Yesterday’s experts

It is claimed that language planning models need to account for the impact of bureaucratic interference on their processes, initiatives in language engineering involve dealing with the same technical unknowns as do developments in industrial and environmental engineering. Taking the Northern Territory’s Aboriginal bilingual programme as a case study, and using the principles enunciated by Squires (1986) that are judged mandatory for the effective management of technological innovations, the effect that bureaucracy can have on the language planning process is examined. The ignornace among political and bureaucratic officials of the nature of language, of linguistics in general, of the character of linguistic results, and of the appropriate form of linguistic enquiry can shape the language consequences of even the best planning.