Some considerations on [Indonesian] gov't language planning

[Anthea Fraser Gupta]

Re: Jakarta Post's description of Uriel Weinreich as 'German' & Joshua
Fishman's correction.

Two things to think about here:

1) The article, which described Weinreich wrongly as "A renowned German
linguist" was from The Jakarta Post. Journalists all over the world do
make slip ups and almost every article will include some errors of fact.
In this case the attribution of German nationality is unusually
prolematical, but this is not something to which a journalist in
Indonesia is likely to be particularly well attuned. It is clear from
the context that no offence was intended to Weinreich (on the contrary).
Similarly, it is common to see (and hear) texts from the non-Malay world
that describe Malaysia citizens of all races described as 'Malays'. I am
sure all of us make mistakes of this sort.

2) When we make a posting from a newspaper we are not endorsing it, and
my understanding is that we are not required (and perhaps not even
encouraged) to comment on it alongside the posting. Requiring this would
prevent us from seeing many of the articles that are posted (many by
Hal) which are often very provocative indeed. They open up debate, and
certainly Professor Fishman's correction does that, as is appropriate.
But I oppose the view that "The Lgpolicy -list should not permit errors
such as those that I am reacting to to appear without some corrective
footnote." I think this would inhibit posting and debate.

How do others feel?

Anthea




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Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)
School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
<www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg>
NB: Reply to a.f.gupta at leeds.ac.uk
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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
[mailto:owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of
JoshuaAFishman at aol.com
Sent: 27 January 2006 03:45
To: lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Subject: Re: Some considerations on [Indonesian] gov't language planning


To see Uriel Weinreich described as a German linguist in  tghe nes-item
from Indonesia is a double miscarriage of justice. He was initially a
Jew fron Vilna (then in Poland) who came from a very famous and actively
Jewish family. He escaped from Europe, with his father [the famous
Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich] at the time of the German invasion of
his homeland. He received his higher education in Columbia University
(New York City) where he later held the endowed Atran chair in Yiddish
Language and Culture, and also served as the chair of the Department of
Linguistics until his untimely death at a very young age. The Lgpolicy
-list should not permit errors such as those that I am reacting to to
appear without some corrective footnote.