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ED 12d 712 FL 007. 811 IF . a AUTHOR Holde,.Bertil - 'TITLE , ' Language Planning in Sveden. :INSTITUTION Hawaii Univ.. Hono1u1u. East-west Center"

PUB SATE Aug 75 -3 ., 0

NOTE 4p. . . ,JOURNAL CIT - Language Planning Newsletter; v1%n3 p1, 4 Aug *.

1975 . -

EOS PRICE HF-$0:133, HC-$1.67 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Institutions; *Language Planning; Languages for Specitl Purposes; *Language Usage; Language Variatiom;-*National Norms; National Programs; Norvegian; Official Languages; Socio4inguistics;, *Standard Spoken Osage; Technical Writing IDENTIFIERS Danish;'Faroese; Iceratdic;"Sweden; *Swedish ABSTRACT This article discusses langta'ge Planning in Sveden.\ The Svedish Academy,. has as'its goal to developsthe-punity,strength and nobility of the,Svgdish language bymeans. of dictionaries, grammars, and the codification of'vooebulary. Swedes also Hasa National Language Committee,.one of a network of such committees existing 4m the Scindinavian countries. They are the, resultof the po]itical, economic, cultural, and social connectiofts betimenthe

Nordic countries, and they cooperate With each other itmatters of . language planning and cultivatiot. The principal -field- of activity iS general usage, but-the language of the sciences and of special professions is also hatdled'. To this end,Sweden,has the Centerfor Technical Tefminology. Tae evedisg Language Committee hasmembers repregtting five universit4.eA, the SvedishAcademy, and ivariogs royal academies, the public schoo4, the broadcasting'compani4g and the press, writers,,and theatres. The'Committee follows the development of spoken an written Svedish,/ and carries odt language planning and, cultivation activities. Its. main scientific interest is inthe changes in modern'Svedish. The publications of the Committeecover a wide-field of linguistic and language panning topici, and include diCtionaries, and a quarterly.,Other'pfivate language associations described concern themselves vith language cultivation.(CLK) L.

****************v******le********************************************** * - Documents acquired by ERIC include ,many informal unpublished * * materials not available from other sources. ERIC makesevery effort * * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items ofmarginal' * * reproducibility are often'encountered and this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is got * responsible for the quality-of the original document.'Repkoductions* 4; supplied by EDRS are thebest-that can be made frcm the original. * ****************e*******************%***************e****************** East-West Center Honolulu, Hawaii

EAST.VVEST CENTER Hattiail EAST-WEST CULTURE' LEARNING INSTITUTE VOL. 1 0.'3 . ite Language.Plannirig in Swedn,... r-4 EDUCATION &WELFARE By BERTIL MOLDE-* NATIONAL INSTITUTE Of EDUCATION N- .- . .47 The Swedish Academy 11-tIS 00CUMENT HAS EtE0EN REPRO. OUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM MI THE PERSON qR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN. "FAZIO,. In 1786 Gustavus III, king of Sweder< founded ATING IT POiiiTS OF OPiNrONS , r...4the Swedish Acadqrhy. According to its statutes the sTA TED 00 NOT NECESS ILY REPRE SENT OFF1CiAL NATIONAL i TiTuTE OF air main purpose of the Academy should be "to develop EOUCATION POSiTION OR POOCY the p6rity, strength, apd nobility of the'Swedish Ian- retorm, however, was made oy the government, not U.! guage." The Academy should (,ulfill thispurpose by by the Academy, wt)ich, asa matter of fact, was , working and publishing awedIsh dictionary, a very strongly opposed to certain parts of it. Since' grammar. and -such.treatise that can contribute to then it has been.accepted that Vie Academii can the consolidation and prorrioti of .good taste." The make mitaor changes In s.pellinOnd flexion (.in the Swedish Academy thus Vas the first language plan- word-list) without consulting anybody about it, but ning agency of Sweden. Its main linguistic work it cannot by itself undertake a reatspelling reform.. ',during its almost,200 years of existrce has been If a spelling reform should be made in Sweden, a connected with spelling and with the codification of special reform bill must be passed: by the SWedish vocabulary. Since 1892, the Academy has been pub- parliament. -. lishing a comprehensiNe scientifiC dictionary of

.,'; Swedish from the.1520 onwards,.calied the Svenska Language Planning Agencies in Scandinavia. Akaderfver2s ordbak over svenska spraket (SAOB: Swedish is closely related to Danish and NorAie- , the Swedish Academy's dictionary of the Swedish gian, and Swedish is the second offibial and national ' language). This dictionary uses a stientific and his- language of Finland (the'other ranguge, spoken by tonc approach. To date, it has reached the middle of the great majority ot Finns, is Finnish). Icelandic : th.e letter S (in 26 large volumes); it will be finished -.and Faroese, too, are related to the other Scandina- Some time around the year 2000. -van languages, most closely to Norwegian. There More important for Swedish usage and for, the are old and close political, ecOnomical, cultural, and general public 18 the "word-list" .of the Academy, social connect,ions between the Nordic Countries, Svenska Akademiens'ordl.ista over svenska pr.aket and the fairly good .mutuaLunderstandability be- (,SAOL), first p blished in 1874.: it's tenth revised tween Swedish. Danish and Norwegian (especially edition appear in 14,73. This word-lis .- ow con- in. writing) of course has bpen of the utrnost impor- tains abbut 15 .000 SIvedish.words, giving their tance for the relations betweenThese countries.. spelling, flexion, and to a certainextent pronuncia- These relations nowadays have their,special politi- tionDefinitions are offered rather sparingly. The cal platform in theMordic Council, an institution for book is wideli/ accepted as normative regarding cooperation between the Nordic countries on a gov- spelling and'flex ion. Many users also believe that ernmental and parliamentary levet. words not incl ded in the book must not be used in The question of 'cooperation between the Nordic good Swedisthis is certainlynot the case. A word- countries was Very much in focus during World War list of 'some 6,000 words, published once every U. and Nordic linguists were strongly interested in other decade! can of course not include all words in strengthening the connections between the Nordic use, especiat not terms from the more specialized Languages,.eSpeciallySwedtsh, Danish and Norwe- vocabulariesf the sciences and professions. gian. In the beginning of the forties there were Since $wPdish spelling was stabilized in the plans for establishing a common Nordic language' . 1800s, there has been one real and official reform commit(ee. These plans, however, Were algandoned of Swedish s elling, in 1906. This rather important at that time,. but they have been taken up again late- 4./ ly, Instea)d, in 1944°a Swedish language committee 'Professor M lde Is Director of the SwedIsh Language was founded (Namnden for svensk sprakvard 'the Committee e is. as well.a member of. the Edi.torral Board of Cultivation of the Swedish Language.: in Board of. theanguaqe Plannmq Newsletter (ContinOed on Page 3) -

The national standardization organizations al- (Continued from Paget) so deal with terms and tryto standardize. terminology and usage in different, mostly technical fields. These organizations cooperate with the national 1974 the name-was changed to Svenska spraknarnn- language committees, and the centers of technical den, 'the Swedish Language Committee'). A special terminology.. committee for the cultivation of the Swedish language in Finland was founded two years earlier, in Private Language Associations 1942, and a Finnish language board was started in In most Of the Nordic Countries there are dif- 1945. ferent private drganizatiOns and societies interested Language. committees were established in Nor-, in language cultivation, and to a certain, extent lan- way.in 1954 (Norsk spraknamnd, 'Norwegian Lan- guage planning. Such a Swedish. society is Sprak- guage Comimittee'. since 1971 Norsk Sprakrad, vardssamfirndet (the Language. Cultivation Soci- ''Norwegian Language Council'), in Denmark in 1955 ety), in Uppsala. This society has a publication (Dansk Sprogna9vn, 'Danish Language Committee), ser0a-called Ord och stil (Words and Style), now and in Iceland in 1964 (Islenzk matnelnd, 'Icelandic containing six volumes, including a book on Swe-. Language Committee). The language committees of dish pronunciation and its regulation, and a volume Norway and Denmark were to a large extent orga- on methods and terms of language sociology. nized on the pattern of the Swedish committee. The Swedish Language Committee Also worth mentioning is the special language committee for the Lappish population, of Norway, Swe- The Swedish Language Committee has about 30 den and Finland which was established in 1971. (Sa- members, representing the five universities of Swe- misk spraknamnd). den, the Swedish Academy and its dictionary,. the The national language committees of the Nordic Royal Academy of Sciences, the Royal Academy of countries now are the Official or (as in Sweden) Letters, 'History and Antiquities, the Swedish semi-official language 'planning agencies. of their schools, the Association of Teachers of Swedish, cuntriempespecially as regards general usage. But the Swedish Center of Technical TerminOlogy; the all of th are, in accordance with their statutes, Swedish Broadcasting Company, the Association of obliged to cooperate with the other Nordic lan- Swedish Writers, the Press Club, the Royal Dramat-. guage committees. The purpo4e of this cooperation is Theatre, the Nordic Society, the Swedish Adult is to avoid new and unnecessary differences be- ducation Association, the Folk University Society, tween the languages and if possible, to try to close The Swedish Marketing AsoCiation, and the Swe- the gaps between the languages. dish Language Committee in Finland. , ,,, The main field for theelanningland cultivation The language committee has an executive coun- activities of the different Nordic.language commit- cil of seven members. The chairman of the committees is the general language, but of course the lan- tee (and the executive council) is appointed by the guage and terminologies of- different sciences and government from among the members, and the gov- professions are taken into consideration too. There '' eminent also appoints the head of the staff of the are. however, in most of the Nordic countries, spe-. committee. The vital parts of the statutes of the cial institutyons dealing with the language(s) of committee have to be approved by the government. technology. In Sweden. such an institution was The Committee now hes a-staff of five: four linguists founded as early as 1941. It is called TekniSka No- and one clerk. The current dirgilpr of the co it- menklaturcentralen (TNC; the Swedish. Center for tee is Bertil Molde. The goverrnent pays the sal- Technical Terminology). aries of the four linguists. All other costs are payed by the committee itself, mainly through means ob- Swedish Center of 'Technical Terminology tained from the Swedish Academy (a yearly grant) The present director of the TNC is Dr. Einar Se-- and different foundations and-from the selling of lander (Box 43 041, 100 72 Stockholm 43). It is sup-' books published by the committee. The Swedish. ported by the Swedish goVernment and by a num languagt committee then is a siicni-official, state- ber of the most' important private enterprises in ' subsidized organization, with a large amount oflib- Sweden as well as by several leading organizations erty of action within the framework of the statutes. and institutions. The Swedish Academy appoints a The statutes state that the committee shall "fol- Swedish linguist as advisor to the TNC. It has a staff low the development of spoken and written Swe- of six, three' of them civil engineers or natural sci- dish and carry on language planning and cultivation entists, three of them have academic degrees in lin- activities." And it is also stated that the committee guistics or social sciences. The TNC publishes Swe- has to try Co bring about Nordic cooperation in the dish and multilingual glossaries; among the more fields of language planning and cultivation in Order than 45 multilingual glossaries published by the to maintain and strengthen Nordic language,unity. TNC can be mentioned the Glossary of Brewing and The main scientific interest of the language com- Glossary of Environment (both of them Swedish- mittee is the changes of modern Swedish, espe- English-French-German), the Glossary of Astronau- cially in vocabulary, and different- forms of official tics (Swedish-English-French-German-Russian), and professional language. The influx of new words and Glossary of Heat Treatment of Metalst(Swe- )into SwediSh since World War II has been studied dish-English-French-German-Russian-Japanese). continuously, and a dictionary of new words in Swe-

NO 3 LANGUAGE PLANNINGNEkLETTER 3 dish is under preparation (parallel to similar 'Dan- and typists, from university professorsto school ish and Norwegian dictionaries). The internation- children. Many questions regard terminologies out-. ally .renown problem-of difficult and. complicated side the concern of-the Swedish Center of Technical ;officialese", is another main field of interest. In Terminology so the language committee has.triedto .1 967 the language committee cooperated_with the become the central institution for all such non-tech- government in publishing a booklet on the language nical termirlologies..These plansare still being of laws and other official statdtes. The purpose of worked on; a small start has been Made in the field this booklet was, and still is, to modernize the legal- of medic,k1 language. language 'And to make it easier to understand for the common man. Work along these lines will al- .. The Swedish school system has its own repre- ways be one of the main concerns of 'the language sentatives on the language committee. The lan- corn Mittee. guage committee has no direct influence on the teaching of Swedish in the schools, Oron the Swed- The Swedish Language Committee has a num- beredpublication series, now including55 volumes: textbooks used in the schools. Its indirect in- The best-seller among those volumes is Skrivregler fluence, however, is rather strongthrough th,e ("Writing-Rules"), a Manual on punctuation, use 91 books and the quarterly published by the commit- capitals, syllabification, abbreviations, and soon. tee. Authors of textbooks in Swedish normally try to Although this book is only about 50 follow the recommendations of the committee.. In pages, more 'high school (arid of course university) textbooks, than 30.0,000 copies have been sold. Thepublication series covers a vast field of linguistics and language the problems of language- cultivation are normally discussed and thelanguage committee and its work planning. Other books deal with therries like Swe- is presented. dish pronunciation, word-formation, differentre- gional forms of Swedish, the language of the mass The Sigedish Language Committee could be said media, and so on One of the most recent voluMes to be aff advisory board; nobody has to follow' the (No. 51, .1974) i$ Am.erikasvenska ("America-Swe- advice or recommendations given by the commit; dish") by PrOfessor Nils Hasselmo, University of tee. Freedom of speech includes a certain freedom Minnesota., of usage as well. -But in spite 'of that, the Swedish Apart from this series the language committee public seems more and more inclined to consider the recommendations from the committee as nat- Publishes.dictionanes: a school dictionary of Swe- igh. a short etymological dictionary, a "style dic- ural guidelines towards good SWedish usage. When onary" (phraes and constructions), a Danish-Swe- the committee is criticized., and that certainly hap- dish dictionary. A Swedish pronouncing dictionary pens, the critics tend.'to say that ithe committee and its linguistic staff are too lenient and liberal in their and a Norwegian-Swedish dictionary are inprepa- ration. judgment of different kinds of usage. People dislike Since 1965 the Swedish. Language Committee being told that in many cases there are two, or even has published a quarterly entitled: Sorakvard More,,quite correct possibilities of expressingone- ("Language Cultivation"). Similar periodicals ate self, not just the one they themselves use. This is a published bt the language committees of Denmark well-known phenomenon: the layman being far _and Norway, more strict, condemning, and prejudiced in his view on linguistic matters than- the linguist or langUage Anyone can get advice and help in matters of planner. The Swedish Language Committee feels Swedish usage from the Swedish Language Com- that it also has an obligation to work at propagat- mittee. This service is very much utilized, and more than 7,000 questions from the publicere answered ing a certain amount of lingiiistic knowledge to the yearly, most of them by telephone.),hesa.questions general public, thus creating wider understanding range over the whole linguistic field and are asked of linguistic problems and linguistic tolerance. by all' kinds pf institutions and people, from gov- Nordic Language Committees , ernment departments and big industries to clerks Denmark Dansk Sprognavn V Volcfgade 1.15, DK-1552 Copenhagen. Denmark Finland Further Nordic Cooperation Suomen Akatemian kielitoimisto (Finnish) Hallituskatu 1. Pk. 259. SF-00171 Helsinki 17. Finland In April, 1975, Professor Molde attended a Svenska spr6kvArdsnamnden i Finland (Swedish). conference .on problems connected with mi- cio Professor C E. Thors, KnektVagen 3 C 20, SF-00400 nority languages in the Nordic countries and Helsingfors 40. Finland Iceland neighbor language problems.' At this COQ- Itenzk malnefnd ference, the lang age and educatibnal prob- Haskola Islands. Reykjavik, Iceland lems of the Finns in Sweden (and the Swedes Norway 'in Finland); of t Lappsln Finland, Sweden Norsk sprakrad and Norwa ; Postboks 265, SkOyen, Oglo.2Norway the Eskimos in Greenland Sweden were discussed. The proceedings of this ton- Svenska spraknmnden ference will be published later this year. Box 2056. S-103 12 StockholM 2. Sweden in a letter from Professor Molde to the Editor (Correspondence regarding Nordic problems in general or all Nordiclantguage committees can be sent to Professor Bertil Molde. Box 2056. S-103 12 Stockholm. Sweden )

NO, 3 LANGUAGE PLANNING NEWSLETTER 4