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Title The concepts of discerned and designed languages and their relevance for Africa
Date 2024
Author(s) Pinxteren, L.M.C.
Contributor(s) Essegbey, J.; Henderson, B.; McLaughlin, F.; Diercks, M.
Abstract his paper starts by pointing out that pleas for increased use of African languages,for example as medium of instruction in education, seem to have fallen on deaf earsand attract almost no following from non-linguist circles. The paper argues thatthis is partly due to a linguistic focus on language as spoken, especially with regardto Africa, overlooking the importance of language in its written, formal forms. Thisis coupled to a lack of attention to language policy in linguistic research. A way outof this conundrum is proposed, inspired by earlier work of Kloss. The paper introduces a distinction between language as discerned and language as designed or formalized. Making this distinction makes it possible to consider using one designed(standardized) language to serve speakers of several related discerned languages(as happens in many parts of the world). In contrast to current thinking, such adesigned language need not be mutually intelligible with all languages it serves 'as long as it is easy to learn. For Africa, this means that rational choices for developing a limited number of languages into formalized form become possible. Thepaper proposes five principles that could guide such choices. The paper discussesthe issue of 'ease of language learning', arguing that the limited research availablepoints to its relevance for Africa. The paper concludes by pointing to a number ofnew research questions, related to the policy choices that need to be made and theplanning that will be necessary in order to achieve a proper implementation of atransition to using African languages in formal domains. - Descriptive and Comparative Linguistics
Language en
Type of publication Part of book or chapter of book; info:eu-repo/semantics/bookPart; Text
Format application/pdf
Source Contemporary African Linguistics -- Pushing the boundaries
Identifier isbn:9783985541195; eisbn:9783961104901; doi:10.5281/zenodo.14038762; lucris-id:1338220452
Repository Leiden - University of Leiden
Added to C-A: 2024-12-09;09:31:47