[lg policy] The prehistory of language policy

[Harold Schiffman]

Dear Dave and everybody else,

I find this a very interesting question, and for me it raises the issue of
what I see as an eternal problem:  that of looking only at 'official"
(overt,
explicit, written, top-down) language policy, but ignoring unofficial
(covert,
implicit, unwritten, grass-roots) language policy.  I think that before
the French revolution (with some exceptions, such as the Ordonnance of
Villers-Cotterets, in 1539), we are more likely to find unofficial policy,
such
as the use of Greek koine throughout the Mediterranean even during the
period of Roman hegemony.

We also need to look at language policy determined by religious strictures,
e.g.
the imperative to memorize Vedic hymns etc. in "pure" Sanskrit, which
continued
for centuries, and even into our lifetimes; the use of Hebrew in Jewish
practice,
even after many Jews had become speakers of Aramaic (or even Greek); the
control
of biblical translation to protect Latin in the Christian bible, etc. etc.
These policies
spilled over into the non-religious world and ordinary practice, resulting
in the use
of Latin in European universities long after the Reformation, etc. etc.

Your benevolent listserv overlord,

Hal Schiffman




On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 8:59 AM, Dave Sayers <D.Sayers at swansea.ac.uk> wrote:

> Hello assembled folks who are not currently on holiday...
>
> Can anyone recommend a concise reading covering examples of 'language
> policy' from ancient times up to the French Revolution? (Or maybe up to the
> Reformation?) I'm doing an intro lecture for an LPP course I'm designing,
> with an overview of such historical precursors, and I'm hoping to find a
> short reading to go with it.
>
> There is an excellent historical review of such precursors in France and
> India provided by our benevolent mailing list overlord Hal Schiffman, in
> 'Linguistic Culture and Language Policy'  -- http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/**
> 0415184061/ <http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0415184061/>. Similarly, the
> various contributors to 'Language Policy and National Unity',
> http://goo.gl/0iZ2mj, give some good historical reviews for their
> respective countries.
>
> However, these aren't really framed as a review of the prehistory of
> language policy as such, more the prehistory of language policies in these
> particular polities. They're also not really a concise type of summary.
>
> Bernard Spolsky's 'Language Policy' http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/**
> 0521011752 <http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0521011752> has some mention of
> historical precursors in various contexts, mostly in ch.2-3, but these are
> sort of peppered throughout the chapters -- again, a little too dispersed
> for what I'm after.
>
> There are some pertinent points in Vivien Law's 'The History of
> Linguistics in Europe: From Plato to 1600', e.g. p.155
> http://books.google.co.uk/**books?id=4QOTTpX2NTMC&pg=PA115<http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4QOTTpX2NTMC&pg=PA115>
> **, but that's more about the study of language, not really language
> policies.
>
> I was hoping for something shorter, ideally a chapter in a textbook about
> these sorts of historical precursors to what we now call language policy.
>
> Any thoughts, folks?
>
> Dave
>
> --
> Dr. Dave Sayers
> Honorary Research Fellow, Arts & Humanities, Swansea University, UK
> Visiting Lecturer (2013-14), Dept English, University of Turku, Finland
> dave.sayers at cantab.net
> http://swansea.academia.edu/**DaveSayers<http://swansea.academia.edu/DaveSayers>
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-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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