Ethnolinguistic vitality

1. • Promotes and contains the use of one or
more languages in a country.
• 1. Natural speakers 2. The governments
LANGUAGE
POLICY
• Widespread use of some
language.LANGUAGE
PLANNING
• society/several languagesMULTILINGUAL
SOCIETIES

2. LANGUAGE POLICY
AND LANGUAGE
PLANNING IN
MULTILINGUAL
SOCIETIES
No nation in the
world is completely
monolingual
Rough geographic
boundaries, historical
political allegiances
and conquest.
issues of self-
determination,
identity, and culture
are fundamentals.
linguistic variation
has social effects.
NATIONAL
LANGUAGES AND
LANGUAGE POLICIES
the Republic of
South Africa and the
Republic of Vanuatu

3. LANGUAGE RIGHTS IN
SOUTH AFRICA’S
CONSTITUTION
9 unofficial languages
and 11 official
languages
1990
Apartheid the language
of the White Afrikaner
population
Under apartheid,
legislation
concentrated power
and control: 15 per
cent
the very large Black
majority and the Indian
and mixed-race sectors
1976
Education: doing away
with use of Afrikaans…
of education.
1994
Constitution… with the
shift to full suffrage
and equal rights
…the struggle for racial
equality and the end of
the segregationist
regime of apartheid

4. MULTILINGUALISM
AND LANGUAGE
CHOICE
practical and positive
measures to elevate
the status and
advance
the Constitution again
recognizes the
linguistic pluralism of
the new nation.
promote official and
non-official languages
Define core values in
order to shape the
development of a new
South African identity
Address aspects
specific to the history
of South Africa
IN SOUTH AFRICA’S
CONSTITUTION

5. ‘ETHNOLINGUISTIC VITALITY’
attitudin
al
factors
social
factors
political
factors
A linguistic
variety has
relatively high
‘vitality’ if it is
spoken and
used widely
‘ethnolinguistic’
study of the
variation of a
language within
the culture

6. VITALITY
Status Demography Institutional support
Economic status
Social status
Sociohistorical status
Language status
• within
• without
Distribution:
• national territory
• concentration
• proportion
Numbers:
• absolute birth rate
• mixed marriages
• immigration
• emigration
Formal
• mass media
• education
• government
• services
Informal
• industry
• religion
• culture

7. Diglossia: Two dialects or languages are used in a
speech community
H: ‘high’ variety
L: ‘low’ variety
(L) used for: the L varieties may be used in giving
instructions to workers in, in conversation with
familiars, in ‘soap operas’ and popular programs
on the radio, in cartoons, and in folk literature.
(H) used for: formal lectures, for giving political
speeches, for broadcasting the news on radio and
television, and for writing poetry, fine literature,
and editorials in newspapers.

8. DIGLOSSIA IN A COMMUNITY
If the speakers of a language have
relatively high social status
the ethnolinguistic vitality of that
variety will be higher too.
We would call the ‘standard’
language.
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
INFLUENCING LANGUAGE VITALITY
Widespread use of a language in
the popular mass media, as the
medium of education…
More local and home-based
activities
maintenance of a language for
religious purposes and for regular
cultural events.

9. CODE SWITCHING
Refers to the use of two or more
languages in the same speech
Among speakers with knowledge of more than
one language, it is normal to mix, often
unconscious, several languages in the same
sentence.
Example: “I'm sorry I cannot attend next week's
meeting porque tengo una obligación de
negocios en Boston, pero espero que I'll be
back…”
CODE MIXING