<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>Dear Dave and everybody else,<br><br></div>I find this a very interesting question, and for me it raises the issue of<br></div>what I see as an eternal problem: that of looking only at 'official" (overt,<br>
explicit, written, top-down) language policy, but ignoring unofficial (covert,<br></div>implicit, unwritten, grass-roots) language policy. I think that before<br>the French revolution (with some exceptions, such as the Ordonnance of<br>
Villers-Cotterets, in 1539), we are more likely to find unofficial policy, such <br>as the use of Greek koine throughout the Mediterranean even during the <br>period of Roman hegemony. <br></div></div><br></div>We also need to look at language policy determined by religious strictures, e.g.<br>
the imperative to memorize Vedic hymns etc. in "pure" Sanskrit, which continued<br></div>for centuries, and even into our lifetimes; the use of Hebrew in Jewish practice,<br>even after many Jews had become speakers of Aramaic (or even Greek); the control<br>
of biblical translation to protect Latin in the Christian bible, etc. etc. These policies<br>spilled over into the non-religious world and ordinary practice, resulting in the use<br>of Latin in European universities long after the Reformation, etc. etc.<br>
<br></div>Your benevolent listserv overlord,<br><br>Hal Schiffman<br><div><br><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 8:59 AM, Dave Sayers <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:D.Sayers@swansea.ac.uk" target="_blank">D.Sayers@swansea.ac.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hello assembled folks who are not currently on holiday...<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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' -- <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0415184061/" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/<u></u>0415184061/</a>. Similarly, the various contributors to 'Language Policy and National Unity', <a href="http://goo.gl/0iZ2mj" target="_blank">http://goo.gl/0iZ2mj</a>, give some good historical reviews for their respective countries.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Bernard Spolsky's 'Language Policy' <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0521011752" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/<u></u>0521011752</a> 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.<br>
<br>
There are some pertinent points in Vivien Law's 'The History of Linguistics in Europe: From Plato to 1600', e.g. p.155 <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4QOTTpX2NTMC&pg=PA115" target="_blank">http://books.google.co.uk/<u></u>books?id=4QOTTpX2NTMC&pg=PA115</a><u></u>, but that's more about the study of language, not really language policies.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Any thoughts, folks?<br>
<br>
Dave<br>
<br>
--<br>
Dr. Dave Sayers<br>
Honorary Research Fellow, Arts & Humanities, Swansea University, UK<br>
Visiting Lecturer (2013-14), Dept English, University of Turku, Finland<br>
<a href="mailto:dave.sayers@cantab.net" target="_blank">dave.sayers@cantab.net</a><br>
<a href="http://swansea.academia.edu/DaveSayers" target="_blank">http://swansea.academia.edu/<u></u>DaveSayers</a><br>
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</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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