NDLI: Language policy and orthographic harmonization across linguistic, ethnic and national boundaries in Southern Africa

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Banda, Felix
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	Drawing on online and daily newspapers, speakers’ language and writing practices, official government documents and prescribed spelling systems in Southern Africa, the paper explores the challenges and possibilities of orthographic reforms allowing for mobility across language clusters, ethnicity, regional and national borders. I argue that this entails a different theorisation of language, and for orthographies that account for the translocations and diasporic nature of late modern African identities and lifestyles. I suggest an ideological shift from prescriptivism- to practice-orientated approaches to harmonisation in which orthographies are based on descriptions of observable writing practices in the mobile linguistic universe. The argument for orthographic reforms is counterbalanced with an expose on current language policies which appear designed for an increasing rare monoglot ‘standard’ speaker, who speaks only a ‘tribal’ language. The implications of the philosophical challenges this poses for linguists, language planners and policy makers are thereafter discussed.
Starting Page	257
Ending Page	275
Page Count	19
File Format	PDF
ISSN	15684555
Journal	Language Policy
Volume Number	15
Issue Number	3
e-ISSN	15731863
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2015-07-14
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Harmonization Orthography Language policy Bantu languages Multilingualism Hybridity Applied Linguistics Language Education Sociolinguistics Political Science
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Sociology and Political Science Linguistics and Language

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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