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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>I sympathize with those list members who, during the past summer, have
lamented that the concept “official language” is poorly defined and little
understood.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To my mind, the “blame”
lies particularly with political scientists who, for unknown reasons, have
largely avoided the fields of language policy and political linguistics.
Nevertheless:</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>In 1971, the jurist Claude-Armand Sheppard provided what remains, in my
opinion, the classic definition:</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>“The term ‘official language’ has been used frequently in this report and
is current in legal and political discussions of the language question in
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To our knowledge, it has never been
properly defined.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We ourselves have
used the following working definition: an official language is a language in
which all or some of the public affairs of a particular jurisdiction are, or can
be, conducted, either by law or custom.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>We take public affairs to comprise the parliamentary and legislative
process, administrative regulations, the rendering of justice, all
quasi-judicial activities, and the overall day-to-day administration….<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In brief, we consider an official
language to be the language in which laws are passed, cases can be pleaded and
argued, and the government and the citizenry deal with one another.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> such
description, depending, of course, on the jurisdiction, can fit only French and
English.”</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>- Claude-Armand Sheppard, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Law
of Languages in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region></I>,
<st1:City w:st="on">Ottawa</st1:City>: Information <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
1971, p. 291.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>In 1993, I applied a very similar definition:</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>“An official language is a language that is used, or may be used, for
government and public affairs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Most, but not all, states choose to formally recognize the official
status of a language in their statutes and, in many cases, in their
constitution.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In principal, an
official language may be used in all public domains (executive, legislative,
administrative, and judicial) and by all levels of government (national,
regional, and local).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In practice,
however, the use of some official languages is very restrained: they are used in
few domains, with little frequency, and for limited functions.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Belgium</st1:place></st1:country-region>, only
two official languages – French and Dutch – are used for the full range of
public affairs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A third official
language, German, is used for a limited number of functions.”</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>- Edmund A. Aunger, “Regional, national, and official languages in
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">Belgium</st1:country-region></st1:place>”, <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">International Journal of the Sociology of
Language</I> 104, 1993, p. 40.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>I have just finished writing an essay entitled “Official Languages”
that will appear in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">International
Encyclopedia of Political Science</I>, to be published in 2008.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My sincere hope is that this will
clarify a very important, but much abused, term.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><EM>Edmund A.
Aunger<BR>Professeur de sciences politiques<BR>Campus Saint-Jean, University of
Alberta<BR>Edmonton, Alberta T6C 4G9<BR>téléphone:
780-465-8759<BR>télécopieur: 780-465-8760<BR></EM><A
href="mailto:edmund.aunger@ualberta.ca"><EM>edmund.aunger@ualberta.ca</EM></A></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><EM>web: </EM><A
href="http://www.ualberta.ca/~eaunger/"><EM>www.ualberta.ca/~eaunger/</EM></A><BR></P></FONT></DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=haroldfs@gmail.com href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">Harold
Schiffman</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
href="mailto:lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu">lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, June 25, 2007 11:38
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: RE : What the heck is an
"official" language?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>One of the reasons I sent out the original message about "official"
English is that there is no clear definition anywhere that defines what
"official" language means, or implies. Some countries have "national"
languages that are perhaps more symbolic, but my whole approach to language
policy is that officialization often doesn't matter, i.e. language policy
usually consists of "official/written/overt</DIV>
<DIV>/de jure/top-down/explicit" policy as well as
"unofficial/unwritten/</DIV>
<DIV>covert/de facto/grass-roots/implicit" aspects. As Dennis Baron
notes, we seem to have achieved dominance in English without ever
officializing it. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I used to try to make an example of how implicit expectations about the
use of English in the U.S., especially in education, were almost never spelled
out, by walking into a classroom and holding forth in French for a while,
until someone objected. Then I'd ask what the official language of the
university was, to which they had no answer, except that the
<EM>expectation</EM> was that lectures would be in English.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So I'm really not afraid about officialization of English, because if I
know our American legislators, they'll pass legislation that has absolutely no
provisions for implementation, funding, enforcement, evaluation, or any other
necessary factors to make it actually <STRONG>work</STRONG>. Officializaton of
English in the US would be largely <STRONG>symbolic</STRONG>; in fact,
interest in officialization is found mostly in small rural towns where
everybody already speaks English. Calls for officialization are symbolic
ways to express ones patriotism, ones value system, and perhaps also subtly
express racism, i;e. it's a <STRONG>proxy </STRONG>for xenophobia. And
it's cheap, too--doesn't cost much for a small town to officialization
English, and it may get somebody some votes in the next election.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Hal Schiffman<BR><BR> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 6/25/07, <B class=gmail_sendername><A
href="mailto:rbhatt@uiuc.edu">rbhatt@uiuc.edu</A></B> <<A
href="mailto:rbhatt@uiuc.edu">rbhatt@uiuc.edu</A>> wrote:</SPAN>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">There
is a nice piece on this matter, on Official English for the US, written by
my colleague, Dennis Baron, that should be of interest to this
list. The URL is: <BR><BR><A
href="http://webtools.uiuc.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=589&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286">http://webtools.uiuc.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=589&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286
</A><BR><BR>Or you can access it from:<BR><BR><A
href="http://webtools.uiuc.edu/blog/view?blogId=25">http://webtools.uiuc.edu/blog/view?blogId=25</A><BR><BR>All
best,<BR>Rakesh<BR><BR>---- Original message ----<BR>>Date: Mon, 25 Jun
2007 06:49:56 +0100 <BR>>From: "Anthea Fraser Gupta" <<A
href="mailto:A.F.Gupta@leeds.ac.uk">A.F.Gupta@leeds.ac.uk</A>><BR>>Subject:
RE : What the heck is an "official" language?<BR>>To: <<A
href="mailto:lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu">
lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu</A>>, <<A
href="mailto:lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu">lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu</A>><BR>><BR>>Absolutely.
We had some discussion about this a couple of months ago. In
actuality, the US, like the UK already has an official language. But even if
English were to be made de jure the official language, I fail to understand
why this designation would entail the proscription of other languages or a
ban on any funding of other languages.
<BR>><BR>>Anthea<BR>><BR>>*
* *
* *<BR>>Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)<BR>>School of
English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT <<A
href="http://www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg">www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg
</A>><BR>>NB: Reply to <A
href="mailto:a.f.gupta@leeds.ac.uk">a.f.gupta@leeds.ac.uk</A><BR>>*
* *
*
*<BR>><BR>>________________________________<BR>><BR>**********************************************
<BR>Associate Professor, Linguistics and SLATE<BR>Department of
Linguistics<BR>University of Illinois<BR>4088 FLB, 707 S. Mathews<BR>Urbana,
IL 61801<BR><BR>Email: <A
href="mailto:rbhatt@uiuc.edu">rbhatt@uiuc.edu</A><BR>Ph: 217-265-6308
<BR> 217-333-3563 (leave message)<BR>Fax:
217-244-8430<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><BR clear=all><BR>--
<BR>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=<BR><BR>Harold F.
Schiffman<BR><BR>Professor Emeritus of <BR>Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
<BR>Dept. of South Asia
Studies
<BR>University of Pennsylvania<BR>Philadelphia, PA
19104-6305<BR><BR>Phone: (215) 898-7475<BR>Fax: (215)
573-2138 <BR><BR>Email:
<A
href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</A><BR> <A
href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</A> <BR><BR>-------------------------------------------------
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