The decay of neo-colonial official language policies. The case of the English-lexicon Creoles of the Commonwealth Caribbean

1986 ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hubert Devonish
Keyword(s):  
Official Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Commonwealth Caribbean

scholarly journals O Le Si'Osi'Omaga O Le Punafanau Lea O Se Gagana E Ola: The Linguistic Landscape Of Samoa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Faith Esera
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
English Language ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Digital Camera ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Official Status

<p>The official language of Sāmoa is Samoan, but the majority of the population speak English as a second language. Because of early contact with missionaries and colonial powers, the English language soon became widely acknowledged and used in Sāmoa. Even after Sāmoa became independent from New Zealand, the English language was and is still recognised, but not made official, in the Constitution of Sāmoa and education policies.  This paper reports on the languages that are present in the linguistic landscape of Sāmoa. The main purpose of the study was to identify the predominant language used in Sāmoa, and to analyse ‘hybridity’ or ‘dualism’ on signs that contained the Samoan language. The data consists of 987 signs taken from two survey areas, Apia and Salelologa, using a digital camera. Scollon and Scollon’s (2003) ‘Place Semiotics’ was used to give an overview of the preferred code in the LL of Sāmoa. The ‘Motu Analysis’, a reconceptualization of Backhaus’s ‘part writing’ types, was used to analyse how two or more languages are used and positioned on signs in the LL; this analysis responds to the research question on ‘hybridity’. The final step involved a closer analysis of the subset of signs containing the Samoan language to detect signs of hybridity through loanwords and semantic extensions.  The results of the analyses indicated that English is the dominant language in the linguistic landscape of Sāmoa despite lacking official status in the language policies of Sāmoa. The findings further reveal that the English influence on the Samoan language on the signs is reflected more in semantic loans than loanwords, revealing a healthier picture of the Samoan language. The study concludes with possible lines of research for further studies in Sāmoa and the Pacific.</p>

Re-thinking balanced bilingualism

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Juarros-Daussà ◽  
Tilman Lanz
Keyword(s):  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
National Language ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
New Immigrants ◽  
The World ◽  
Historical Presence ◽  
Globalized World

Traditionally, Catalonia is seen as a successful example of language revitalization, through the achievement and maintenance of a fairly stable Castilian/Catalan bilingualism for the last thirty years or so. Recently, however, Catalonia has experienced significant immigration in the context of globalization. The autonomous government is now supporting an agenda in which Catalan alone is presented as the national language, the language of convergence, while Castilian, despite its long historical presence in the region, is portrayed as one of three hundred languages spoken there today. We examine how this policy interacts with everyday linguistic realities and with a preservationist agenda. Catalan speakers are divided between those who feel liberated from the imposition of Spanish identity and culture and those who fear an exclusivist nationalism which they feel would be anachronistic in the globalized world of today. Spanish speakers, in turn, feel threatened and targeted. New immigrants, coming from all corners of the world, are caught in a climate in which official language policies hardly reflect their own needs. Linguistic policies have to be re-thought to tend to the needs of immigrants while also ensuring the survival of Catalan.

scholarly journals Plurilingual literary spaces

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-203
Author(s):  
Tristan Leperlier
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Language Barriers ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
French Case ◽  
Linguistic Groups

In this article, I define the notion of a plurilingual literary space. While drawing from Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, I adopt a critical stance towards the highly autonomous, territorialized, and monolingual French case that he studied. Even though language is the material that the writers work with, the legitimate representation of the nation remains the major issue for non-central literary spaces, among which are plurilingual spaces. I elaborate on a typology of plurilingual literary spaces, which are heavily related to the political structure and language policies of the state. Then I concentrate on one of the types, that of plurilingual literary fields, where the language issue is the most significant. I argue that tensions or collaborations between the different linguistic groups depend on the symbolic balance of power between them as well as on official language policies. The most autonomous writers do not always desire to build bridges across language barriers, and they would sometimes rather create identity walls. I distinguish between unitarian policies that lead some linguistically dominated writers to reject collaborations and monolingual policies which lead the autonomous writers to reject the linguistic divisions.

LANGUAGE AND POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA: MYTHS AND REALITIES.Thomas Ricento and Barbara Burnaby (Eds.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1998. Pp xv + 357. $39.95 paper.

2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-126
Author(s):  
Timothy Reagan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Legal Implications ◽  
Language And Politics ◽  
Comparative Treatment

This book is an outstanding contribution to the literature on language policy, language planning, and language rights. It provides a fascinating comparative treatment of developments related to issues of language and politics in the United States and Canada. Divided into five sections, the book includes chapters that present broad overviews of the demographic and policy situations in the two nations, chapters on indigenous languages in North America, chapters on the legal implications of official language policies, chapters on educational issues related to language policies, and finally, chapters addressing issues of language services and language rights.

The Politics of Language Roadmaps in Canada: Understanding the Conservative Government's Approach to Official Languages

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Cardinal ◽  
Helaina Gaspard ◽  
Rémi Léger
Keyword(s):  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Fourth Generation ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Canadian Identity ◽  
The Third ◽  
Minority Government ◽  
Linguistic Integration ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
Liberal Government

AbstractThis article critically examines the Conservative government's approach to official languages, through a policy instrument framework. Special attention is paid to the third federal roadmap for official languages—the first having been unveiled by the Liberal government in 2003 and the second by the Conservative minority government in 2008—and how this roadmap conveys a new representation of official languages in relation to Canadian identity and citizenship. The focus on the linguistic integration of new immigrants in the 2013 language roadmap generates interest. The policy instrument framework also shows how language roadmaps represent the fourth generation of official language policies in Canada; the first three generations found their respective bases in the 1969 Official Languages Act, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the 1988 Official Languages Act. The article concludes that an analysis of language roadmaps elucidates transformations initiated by the Conservative governments in the area of official languages in Canada. It also promotes further exploration and analysis of language policies through the policy instrument framework.

Beyond fear and loathing in SG

AILA Review ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 52-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Lim
Keyword(s):  
Official Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Real ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
British Colony ◽  
Chinese Dialects ◽  
Linguistic Practices ◽  
The Government

This paper considers the real mother tongues of Singapore, namely the Chinese ‘dialects’ and Singlish, the linguistic varieties which, respectively, arrived with the original immigrants to the rapidly developing British colony, and evolved in the dynamic multilingual ecology over the decades. Curiously these mother tongues have been regarded with fear and treated with loathing in the official language policies and accompanying prestige planning that have been developed and executed in Singapore since independence, being actively denigrated and discouraged in official discourse, viewed as not having a place in the globalization goals of the nation. Looking beyond the official line and census figures, actual linguistic practices of the community of speakers testify to the vitality of these varieties, in spite of the official sanctions; moreover, in spite of itself, the government does in fact allow itself the use of these mother tongues when certain contexts call for it. This paper suggests that an enlightened consideration of native ‘dialects’ and nativized Singlish and the plurilingual practices in which they are used, as well as of the question of intelligibility, must point policy makers in directions where fears are assuaged and spaces made for the natural existence and evolution of such varieties in multilingual ecologies.

scholarly journals Languages Canada: The Paradoxes of Linguistic Inclusivity – Colonial/ Founding, Aboriginal and Immigrant language rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-102
Author(s):  
Keith Battarbee
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Canadian Society ◽  
Canadian History ◽  
Immigrant Language ◽  
Aboriginal Languages ◽  
Official Recognition

This article approaches the question of inclusivity in contemporary Canadian society through the lens of official language policy. Although Canada has well-developed bilingual policies for English and French at the federal and provincial levels, the only jurisdictions which (at the time of writing) afford official language status to Aboriginal languages in addition to English and French are the Northwest Territories (nine First Nations and Inuit languages) and Nunavut (the Inuit language/s). The article situates the development of these territorial language policies within the contexts of Canadian history, the emergence of language policy more generally in Western societies, and the human rights revolution, and offers a tentative evaluation of them in terms of inclusivity, noting the paradox that inclusive recognition of the territories’ indigenous languages has not been extended to the immigrant languages, whose speakers partly outnumber the smaller Aboriginal-language communities, as well as the daunting problems faced in turning official recognition into practical implementation.

scholarly journals An exploration of the effects of language policy in education in a contemporary Puerto Rican society

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Mirta Maldonado-Valentín
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Impact

During the Spanish regimen, Puerto Rican education was limited and restricted to Spanish language as the medium of instruction. It was not until the U.S. colonization of the island that public education was introduced. As a result, English replaced Spanish as medium of instruction in the new educational system. Immediately after, Puerto Rican elitists and politicians ignited a political movement against using English (Algren de Gutierrez, 1987), resulting in a language battle fought through a series of educational language policies. In the end, policymakers enacted a language policy that reinstated Spanish as the official language of Puerto Rico’s education system. Consequently, policymakers also strengthened the use of Spanish instruction in Puerto Rican schools and universities while English was taught as a subject through all grade levels (Canino, 1981). Thus, this policy secured the island’s status as a “monolingual Spanish speaking society”. In addition, the enactment of this language policy also legitimized English as a de jure second official language, with the possibility of recognizing Puerto Rico as a “bilingual speaking society”. This paper discusses the impact of these language policies on the use of Spanish and English in education and presents a case study of Guaynabo City to exemplify the effects of these language policies on a contemporary Puerto Rican society and its acceptance of or resistance to becoming an English-speaking society.

scholarly journals LANGUAGE POLICIES IN THE FORMER COLONIZED COUNTRIES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 154
Author(s):  
Diyah Ayu Rizqiani
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Education System ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
The Other ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
History Of

Colonialism shapes the history of a country. The language policy of a former colonized country could be seen as a mirror to see the long history of colonialism. The colonizers have strong influence in establishing the education system and language instruction used at school. In this case, language as the important element in education system could be seen as manifestation of colonialism. The language instruction in the classroom is usually the official language of the country. Some former colonized countries proudly used English as academic language. On the other hand, there are other former colonized countries which use their indigenous language as the language instruction in the classroom. By comparing these two different language policies would also give different effects to their cultural and national identity. The aims of this paper are explaining the language policies, analyzing the effect of colonialism on education system, and describing the relation between language policy and nationalism. 

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document