igualdad plena en cuanto a los derechos y deberes de los ciudadanos de Cataluña.”

1982 – 83: “…establecimiento generalizado del catalán como lengua vehicular de aprendizaje en los centros docentes no universitarios…”

NB: None of this was not normativised until Decreto 270/1982 5th August

Language Planning:Difficulties incorporating Catalan into Education System

“La situación de precariedad de la lengua catalana en el ámbito territorial que le es propio, fruto de una política de aniquilación y de marginación oficiales, es el primero que es preciso señalar.”

“La imposibilidad del aprendizaje ordenado de la lengua y, como consecuencia, el desconocimiento del catalán escrito por parte de la mayoría de la población adulta catalanohablante.”

“La carencia de medios de comunicación y la supresión del catalán de la vida oficial o administrativa son hechos largamente evidenciados que han hecho temer a los sociolingüistas por la supervivencia del idioma.”

(Siguan)

Language Planning:Historical Factors in the Catalan Recovery

1943: Benèfica Minerva founded by Fèlix Millet i Maristany was dedicated to Catalan patronage

1961: Comissió delegada de l’Ensenyament del Català 1961: Junta Assessora per als Estudis del Català (JAEC) 1967: Delegació d’Ensenyament Català (DEC)  1975: Escola de Mestres Rosa Sensat 1978 – 79: School introduced partial teachings of

Catalan Diputación de Barcelona Diputación de Lérida created ‘Càtedra de Llengua Gili

Gaya’ City Council of Barcelona subsidized Catalan classes Many universities ran courses in Catalan via Instituts de

Ciències de l’Educacio before the language was officially encouraged to be taught.

Language Planning:Normativising Catalan

1796: First attempts were mentioned in Diario de Barcelona 1815: “...codificación de la ‘Gramática i apologia de la

llengua catalana’.” 1890-1892: “…el grupo desplegó una campaña lingüística

proponiendo la fijación literaria de la lengua, sin que supusiera un desacuerdo grande entre escrita y la hablada.”

1918: Pompeu Fabra published ‘Ensayo de gramática del catalán moderno’.

“En el último tercio de siglo XIX, el incremento de la literatura en catalán y los diversos esfuerzos colectivos por su restauración hicieron la necesidad urgente de su fijación ortográfica, morfosintáctica y léxica, así como de normalizar su uso en los diversos ámbitos de la vida social, pues la lengua, desde el siglo XV, había quedado al margen de los grandes procesos de normalización que se llevaron a cabo en la constitución de las distintas lenguas estándar europeas.”

Language Planning:The Effort to Normalise and The Golden Age1901: La Lliga Regionalista; Enric Prat de la Riba1907: Institut d’Estudis Catalans created1931: Catalan was seen for the first time as a co-

official languageValencia & the Balearics did not acheive the

same level of linguistic normalisation

Successful publications in Catalan included; La Veu (1899 - 1937) El poble Català (1906 - 1918) La Publicitat (1922 - 1939) Estudis Universitaris Catalans (1907 - 1930) Taula de les Lletres Valencianes (1927 – 1930)

Eugeni d’Ors – considered by some to be one of the most influential modern Catalan writers

Language Planning:Normalising and Normativising CatalanIn 1906 the Congrés Internacional de la

Llengua Catalana proclaimed Catalan as a ‘lengua diferenciada’ and proposed valid regulations for all of its speakers◦ Institut d’Estudis Catalans and the Sección

Filológica – overseen by Antoni María Alcover and, later, Pompeu Fabra

Fabra used support from the institute to further his studies;◦ Normes Ortográfiques (1913)◦ Exposició de l’ortografia catalana (1917)◦ Gramática catalana (1918)◦ Diccionari general de la llengua catalana (1932)

2nd edition by Carles Riba was published in 1954

Language Planning:Catalan and the DictatorshipDuring the dictatorship Catalan was prohibited in

the educational and administrative sectors with a complete eradication of its use in newspapers, radios, political and cultural institutions, and became de-officialised.

During the 1950s and ‘60s, with church assistance, some publications like ‘Serra d’Or’ (1959), ‘Oriflama’ (1961 – 1967) and ‘Lluc’ (1968) were made available.

In Mallorca, Francesc de Borja Moll and Sanchis Guarner published ‘Diccionari Català-Valencià-Balear’ (1949 – 1962) which was legally recognised by the association Obra Cultural Balear.

THE IRISH SITUATIONLanguage Planning, Theory and Practice:

Language Planning:Irish - Background Information Irish was originally dropped for English between 1750 and

1850 1851 saw the first census to take account of language

◦ 5% see themselves as monolingual◦ 23% described themselves as bilingual

There was no future in Irish Irish writers attempted to transpose the flavour and

rhythm of the Irish language into their prose written in English

A strong feeling remained that Ireland was a distinct nation and the nineteenth century saw Irish nationalism flourish

Sense of continuity with the past maintained

“[English has been] completely indigenised [in Ireland] and associated with a new indigenous Great Tradition.” (Fishman 1968, footnote 16)

Language Planning:The Gaelic League Decline of Irish was regrettable and the end of the 18th C.

saw sporadic efforts to stem this At the end of 19th C., a language-revival movement

spread through Ireland as promoted by the Gaelic League◦ “De-Anglicization” of Ireland◦ Initial linguistic plan: “...to maintain Irish as a spoken language

in Ireland.”◦ Public image and propaganda of the league: to foster Irish as

the national language of Ireland and to spread its use as a spoken language

After an unremarkable start, the League suddenly caught the popular imagination and attracted wide support◦ 1893 – the idea was born◦ 1901 – 120 branches◦ 1904 – 593 branches

Language Planning:The Gaelic League cont’d The main strategy saw adult classes, public lectures,

pamphlets, parades and popular competitions and satire The League received the support of people from every

political group, religious denomination and social class By 1905, the League’s successes were already impressive:

◦ Attending classes had become popular;◦ An Claidheamh Soluis was started; ◦ The foundations of modern literature had been laid; ◦ Popular interest in Gaelic literature, music, and customs;◦ The British Postmaster General had been forced to accept mail

addressed in Irish;◦ The Dublin County Council began to give preference to

candidates who knew Irish; ◦ Many primary schools and some secondary schools and teacher-

training colleges had been persuaded to introduce Irish. Climax of the League’s progress was the successful

inclusion of Irish, as a subject, in the matriculation requirements for the new National University of Ireland

Language Planning:The Gaelic League cont’d 1922 establishment of the Irish Free State

◦ Following the establishment of the Free State, the League felt that the main responsibility for the restoration of Irish lay with the young government

Commission on the Revival of Irish: “It stands to reason that people’s enthusiasm should have waned as soon as the war with England was ended, and since the cultivation of the language was seen as part of that war it was natural that their devotion should diminish.”

In an Irish state there was no need for the League to engage in work for the language

Following the end of the civil war, the zeal for the language faded owing to a bitterness over the cruelty of the civil war

The civil war was succeeded by the Great Depression of the 1920s and then by the World War; during these years the restoration movement seemed to make great progress.

There was, however, a distinct lack of enforcement

Language Planning:Education – Primary LevelLegislation dictated “...that the Irish language be

taught, or used as a medium of instruction, for not less than one full hour each day in all national (primary) schools where there was a teacher competent to teach it.”

1925 – the use of Irish as a medium be extended “as far as possible”

1934 – the above was made obligatory on all school teachers

Number of primary schools teaching exclusively in Irish fell over time:◦ 1939 – 704◦ 1944 – 601◦ 1956 – 389◦ 1966 – 309

Language Planning:Education – Secondary & Third LevelSecondary Education 25% increase on capitation grants 10% bonus in exams Between 1944 and 1968 there was a decline in the

number of grammar schools that taught subjects in Irish◦ 1944 – 98 out of 377 taught all subjects in Irish (excl. English)◦ 1951 – 54% taught wholly or partly in Irish◦ 1956 – 87 out of 474 taught in Irish◦ 1966 – 72 out of 585◦ 1968 – 51 out of 596

Third Level Education All university colleges offer courses in Irish language

and literature, but only Galway seriously attempts to offer, in the arts and sciences, courses that are taught and examined in Irish

Language Planning:Standardisation of Irish1945 onwards saw the first steps

towards the standardisation of Irish:◦ The translation office produced a

simplified spelling (1945)◦ In 1953, the translation office produced a

new and simplified grammar◦ In 1959, the new Irish dictionary aimed to

“...provide Irish equivalents for English words and phrases in common use.”

Language Planning:Other Aspects of Irish Life 1937 Constitution – “The Irish language as the national

language is the first official language. The English language is recognised as the second official language.” (Article 8)

1958 Commission for progress “What we understand by the Revival [restoration] is that

the [Irish] language should once again be a normal means of conversation and communication among Irish people. This has been the objective of the Irish language movement from its inception and of the political movement which stemmed from it, and this has been the linguistic objective of every government since the foundation of the State.” (p.xiii)

In the years since the commission’s report, the government has issued a white paper on restoration policy and two progress reports (1965, 1966, 1969)

However, progress has been rather disappointing.

Language Planning:Other Aspects of Irish LifeParliamentary business is transacted in English All civil servants are required to know Irish at

the time of their recruitmentThe Irish Army trains its officers mainly in IrishRecruits for state police are required to have

some knowledge of IrishAll lawyers, before qualifying, are required to

give evidence that they know IrishThe state runs television and radio and requires

both to present some programmes in Irish ◦ 7.8% of the time on television and 3.8% of the time

on radio is taken up with programmes exclusively in Irish

Language Planning:Other Aspects of Irish LifeBusinessesMany of the large businesses have made an

effort to foster IrishThe Catholic Church95% of people in the Republic of Ireland are

Catholics, however the Church as an institution remained aloof from the restoration issue for a long time.

The Dublin regulation states there should be one ‘Irish’ Mass in each church every Sunday

The feebleness of the restoration movement has been frequently attributed to the lack of ecclesiastical support

Language PlanningThe Irish Situation - Conclusions Irish will not become the principal language of the country 1964 – Irish Marketing Surveys Ltd poll of attitude towards Irish yielded

83% of the population did not think that Irish could be restored as the most widely spoken language

The 1965 white paper acknowledges that the country is dependent and will continue to be dependent on a knowledge of English

However, it would be wrong to conclude that the Irish people wish to drop Irish all together – 76% questioned by the Irish Marketing Surveys said they would like to see Irish widely spoken as a second language

Linguistic objectives have been stated in relative ignorance of how the people felt about them

Lack of clear purpose – No attempt has been made to measure progress

Absence of long and short term objectives and of thorough evaluation means that there is no machinery for deciding when the movement as a whole is successful or when it should be dropped if failing

English vs. Irish – As a language of culture and of commerce English is invaluable to the Irish people and provides a means to the world of business and capitalism.

Lack of real enthusiasm for bilingualism

CONCLUSIONSLanguage Planning, Theory and Practice:

Language Planning:Conclusions - Recap

Language planning is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure, or acquisition of a language or language variety within a speech community.

Often associated with government planning, but is also used buy a variety if non-governmental organisations.

The goals of language planning differ depending on the nation or organisation, 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, thus providing another motivation to plan the structure, function and acquisition of language.

Language Planning:Conclusion of the effectiveness of Catalan and Irish planning

When comparing Catalan and Irish it is possible to conclude that Catalan language planning has been more effective. Although both languages have needed to be revived, governmental and ecclesiastical organisations took more responsibility in the case of Catalan.

Catalan has gained status as well as users and a large part of the Catalan government’s Catalanisation policy, which must be said to have been carried out skilfully in its insistence on consensus and negotiation, has encountered widespread support.

It could be argued that it is no longer necessary to implement language policies in order to support Catalan identity – this identity is already quite well established and for many Catalan-Castilian bilinguals - their linguistic and cultural ascription is probably a similarly hyphenated one. 

On the other hand, the Irish language could be said to remain under threat.

Although the League declared that Irish must be the language of instruction for at least one hour in primary schools nationwide.

The program implementation was mostly left to the individual schools, which did not consistently adhere to the program’s rules. Educating a generation is a long process for which the League was not prepared.

Language Planning:Conclusion of the effectiveness of Catalan and Irish planning

There was no general consensus as to how Irish should be reinstituted and system assessment plan to monitor progress and the people’s desires was lacking.

As a result, the movement lost strength and English remains the nation’s second official language and most spoken first language, leading to the considerable failure of Ireland’s attempt at language revitalisation.

Language Planning, Theory and Practice

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