Gender neutrality and language

Sun Mar 2 21:51:48 UTC 2008

I like to cite an example of something that happened in my language policy
class, where
(as Jeff notes) I devote a chunk of time to religion as a factor in language
policy.  I was talking
about the Reformation, and the importance of the translation of the Bible
into vernaculars
which had never been used for writing before, and mentioned that there were
people in the US (at
least) who did not realize that the English bible was a translation.  A
young woman in the front
row of the class gasped audibly, and stared at the floor for a moment or two
with her mouth gaping
open.  At first I thought it was a joke, but it wasn't. She really hadn't
realized before that the bible
was translated from other languages.

If you look at the political storms that ensued when people began to
translate the bible, especially
in England (where people were burned at the stake for doing so etc.) it
turns  out that it's intensely
political what choices people make when they do translate, especially
certain terms. The church
fought translation precisely because they couldn't control what people would
do and which words they
would choose for terms like 'espiritus' ('spirit? or ghost?) (congregation?
or church?) and furthermore,
by placing the bible in the hands of untrained or 'unorthodox' people, they
might draw their own conclusions about what it
said, and what certain things meant!  And of course when the reformation was
carried out, that's exactly
what happened, and why we have so many protestant sects and schisms  in the
US  in particular,  which
differ from each other over such issues as whether Jonah was swallowed by an
actual whale, or whether
the story of Jonah is a metaphor for something else.

Hal Schiffman

On Sun, Mar 2, 2008 at 10:20 AM, Jeff Gross <jmgross1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Jason's question, 'How often is religion invoked in discussions of
> language policy across the world?' is a disarmingly important one.
> Historically, there have to be few factors greater than religion in
> shaping the growth and spread of languages and the complex role
> language plays in people's lives. Obvious examples are Hebrew as the
> official language of the state of Israel or Arabic as the dominant
> language of an educated and priestly caste throughout the Muslim umma.
> Another place to look is the role of missionaries in education and the
> promotion of a written standard -- whether by St. Cyril in the 5th
> century or Spanish Jesuits in the 16th or Christian evangelicals in
> the 20th. To the extent that a particular language, scriptural or
> otherwise, is associated with a religious faith, and that faith shapes
> a country or region's social and political life, the implications of
> religion on language policy will always be deep and complex.
>
> Harold Schiffman's Linguistic Culture and Language Policy devotes some
> interesting pages to this issue, as does Bernard Spolsky's Language
> Policy. Spolsky cites Charles Ferguson's 1982 article, 'Religious
> Factors in Language Spread', as the standard scholarly discussion on
> the subject.
>
> Jeff Gross
>
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 8:21 PM, Siegel, Jason F. <siegeljf at indiana.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > In an effort to redirect the discussion back to language policy and
> > away from a topic that could easily be argued about with no end in
> > sight, I would like to take the opportunity to pose a question to the
> > list (and this is the genuine inquiry of a relative newcomer to the
> > field): How often is religion invoked in discussions of language policy
> > across the world? I've heard the old quote in support of Official
> > English in the U.S. "If it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough
> > for me." (attributed to various people). In the research I've done on
> > French policy, however, religion seems to be completely absent from the
> > public discourse on language policy. So again, how frequently do
> > religious concerns form a part of the discussion of language policy? Do
> > we see it more often in certain types of language policy (e.g.
> > feminization) than in others (e.g. acquisition planning)?
> >
> > --Jason
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jason F. Siegel
> > Ph.D. Student, Linguistics & French Linguistics
> > Department of French & Italian
> > Ballantine Hall 642
> > 1020 East Kirkwood Avenue
> > Indiana University
> > Bloomington, IN 47405-7103
> > USA
> > siegeljf at indiana.edu
> >
> >
> >
> > Quoting L Pierce <ldpierce at yahoo.com>:
> >
> > > It's recorded in the BIble.  You can read the history
> > > for yourself, as you can read the histories of the
> > > previously quoted men (quoted by an earlier
> > > contributor) in other recorded histories; I gather
> > > that is the empirical evidence you have for them.  I
> > > don't really know why you want to change the issue,
> > > but I am happy to answer your question.
> > >
> > > Lisa
> > >
> > > --- Ronald Kephart <rkephart at unf.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > >> On 2/29/08 7:13 PM, "L Pierce" <ldpierce at yahoo.com>
> > >> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> > What some ignorant men wrote hundreds of years ago
> > >> did
> > >> > not create the order, God did...
> > >>
> > >>  We have empirical evidence that men wrote those
> > >> rules. Do you have the same
> > >> quality evidence for your assertion?
> > >>
> > >> Ron
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> ____________________________________________________________________________________
> > > Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page.
> > > http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

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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