printability and standardization

[Joshua Fishman]

And of course, there is standardization in
non-literate (oral) cultures! JAF

--- "Harold F. Schiffman"
<haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
> Thank you, Joshua, for reminding us that
> standardization and print are separate issues.
I have tried to make that case for 'standard'
Spoken Tamil, which doesn't often appear in
print, since literary Tamil (with extreme
diglossic differences) serves that purpose.
People who work in western linguistic traditions
tend to think that print equals standardization,
and nothing else matters.
> Sanskrit developed a method of
> controlling 'standard' without resorting to
> print, and other languages can
> do the same.
>
> My article on this is ``Standardization and
> Restandardization: the case of
> Spoken Tamil." Language in Society, Vol. 27 (3)
> 359-385. (1998)  and it's
> also available on my website at
>
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/public/stantam/STANTAM.HTM
>
> Hal Schiffman
>
> On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Joshua Fishman wrote:
>
> > The discussion of (non-)Standardization of
> Ladin
> > and the "reluctance" of the Italian
> government to
> > utilize it in print should remind us that
> print
> > and standardization are quite separate and
> > independent of each other. Many languages
> have
> > been printed (and, of course, also written)
> far
> > before their standardization and, indeed,
> their
> > use in print contributed greatly to their
> > ultimate standardization (viz. D-B Kerler
> 2003).
> > Of course, standardization did not rescue
> Latin,
> > Greek, Hebrew, etc. from disappearing as
> > vernaculars. It would be particularly
> > "indelicate" for the Italian government to
> snub
> > Ladin due to Ladin's lack of full
> > standardization, given the lack of full
> > standardization of Italian to this very day.
> > English too is far from being fully
> standardized,
> > which should lead most of us to be rather
> less
> > dismissive of Ladin for this same very human
> > "failing". All in all, "complete
> standardization"
> > is a will-of-the-whisp and some small
> languages
> > are far closer to this goal (acting on the
> > mistaken assumption that it will promote
> their
> > acceptance) than much larger ones who
> couldn't
> > care less. Joshua A. Fishman
> >
> >
> > =====
> >
>
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=====
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