Language Problems and Language Planning - Volume 32, Issue 2, 2008

En esta primera parte de las dos que constituyen el conjunto dedicado al análisis epistemológico de los estudios pasados y presentes sobre el español en el suroeste de los Estados Unidos de América se cubren tres aspectos. En el primero se presenta el marco geográfico-histórico, seguido de una propuesta de periodización que reformula planteamientos previos del autor. En el análisis de la base lingüística se atiende especialmente a la cuestión del español vestigial, en relación con las propuestas de criollización. En la parte final se presentan y analizan los estudios y proyectos de fuentes documentales. Tras una primera consideración histórica de la bibliografía clásica se presta atención detenida a las encuestas, sobre todo las relacionadas con la realización de atlas lingüísticos. La descripción de los recursos textuales se concentra en tres proyectos: (a) Cibola (Jerry R. Craddock, Barbara De Marco), (b) Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage (Nicolás Kanellos, Carolina Villarroel), y (c) Old Spanish Missions Historical Research Collection — Documentary Series (Center for Mexican American Studies & Research, Our Lady of the Lake University, OLLU, San Antonio, Tejas).

Language is generally not perceived as playing a significant role in the causes of underdevelopment in Africa, and therefore not thought of or mentioned in trying to work out solutions to this situation. The absence of linguistic input in development planning in Africa is one of the key reasons why the majority of the African people are left “on the edge of road.” This paper argues for a language sensitive and linguistically informed approach to technology transfer and development problems. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can serve to promote African languages much better than religion ever did, and language policies and language-in-education policies in Africa need to be cog­nisant and take advantage of the opportunities the digital era offers the Continent. Whilst, according to Ferguson, “religion has been one of the most powerful forces leading to language change and language spread,” African languages have yet to overcome the linguistic barrier to participation in knowledge societies, and most of them have no interface with science and information technology (e.g. the Internet). Why can’t African languages be languages of technology? How can this be achieved?

Language choice in the newly independent Republic of East Timor can be usefully examined in the wider context of language policy in multilingual states. The present article reports on ethnographic research investigating official and popular discourses of language and identity in East Timor and the role of past and present language policies and practices in shaping national and social identity. It focuses on the discursive reconstruction of identity through five official instruments of language policy development. Hostile discourses in the Australian and Indonesian press towards the choice of Portuguese (the former colonial language) and Tetum (the endogenous lingua franca) as official languages provided the context for the investigation. A persistent theme in these discourses is that English and/or Indonesian would be preferable choices. The article puts these discourses into perspective by presenting findings from two data sets: (i) the 2004 National Census and (ii) analysis of the discourses of 78 participants in semi-structured interviews and student focus groups. The census shows clear signs of the revival of Portuguese and the reinvigoration of Tetum. It also shows how diverse linguistic identities have become in East Timor. The research findings show that there is less hostility to official language policy than claimed in the Australian and Indonesian press. However, the findings also emphasise the urgent need to reconstruct an inclusive, plurilingual national identity that can encompass diversity.

This paper is an effort to situate interlinguistics and Esperanto studies in the social context of modern Japan. The origin of interlinguistic ideas in Japan was distinct from developments in Europe, in that English functioned as the bridge language to learn Western civilization from the very beginning of Japan’s modernization, while it was the lack of a suitable regional lingua franca that motivated the Europeans to search for a planned language. After the examination of some Japanese pioneers in interlinguistics, the main focus will be upon diverse traditions of Esperanto studies in Japan. These include the endogenous (inward-looking) tradition, socially engaged interlinguistics, the post-war ambivalence of the Esperanto movement toward scientific theorizing, and the gradual rise of macro-sociolinguistic approaches from the 1990s.