STATUS PLANNING Cooper, R.L. (1989)

Status Planning Deliberate efforts to influence the allocation of functions among a community’s languages.

Stewart’s (1968) Functions As Targets of Status Planning Official (o): Function as a legally appropriate language for all politically and culturally representative purposes of a nationwide basis. Statuary: Languages which a government has specified as official, or declared as appropriate, by law.

Official Working: a language which a government uses as a medium for its day-to-day activities. Symbolic: a language which a government uses as a medium for symbolic purposes i.e. as a symbol of the state

An example: Israel –Hebrew: official –Arabic: statutory and working –English: working

Provincial (p) The official function of the language is not nationwide, but it is limited to a smaller geographic area. Provincial boundaries are sometimes drawn or redrawn in such a way as to increase linguistic homogeneity within each province. –India.

Wider Communication (w) A medium of communication across language boundaries within the nation.

International (i) As a major medium of communication which is international in scope, e.g. for diplomatic relations, foreign trade, tourism, etc. –Israel: English Status planning of international languages are related to determining what foreign languages will be taught in the schools.

Capital (c) A major medium of communication in the vicinity of the national capital. Important in countries where political power, social prestige, and economic activity are centered in the capital. Languages often diffuse from the political and economic center to the periphery. An important factor in language spread. –Brussels: Dutch and French

Group (g) The normal medium of communication among the members of a single cultural or ethnic group, such as a tribe, settled group of foreign immigrants, etc. –Efforts to restore Hebrew and Irish

Educational (e) A medium of primary or secondary education, either regionally or nationally. –The decision to use vernacular languages in the Ethiopian mass-literacy campaign –The decision to permit or encourage the use of vernacular languages as an initial medium of instruction for poor, ethnolinguistic minority children in the USA.

Educational (e) It is quite common for conquerors to impose their language on the educaional system of the conquered. The decision as to what languages to teach the students typically depends on political considerations. Education is regarded as a primary means of social control by the state A means for social mobility by the families

School Subject (s) The language is commonly taught as a subject in secondary and/or higher education. Functions other than o and p: –To enable worshippers to read sacred texts –To enable students to obtain employment –To enable students to benefit from instruction –To link students to an ethnic or national heritage –To distinguish an elite from the mass.

Literary (l) The use of a language primarily for literary or scholarly purposes. The promotion of vernaculars for literary and scholarly purposes is common in nationalist movements. Because it can serve to raise the national consciousness of the masses.

Religious (r) The use of a language primarily connected with the ritual of a particular religion.

Other Functions As Targets of Status Plannig The mass media –When governments control mass media, they also determine the language in which the media are conveyed. –Israeli government determines how many hours of radio and TV programming are broadcast in Hebrew, Arabic, and in foreign languages. Work –Quebec: sought to make French rather than English

Conclusion Status planning is most likely to succeed when it is invoked for the pursuit and maintenance of power. Elites influence –Evaluation of language varieties through status planning –Distribution of language varieties through acquisition planning.

Conclusion Status planning –Influences the evaluation of a language variety by assigning it to the functions from which its evaluation derives –Is an effort to regulate the demand for given verbal resources whereas acquisition planning is an effort to regulate the distribution of those resources.