C.

in Mandarin (instead of dialects) among Chinese' has Language Planning * further boosted Mandarin as a High language in the * * Chinese community. Simply because of the dominant Singapore size of the Chinese population, if nothing else, Eddie C. Y. Kuo* Mandarin securely ranks second after English as a dominant language in Singapore. In contrast, Tamil as the ethnic language to The Sociolinguistic Situation "represent" the Indian community is weakening in is with position because of the small size of the Indian Singapore society ethnically heterogeneous, which in itself is diversified about 76% Chinese, 15% 7% Indians, and 2% community linguistically Malay, and As a om other ethnic its situation is still culturally. response to the Mandarin origins, language Chinese, have been made more diversified since each of the three ethnic campaign among attempts major to Tamil as the link varieties. A census promote language among Indians groups speaks many language in The situation however does not seem to identifies more than 33 Singapore. report specific mother-tongue be 20 of which with more than 0.1% of the very encouraging. groups, It be as native Four may noted that there does not exist in population speakers. major languages a host culture and are as Singapore strong indigenous ethnic designated official languages: Malay, English, and each of and Tamil. Hokkien, while a group, the three major ethnic major communities is characterized its distinctive is not an official In addition, by cultural language, language. and tradition. there are three minor Teochew, literary It is thus highly unlikely that languages: there would be assimilation, or and Hainanese (Kuo, 1976). rapid culturally linguistically, among the heterogeneous population in Of the four official languages, Malay is designated Singapore. as the national language. The decision reflects the political history and geographical location of the island-state, as was a of the Federation Singapore part Policy of Multilingualism of Malaysia in 1963-65 and is surrounded by the The of can be Malay-speaking population of Malaysia and Indonesia. guiding language policy Singapore described as which that all While the official role of Malay is mainly ceremonial, a multilingualism, prescribes four official should be treated as variant of Malay, Bazaar Malay, has long been a Low languages equal. This is of course never the case in The language for inter-ethnic communication in Singapore. reality. situation attests to Kloss's observation that On the other hand, English, the only supra-ethnic "complete of status seems in language among the four, has continued to expand its equality [language] possible only countries that have two or at most three No role as the defacto working language in Singapore, languages. could conduct its affairs in four or more being the language of administration, law, higher country without education and international trade (Kuo, 1977). languages becoming hopelessly muddled" Mandarin Chinese, as the language chosen to (1967:42). In has evolved to function as a 'present the largest ethnic community, is also gaining Singapore, English status. A recent campaign to promote the use of unifying working language at the national level. On the one hand, the use of English promotes economic *The author is Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Sociology, University of Singapore. (Continued on page 2)

for both the as a whole and its progress society The ratio of instruction time for the two languages individual On the other hand, the speakers. range from 50:50 to 70:30. Many Chinese-medium of as a non-native assures promotion English language schools and almost all of the Malay- and that none of the three major ethnic groups is given an Tamil-medium schools allocate more than half of the over the others. advantage instruction hours for subjects using English as the In the meantime, due formal recognition is given to medium of instruction. The label of the three ethnic to neutralize languages language "Chinese-medium" or "Malay-medium" therefore as a cleavages politically divisive issue. At the present reflects only the history and tradition of a school, and the serves more to assure stage, policy equality and to not the dominant language used in instruction. avoid conflict than to a directly encourage In the system of bilingual education in Singapore, national since supra-ethnic identity, multilingualism English and the ethnic language are taught for also means continued attachments to ethnic culture different subjects and functions. As a general and traditional values. While the transition or principle, English is used in Mathematics, Science and extention from ethnic to loyalty national identity may other technology-related subjects, while the ethnic involve a the leaders of long process, Singapore are language is used in Civics (or Education for Living, to confident that as as economic and long development be revised as Moral Education) and humanity-related are political stability sustained, a new national identity subjects. will in due time. emerge In the present educational system, pupils are While the issue has been an language long assessed and "streamed" at the end of their Primary element in the and social important political history Three (aged 9-10) year into "normal bilingual course", of and will remain development Singapore, certainly "extended bilingual course" or "monolingual course". so for a time to come, there does not exist in long Minimum language ability requirements are also a Singapore permanent agency to deal with language imposed at different levels of standard examinations at the national level. The that is problems ministry as a basis of admitting students to Secondary schools, most and in directly explicitly involved language Pre-University colleges, and Universities. While this is the of Education. Its role and planning Ministry practice ensures that a minimum level of language efforts in language planning are discussed below. capability is maintained at each level of education, it i also obvious that language capability (and to some extent, has become an Status Planning in the Educational System language aptitude) important element in social mobility. Before in Independence 1965, four more or less To promote bilingualism various language planning independent school systems had evolved in Singapore, strategies are also implemented in schools. Major each with a different language as the major language among them is the stipulation of English Weeks (or of instruction. One major achievement of the Ministry Days) and Chinese Weeks (or Days), during which of Education in the new Republic is the consolidation only one official language (and never dialects) is to be of the schools of different language streams into a used during recess time in school. Small scale national educational system. At present, while the four language campaigns are also carried out in schools in streams still language exist in name, all schools follow the forms of student debates, dramas, oratory contests, somewhat standardized curricula. Textbooks are now compositions contests, etc. Seeing students as potential locally produced, and most teachers are locally change agents in their respective families, they are also trained. encouraged to help modify the language environment Under the policy of bilingual education, all students at home, since the great majority of them come from in Singapore are required to take lessons in English dialect-speaking families. and one of the ethnic languages. The two languages From the above discussion, it can be seen that are used not only in language courses, but also as language status planning is being actively carried out of for languages instruction specific subjects. The in the educational system through the maneuvering of bilingual curriculum begins from Primary One (or language curriculum design, examination subjects and even pre-Primary classes in some selected schools). requirements, as well as extra-curriculum activities Following the "personality principle" (McRae, 1975), endorsing the use of official languages. the pupil and his parent choose the ethnic language to study in addition to English, which is required for all. In actual practice, the Chinese are expected to choose Multilingualism in the Media Systems Chinese, the Malays are expected to choose Malay, and the Indians, Tamil, there are cases of although The implementation of the policy of multilingualism Malay and Indian students taking Chinese as the is also reflected in the contents of mass media second school language. communications in Singapore.

2 Language Planning Newsletter Volume 6 Number 3

v4ILI.II&I-111tvMil..

Contents in all four official languages are found Dependence on imported programs and their available in the major types of mass media (the press, popularity have resulted into a more uneven radio, television and movies) in Singapore. Two distribution of TV transmission hours among various related observations can be made from audience languages. At present, over half of the total hours are analysis (Kuo, 1978). allocated to the English language programs, and about one quarter are in Chinese. The situation is however Firstly, the media situation attests to the unique and to some extent improved by the subtitling service. As a dominant position of the English language. In all four principle, non-English language programs are types of mass media, only contents in the English supplied with English subtitles, and English language language are shared by multiethnic recipients. programs are often provided with Malay subtitles to Communication messages in English are thus the only for the shortage of Malay language ones that do not a distinctive compensate inherently carry As a result of such treatment, usually up to ethnic/cultural flavor and thus can be programs. truly three in either oral or written forms are are the ones with a of languages supra-ethnic. They potential available at one time between the two channels of SBC common shared various ethnic stimulating feelings by Television. communities.

Secondly, media contents in the ethnic languages draw almost exclusively audiences from the Chinese, Language Corpus Planning Malay, and Indian communities respectively. In certain extent of addition, the population shows All four official languages in Singapore are sentimental attachment to media contents in their own exoglossic in the sense that centers of native speakers ethnic languages. for each of the four official languages exist outside of the small island-state and standards that may The total communication network in Singapore is impose be alien to the local Furthermore, to designed to carry messages in as many languages as population. up three of the do not any of economically feasible in order to reach and to mobilize quarters population speak the official as their mother It is he linguistically diversified population. Language languages tongue. recognized that since the Republic is so small and planning is here interconnected with communication it is not feasible to establish and maintain its planning, and media messages are made available in open, own unique standards for any of the official various languages so that human resources and mass languages. Language corpus planning therefore has support are mobilized for national development. been minimal and involves mainly decisions to adopt status in mass communication is Language planning and implement certain "imported" corpus changes; best illustrated in media, which are broadcasting not the inception or prescription of such reforms. operated by the government-controlled Singapore Of the four official languages, Chinese is most Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). affected by corpus transformations over the years, SBC Radio broadcasts four separate language mainly responding to such changes originating from channels, with the proportion of transmission time . The major attempts and decisions involve the ranging from about 30% for Chinese (Mandarin and following: several Chinese dialects) to about 20% for Tamil. Such 1. The adoption of simplified Chinese characters allocation of hours is not relatively equal obviously following the new orthographic system nor on the audience based on the relative population implemented in China. The reformed characters size in each channel, since Tamil programs attract less were initiated in late 1960's and have been total radio audience. The rationale lies than 5% of the implemented in schools and Chinese newspapers more with the of and the fact policy mnltilingualism since early 1970's. that sufficient transmission hours are necessary to 2. The new System of Romanized Phonetic serve the audience, no matter how small, from a given Transcriptions (Han Yu Pin Yin) used in China language/dialect group. was adopted in early 1970's to replace the older Such relatively equal allocation, however, cannot be system based on the Chinese Phonetic maintained in television broadcast, partly because SBC Characters. Presently this is the system taught in Television depends heavily on programs imported primary schools and used in official documents and mass media. from foreign countries, especially the English-language programs from the United States, 3. Standardization of translated terminology in from Taiwan and and the Chinese-language programs Chinese was attempted with a committee Hong Kong. Presently, about two-thirds of SBC Television programs are imported. (Continued on page 4)

Newsletter Volume 6 Number 3 Language Planning 3

- " P51 II Q IIJ

the of Culture in 1976. appointed by Ministry explosive political issue in the short history of Several lists of standard translated terms in Singapore. However, as a result of clever language Chinese have been for announced geographical treatments, accompanied with political stability and names, names of international and national economic prosperity since Independence, the language of civil organizations, titles servants, etc. issue has undergone a process of depoliticization, quite Language development and orthographic reform in contrary to the situation in India described by the Malay language is similarly initiated in Malaysia Khubchandani (1975). Consequently, more open and and Indonesia and not locally. The two official rational discussion on language policy and planning language planning agencies in the two countries' form has become possible in recent years. More rational a joint planning body, Majhs Bahasa decisions should hopefully he reached. Malaysia/Indonesia, that meets twice every year, once As has been pointed out before, while ad hoc in Indonesia and once in Malaysia. Singapore is not committees are sometimes formed to deal with represented in the joint Council but generally accepts narrowly defined language problems such as that of the decisions of the body regarding spelling reforms simplified Chinese characters, Singapore does not and other corpus changes. It has been suggested that have a permanent language planning agency in charge Singapore is interested in joining the Council in order of decisions on language treatment at the national to a play more direct role in decision-making with level. Presently, important decisions on language regard to the corpus of Malay (Dc Sousa, policy and planning are made in cabinet, parliament forthcoming). and relevant ministries, and announced as legal acts, For obvious reasons, Tamil maintains a low profile administrative measures or policy statements. among the official languages in Singapore. Recently, Consultation with specialists is done on a confidential, there appears to be some attempts to revive the ad hoc and piecemeal basis. The extent of their language in Singapore, initiated by concerned influence in policy deliberations cannot be individuals and interest groups. Corpus changes determined. The time is yet to come for government involving the Tamil language has mainly been under decision-makers and language specialists to recognize the influence, in a more indirect way, of the Tamil the need for the formation of a national language language centers in Madras, India, and Sri Lanka. planning body to serve consultative functions and to The have been more informal, changes consequently coordinate attempts at language status and corpus more subtle and taken a slower pace. planning in Singapore. With regard to the English language, the concern has been on the decision and adoption of the syntactic, lexical and phonological standards based on the Standard English of the United Kingdom, or BBC References English, which is known to be different to the local de Souza, Dudley variety of Singapore English 1974; Platt, (Tangue, In press the Politics of Language: Status and Corpus Aspects of 1975, 1977, Richards, 1977). The decision to adopt Language Planning in Singapore. In E. Afendras and F.. the British standard Kuo (rather than that of the United (eds.) Language and Society in Singapore, Singapore: University Press. States or Australia) has been publicly acknowledged by Singapore the Ministry of Education and implemented in school K h ubchandani, t,achman M. 975 texts, the English press, SBC broadcast, official Language Planning in Modern India. In Langnage Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 1: 3-4. documents, and other government publications. Still, Planning 1. the influence of American English can be constantly Klisss, Heinz 1967 and Nationalism. felt with the omnipresence of American Bilingualism InJsaraai of Soeed Issnes, 23.2: 39-47. newsmagazines (Times, Newsweek, etc.), paperbacks Kno, rddie C. V. and comics, and the highly popular movies and TV 1976 A Profile. In K. Hassan programs from Hollywood. The confrontation Socioloignistic (eel.) Singapore: in Transition, Kuala Oxford between the British and the American brands of Society Lumpur: University Press, pp.: 134-48. is to escalate, and - English yet eventually Singaporeans 1977 The Status of English in Singapore A Sociolioguistic not have much choice but to both as In W. may accept Analysis. Crewe (ed.), The English Language in co-existing systems. Singapore. Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, pp. 10-33.

1978 Mululingnalism and Mass Media Communications in Singapore. In Asian Survey, 18.10: 1067-83. Conclusion MrRae, Kenneth D. 1975 The Principle of Territoriality and the Principle of Similar to the situation in other in multilingual Personality Multilingual States. In InteraalionalJournal nations, the language problem has long been an of the Sociology oJ Language, No. 4: 33-54.

4 Language Planning Newsletter Volume 6 Number 3

- Inguage Planning Singapore - continued Language Planning/Treatment Research

Platt, John F. Language Planning, Nationalism and Development in 1975 The Singapore English Speech Continuum and its (1917-1941) William Fierman, Basilect "Singlish" as a "Creoloid". In Anthropological Harvard Linguistics, 17.6:363-374. University, 1979. 1977 The Sub-varieties ofSingapore English: Their Sociolectal and Functional Status. In W. Crewe (ed.) The English in The Bolshevik heirs to the Singapore, Singapore: Eastern Universities Empire Press, pp. 83-95. recognized early the importance of language as both a Richards, C. Jack tool and symbol. This dissertation examines the new 1977 Variations in Singapore English. In W. Crewe (ed.) The regime's approach to orthography and vocabulary, English Language in Eastern Singapore. Singapore: and the link between these and social, Universities Press, pp. 68-82. questions Tongue, R. K. economic and political concerns. Particular attention is 1974 The Engls.shofSingapore and Malaysia, Singapore: Eastern focused on the creation of a suitable cadre of language Universities Press. planners, the implementation of reforms and the relevance of language to "affirmative action" Footnotes programs.

A research on the Promote project Mandarin Campaign is being carried outh Part one of the dissertation discusses the decision to the author as a case in The present study of language planning Singapore. codify an independent Uzbek language and the factors Speak more Mandarin was launched in 1979, with Campaign" September, which shaped necessary choices. Debates over the personal endorsement of the Prime Minister and total government and reflected the support. The major objective of the campaign is to promote the use orthography script conflicting of of Mandarin among the Chineseand to gradually phaseout the use ofChinese priorities religious figures, social reformers, dialects. The campaign applies a multi media approach and mobilizes educators, writers and political actors. Determining the in various sectors and at levels. organizational support different choice of alphabet or orthography were such considerations as ethnic identification, education and Editor's note: A recent in the S.F. Chronicle indicated that the political feasibility. Religious leaders, uninterested in campaign has taken many forms: cultural "advancement," opposed any tampering with Businessmen, community leaders, and even taxi drivers have been attend- the holy alphabet. Some native reformers, ing rallies and putting up slogans. anxious to raise the masses, favored Special Mandarin courses for officials have been organized and they are literacy among time to to the of being given off attend. any changes necessary encourage spread and clerks in the ministries are "I can Mandarin" Salesgirls wearing speak literacy. Other reformers wanted to maintain links badges. with the "pure Turkic" use of the past and tempered Popular Cantonese series are to be dubbed in Mandarin. Cinema their views on script reform with an eye to operators have been told the areto dub dialectfilms in Mandarin. modifications in other Turkic writing systems. After 2. Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa (National Center for tracing the reform of the and its Language Development) in Indonesia, and Dewan Bahasa danPnstaka (the replacement by the Latin, this study examines the shift Institute sf Language and Literature) in Malavsia. to Cyrillic writing. This change is analyzed in terms of its disruptive effects and Soviet nation building, and as part of the of Russian nationalism in the Editor -Joan Rubin resurgence 1930's. Associate Editor - Bjdrn H. Jernudd Editorial Board is M. H. AbdulaziL Vocabulary analyzed in a way parallel to alphabet Joshua Fishman and orthography reform. Scorning the numerous Bertil Molde words of Arabic and Persian origin as insults to the Slonsur \lusa richness of their own tongue, many Uzbek writers of .Jiii Neustupnv the 1920's launched a purge of foreign elements in the and replaced them with "pure" Copies are as ailable free of charge. Changes ofaddress and requests Turkic terms. A few years later, however, government to be on the list should be addressed to: placed mailing policy dictated introduction of words of English, William Feltz French, German and especially Russian origin to Language Planning Newsletter replace many of the Arabic and even Turkic terms. B1 East-West Culture Learning Institute East-West Center the mid-1930's, some of the non-Russian European Honolulu, Hawaii 96848 USA words were modified to make Uzbek forms agree All other correspondence should be addressed to the editor: more closely with their Russian equivalents. Dr. Joan Rubin The first chapter in part two analyzes Bolshevik Language & Reading Division efforts to redress the tsarist colonial treatment of Department of Education University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 USA (Continued on page 6)

Volume 6 Number 3 Language Planning Newsletter 5

Language PlanrnnglTreatment Researék-yontmued

Central Asian natives by encouraging advancement of is interesting to note that over half the resources of native cadres and use of the Uzbek language in the major language planning agency the Office de administration and education until 1934. - Special la langue frauçaise are devoted to creating and attention is devoted to "affirmative action" programs disseminating standardized terminology. and attempts to require Russian administrative workers to learn the native language. The numerous Official policy and the dominant attitudes of the causes for the failure of these programs are also elite favor standard European French usage as the explored. reference for Quebec French. But it is one thing to make up words or to import them from France and to The second in chapter part two traces changes in make their usage mandatory in government the cadre of writers and which linguists accompanied documents, it is another to get the public to actually shifts in The language. prominent role Tatars played use them. Although language professionals such as in Arabic alphabet reform is explored along with writers, translators and members of the various media reasons Tatars were unacceptable leaders for the are active users of new terminology, it is a well known Latinization movement. This work fell largely to the fact in Quebec that there is considerable resistance to Azeris who, however, also became to the Soviet suspect change among the general public. It seems that there leadership. Subsequently language planning quickly is more to the question than just a simple matter of became centralized in under the direction of new words replacing old ones by sheer diffusion. to Nikolai linguists loyal Marr's theories. This chapter There is a need for an explicit strategy of also analyzes the rise and fall of nationalist Uzbek implementation. language reformers, and their replacement by a generation of native "internationalist" linguists and This phenomenon of "residual" usage is of writers under Moscow's supervision. particular interest to our research group at the Université de Montreal. For the past year we have In the last chapter, the Soviet government's been studying the development of technical capabilities to implement language reform terminology systems in Quebec French. At the present (particularly its monopoly on supplies and equipment, time we have completed a study of the evolution of and its ability to mobilize) are examined. The the terminology of ice hockey. This lexicon is of shortages, conflicting priorities and shifting concerns particular interest because it contains a large number which left many targets unreached are also of loan words from English and because it has a long considered. tradition of attempts to promote standard replacements for the much criticized non-standard A conclusion some about the presents hypotheses usage. Our results reveal the existence of considerable of and the of national importance language growth residual non-standard usage in the oral speech of consciousness in Uzbekistan. An describes appendix hockey players and enthusiasts. As for the language of research for this thesis conducted in . the electronic and written media, there is extensive variation in presumably standard usage. Despite some signs of a trend toward unification of usage around a Corpus planning and residual lexical usage in local standard code there is reason to believe that Quebec French non-standard forms will be widespread for some time Stanley Aléoug, Universit6 de Montreal. to conic.

At this time of writing, our research group has recent In Quebec, Canada, major political changes initiated a major project on automobile terminology in have transformed the status situation of language Quebec. Emphasis is placed on the role of formal to one of all-French English-French bilingualism training in schools as a vehicle for diffusion of official As a result, the shift language unilingualism. standard terminology. The basic hypothesis here is from to French as the of work in English language that despite official attempts to promote the usage of has the of industry brought question corpus planning standard terminology in the schools these very to the fore. in this context refers Corpus planning institutions will tend to unofficially use and to the of technical essentially explicit development disseminate the non-standard terminology for reasons lexicons to meet the needs of specialized industry, of economy and efficiency. science, education and government. In Quebec however the targets for change are not only the Interested readers can obtain copies of papers and I predominantly English-language technical vocabulary reports from Professor Stanley Aléong, GREQ, systems but also the widespread indigenous Département d'authropologie, Uuiversité de Montréal, non-standard French-language systems. In this light it BY. 6128, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3J7, CANADA.

6 Language Planning Newsletter Volume 6 Number 3

Language Planning/Treatment News

LANGUAGE PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION IN language planning, translation and interpretation REVIEW OF INFORMATION SERVICES activities. The coordination of these activities will be (Papua New Guinea, December, 1979, Office of undertaken by an appropriate national department. Information) Without linguistic development, development of other kinds will be difficult to achieve. Language resources, as an important part of the nation's total The Papua New Guinea National Planning cultural heritage, must be utilised to the fullest Committee decided in April, 1979, that a committee possible extent for overall development. be formed to review information services in the The selection of three languages for promotion by country. The committee began work in June under government and non-government agencies is not the chair of Leo R. Morgan. Of particular interest to inconsistent with the multiple language use already readers of this newsletter is the fact that its executive made by the majority of the people. Multi-lingualism officer, Dr. Paul Brennan (Assistant Director, Policy is a common characteristic of most Papua Office of information) is a Secretariat, professional New Guineans. linguist. The Selection of English, Tok Pisin and Motu is Prior to the work of this committee, a research made by the Committee for both practical and in the Policy Secretariat of the Office of group political reasons. Such a de laclo policy has already Information had information first-hand gathered been in existence in practical terms for some time. from individuals about existing communication needs. Instead of selecting a single national language a One of these needs was summarized as follows: decision which may be required to be made in the "Language Planning. A reasoned strategy for the most future the three languages of widest usage and effective use of the country's rich linguistic resources have been selected for promotion. needs to be made. This involves about importance questions Technical and national and use, jargon, including journalese legalese provincial language development deserve to be clearer, more status, effectiveness and of replaced by appropriateness understandable vernaculars and the expressions. lingua franche, multilirigualisin, Government documents in translation, standardisation, and the like. Carefully prepared borrowing clear, understandable form are an need concerns about and its increasing Naturally, literacy possible of the nation. are also related to this development closely should not receive treatment, need" English preferential (p. 63). even there has been a The committee resolved to base its though historically widespread feeling that it was the true language of recommendations on a series of principles. Although education and other communication the best of the committee's views will important understanding forms. The remains a he each in the context of English language gained by studying principle of a alien culture; it is a all the others, the recommendations to representative foreign, specific difficult to use for most New refer to 13 and 16. in language Papua language principles particular. Guirseans. They are: Formulation of policy on linguistic development is a Principle 13 (page 76): "All citizens have the right to useful, constructive activity for nation building. receive information which is understandable, Coordination of the implementation of this policy unambiguous, and in a form which will encourage involves planning in areas of translation, usefulness, including feedback." publications, interpretation, standardisation and of and 16 "The communication development major languages, training, Principle (page 77): system in like etc. New Guinea - whatever its form especially areas literacy, translation, adopted by Papua and so as to more will he based on, to, and gathered analysed provide complementary reliable and useful direction in the fullest utilisation harmonised with the traditional forms of of these resources. communication, including its language and This recommendation is a practical expression of face-to-face aspects." Principle 13. Recommendations 7, 8, and 9 (pages 85-89) hold 8. Government and Non-Government utilise to the great interest, particularly with its accompanying agencies greatest practical extent the nation's rich vernacular explanations. They are reproduced here in full: language resources. The cultures of Papua New Guinea 7. Government and Non-Government agencies promote the 700-plus provide this nation with fully one-fifth of the three languages oJ widest usage and importance, English, world's Tok Pisin and Motu, for nation-building and unification languages. on purposes, through literacy, literature development, (Continued page 8)

Volume 6 Number 3 Language Planning Newsletter

Language Planning/Treatment News - continued

Vernacular language use remains the major channel Many of the discussions in Parliament are abstract of communication for the majority of Papua New in nature, and often proposals or views put forward (;uineans. For many, it is the only means of are difficult to understand in any language. Also participating in their societies and the nation. some discussions have arisen spontaneously, or Linguistic underdevelopment, a colonial policy, has without prior knowledge, or without opportunities effectively prevented many Papua New Guineans for proper consultation. from participating fully in the development of their Given the above, the responsibility of translations is cultural groups and the nation. considerable. They must be fast, accurate, and Utilisation of vernacular languages is not understandable. incompatible with unification and nation-building. The Committee believes that every assistance for A greater awareness of and participation in one's comprehension of Parliamentary discussions must own ethnic group is, for many, an important be provided in order to ensure that the highest prerequisite for participation in national decision-making body of the nation is fully capable development. of understanding issues including the subtle Learning processes generally depend upon nuances of meaning which sometimes are expressed language, and in. order to understand and about them - and then being able to vote in a participate fully in one's environment, especially discriminating manner. during times of change, one has to have a proper The qualifications of Parliamentary translators and command of the language which serves as a ioterprctors must be upgraded. Their services must tuedium of reference to and within this be recognised as professional services of a high environment. order. Adequate training must therefore be Some secular literature already exists in certain provided for basic skills as well as for ongoing vernacular language, but more is required to needs, such as the learning of new words coming promote the literacy habit and provide important into the languages, grammatical changes, etc. The information of various kinds, as well as increasing training function can best be provided by an possibilities for facility in the languages of widest appropriate department charged with usage. communication training and translation and Since literacy is a means to modernisation and interpretation services. development, greater literacy efforts must be made both and by government non-government agencies. It is to be hoped that the government of Papua One-sixth of the nation's the five most people speak New Guinea can establish the appropriate vernacular One of the populous languages. quarter administrative structure to implement these very total population speak the top ten, and one-third worthwhile recommendations. The review committee the 20 most ones. speak populated is to be commended for having paid such detailed This recommendation is a of practical expression attention to the sine qua non, language and languages, 16. Principle in supporting and strengthening national communications through public intervention. (Bjdrn H. Jernudd) 9. The Government upgrade the translation and interpretation services for the national parliament. THE EASE-WEST CENTER is a national educational institution The primary languages of discussion in the established in t-la wai by the .S. in 1960 to National Parliament are and Tok Pisio, Congress pronsotehetter English relations and understanding hci ween the United States and the while Motu is used from time to time. Limited nations of Asia and the Pacific through cooperative study, training, translation services are provided for any discussions and research. Each year more than 1,500 men and women from the many nations and cultures work in in these languages, and subsequently Hansard is together ptolsIein-oriented institutes or on "open" grants as they seek solutions to of' published in English in an attempt to a problems provide tootoal consequence to East and West. For each Center verbatim record of discussion. participant horn the United States, two participant sare sought horn I lie Asian The staff with translation and assigned services for the PaciFic area, The U.S. Congress provides basic funding For National and a Parliament is small, poorly trained, and programs variety of awards to part in paisi s. Pecan se of the nature of Center financial and often incapable of adequately fulfilling the cooperative programs, support are also provided by Asian and Pacific functions assigned them. cost-sharing governments, regional agencies, private enterprise, arid foundations. The Center, Some Parliamentarians are not fluent in all the is administered by a public, nonprofit coi-potation with an three languages for which translation services ate international Board of Governors. provided. Poor translations increase the chances of 1777 East-West Road, misunderstandings between Parliamentarians. Honolulu, Hawaii 911848

" 8 Language Planning Newsletter Volume 6 Number 3