[lg policy] A request
Christina Paulston
paulston at PITT.EDU
Sun Apr 10 23:09:02 UTC 2011
As you have all seen, Dr. Schiffman has asked me to keep this
discussion on the list. First a few questions to Abbas Zaidi.
"My referee" refers to whom? Are you writing a dissertation? Or are
you involved in some kind of competition and the referee is your
judge? Does not seem likely. My basic question is Why do you have to
pay attention to what your referee thinks. In the real world that is
of some importance, even in defining concepts and data.
Second question, are you sure your data are correct? I don't really
believe you and here is why. In 1982 The Ethnologue lists about 58
million speakers of Panjabi, in 2005 it lists 60 and a half million
speakers, ie a gain of 2 million speakers. Pakistan has a literacy
rate of 26% so your % of educated Panjabi speakers is not likely to
be high; it is a standardized written language with all forms of
oral media, film, radio, and TV, and furthermore it is an official
state language in India. All these are factors which contribute to
lge maintenance. I have no economic data which would argue for shift
( I am not saying that there aren't any, just that I don't know them )
but if Pakistan Punjab is like the India Punjab I knew, the majority
of Panjabi speakers live off the soil, another factor which tends
toward maintenance. In short, Panjabi strikes me as a very poor
candidate for language shift so why are you doing this study.
To keep your referee happy whoever s/he be, I suggest you follow
Myers-Scotton's implied suggestion and use majority-minority languages
ONLY quantitatively and for comparing or labeling demographic data
which incidentally your government is not very keen on having made
public (personal communication). So to answer your question, if you
want to present Panjabi as a minority language, do not use that term
but as Vilfan (1993) suggests instead label it a non-dominant or non-
privileged language to which I would add subordinate (Paulston 1994)
and make very sure that you discuss the social factors that make you
draw such a conclusion that it is subordinate. You have mentioned
one, is not used as medium of education. What else?
Religion was the rationale for the creation of Pakistan, how does that
influence language policies. You will have explicit but also implicit
rationales for these language policies. Do you know what they are? I
would guess that most of them serve to keep the elites as elites, that
is also a form of maintenance that often results in status quo. What
about East Bengal; what influence does history have on the language
situation? What is your own ideology behind wanting to declare
Panjabi as a minority language? What questions do you want to answer?
I can't really answer your question about similar situations because
I don't trust your description of it. Could you restate the
question? You must have in mind something like a situation where the
majority of the population speaks a language which is ignored
officially by the government? You will find, as you mention with
Wolof, tthat different degrees of it will exist in most of sub-Sahara
Africa. It will be your task to document the degree. Do private
schools teach Panjabi? Does a doctor in a Lahore hospital speak to a
Panjabi speaking patient in Panjabi? The Ethnolinguistic Vitality
tests are based on categories for LMS that can guide you in setting
questions, not for shift but for how much the government ignores or
discriminates or exploits or ? ?
whatever the social factors are for answering your questions.
On Apr 9, 2011, at 9:43 PM, Zaidi wrote:
>
> Dr Christina
> Many thanks for your response. Let me be specific. Punjabi is the
> majority
> language of Pakistan (over 60 percent of Pakistanis are native
> speakers of
> Punjabi). But Punjabi is absent from school to university, media
> (print and
> electronic), and all the significant state institutions. Punjabis
> themselves
> consider it a vulgar language and educated Punjabis do not speak it
> to their
> children. Thus, there is little intergenerational transmission of
> Punjabi.
> In terms of both Objective and Subjective Ethnolingusitic Vitality,
> Punjabi
> is seriously undermined. In this scenario, a Language Maintenance and
> Language Shift (LMLS) study on Punjabi will take it not as THE
> majority
> language, but A minority language. Now my question is: Does such a
> situation
> prevail elsewhere? Are there any references? (I can think of Wolof
> at the
> moment.)There is however, another interesting question: On what
> basis should
> Punjabi in Pakistan be considered a minority language? This may sound
> strange because I have given reasons above to support my view (that
> Punjabi
> should be considered a minority language). But my referee is not
> satisfied
> with this line of argument.
>
> I request more enlightenment on it.
> Regards.
> Abbas Zaidi
>
>
>
> If by majority, you mean numbers and by minority subordinate groups
> in a
> nation state, all the native languages of RSA under apartheid ( and
> probably
> to a degree still) would be examples. ( If you are picky, you can
> probably
> find tribal languages of less than the 3 million speakers -- rough
> estimate
> of Afrikaans speakers -- which would then not qualify). If by
> majority you
> mean superordinate but small in numbers, the Afrikaners of same time
> is an
> example, the Swedes in Finland during joint kingdom days, etc. With
> increasing number of democratic countries, and increasing clout
> through
> actual votes, the first example is becoming less common. We
> (sociology of
> language people ) don't see very much in the literature of split power
> between groups, e.g. Quebec which had Anglo economic power and
> Francophone
> demographic, meaning majority votes, power but the present language
> policies are a result of this split power. The Francophone concern
> for
> Canadian minority language rights has not extended to their indigenous
> population.
> If I have misinterpreted your question, you will have to define your
>
> terms which I suggest you do anyway. It will make for less confusion.
> But I am guilty of the same; I ( and sociolinguists in general)
> throw the
> concept of power around without much or any analysis of sources and
> explication in general. If anyone has a useful definition, analysis
> of
> power, I would love a reference or two. By useful I mean as a
> concept that
> can do solid work on the language scene. Any poli
> sci people out there? Christina
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Apr 9, 2011, at 11:53 AM, Zaidi wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Friends
>> In what context(s) can a majority language be considered a minority
>> language? Are there some examples?
>> Many thanks and Regards.
>> Abbas Zaidi
>>
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