Dr.

Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

MONOLINGUALISM & MULTILINGUALISM

PREPARED BY DR. SETH ANTWI OFORI
(READ ALSO AMUZU 2009: 74 – 81; 82 – 86)
1. INTRODUCTION:
It is widely agreed among linguists that there are fewer monolinguals in the world today than there are fewer
bilinguals or multilinguals. The sociolinguistics of society is about the social importance of language to groups
of people, from small sociocultural groups of a few hundred people to entire nations. If everyone in the group
spoke exactly the same as everyone else, in the group, there would be no such thing as the sociolinguistics of
society. Not only do people use language to share their thoughts and feelings with other people, they exploit
the subtle and not so subtle aspects of language to reveal and define their social relationships ‘with the people
they are talking. Social identity work can be accomplished simply by choosing one or another of the two or
more languages (or even dialects of the same language) that a speaker knows

MONOLINGUALISM
2. INTRODUCTION: DEFINITION, WHO IS MONOLINGUAL?
In some communities monolingualism is the norm.
(2a) A community is said to be monolingual when only one language is spoken functionally across all domains
of language use in that community (hence the term mono-lingual: mono means “one”, and lingua,
“language”.
(2b) A person who speaks only one language is a monolingual.

3. FACTORS WHICH PROMOTE WIDESPREAD MONOLINGUALISM IN SOME COMMUNITIES

(3a) People become monolingual, for example, when the social group they belong to constitutes a numerically
powerful group, and their language is the dominant language in a neighborhood where the other languages
belong to numerically weaker (i.e. minority) groups. That is, this is when one is a speaker of a dominant language and
the dominant language is the language used in all social domains in a given speech community.
(3b/c/d) Also monolingualism is promoted by the fact that individuals belong to and speak the language of the
most politically and/or economically powerful group, or the elite group in a given social domain.
(3e) Language shift leads to monilingualism. Language shift is when individuals or whole groups of speakers of
a language give in their language in favor of the language of their new or neighboring environment. For example,
when people migrate to new places that have one dominant language, they often learn to use it across many
domains, and it is often the case that their grand-children (if not even their children) tend to shift completely
to the dominant language, thus failing to be bilingual like their parents.

BILINGUALISM AND MULTILINGUALISM

(Based Partly on Fasold & Amuzu; Read Amuzu 2009: 82 – 86 also.

4. INTRODUCTION: Many, perhaps most, of the countries of the world are decidedly multilingual.
Understanding what multilingualism means to a society is at the core of the sociolinguistics of society.

5. WHO IS A BILINGUAL AND WHO IS A MULTILINGUAL?

(5a) A bilingual is a person with an appreciable degree of competence in two languages.
(5b) A multilingual refers to a person who has the ability to speak more than two languages with an appreciable
degree of proficiency.

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6. LANGUAGE BARRIER: DEFINITION, TYPES AND SOLUTION

(6a) Language barrier “is a linguistic situation said to be either horizontal (i.e. geographical), or vertical (i.e.
social), and to block either social or geographic mobility.
(6b) Horizontal or geographic language barrier is the absence of a common language to facilitate interaction between two
ethnic groups.
(6c) Vertical or social language barrier is caused by the inability of the individual or individuals to communicate with people
who are highly placed in the social structure.
(6d) Solution: More often than not individuals or communities find solutions to language barriers: (i) They may
become bilingual or multilingual (which will then allow them to engage in inter-group communication). (ii)
Another solution is for a dominant group to absorb the other smaller group and thus remove the barrier.

7. INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETAL BILINGUALISM

(a) Introduction: Multilingualism cuts across the whole social fabric in Africa – it forms a socio-political and
socio-linguistic characteristic of most speech communities in Africa.
(b) Individual multilingualism: Individuals based on their unique social circumstances “find the need or
opportunity to learn an additional language. Such opportunities may show up in the course of the individual’s
geographical and/or social mobility, or through marriage, or through some other exposure to another
language” (Amuzu 2009: 82).1 That is, there are individuals or groups of people who use two or more languages regularly
and who often apply the languages they use for different purposes or switch between them in very systematic ways.
Individual multilingualism is an almost everyday phenomenon in Africa among adults. For example, a survey
that was conducted in Nigeria revealed the following results: 60% of interviewees spoke 2 languages; 30% =
10 languages; 10% = 4 languages; a similar observation could be made regarding many if not all the African
countries.
(c) Societal bilingualism: Societal bilingualism is functional use of two languages throughout the society. The
existing structures in society may nurture the acquisition of two languages by the majority in a society (Quebec
in Canada).
(d) Societal multilingualism: is a situation where more than two languages are (functionally) used in a society
because several people know all or a combination of them. (e.g. Accra; Switzerland–Standard German, Swiss
German, French and Dutch).

8. LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS:
-- In multilingual societies, language may serve different functions. In Africa, there is often functional rivalry between
indigenous (African) languages and the imported languages (which are often languages of former colonial masters).
Sociolinguistic typologies of languages related to language functions are:

(8a) First languages -- acquired in early years and normally become the speaker’s natural instrument of thought and
communication (often coinciding with mother-tongue languages above; in some multilingual societies there may be
speakers who have acquired more than one language in this sense)
(8b) Second languages -- are acquired or learned at a later stage in life for commercial or other purposes, often through
formal education
(8c) Majority language: A majority language is one which has a much higher number of speakers than
neighboring languages have. An example is Akan in Ghana.
Features of majority language:
-- Often speakers of majority languages are socio-politically and sometimes economically more
powerful than speakers of minority languages (see 7d) and so make such languages ready candidates
for inter-group communication (see 7j). In other words, majority languages readily function as
dominant languages or linguae francae (7j) in situations of horizontal language barriers.
-- through migration a majority language in one locality may become a minority language in another
locality (Gurenne (Frafra) – is a dominant language in Bolga in the Upper East but a minority language in Accra.))
(8d) Minor or minority languages -- are also judged by number of speakers -- usually they are not used for inter-group
communication and are, therefore, seldom learned by others as second language. A minority language may function as

1Formal education tends to add competence in another language since in many if not most African schools the medium
of instruction is not the children’s mother tongue or preferred language.

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a dominant language in under certain circumstances. Example, Afrikaans was promoted alongside English as
an official language with nationwide mandate by the apartheid regime in South Africa.
(8e) Special-purpose languages: Speakers may be encouraged to learn an additional language for some special
purposes. Special-purpose languages are usually second or foreign languages and largely restricted in use for religious
and/or educational purposes like, for instance, Ge’ez in the Ethiopian Church, Classical Arabic for Quranic education
(in non-Arabic-speaking world), English and French for Western-type higher education; some special-purpose languages
can rightfully also be referred to as classical languages (e.g. Ge’ez and Classical Arabic).
(8f) Standard (ised) languages -- have a relatively high degree of standardisation and normalisation; this is the case for
only very few African languages but is true for the imported foreign languages which can or must, therefore, be used for
official and educational purposes
(8g) Non-standard(ized) languages -- have as yet little or no standardization and normalization; this is the case for most
African languages
(8h) Pidgin languages -- are a specific type of lingua franca resulting from a particular contact situation in a suddenly
arising multilingual environment with no pre-existing shared language of wider communication, and which is nobody’s
mother tongue and has ‘reduced’ characteristics in vocabulary and grammar
(8i) Creole languages – are usually, and often too narrowly, restricted to former pidgin languages which have expanded in
lexicon and grammar and have become mother-tongue languages for at least some speakers.
(8j) National languages: The term national language may be used to refer to some or all languages of the state in
order to stress their function for national unity and identity. That is, in multilingual countries, the government
often declares a particular language to be national language for political reasons. That is, nationalism – i.e.
feelings that develop from and support nationalities – is main drive in declaring a language as the national
language of a country. This is often the case when the language together with its culture, religion, and history
(i.e. major components of nationalism) serve as links with the glorious past and with authenticity; the language
is part of history itself. A declaration of a language as the national language of a country is an acknowledgment
of the language’s symbolic importance to the country as a whole, as well as to the indigenous speakers of that
language. To the users of this language this ‘mother tongue is an aspect of the soul’, or essence of a nationality
(Fishman 1972c:46). It creates the feeling among speakers that they are united; language helps them to identify
with others who speak the same language, and contrast with those who do not. That is, the language concerned
has a ‘contrastive self-identification’ (Fishman 1972c:52) – the language performs ‘unifying and separatist
functions’ (Garvin and Mathiot 1956). The declaration may be a step in the process of asserting the nationhood
of a newly independent or established nation, for instance, as in the case of Swahili in Tanzania, Hebrew in
Israel, Malay in Malaysia, and Indonesian in Indonesia. 2 A successful national language needs to serve a variety of
functions. The following have been identified as important. (i) Unifying, (ii) Separatist, (iii) Prestige, (iv) Frame-of-reference function
(8k) Official languages:3 An official language is simply a language which may be used for government
business/administration, or “the language reserved for all official functions in a country. It is used for
government business, higher education, court proceedings, and commerce. It is usually the case that social
mobility is conditioned by acquisition of the official language. Non-native speakers therefore have strong
motivation to learn this language. … in Africa, foreign (ex-colonial) languages have functioned as the
officials” (Amuzu 2009: 85).) Nationism – i.e. the more pragmatic problems of governing – is the main drive

2 More on a national language: It is the language of a political, cultural and social unit – an indigenous language which has
been “promoted by the government to be used as the language of culture and heritage by all citizens irrespective of ethnic
group” (Amuzu 2009: 85). That is, it is generally developed and used as a symbol of national unity. Its functions are to
identify the nation and unite the people of the nation. It is usually the language that had served as the lingua franca of the
anti-colonial political movement for independence – this guarantees a language its prestige and the positive attitudes that
people show towards it.

3 More on National and Official Language: On NATIONALISTS AND NATIONISTS CONFLICT IN DEBATES ON CHOOSING A
NATION’S LANGUAGE: The requirements of nationalism and nationism can be in conflict where language is concerned.
The last language it would want as a national symbol would be the language of the state that had denied it territorial control.
Problems language presents for nationism are pragmatic rather than symbolic, a solution to the nationist problem often
creates a nationalist problem. The colonial government institutions and records are already in place in that language and
those nationals with the most government experience already know it; on pragmatic grounds, the best immediate choice
for the language of government in a newly Independent colony might he the old colonial language. So pressing are the
immediate problems of nationism, however, that nationalist needs usually have to be postponed.

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in declaring a language as the official language of a country. The process of governing requires
communication both within the governing institutions and between government and the people. Also,
education requires a medium of instruction that efficiently transmits knowledge to school children. The
languages that do the job best and at the least cost are the ones that are often chosen as official languages.
(8l) Linguae francae (or Lingua francas; Lingua franca, singular)): Multilingualism is linked to the rise, and spread of
linguae francae. For inter-group communication, other languages need to be learned and used. A lingua franca
is a language of wider communication (LWC). As the definition suggests, it is “used to facilitate communication
among speakers of different languages” (Brown and Attardo 2005: 122). That is, the dominant language used
in inter-group encounters in most domains, such as in the market, at public places, in the mass media. In other
words, such languages (i.e. linguae francae or ‘vehicular’ languages) are habitually used by many non-native
speakers for inter-group communication. Such vehicular languages, unless they are pidgins, have also their own
native speakers who may constitute a majority population or are ‘rulers’ in a given area or have otherwise higher
socioeconomic prestige, factors which may have contributed to the fact that their language was chosen by
others to serve as a lingua franca. Examples are, for instance, Amharic in Ethiopia, Hausa, Kanuri, Mandingo,
More, Songay in large parts of West Africa, Sango in Central Africa, and Swahili in East Africa.
-- Consequences of the spread of linguae francae:
-- The spread of linguae francae in Africa can result in increasing instances of language shift, usually
after periods of bilingualism involving the mother tongue language and the lingua franca. Large-scale
language shift within a speech community may then result in language death of the mother tongue.
-- Linguae francac are, therefore, at times accused of glottophagia (i.e. the absorption or
replacement of minor languages by major ones).
-- Likewise, language planners who propagate the further spread of a lingua franca through the
educational system, for instance, may find themselves accused of assisting linguicide and thereby
depriving a speech community of its primordial/ancient means of identification.

9. LANGUAGES THAT SPEAKERS NORMALLY ADD TO THEIR LANGUAGES: Linguae francae; National languages;
Official languages; Special purpose languages

10. HOW MULTILINGUAL NATIONS DEVELOP

Historically, there are four distinguishable strands which have produced multilingual states: (1) migration [e.g.
territorial expansion and immigrants]; (2) imperialism [colonization, annexation—absorption of a nation into another, economic
imperialism – exportation of lg. through trade]; (3) federation – diverse ethnic groups or nationalities under the political control
of one state] and, (4) border area multilingualism. A given state may have become multilingual due to the effects
of more than one of these strands, and it is not always easy to decide which one applies in a particular case.

11. CONCLUSION
Societal multilingualism is in some ways a problem for a country. It may impede nationalist and nationist goals
and some scholars have argued that it is associated with economic underdevelopment. On the other hand, there
are ways in which it is a resource. Multilingualism provides individuals with interactional resources and societies
with social and cultural enrichment.

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

THE LANGUAGE SITUATION IN AFRICA TODAY

1. GENETIC CLASSIFICATION OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES

The genetic classification of languages indigenous to Africa by Joseph Greenberg (1950/1955)

(a) Africanist linguists including Greenberg (1966),
have classified African languages genetically into four
large families/phyla:
(i) Niger-Congo (Niger-Kordofanian) 1,436
languages (-- Nuba Mountains in the Republic
of Sudan; -- S and central Africa and in most of
W Africa below the Sahara)
(ii) Afroasiatic/Afrosian/Afrasian 371 (N.
Africa; much of the Sahara; parts of E, central,
and W Africa)
(iii) Nilo-Saharan 80-196 (-- Sudan, Ethiopia,
Uganda, Kenya, and northern Tanzania; --
Some languages in Central and West African)
and
(iv) Khoisan 35. (Namibia, Botswana, Southern
Angola, Zambia, Western Zimbabwe, South
Africa) (Heine and Nurse, 2000).
(b) Greenberg used the comparative method in his
genetic classification of languages indigenous to
Africa.
(c) The classification is based on shared vocabulary
items of languages being classified.
(d) The existing viewpoint is that these language
families descended from Proto-Africa.
(e) This classification excludes languages such as
Malagasy (Austronesian/Malayo-Polynesian),
Afrikaans, English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
(f) From a classificatory standpoint all phyla (i.e.
language families) are equal, despite differences in
size.

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2. LANGUAGES OF AFRICA: COUNTRIES AND NUMBER OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES

(Total no. of languages = 2797 – 2800)

Ranking of countries according to number of indigenous languages (or according to space/area)

No. of Name of country Capital No. of Name of country Capital
langs. langs.
1 527 Nigeria Abuja 25 21 Niger Niamey
2 286 Cameroon Yaoundé 26 20 Zimbabwe Harare
3 215/216 DR Congo Kinshasa 27 18 Algeria Algiers
4 142 Sudan Khartoum 28 17 Madagascar Antananarivo
5 133 Chad N'Djamena 29 16 Malawi Lilongwe
6 128/129 Tanzania Dodoma 30 14 Equatorial Malabo
Guinea
7 90 Ethiopia Addis Ababa 31 13 (a) Somalia Mogadishu
(a) Côte d'Ivoire Yamoussoukro (b) Eritrea Asmara
8 79 (b) Ghana Accra 32 12 Egypt Cairo
9 72 Central African Bangui 33 11 (a) Morocco Rabat
Republic
(a) Kenya Nairobi (b) Gambia Banjul
10 69 (b) Burkina Faso Ouagadougou 34 9 Libya Tripoli
(a) Republic of the Brazzaville 35 8 Tunisia Tunis
11 62 Congo
(b) South Sudan Juba 36 6 (a) Mauritania Nouakchott
12 57 Mali Bamako (b) Port Louis
Mauritius/Mauric
e
13 54 Benin Porto Novo (c) Comoros Moroni
(a) Uganda Kampala 37 5 (a) Djibouti Djibouti
14 45 (b) Zambia Lusaka (b) Lesotho Maseru
15 43 Mozambique Maputo (c) Swaziland Lobamba &
Mbabane
(a) Angola Luanda 38 4 São Tomé and São Tomé
16 42 Príncipe
(b) Gabon Libreville (a) Rwanda Kigali
17 39 Togo Lomé 39 3 (b) Seychelles Victoria
18 38 Senegal Dakar (c) Burundi Bujumbura
19 37 Guinea Conakry (d) (*Reunion; Saint-Denis
(a) Liberia Monrovia (a) Cape Verde Praia
20 31 (b) South Africa Pretoria 40 2 (b) Western El Aaiun
Sahara
21 29 Botswana Gaborone
22 28 Namibia Windhoek
23 25 Sierra Leone Freetown
24 22 Guinea-Bissau Bissau

REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE 2797 – 2800 LANGUAGES IN AFRICA: WA (1097) >> CA (871) >> EA
(592) >> NA (142) >> SA (98)

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SUMMARY OF EUROPEAN LANGUAGES AND AFRICAN COUNTRIES WHICH SPEAK THEM

(A) Non-African families:
-- Non African: Indo-European: Afrikaans an ‛Africanized’ form of
Dutch is spoken mainly by the descendants of Dutch settlers in
Southern Africa.
-- English is native to white settlers in the Republic of South Africa
and Zimbabwe, and repatriated African Americans in the 19th
century in Liberia.
-- Krio, is an English-based Creole spoken in Sierra Leone by
descendants of freed slaves.
-- Polynesian: Malagasy is spoken in Madagascar.
(B) Due to colonization:
(i) English is spoken in: [Botswana, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya,
Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles,
Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia,
Zimbabwe = 21; Anglophone countries],
(ii) French is spoken in: [Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi,
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo Brazzaville,
Congo Kinshasa (DRC), Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon,
Guinea (konakry), Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco,
Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo, Tunisia = 26…; Francophone
countries];
(iii) Portuguese is spoken in: [Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome &
Principe, Angola, Cape Verde = 5; Lusophone countries]
(iv) Spanish is spoken in: [Equatorial Guinea], and
(v) Italian [*Egypt, *Lybia, *Somalia, *Tunisia, *Ethiopia, *Eritrea = 6].

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INTERACTIONAL SOCIOLINGUISTICS:
LANGUAGE CHOICE IN MULTILINGUAL COMMUNITIES
(Based partially on Myers-Scotton 1993
Prepared by Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori
1. Definition(s)
(a) Bilinguals may alternate between two languages in the same conversation
(b) Codeswitching is the term used to identify alternations of linguistic varieties within the same conversation -- Utterances
containing codeswitching show the same 'discourse unity' as utterances in one linguistic variety alone.
(c) A slightly more technical, more explicit definition of CS: CS is the selection by bilinguals or multilinguals of forms from
an embedded language (or languages) in utterances of a matrix language during the same conversation. The matrix language
(ML) is the main language in CS utterances in a number of ways, while the embedded language (EL) has the lesser role.

2. Types:
(i) Intersentential/extrasentential CS involves switches from one language to the other between sentences (codeswitching).
(ii) Intrasentential switches occur within the same sentence, from single-morpheme to clause level (codemixing).

3. Questions:
Why do bilinguals mix or alternate between codes in the first place? Why do people choose to alternate between languages
in the same conversation when they can use just one language?
Does the switching of codes suggest something that we are not aware of (and should know about)?
What is the psychology behind it?
What are the contexts that promote this kind of behavior?

4. Data: (Swahili/English No. 24)

Kalenjin. Kwetu sisi mtu hawezi kuleta jokes kama hiza. Father sio mtu wa kuchezea.
Kabla ya kw-enda job, a-na-make sure everybody is out of bed.
((Trans: At our home no one can do those kinds of jokes. Father is not a man to play with.))
Before he goes to work, he makes sure that everybody is out of bed.
Kikuyu: Mimi siku hizi ni-ko used ku-amka very early ili niende shule in time.
Hata wakati wa holidays mimi huamka just the same time.
((Trans: 'These days I'm used to waking up very early so that I get to school in time. Even during holiday time
I usually get up [at] just the same time.))
Kalenjin. Hebu, twende kuwaona Mark na Fred. Wa-li-sema tu-ko na programme fit sana kwa TV.
((Hey, let's go and see Mark and Fred. They said that there is a good program on TV.))
Stories
5. Two incidents related by a University of Nairobi student as taking place in his home area show the extent of
psychological conflict involved in the competition between English and local languages (Scotton [982:79):
(i) My brother was arrested by the police and sent to the chief for making beer without a license. He asked to be
forgiven (in the local language) by the chief, who rejected [he plea. I went to the chief's center where I found
some policemen at the door. Nobody was allowed to enter. I spoke English to one of the po1icemen and said I
wanted to see the chief. The police allowed me in. It was, I strongly believe, my English that gave me the honor
to be allowed in. And it was my English, during my talk with the chief, that secured the release of my brother.

(ii) At a beer party near my home, two boys broke into talk in English. The reaction of the old men was bitter
and they said, 'Who are those speaking English? Are they back-biting us? They are proud! Push them out.'
Although the boys were not addressing the beer party as such, this was regarded as an insult.

6. For example, a University of Nairobi student doing a research project on patterns of language use reported the following
exchange with a Nairobi bus conductor: (Trying to establish the conductor's reasons for using one language rather than
another, she identifies herself as a university student and asks him in Swahili why he had just spoken English, knowing
Swahili is the language most used in such service encounters in Nairobi. He responds in English.)
Student (Swahili). Kwa nini unasema Kizungu na yeye?
((Trans: Why do you speak English with him?))
Conductor (English) (said with a laugh). Do you think we don't speak any English?
We went to school and we can speak very good English – better
than you!

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7. In another conversation on a bus, a passenger gets himself into trouble by trying to speak English, apparently trying to
impress his fellow ethnic-group member. When he asks a question in English and gets an answer in English, he does not
seem to understand the English word debts; at least he remained silent for the rest of the journey:

Speaker I (Kikuyu). Niatia, Mwangi? (Trans: How are you, Mwangi?)

Speaker II (Kikuyu). Nikwega. (Trans: Fine)
Speaker I (English). Are you still working in the same place?
Speaker II (English). Yes.
Speaker I (English). By the way, what sort of work do you do there?
Speaker II (English). Dealing with debits.
Speaker I (English). What?
Speaker II (English). I usually deal with credits and debits of the company.
Speaker I (Kikuyu). Ati? (What?)
Speaker II (English). Debts.
Speaker I. (Silence.)

8. Three women (two Luos and one Kikuyu) working in close proximity in a government office have been talking. An
have from form 4 to form 6 education ('0' level or higher). The Luos have been chatting together in Luo about the illness
of the mother of one of them. That reminds her to ask her Kikuyu coworker something, so she turns to her, now speaking
in Swahili. The conversation is in Swahili, except for switches to English.
Whatever its basis, the 'large-group syndrome' often leads to inter-ethnic bad feeling, if not overt hostilities, when it is manifested
as using one's own language in an inter-ethnic interaction. For example, in Nairobi, members of two large and powerful ethnic
groups, the Kikuyu and the Luo, often create animosity by doing this. In the following example, this happens between speakers
of these two groups:

Luo I (to the Kikuyu): Inanikumbusha , Jane - kama watu fulani ni kimya!
Unakumbuka uliniambia habari ya chemist moja ambapo twaweza kupata dawa kwa
ajili ya ugonjwa wa mgongo wa mama yangu.
((Trans: That reminds me, Jane - the way some people are quiet! You remember you told
me about a certain chemist's shop where we could get medicine for my mother's backache.))
Kikuyu. Nyinyi wajaluo – sijui oyinyi mko namna gaoi. Saa ingine mnazungurnza vizuri kama
mnataka msaidiwe. Na saa ingine mlc.o isolated sana.
((Trans: You Luos- I don't know what's with you. Sometimes you converse very nicely if
you want to be helped. And other times you are very isolated.))
Luo II. Lakini wewe, Jane, sometimes I wonder, the way you envy us. It won't be a
wonder if you end up in a Luo man's kitchen.
((Trans: ‘But you, Jane -- ...’))

9. In service encounters, the indigenous lingua franca is the order of the day unless both participants share ethnicity. Even
then, the norm is decidedly to express ethnic neutrality unless the encounter is very private or special conditions prevail.
For example, in the following interaction at the post office, the customer switches to Luo because he has recognized that
the clerk is also Luo and the customer needs help. He needs money out of his postal savings account and the regulations
allow for only one withdrawal a week.

(Setting: the main Nairobi post office. Swahili is used except for switches to Lua, which are italicized.)
Clerk. Ee . . . serna. ((Trans: 'OK ... what do you want? (literally: 'speak'))
Customer. Nipe fornu ya kuchukua pesa. ((Trans: 'Give me the form for withdrawing money.'))
Clerk. Nipe kitabu kwanza. (('Give me [your] passbook first.'(Customer gives him the passbook.))
Customer. Hebu, chukua fomu yangu. ((Trans: 'Say, how about taking my form.'))
Clerk. Bwana, huwezi kutoa pesa leo kwa sababu hujamaliza siku saba.
((Trans: 'Mister, you can't take out money today because you haven't yet
finished seven days [since the last withdrawal].'))
Customer (switching to Luo). Konya an marach. ((Trans: 'Help, I'm in trouble.'))
Clerk (also speaking Luo now). Anylo kony, kik inuo kendo. ((Trans: 'I can help you, but don't repeat it.'))

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10. At the market in Nairobi. A Kikuyu stallholder is speaking to a well-dressed Luo customer. Swahili is the main language,
with switches to English.

Stallholder. Habari, mheshimwa. Have some vegetables.

((Trans: 'Hello, respected sir. Have some vegetables.'))
Customer. Mboga gani? Nipe kabeji hizi. How much is that?
((Trans: 'Which vegetables? Give me these cabbages. How much is that))
Stallholder. Five shillings only.
Customer. That’s too much. Sina pesa. ((Trans: 'That's too much. I don't have [much] money.'))
Stallholder. Una pesa ngapi? ((Trans: 'How much money do you have?'))
Customer. Three shillings only.
Stallholder. Ongeya shilling moja. You are my customer.
((Trans: 'Increase it a shining. You are my customer.’))
Customer. I'll give you three fifty.
Stallholder. Sasa nyinyi mkililia pesa na nyinyi ndio wakubwa wetll. Sasa, nani atatupa pesa? Nyinyi ndio
wenye madaraka 'omera'.
((Trans: 'Now if you cry about money and you are our superiors. Now who will give us money? You
are indeed the ones having the high ranks of "omera.’)) (Omera is a Luo word of greeting.)

11. Luyia-speaking residents interviewed in Luyia (by a first-language speaker of a Luyia variety) did not sustain Luyia for
their responses, but instead switched frequently to Swahili and English. Ironically, one man, even when asked what
language he spoke with his family, responded with codeswitching to English, very much at variance with the content of
his message. The Lwidakho dialect of Luyia is his matrix language; English (small capitals) and Swahili (italics) are
embedded languages."

Inzi nomoloma kiluhya khu-family yanje na kiswahili kwa majirani. Nenyanga vana vanje vosi valome lome
lumoloma hsa mama. Because it would ve very bad for my mother to talk Luluhya na vana vijibi mu-
kiswahiH or any other language.
((Trans: 'I talk Kiluhya to my family and Kiswahili to the neighbours. I want all my children to talk my mother tongue
because it would be very bad for my mother to talk Kiluhya and children to respond in Kiswahili or any other language.'))

12. Conclusion based on Myers-Scotton: Overall, this linguistic portrait of urban African workers emerges: they may well
speak a second language more than their first language, even if they live with their families. This is because the multi-ethnic
nature of African cities and an accompanying sensitivity to ethnic rivalries only find resolution in neutral linguistic choices.
Certainly, in Nairobi most people speak Swahili in more situations, and probably more often, than any other language. For
white-collar workers, English may be more of a main language for the hours a person spends at work.

OTHERS – more data

13. Family conversation (Amuda 1994:128)

Participants Language (Yoruba & English) Translation

a. Mother: Emi - like -iyen rara... I don't like it at all.

b. Daughter: Nkan ti egbon mi ma fe se niyen. That is exactly what my brother wants to

do.

c. Son: (Older brother to Doto ni. Nkan ti Sam. Naa fee se fun It's true. That is what Sam wants to do with
the others on referred awon Qmo e niyen. Awa naa sa ti his children. I also lived abroad for years,
to by the daughter) gbe ilu oyinbo ri, a a de fi omo sile. I yet I did not leave any of my children
don't buy all those stuff. A child can behind. I don't support such an idea. A
grow up anywhere. child can grow up anywhere.

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

14. Two students checking their course grades with a lecturer (the professor is a Yoruba speaker):
Participants Conversation Translation

a. Students: Good morning Sir!

b. Lecturer: Good morning! What can I do for you?

c. Students: We've come to check our tutorial grades.

d. Student 1: Joo Zenab, o o de je ki won koko ba mi - check - Please, Zenab, let him check
te mi na? mine first?
(aside to student 2)

e. Student 1: Do you know why I am worried Sir? I missed a

whole essay question in the examination. We were
(turning to the Lecturer) supposed to answer two essay questions. I did
only one. So I want to know if I did well in the
course work...

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

INTERACTIONAL SOCIOLINGUISTICS:
LANGUAGE CHOICE IN MULTILINGUAL COMMUNITIES -- DIGLOSSIA
(Based partially on Fasold)
Prepared by Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori

1. Objective:
Fasold reviews what Ferguson (1959/1972) and Fishman (1967) have said on the subject of diglossia and provides his
own definition of the term diglossia.

2. Charles Ferguson’s definition of Diglossia:

(a) Ferguson’s description of diglossia. This is the often-quoted definition of diglossia (Ferguson 1972:245):
DIGLOSSIA is a relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to the primary dialects of the language (which
may include a standard or regional standards), there is a very divergent, highly codified (often grammatically more
complex) superposed variety, the vehicle of a large and respected body of written literature, either of an earlier period or
in another speech community which is learned largely by formal education and is used for most written and formal
spoken purposes but is not used by any sector of the community for ordinary conversation.

(b) Ferguson explains diglossia under nine rubrics:

High dialect (H) Low dialect (L)
The functions calling for (i.e. requiring the use The functions calling for L are informal,
(i) Function (most of) H are decidedly formal and guarded; homey and relaxed; used in normal
crucial criterion for officially the language of formal education; conversations; everyone in the community
diglossia) facility/competence in H is often restricted to a speaks L. Domains: instructions to
small elite. Domains of use: sermons, personal servants, etc., conversation with family,
letter, parliament/political speech, Univ. folk literature, etc.
lecture, news broadcast, newspaper, poetry, etc.
(ii) Prestige It is the superior, more elegant, and more It is believed to be inferior.
(speakers’ attitude) logical variety.
(iii) Literary there is considerable literature which is much Lacks literary tradition
heritage admired by the speech community
(iv) Acquisition It is always an 'add-on' variety, learned after a It is learned in the normal,
variety has been substantially acquired. It is unselfconscious way. It is used regularly
usually acquired through formal teaching in for everyday communication.
school.
(v) Standardization It is standardized by the usual means of formal It is rare for any studies of L to exist at all.
codification. Dictionaries, grammars,
pronunciation guides, and books of rules for
correct usage are written for H.
(vi) Stability Diglossia is commonly an extremely stable phenomenon. It may simply remain stable for a
very long time. There are many cases that have lasted for centuries.
(vii) Grammar H and L are forms of the same language. There are considerable differences in the
grammars of H and L. The grammar of L is simpler than the grammar of H.
(viii) Lexicon (the learned words and technical terms exist only in there are words in L for homey objects ·
vocabularies of H H that have no equivalents in H
and L are shared)
(ix) Phonology Less rules have been applied in H derivations – Relatively more rules have been applied in
forms are closer to underlying forms than L L derivations).
derivations are
(x) Examples
Arabic Classical //Quranic Colloquial
Greek Katharevusa (puristic) Dhimotiki or demotic
German-speaking Standard German the various Swiss German dialects
Switzerland
Haiti French French-based Haitian Creole

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

4. Joshua Fishman (His elaboration of the concept “diglossia” as defined by Ferguson).

-- Fishman revised and expanded the concept of diglossia in an article in 1967.

(4a) Fishman pursues four questions on the subject (i.e. diglossia): (i) the standard-with- dialects question; (ii) the binarity
question; (iii) the relatedness question, and (iv) the function question:

(4a-i) The standard-with- dialects question: Is diglossia to be distinguished from standard languages with their dialects?
-- What is crucial for Ferguson, however, is that no segment of the community uses H in ordinary conversation (in a
diglossic situation).
-- In “the standard-with-dialects situation,” ‘the standard is often similar to the variety of a certain region or social group
which is used in ordinary conversation more or less naturally by members of the group and as a superposed variety by
others’ (Ferguson 1972:245).
-- As long as you can find some group in the speech community that uses the putative/presumed/acknowledged H in
normal conversation, even though there are other groups which do not, we do not have a case of diglossia, but rather a
standard-with-dialects.

(4a-ii) The binarity question: Must the phenomenon that has been called diglossia be restricted to the distribution of only
two language varieties? [[There are three fascinating types of multiple language ‘polyglossia’ that have appeared in the
literature:]]
(A) Double Overlapping Diglossia (in Tanzania): Abdulaziz Mkilifi 1978.
Context A: (English vs. Swahili) – English is H and Swahili L
Context B: (Swahili vs. Vernacular languages) – Swahili is H with Vernacular languages as L.
Context A (English & Swahili) Languages involved Context B (Swahili & Vernacular)
High English
Low Swahili High
Vernacular Languages Low
Interpretation: That is, Swahili is Low in one context but H in another.

(B) Double-Nested Diglossia (Khalapur, India) (Gumperz 1964):

High Hindi High Oratorical style
Low Conversational style
Low Khalapur High Saf boli
Low Moti boli
Interpretation: A high and a low variety within a High variety (Hindi), and a Low variety (Khalapur)

(C) Linear polyglossia – Triple Nested. (Singapore and Malaysia described by Platt 1977).
High (i) English (Formal) H1 >> (ii) Malaysia (Bahasa) H2 >> (iii) Chinese (Mandarin) DH}
Mid (i) English (Colloquial) >> (ii) Chinese (Dominant)
Low (i) Chinese (Native >> Other) >> (ii) Malaysia (Bazaar Malay)

(4a-iii) The relatedness question: is diglossia to be understood as applying only to the intermediate degree of linguistic
relatedness specified by Ferguson, or may it apply to any degree of relatedness whatsoever?
-- Ferguson’s original definition of diglossia required an intermediate level of linguistic relatedness between clearly
separate languages and mere style shifting.
-- The Malaysian case, together with the situation in Tanzania show that some sociolinguists have found it reasonable to
apply the term to situations in which the H and the L are separate languages.

(4a-iv) the function question: what is the exact nature of the social functions which H and L varieties are associated with?
-- If there is agreement on any aspect of diglossia, it is in the area of function.
-- Everyone agrees that H speech is used in formal, public settings and L in informal, private ones.

(4b) Fishman’s description of diglossia: Fishman’s use of the term ‘diglossia’ can refer to:
(i) … any degree of linguistic difference from the most subtle stylistic differences within a single language to
the use of two totally unrelated languages, including, of course, the range allowed by Ferguson.
(ii) the crucial test is that the linguistic differences must be functionally distinguished within the society.

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

5. A Comparison of Fishman’s and Ferguson’s concepts of diglossia

(5a)
Item Ferguson Fishman
Differ Exclusion of whole languages (view of diglossia is Inclusion of whole languages
limited to [2] varieties of the same language)
Agree 1 On functional distribution in society
Agree 2 both have the same basic concept of H varieties being used for formal purposes and L varieties
being reserved for less formal, more personal uses.
(5b) Ferguson (1959/1972) rather carefully defined diglossia so that it explicitly excluded the functional distribution of
separate languages and standard versus regional dialects.
(5c) Implicitly, it is clear he intended that diglossia refer only to situations with just two language varieties and that the
two be moderately divergent.
(5d) Fishman (I 967/1972d) explicitly expanded the notion to include cases of both closer and more distant degrees of
language relatedness, and indicated that the sort of functional distribution of languages found in diglossia need not
involve only two languages.

6. Redefinition –Broad diglossia

Fasold: suggests the following definition of ‘broad diglossia’:
BROAD DIGLOSSIA is the reservation of highly valued segments of a community’s linguistic repertoire (which are not
the first to be learned, but are learned later and more consciously, usually through formal education), for situations
perceived as more formal and guarded; and the reservation of less highly valued segments (which are learned first with
little or no conscious effort), of any degree of linguistic relatedness. In the higher valued segments, from stylistic differences
to separate languages, for situations perceived as more informal and intimate.

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION

PREPARED BY DR. SETH ANTWI OFORI
(Based on Bamgbose)

1. The importance of education in the context of a developing country:

-- as the basis of: (i) mass participation; (ii) upward social mobility, (iii) manpower training, and (iv) development

2. The importance of language to education:

-- it lies in the fact that it is mainly through language that knowledge is transmitted

3. Three major questions involved in the role of language in education:

-- (a) What language?
Under this, there are at least three to six types of languages each of which has a claim to be used in the
educational process for speakers of minority languages:
(i) Ll (Mother tongue),
(ii) L2 (Community Language or National Language), and,
(iii) L3 (Language of Wider Communication)
[[(i) mother tongue, (ii) lg. of the immediate community, (iii) national lg., (iv) official lg.,
(v) lg. for religious instruction; (vi) official lg. of neighboring countries]]
-- (b) For which purpose? (Literacy, subject, and medium of instruction),
-- (c) At which level? (When should a language should be introduced? That is, at which of these levels should a
language be introduced? Primary, secondary, and post-secondary?

4. Options in Language Education: Based on the questions 'what language?' and 'for which purpose?' it is possible
to arrive at nine possibilities based on three types of languages:

(a) Mother tongue:

(i) Mother tongue for literacy – widespread practice in adult literacy, or for initial literacy at the primary level(ii)
Mother tongue as a subject – teach the mother tongue purely as a subject – it is also used a medium of
instruction.
(iii) Mother tongue as a medium – usually at the primary level – for certain subjects (or in subject courses at the
secondary and post-secondary levels).

(b) Community or National Language

(i) Community or National Language for literacy -- the use of a language other than the child's mother tongue
for initial literacy.
(ii) Community or National Language as a subject – (e.g. Kenya: Swahili is the national language, the medium
of instruction in primary schools is still English, but provision is made for the teaching of Swahili as a subject;
Problems are likely to occur when the teacher is not proficient in the approved language.)
(iii) Community Language or National Language as a medium. (It is only practicable where the language in question is
already widely spoken in the country. Even so, problems may arise where there are differences in exposure to the language.)

(c) Language of Wider Communication (LWC)

(i) L WC for literacy.4
(ii) LWC as a subject. (Since, for most African countries, a LWC is bound to .be used at some point as the medium of
instruction, the use of a LWC as a subject only is normally associated with the lower classes of primary school prior to a change-
over to an English medium at the upper primary level, or all classes at primary level, where an African language serves as a
medium of instruction for the entire primary education.)
(iii) LWC as a medium. (This is the typical practice for most African countries. The LWC may be used as a medium from the
first class of primary school (as in practically all the so-called French-speaking African countries and in some other countries

4The theory behind this practice is that the children's mother tongue can be ignored while the rudiments of reading and
writing can be effectively taught through the LWC.
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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

such as Sierra Leone, Zambia and Kenya). It may be introduced as a medium at some point during the primary school course
as in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda); and it may become a medium at secondary level as in Tanzania).

5. Constraints in Language Education: External constraints that determine the above linguistic choices made by
given countries:
(a) Historical, (b) Sociolinguistic, (c) Sociocultural, (d) Economic, (e) Theoretical, (f) Pedagogic and (g)
Political.
(a) Historical constraint: Language in education provides the best illustration of what has come to be
known as an inheritance situation – i.e. how the colonial experience continues to shape and define post-
colonial problems and practices." African countries remain prisoners of the past.

(b) Sociolinguistic constraint: It concerns language status, size of speakers, and state of language
development.
(i) Status: a language accorded the status of a national or official language must have a prominent
place in education than other languages;
(ii) Size: the size of the population speaking each language is also an important factor in the
assignment of roles;
(iii) Language development: the language must have been reduced to writing, and there must be materials
available in it that can be used in education

(c) Sociocultural constraint: The sociocultural constraint is usually linked with the desire to ensure
that a people's culture which a language represents –is not ignored in the educational process -- child
must have an opportunity of learning his language or learning in it.

(d) Economic constraint: the important role of education in development should be concerned with the liberation of
the human potential for the welfare of the community – grass-roots education will be needed, and the use of several
indigenous languages in such education would seem to be inevitable

(e) Theoretical constraint:

-- A major constraint in the choice of language in education has been a theoretical one based on the
'problems of learning and cognitive development.
-- Questions are raised about the psychology of the child as he tries to cope with new experiences in
the learning process.
Is he likely to learn faster and better using his own language or using a language foreign to him?
Will his cognitive development be affected positively or negatively?
Will his personality be affected? 5

(f) Pedagogic constraint: The pedagogic constraint concerns the conditions and facilities for teaching
languages.
-- The crucial factor in this connection is the teacher problem.
-- Any educational language policy requires for its effectiveness the availability of teachers.
-- Another source of difficulty is the question of training.

(g) Political constraint: There is a general attitude by governments that language policy matters are
sensitive.
-- There is a reluctance to change existing policies;
-- The attitude of those in power can influence both policy and how it is implemented (see page 80).

5The claim that the earlier the teaching of English is begun the better it is for the child was to have a profound influence
on the educational language policy of a few African countries. Apart from Kenya, Zambia also adopted the policy; and
even, the then administration of Northern Nigeria opted for the 'Straight-for-English' policy. Earlier, Ghana, on attainment
of independence in 1957, had opted for the English medium policy.)

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

6. Conclusion:
-- Language in education, as we have seen, involves different roles such as medium of instruction, subject, and
initial literacy, in the formal school system, adult literacy in the non-formal system, and the processes of
socialization in the informal system.
-- The informal system which concerns learning through parental or community guidance, interaction with
sibling and age-group, etc. has not featured in the above discussion partly because the medium for it is non-
contentious, being usually the mother tongue or home language and mainly because its regulation is not a matter
for the public domain.
-- The formal and non-formal systems fall into this domain and therefore questions arise as to which is the
appropriate language at which level.
-- This implies that each country has or is expected to have a language educational policy setting out the
relationship between the teaching of the various languages and the levels at which they are taught.

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

LANGUAGE POLICY AND LANGUAGE PLANNING

Prepared by Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori
Based on Bamgbose
1. Introduction:
-- In Africa language planning are the result of bilingualism/multilingualism.
-- When colonization ended most urban African communities had become bilingual or multilingual because of
the convergence of several ethnic groups in those places.
-- There was therefore more competition among African languages on the one hand and between African
languages and European languages on the other hand.
-- African governments faced with this situation had no choice but to intervene, that is, make significant
decisions regarding which language(s) is used in what capacity and in which domain in their countries.
-- That is, in multilingual societies governments have no options but to intervene and take direct charge of the
allocation of domains of language use. For example, they decide which language is the language of
education, which is the language of administration, and which is the language of national identity among others.

2. What is language planning?

The basis for language planning is the perception of language problems requiring a solution. Such problems
may include choice of language for specific purposes in a multilingual situation..
Language planning is a government authorized, long-term, sustained, and conscious effort to alter a language’s
function in a society for the purpose of solving communication problems” (Weinstein 1980: 56). Language
planning efforts are therefore those efforts that are aimed at arriving at the most optimal use of the languages
in the country for the benefit of all its citizens. (194). Because of the need to work out strategies for solving
language problems, language planning has been described as ‘the organized pursuit of solutions to language
problems.” That is, the concept of language planning is the idea that language can be treated as a resource to
be managed in ways that bring economic and other social benefits to a country. This socio-economic venture
is achieved by making some changes to some languages or language varieties, and these changes include giving
specific functions to some languages that they would not otherwise perform.

3. Types of language planning: The scope of activities covered by language planning is very wide, but basically,
there are two types of activities (i.e. there are two main types of language planning):
-- those related to language status (i.e. status or ideological planning) – i.e. policy and
-- those related to language corpus (i.e. corpus or technical planning – this relates to the body of the
language itself, e.g. its sounds, spelling, words, phrases, etc. That is, in language planning, it is usual to
make a distinction between ‘policy’ and ‘implementation’ (implementation is falls within
technical/corpus planning).

4. Language Status
(4a) What is status or ideological planning?
This is the stage at which language policy makers have to make an explicit pronouncement about the language
policy of the country. In other words, decisions on language status are policy decisions. This is because such
decisions generally have political or socio-economic implications, thus requiring that the government or its
agents be involved in the decision-making process. The language policy should state clearly which language will
be used for which function: official, national, regional, educational, and other cultural purposes. This kind of
policy making is also sometimes referred to as social or external planning.

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

(4b) (i) What is language policy? (ii) Types of Language policy; (iii) Language polivy ideologies; (iv)
Problems of Language policy in Africa; (v) Inputs to Language Policy formulations
-- (i) It comprises the body of decisions made by interested authorities concerning the desirable form
and use of languages by a speech community” Cooper (1989: 160). -- In a multilingual situation, a
language policy decision necessarily involves the role or status of one language in relation to other
languages.
-- (ii) Types of Language Policy: According to Noss (1971: 25), there are three types of language policy:
-- official language policy; educational language policy; general language policy which covers unofficial
government recognition or tolerance of languages used in mass communication, business and contacts
with foreigners.
-- (iii) Language policies are guided by particular ideologies or ultimate goals, the following are listed
by Cobarrubias (1983):

linguistic assimilation -- is most clearly seen in Portuguese, Spanish and French colonial policies
in Africa: every person was supposed to assimilate to the monolingual and monocultural
behavioural patterns considered to be the norm in the colonial motherland

linguistic pluralism -- would accept non-monolingualism in its multifold manifestations as

individual and/or institutional multilingualism, di- or triglossia, multi-monolingualism, etc.

vernacularisation(i.e. endoglossic language policy)

internationalisation (exoglossic language policy)

-- (iv) Problems of Language Policy in Africa: Language policies in African countries are characterized by
one or more of the following problems: avoidance, vagueness, arbitrariness, fluctuation, and
declaration without implementation.
-- (v) Inputs to Language Policy formulations: When language policies are not arbitrary, there are a
number of possible inputs that may influence their formulation. These include sociolinguistic surveys,
descriptive studies, pilot projects, commissions, conferences, and resolutions by international
organizations.

(4c) Language status activities therefore relate to decisions on the role of a language in a country at any
level. They embrace:
(c-i) Maintenance, expansion or restriction in the range of uses of a language for particular
functions. Some language policies restrict the use of some languages (especially minority
languages), and in worse case scenarios they even forbid the use of some of them. Some of the
functions that policy makers may give to languages include language of instruction in
education, national language, official language, language for diplomacy, language for commerce,
language of science, and language for public administration (Amuzu 2009: 198).
For example, should a language be used as a national, official, regional or local language? Should
a language be used as a medium of instruction in education or only as a subject? Should a
language previously used as an official language or as a medium of instruction be replaced by
another language? -- Matters connected with such questions are referred to as ‘allocation of language
functions’, or quite simply ‘language allocation’.

(c-ii) Since it is not everyone who would accept a policy readily, certain measures must be taken to
garner as much support for it before attempts are made to implement it.
-- Step one – the policy making body carry out broad consultation of experts (including
sociolinguists and educationists) and stakeholders (including opinion leaders in the affected
speech communities).

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

-- Another such step is educating and sensitizing the public about the policies aim at creating
positive attitudes towards the language or variety of language chosen for the specific
purposes.
-- That is, the status or ideological planning is the first stage in any planning venture.

5. What is corpus or technical planning?

-- Corpus or technical planning involves all what is done to implement the language policies which were
formulated at the status or ideological planning stage.
-- Corpus activities relate to steps taken to ensure that the language itself is modified to conform to the demands
made on it by its functions.
-- In other words, it involves attempts to develop a language or a variety of a language with an aim to provide
it with all the means and necessary tools for serving the functions assigned to it during status planning. It
involves finding answers to practical questions that normally emerge about how to get a policy implemented.
-- Technical planning or corpus planning is also known as linguistic or internal planning and consists of two
parts, namely: (5a) norm planning, and (5b) capacity/technical planning.

(5a) Norm planning covers the first two major steps in technical planning. These are (6a-i) selection (or
determination) and (6a-ii) codification.

(5a-i) Selection or determination

-- determination of both language status and the norm within a chosen language, which is to serve as
standard frame of reference
-- determination of language status: refers to language policy and involves choice of which (one or
several) of the country’s languages should be selected to perform particular functions in regional,
national and international communication
-- determination of the norm within a chosen language to serve as the standard frame of reference for
any chosen language; this is usually a highly sensitive issue in most African societies.
-- When choosing a dialect or koine, various criteria could be used and must be weighed against each
other because existing language variants will differ in the extent to which they conform to criteria such
as the following:
• ‘numerical muscle’ in terms of number of mother tongue speakers, and the degree of de facto
use in vehicular function by non-mother tongue speakers
• degree of standardization and quantity of post-literacy materials already available
• historical or cultural prestige among non-native speakers and/or linguistic ‘purity’ of the
chosen variant in the eyes of mother tongue speakers themselves
• historical, cultural or religious prestige of the mother tongue speakers themselves
• political and/or economic dominance of its mother tongue or non mother tongue speakers

(5a-ii) Codification
-- Codification of languages or language variants with no writing tradition at all, or choice among
or unification of, competing writing systems already existing in the area.
-- The first step in codification is:
-- graphicization, that is the creation or unification of a standard orthography –
designing of a standard orthography. Orthographic work which includes creation of
orthographies for languages hitherto unwritten, harmonization of existing orthographies, orthographic
reform (including change of script and spelling reform).

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

-- Changes in aspects of language structure (for example, the introduction of a

decimal numeral system).
-- Simplification of language registers (for example. rewriting the language of
regulations to make them easier to understand or introduction of simplified language
varieties for special purposes).
-- Prescribing rules on pronunciation (particularly of new words), correctness of style
and usage – the creation of a standard pronunciation manual (phonology).
-- Production of language material such as primers, dictionaries, grammars,
supplementary readers, translations and special manuals – the preparation of a
reference grammar; the compilation of a standard dictionary (vocabulary or lexicon).

(5b) Capacity planning: After norm planning (i.e. selection or determination and codification), the next line
of activities in corpus planning is capacity planning. Capacity planning involves the deliberate efforts put in
place to make a language capable of functioning efficiently in its new role. The following steps are taken in
capacity or technical planning: (5b-i) Language Elaboration, (5b-ii) cultivation, (6b-iii)

(5b-i) Language Elaboration

It includes:
-- Elaboration of vocabulary (modernization) and grammar (normalization) to serve as sources for reference. It
is simply the expansion of a language so that it can function effectively for a particular purpose.
-- Lexical innovation: i.e. Vocabulary expansion, also includes terminology creation and standardization
of variants of existing terms.) There is, first of all and for all languages of the world, a constant need
for elaboration of vocabulary by creating and expanding the appropriate terminology for commercial,
professional and scientific domains as knowledge and technology progress. The following are some of
the most commonly applied strategies of lexical innovation, illustrated with examples from Hausa:

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

-- Grammar normalization – the improvement of the rule books on grammar, and the introduction of
new grammatical rules and constructions to deal with more complex and technical demands of the new
domains. -- African languages are often said not only to lack expressions to cope with the needs of
modem technology and worldwide communication for commercial and other exchanges, but also for
adequately teaching these languages in terms of normative grammar, stylistics and functional
appropriateness (i.e. normalisation) throughout the formal education system.

(5b-ii) Cultivation
-- Cultivation of the so created standard languages by language authorities to ensure continued
observance of the norms and control implementation.
-- In Africa in particular, language cultivation would also be concerned with the creation and
continuous production of post- literacy materials
-- After initial implementation, standardized languages need continuous support from
language promotion agencies such as language committees, boards or academies. These advisory
bodies are needed to
(a) create guidelines as to matters of style and acceptable variants mainly in literary production
(b) ensure that printed materials conform to the standard norms
(c) ensure that lexical innovation is continuously subjected to standardization in order to avoid
uncontrolled competition of terms with similar yet different meanings
(There is sometimes stylistic cultivation – which is the introduction of specialized vocabulary,
expressions and registers to create stylistic variation.

(5c) Other measures under Capacity/technical planning are: implementation and harmonization
(5c-i) – Implementation: Implementation of both language status and the norms of standardization, that is
creating and enhancing acceptance in the speech communities
-- feeding the new standard norm into the educational system
-- A striking example of highly effective implementation was the masterplan for introducing Somali
as official language and the new Standard Orthography in Somalia in 1972/3, after endless years of
escaping decisions on which type of graphicization to adopt.

(5c-ii) – Harmonization: special cases of language planning and standardization involve language
harmonization, that is the unification of distinct and sometimes quite distant (i.e. mutually non-
intelligible) dialects, that is mutually non-intelligible, dialects which may have been considered
different languages for historical, geographical or ethnic reasons, to converge on one standard

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 Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori (Sociolinguistics notes)

which is at least written, if not spoken. -- It worked for Akan in Ghana by harmonizing
Akuapem Twi, Asante, Fanti and other linguistically closely related regional variants.

Types of harmonization
-- National harmonization of orthographies, for instance, aims at reducing and limiting the
inventory of graphic symbols including use of diacritics used within one multilingual
country for its various languages. -- The ultimate pedagogical aim of national harmonization
is to facilitate reading and writing in languages other than one’s own spoken in the same
country.
-- International harmonization is concerned with the harmonization of cross-border languages.
- In Africa, many territories inhabited by speakers of the same language are divided by national
borders; National standardization procedures often result in different standards being created
on both sides of the border. In order to allow reading materials from one side of the border
to be easily used on the other, international harmonization aims at establishing a single unified
orthography for each language across borders.

(6) A related issue

(6a) LANGUAGE STANDARDIZATION (SEE AMUZU 2009: 204)
-- African sociolinguistics has a wide range of practical applications, commonly referred to by the term language
planning.
-- One of the major concerns of language planning in Africa, however, is language standardization, that is,
turning linguistic varieties into standard languages in the sense of:
(i) an approved and accepted norm above all vernacular, colloquial and dialectal varieties for generalized
and normative usage in certain domains such as literature, science, higher education, the media, the
churches and all public sectors
(ii) a regularized and codified normative system of reference supported by a standard orthography,
standard reference grammars and (preferably monolingual) standard dictionaries.
-- For any language variety to be considered in language planning for the acquisition of particular functional
roles or status in the society, it must fulfill certain requirements in terms of standardization involving
modernization and cultivation.

7. Some questions
(a) Question: What steps could a government take to spread the knowledge, use and acceptance of a
new official language?

(b) Question: Why do you think an ‘imported’ (i.e. a European) language (e.g. English, or French)
might be regarded by some politicians as more suitable than an indigenous/African language for
secondary and tertiary education in a given African country? What are the counter-arguments?6

6 -- Language policies will establish a functional hierarchy of official language(s), national language(s), and other languages
spoken within the state, and indicate their role and institutional support.
-- The term national language may be used to refer to some or all languages of the state in order to stress their function for
national unity and identity.6
-- Language policies, therefore, can promote, prescribe, discourage or prevent the use of languages and thereby empower
or disempower speakers of languages by giving higher or lower status to their languages.
-- Determination of one or more official language(s) for the country is linked to considerations as to whether the choice
enhances or endangers national unity by its consequences for the balance of power.

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