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- Volume 30, Issue, 2006
Language Problems and Language Planning - Volume 30, Issue 2, 2006
Volume 30, Issue 2, 2006
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Ideology and alphabets in the former USSR
Author(s): Mark Sebbapp.: 99–125 (27)More LessIn 2002 the Russian parliament passed a law requiring all official languages within the Russian Federation to use the Cyrillic alphabet. The legislation caused great controversy and anger in some quarters, especially in Tatarstan, the Russian republic whose attempt to romanise the script for the Tatar language provoked the new law. This paper examines the background to these recent events in the former Soviet Union, showing how they provide a contemporary illustration of the ways that linguistic (in this case, orthographic) issues can interact with ideologies and discourses at the political and social levels. The paper takes an approach which treats orthography and script selection as social practices which are amenable to sociolinguistic analysis, even though they are more commonly modelled as autonomous systems (or “neutral technologies”) which can be detached from their social context (cf. Street’s “ideological” and “autonomous” models of literacy). The article begins with a very brief overview of the early twentieth-century changes of script from Arabic to Roman and then to Cyrillic, which affected most of the Turkic languages, including Tatar, and an account of the trend to return to the Roman alphabet in the immediate post-Soviet period. It goes on to describe the circumstances of the decision by Tatarstan to introduce the script change, and the resulting backlash from the government of the Russian Federation, in the form of a new language law. It then goes on to analyse the discourses which underlie this story of rebellion and reaction. In particular, the following discourses are identified and discussed: unity and membership (the discourse of belonging), technology and globalisation, cultural heritage (change and permanence), Cyrillic as “defective”/Cyrillic as a conduit for Russian lexis, romanisation as a threat to the integrity of Russia and its language. It is noted that many of the discourses present in the Tatarstan case are also found in other debates over orthographies elsewhere.
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Language and socio-economic development: Towards a theoretical framework
Author(s): John Walshpp.: 127–148 (22)More LessThis paper is about the debate over the role of language and culture in socio-economic development. Drawing on his experience of Ireland, the author examines the rich historical tradition of debate about the positive role which language can play in national development, and suggests a theoretical grounding for those arguments. The elaboration of such a theoretical basis is essential as a counterbalance to powerful and dominant global forces which engage in, as Stephen May puts it, “the denunciation of ethnicity”. Those pursuing these arguments have frequently used a form of economic Darwinism in order to justify the marginalisation or extermination of threatened languages or to oppose multilingualism generally. This paper lays out the foundations of an alternative approach which posits that all languages and cultures, regardless of their status or numerical size, can be integrated into processes of socio-economic development, and that none is inherently anti-development. It is hoped that the arguments presented here will also stimulate debate about the nature of the concept of development itself, and facilitate closer integration of the often distinct disciplines of language planning and policy and socio-economic development.
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Políticas lingüísticas de séculos passados nos dias de hoje: O dilema sobre a educação bilíngüe no norte do Uruguai
Author(s): Ana Maria Carvalhopp.: 149–171 (23)More LessEste trabalho tem o objetivo de discutir as políticas lingüísticas promovidas pelo sistema educacional uruguaio que visam a combater a presença do português nas comunidades bilíngües no norte do país nos últimos dois séculos. Ilustra-se como essas políticas, comuns no século XIX quando respondiam ao ideal de uma nação = um idioma, persistiram no século XX e se estendem até os dias atuais. Propõe-se que esses ideais são baseados em três princípios equivocados, a saber, que a língua materna de todo o território é o espanhol, que a presença do português no Uruguai é devida à influência do Brasil e que todos os uruguaios devem falar espanhol, ou não serão verdadeiros uruguaios. Finalmente, examinam-se as orientações das planificações lingüísticas propostas por Ruiz (1984) e conclui-se que o português uruguaio não deve ser visto como um problema ou um direito, mas como um recurso nacional do qual toda a nação pode se beneficiar. Para tanto, é necessário que se esclareça o status do português uruguaio como um dialeto do português tão legítimo como qualquer outro. Desta maneira, acredita-se que as planificações lingüísticas baseadas em ideais ultrapassados e discriminatórios possam atualizar-se e responder a necessidades atuais de integração regional e apelo multicultural.
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Esperanto and Chinese anarchism in the 1920s and 1930s
Author(s): Gotelind Müller-Saini and Gregor Bentonpp.: 173–192 (20)More LessEsperanto in China and among the Chinese diaspora was for long periods closely linked with anarchism. This article looks at the history of the Chinese Esperanto movement after the repatriation of anarchism to China in the 1910s. It examines Esperanto’s political connections in the Chinese setting and the arguments used by its supporters to promote the language. In exploring the role played by Esperanto in interwar Chinese culture and politics, it helps to throw light on the complex relationship between language and politics in China in the first half of the twentieth century.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 48 (2024)
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Volume 47 (2023)
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Volume 46 (2022)
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Volume 45 (2021)
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Volume 44 (2020)
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Volume 43 (2019)
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Volume 42 (2018)
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Volume 41 (2017)
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Volume 40 (2016)
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Volume 39 (2015)
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Volume 38 (2014)
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Volume 37 (2013)
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Volume 36 (2012)
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Volume 35 (2011)
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Volume 34 (2010)
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Volume 33 (2009)
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Volume 32 (2008)
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Volume 31 (2007)
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Volume 30 (2006)
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Volume 29 (2005)
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Volume 28 (2004)
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Volume 27 (2003)
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Volume 26 (2002)
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Volume 25 (2001)
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Volume 24 (2000)
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Volume 23 (1999)
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Volume 22 (1998)
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Volume 21 (1997)
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Volume 20 (1996)
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Volume 19 (1995)
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Volume 18 (1994)
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Volume 17 (1993)
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Volume 16 (1992)
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Volume 15 (1991)
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Volume 14 (1990)
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Volume 13 (1989)
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Volume 12 (1988)
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Volume 11 (1987)
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Volume 10 (1986)
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Volume 9 (1985)
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Volume 8 (1984)
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Volume 7 (1983)
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Volume 6 (1982)
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Volume 5 (1981)
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Volume 4 (1980)
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Volume 3 (1979)
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Volume 2 (1978)
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Volume 1 (1977)
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