EAST-WEST CULTURE LEARNING INSTITUTE c;. . ,

Language Planning in Sweden Bv BERTIL MOLDE* The Swedish Academy In 1786 Gustavus III, king of Sweden, founded the Swedish Academy. According to its statutes the main purpose of the Academy should be "to develop the purity, strength, and nobi lity of the Swedish lan­reform, however, was made by the government, not guage." The Academy should fulfill this purpose by by the Academy, which, as a matter of fact, was working and publishing a Swedish dictionary; a very strongly opposed to certain parts of it. Since grammar, and "such treatises that can contribute to then it has been accepted that the Academy can the consolidation and promotion of good taste." The make minor changes in spelling and flexion (in the Swedish Academy thus was the first language plan­word-list) without consulting anybody about it, but ning agency of Sweden. Its main linguistic work it cannot by itself undertake a real spelling reform. during its almost 200 years of existence 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 pub­parliament. lishing a comprehensive scientific dictionary of Swedish from the 1520 onwards, called the Svenska Language Planning Agencies in Scandinavia Akademiens ordbok over svenska spraket (SAGB; Swedish is closely related to Danish and Norwe­ the Swedish Academy's dictionary of the Swedish gian, and Swed ish is the second official and national language). This dictionary uses a scientific and his­language of Finland (the other language, spoken by toric approach. To date, it has reached the middleof the great majority of Finns, is Finnish). Icelandic the 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. vian languages, most closely to Norwegian. There More important for Swedish usage and for the are old and close political, economical, cultural, and general public is the "word-list" of the Academy, social connections between the Nordic Countries, Svenska Akademiens ordlista over svenska spraket and the fairly good mutual understandability be­ (SAGL), first published in 1874; its tenth revised tween Swedish, Danish and Norwegian (especially edition appeared in 1973. This word-list now con­in writing) of course has been of the utmost impor" tains about 150,000 Swedish words, giving their tance for the relations between these countries. spelling, flexion, and to a certain extent pronuncia­These relations nowadays have their special politi­ tion. Definitions are offered rather sparingly. The cal platform in the Nordic Council, an institution for book is widely accepted as normative regarding cooperation between the Nordic countries on a gov­ spelling and flexion. Many users also believe that ernmental and parliamentary level. words not included in the' book must not be used in The question of cooperation between the Nordic good Swedish; this is certainly not the case. A word­countries was very much in focus during World War list of some 150,000 words, published once every II, and Nordic linguists were strongly interested in other decade, can of course not include all words in strengthening the connections between the Nordic use, especially not terms from the more specialized Languages, especially Swedish, Danish and Norwe- i' vocabularies of the sciences and professions. gian. In the beginning of the forties there were Since Swedish spelling was stabilized in the plans for establishing a common Nordic language 1800's, there has been one real and official reform committee. These plans, however, were abandoned /-.... of Swedish spelling, in 1906. This rather important at that time, but they have been taken up again late­ ly. Instead, in 1944 a Swedish language committee 'Professor Molde is Director of the Swedish Language was founded (Namnden for svensk sprakvard 'the Committee. He is, as well, a member of the Editorial Board of Cultivation of the Swedish Language'; in Board of the Language Planning Newsletter. (Continued on Page 3)

....! News and Commentary Conferences, Seminars, Workshops

COMMENTARY ON CHINESE LANGUAGE PLAN­ MEETING: International Conference on the NING (cf. vol. 1, no. 2, lead article) Methodology of Sociolinguistic Surveys In our first 'letter to the editor', Dr. John Lum of An International Conference on the Methodol­ the National Institute of Education (U.S. Depart­ ogy of Sociolinguistic Surveys was held at McGill ment of Health, Education and Welfare) writes to University in Montreal, Canada, on May 19-21, update the description of Prof. John DeFrancis that 1975, with Dr. Richard Tucker acting as Chairman. pinyin is relegated to a secondary role in support The Conference was organized by the Center for Ap­ of the tradition characters. Based on Lum's obser­ plied Linguistics, with support from the Ford Foun­ vation as a member of the American Linguistics dation, the International Development Centre of Delegation to the People's Republic of China (Oc­ Canada and the Canada Council. Participants in­ tober to November, 1974), it is his opinion that pin­ cluded scholars from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin yin is no longer in a secondary role. "It is part and America as well as from Canada and the United parcel of China's language reform movement, the States. other two components being (a) the simplification The Conference was devoted largely to the theo­ of characters and (b) the popularization of putong­ retical and practical aspects of the methodology of hua. Our China hosts, by the way, repeatedly men­ sociolinguistic surveys, but was also concerned with tioned that much of what our delegation saw in the broader setting in which such surveys are car­ China's language efforts was devised in the last two ried out, their function as bases for language plan­ years." Those interested in further details on ning, the rationale for planning and carrying out Chinese language planning should see the forth­ surveys, the interpretation of results and the im­ coming volume entitled Language and Linguistics plementation of conclusions or recommendations in the PRC, to be published by the University of based on the findings of such surveys. Texas Press (Austin, Texas). The need to make the papers, the proceedings and perhaps a state of the art paper was expressed Linguistics Serves the People by the participants. As soon as such a publication In a recent article describing a visit to China, materializes, it will be announced in this Newsletter. Charles Ferguson discussed National Language CONFERENCE: Language and Nation Building Planning, Minority Nationalities and the English language teaching in China. The article appeared The National Center for Language Development, in the March issue of ITEMS (Social Science Re­ the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Repub­ lic of Indonesia and the Asian Association on Na­ search Council Newsletter). In this article, Profes­ --.." sor Ferguson pOinted out an interesting comparison tional Languages (ASANAL) are jointly sponsoring between the U.S. approach to language as con­ the Third Conference on Asian Languages. The first trasted with that of China. "The application of lin­ and second conferences were held in Manila in 1972 guistic expertise to language problems of our so­ and 1974. This third one will be held in Jakarta, In­ ciety tends to be incidental and nonprestigious. donesia, on December 1-6, 1975. Further informa­ Chinese scholarly concern with language in con­ tion may be obtained from the Conference Direc­ trast, is so completely problem-oriented and politi­ tor, Amran Halim, Jalan Diponegoro 82, Jakarta cised that linguistic theory as such is incidental and Pusat, Indonesia. nonprestigious." Further, he noted that "The de­ velopment of a viable, standardized national lan­ SEMINAR: Linguistics and Sociolinguistics in guage for the communication needs of the country Indonesia is given considerable visibility." The staff members of the National Center for ---For fl:lrtherimormation, see the fort-hcoming vol­ Language Develo.pment,and lecturers fwm several ume entitled Language and Linguistics in the PRC. universities and teacher training colleges will parti­ cipate in a seminar in West Java this summer (July 1 to August 31) . Lectures and discussions Will in­ THE LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION clude topics in linguistics, SOCiolinguistics, research PROGRAMME OF THE INTERNATIONAL methodology and language planning. AFRICAN INSTITUTE A Language and Education Unit, concerned with the comparative review of linguistic research' and 2) To organise, jointly with institutions in Africa, development in Africa has been set up in 1975. It a new series of International African Seminars, on is proposed that the Unit should address itself to the theme of Language and Education. the following tasks: 3) To continue and expand the IAI programme .., 1) To assemble, review and disseminate infor­ of publications on African languages. mation on past, present and proposed policies and 4) To endeavour to provide, as and when re­ practices relating to the use of African languages quested, practical support for language and educa­ in education, the mass media and public affairs, tion projects in Africa. with special reference to the contrasting or com­ Further information may be obtained by writing: plementary roles of African and non-African lan­ International African Institute guages in the educational, cultural, social and 210 High Holborn, economic fields. (Continued at right) London WC1 V 7BW

2 LANGUAGE PLANNING NEWSLETTER • NO, 3 Sweden-continued

The national standardization organizations al­ so deal with terms and try to standardize terminol­ (Continued from Page 1) ogy and usage in different, mostly technical fields. ~ These organizations cooperate with the national 1974 the name was changed to Svenska spraknamn­ language committees, and the centers of technical den, 'the Swedish Language Committee'). A special terminology. committee for the cultivation of the Swedish lan­ guage 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 organizations 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 Committee', since 1971 Norsk sprakrad, vardssamfundet (the Language Cultivation Soci­ 'Norwegian Language Council'), in Denmark in 1955 ety), in Uppsala. This society has a publication (Dansk Sprognrevn, 'Danish Language Committee), series called Ord och stil (Words and Style), now and in Iceland in 1964 (/slenzk malnefnd, '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 com­ mittee 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 theoff(cial or (as in Sweden) Letters, History and Antiquities, the Swedish semi-official language planning agencies of their schools, the Association of Teachers of Swedish, countries, especially as regards general usage. But the Swedish Center of Technical Terminology, the all of them 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 purpose of this cooperation ic Theatre, the Nordic Society, the Swedish Adult is to avoid new and unnecessary differences be­ Education Association, the Folk University Society, ~ tween the languages and if possible, to try to close The Swedish Marketing Association, and the Swe­ \... the gaps between the languages. dish Language Committee in Finland. The main field for the planning and cultivation The language committee has an executive coun­ activities of the different Nordic language commit­ cil of seven members. The chairman of the commit­ tees 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 ernment 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 institutions dealing with the language(s) of committee have to be approved by the government. technology. In Sweden, such an institution was The committee now has a staff of five: four linguists founded as early as 1941. It is called Tekniska No­ and one clerk. The current di rector of the commit- . menklaturcentralen (TNC; the Swedish Center for tee is Bertil Molde. The government 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, 10072 Stockholm 43) . It is sup­ books published by the com mittee. The Swedish ported by the Swedish government and by a num­ language committee then is a semi-official, state­ ber of the most important private enterprises in subsidized organization, with a large amount of lib­ erty of action within the framework of the statutes. Sweden as well as by several leading organizations -.- _.. ­ 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 to 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 Metals (Swe­ into Swedish since World War 1/ has been studied dish-Eng lish-French-German-R ussian-Japanese). continuously, and a dictionary of new words in Swe­

NO.3. LANGUAGE PLANNING NEWSLETTER 3 dish is under preparation (parallel to similar Dan­ sts, from university professors to school ish and Norwegian dictionaries). The internation­ childre n: Mapyquestions regard terminologies out­ ally renown problem of difficult and complicated side the~conc_ern of the Swedish Center of Technical ,,­ "officialese" is another main field of interest. In Termin9logyso fhe,language committee has tried to 1967 the language committee cooperated with the become,the qentral iF! ~ titution for all suchnon-tech­ government in publishing a booklet on the language nical terminp~ogies-. The~e plans are still being of laws and other official statutes. The purpose of worked on; alsmall start has been made in the field this booklet was, and still is, to modernize the legal of megical lahguage. language and to make it easier lounderstand for Th e"'~ W9diS h school system ~ its own repre­ the common man. Work along these lines will al­ sentative\ ., on l he language co~~'iite . e. The lan­ ways be one of the main concerns of the language guage com'~l! tee has no direct influe~~ cm..!~ e committee. teaching of Sweqish in the schools, or on the,.Sweo­ The Swedish Language Committee has a num­ ish textbooks used in the schools. Its indirec..l in­ bered publication series, now including 55volumes. fluenc ~, how·ever, is rather strong-through'1\tJ e The best-seller among those volumes is Skrivregler books an~ the \q~arterly published by the commi~ ("Writing-Rules"), a manual on punctuation, use of tee. Auth0(.;~p f texl~Qoks in S,wedish norma~ly try to ' capitals, syllabification, abbreviations, and so on. follow the re ~omlT1en datJeQs of the committee. In Although this book is only about 50 pages, more high school (and9f course university) textbooks, than 300,000 copies have been sold. The publication the problem_s qf language cultivation are normally sexies COV9Js.a vasLfi eldof Linguistics and language aiscits-sed ~ "the l~nguageGommittee and its work planning. Other books deal with themes like Swe­ is presented. ·_ ,. . dish pronunciation, word-formation, different re­ The Swedis~~an'g :a{l ~ ~.Committee could be said gional forms of Swedish, the lC;lnguage'of the mass to be an. aqvi~ory board ~ npbody has to follow the ­ media, and so on. One of the' most recent volumes advice or recor;nmen d~ion~iven by the commit­ (No. 51, 1974) is Amerikasvenska ("America-Swe­ tee. Freedom of speecli 1!lc! _ ~ ~~a certain freedom dish") by Professor Nils Hasselmo, University of of usage as ~ IL But in spite of that, the Swedish Minnesota. public seems mpre and more inclined to Consider Apart from this series the language committee the recommenqa~ons from thecprntJ'l!ttee as'nat:: publishes dictionaries: a schoOldicfionary ofSwe­ ural guidelines.towa s good SweBish usage. When dish, a short etymological dictionary, a "style dic­ the committee-is crit ~i_ zed, and thatcertarnly hap­ tionary" (phrases and constructions), a Danish...;Swe-­ pens, the critics tepd to say that the committee and -.-­ dish dictionary. A Swedish pronouncing dictionary its linguistiC s\aff are,\oo lenient and liberal in their and a Norwegian-Swedfsh d~ctiohary are in prepa­ judgment of different k'tnds of usage. People dislike ration. being told that in many cases there are two, or even Since 1965 the Swedish Language Committee more, quite correct possibilities of expressing one­ has published a quarterly entitled: Sorakvard self, not just the one theylhe/Tlselves use. This is a ("Language Cultivation"). Similar periodicals are well-known phenomenon: th ~ layman being far published by the language committees of Denmark more strict, condemning, and prejuc;:licedin his view and Norway. 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 ing a certain amount of linguistic knowledge to the than 7,000 questions from the public are answered general public, thus creating wider understanding yearly, most of them by telephone. These questions of linguistic prgblems an.d ti.nguistic toleranea rarrge-oveTth'e\oVho1e lingni$tic~fie1dctnd are asked by all kinds of institutions and people, from gov­ Nordic Language Committees ernment departments and big industries to clerks Denmark Dansk Sprogncevn V. Voldgade 115. DK-1552 Copenhagen, Denmark Finland Further Nordic Cooperation Suomen Akatemiankielitoimisto (Finnish) Hallituskatu 1, PL 259, SF-00171 Helsinki 17, Finland In April, 1975, Professor Molde attended a Svenska sprakvardsnamnden i Finland (Swedish) conference on problems connected with mi­ c/o 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 con­ Islenzk malnefnd ference, the language and educational prob­ Haskola Islands, Reykjavik, Iceland lems of the Finns in Sweden (and the Swedes Norway Norsk sprakrad in Finland); of the Lapps in Finland, Sweden Postboks 265, Sk0yen, Oslo 2, Norway and Norway; of the Eskimos in Greenland Sweden were discussed. The proceedings of this con­ Svenska spraknamnden Box 2056, S-103 12 Stockholm 2, Sweden ference will be published later this year. '­

in a letter from Professor Molde to the Editor (Correspondence regarding Nordic problems in general or all Nordic langlJage committees can be sent to Professor Bertil Molde, Box 2056, S-103 12 Stockholm, Sweden.)

NO.3. LANGUAGE PLANNING NEWSLETTER 4 Books and Artic!e~';:" ",. ~~ J ~

dren throughout the Soviet Union, employing Rus­ BOOK REVIEW sian as the predominant medium of instruction in \ Multilingualism in the Soviet Union: Aspects of institutes of postsecondary education, fostering the '\ lexical influence of Russian on other languages Language Policy and its Implementation, byE Glyn through providing them with Russian scientific, / / Lewis. The Hague: Mouton, 1972.r xx & 332. (Con­ technical, and literary terms, giving unwritten lan­ tributions to the Sociology of Language, Number guages Cyrillic alphabets, and by managing text­ 3, Joshua A. Fishman, editor) __ ..-­book and mass media priorities so as to favor Rus­ Because of its massive Iinguistic 'divefSTty and sian. The second front, in contrast, is committed to the prominent role it assigns to social engineering, the development of "group" (ethnic, national) cUl­ the Soviet Union provides animportant site for the tures and to the use of non-Russian indigenous lan­ studY-O f language planning. The Soviet Union's lin­guages for social mobilization. Thus non-Russian guistic diversity lies not only in the number of its in­languages have been promoted by concentrating digenotlslanguages, but also in their structural dif­national and ethnic groups territorially, providing ferences and differences in standardization and alphabets for unwritten languages, enriching the modernization. Soviet language planners have en­vocabu~aries of non-Russian languages, employing gaged in a variety of activities in the management non-Russian languages in courts and in the mass of this exceedingly complex situation, including the media and as mediums for literacy campaigns and provision of alphabets for unwritten languages, the instruction in schools, and by transforming tribal selection or creation of standard language varieties, dialects into national languages through standard­ the choice or media of instruction in 'State schools, lzation,grilphicization, and official use.' It might the design of mass literacy campaigns, the moderni­be argued t~t social mobilization, even through the zation of vocabularies, and the formulation of lan­medium of non-Ru$sian languages, leads ultimately guage teaching priorities-aA~d strategies. In addi­to uniformation, centralization, and knowledge of tion, state planning activities with respect to such Russian, and -that it is more expedient to exploit spectacul,arprojects as the establishment of cities, rather than frustrate sentimental attachment to \ the movement of industries, and the cfevelopment of non-Russian languages. Indeed this has been one \ virgin lands, involving the migration, -.o ften over argument for their promotion. Lewis believes that vast distances, of diverse ethnolinguistf't groups, whatever the ultimate motivation, this deliberate \ have resulte(j in new langu.age contact situations, promotion has Lmquestionably strengthened them, with substantial consequences for language main­even if their position has not improved as much as ~ \ tenance and language shift. The Soviet sociolin­has~hat of Russian. I gUIstic situation is so complex and ,its social plan­O, interest is· Lewis' treatment of second-Ian­ ning so manifold that an account of only selected guage)i>edagogy as an aspect of language planning, planning activities in ~he context of only a few So­reflecting both Soviet ideology and the needs of so­ viet ethnolinguistic gfoups would have been a con­cial planning. Soviet ideology emphasizes both the siderable achievement. That Glyn Lewis has pro­importance of the social environment in shaping vided us with a comprehensive account of Soviet human behavior and the possibility of manipulating language policy and its implementation must be re­the environment so as to modify behavior. On the garded as a tour de force. assumption, therefore, that learning can be direct­ Lewis views the historical operation of Soviet ly shaped and speeded, a great effort is made to language policy as a series of alternations between control second-language teaching tightly, leaving centralist and pluralist tendencies. These tenden­as little as possible to teacher improvisation or to cies are always present, only their relative empha­differences in teacher excellence. Thus standard­ ses change, Lewis · emphasizes the idea that lan­ized teaching materials and prooeduresare guage planning is an outgrowth and instrument of stressed. Language pedagogy is an instrument of political decisionmaking and overall social plan­language planning because, as Lewis points out, ning. In a fascinating chapter on political conflict promotion of a language through using it either as and linguistic policy, he describes the periodic ex­medium or object of instruction cannot succeed if pansion and contraction of centralizing political teachers cannot use it to teach or if students do not forces and the reflection of this in periodic adjust­learn it when taught. Lewis argues that bilingual­ ments of language policy. Soviet language policy, ism, which was once primarily oral, has become in­ therefore, has not been inconsistent, although its creasingly literate as a result of expanded and im­ alternations may give the appearance of inconsist­proved education, and that bilingualism, which was ency. Rather, Lewis argues, the alternations have once the result largely of fortuitous circumstances resulted from the basic contradiction, at least in the is increasingly the result of planned language con- t' short run, of pursuing simultaneously the centralist tact, in which the control and systematization of lan­ and pluralist goals of the "two fronts". On one front guage pedagogy has played an important role. Soviet policy seeks uniformation, centralization, Lewis believes that although the forces facilitat­ '-\ modernization, and affiliation to a "civic" or supra­ing the expansion of Russian were operating long national (Soviet) culture. This front is clearly asso­before the Revolution, and that therefore the posi­ ciated with Russians, which has been promoted by tion of Russia would have improved even without making it a compulsory subject in schools, provid­official encouragement, the government's careful ing Russian-medium schools for non-Russian chi 1­promotion of Russian has speeded its advance.

NO, 3 • LANGUAGE PLANNING NEWSLETTER 5 ~: BQ.oks · a. r:,-d~ · A[1jcIe~-~~·~ '~~J'.'.~~" •. ~:~:~'3~' ~~~';~:tT~:~~~ :t-.--,;---. -~~-- .•"..,,-~ . -- 1 I ~_. "',~' ~ ~'&'::~",,"-._ .::LI~ - '.' _"•• -= ;~_:-~_·S However, he also believes that the vitality and resil­reflects an unusual breadth, as can be seen from ience of the non-Russian languages are in most the fact that this book will be of value not on Iy to cases great, that loyalty to them is considerable, scholars and practitioners of language planning . ..--.." and that although government policy has improved and second-language pedagogy, but also to those their position, they would in any case have re­interested in languages in contact, language main­ mained strong for a long period of time. tenance and language shift, demography, political In describing the tenacity with which the non­processes, and, of course, the Soviet Union. While Russian languages are being maintained, Lewis Lewis is as objective as it is possible to be in de­ writes of "the almost mystical unwillingness of scribing such a value-laden phenomenon as social languages to submit to their own demise" (293) . As planning in the Soviet Union, it is clear that his symbols of group identity no less than as mediums sympathies lie with the Soviet Union's minority lan­ of communication, languages do seem to have a life guages. It must have been with considerable satis­ of their own. It is likely that the successes of Soviet faction that he could conclude that the non-Russian language policy can be attributed in part to the ex­languages are strong and that they are likely to ploitation rather·than the frustration of this life remain strong for as far into the future as we are force. To employ another analogy, planners have likely to take an interest. treated the languages of the Soviet Union in much Reviewed by Robert L. Cooper the same way as engineers treat unruly rivers. Just The Hebrew University of Jerusalem as engineers plan dams to regulate the flow of wa­ IN PREPARATION-Language and Education in ter, preventing rivers from overflowing their banks Sub-Saharan Africa: A Compatative Study of Poli­ or from changing their course, and harnessing the cies since 1860 by C. M. B. Brann. regulated flow for irrigation and electric power, so Soviet planners have exploited and controlled lan­This reader is being prepared for the I nterna­ guages. Just as engineers plan a dam so as to take tional African Institute's new program on Language into account the contours of the land and the di­and Education. Among other items of interest it will rection and speed of the incoming waters, so do So­include information on early language planning in viet language planners appear to move with rather African languages, the maintenance and change in than against the forces historically underlying lan­European (international) languages in African guage maintenance and language shift among the education, on African languages of wider commu­ Soviet Union's various ethnic and national groups. nication and their role in communication and edu­ Thus, Lewis believes that Soviet language policy cation and the position of second European lan­ has been implemented more by management and guages in African education. For further informa­ consultative regulation than by imposition and re­tion write: pression, although exclusion of particular lan­International African Institute, guages from the crucial domains of education and 210 High Holborn, employment is not unknown, as can be seen most London WC1V 7BW notably in the case of Yiddish. NOW AVAILABLE-L'Elaboration de la Langue Although the language situation of the Soviet Finnoise by Aurelien Sauvageot, published by Union is, as Lewis argues, sui generis, his book is Klincksieck, (11, rue de Lille, 75007, Paris). rich in references to historical and cross-national examples, parallels, and contrasts. His scholarship The elaboration of the Finnish language consid­ ers the same problem as an earlier book by the same author entitled: L'Edification de la langue THE EAST-WEST CENTER is a national educational institution established in Hawaii by the U.S. Congress in hongroise, namely: the construction of a language 1960 to "promote better relations and understanding be­of civilization with a definite mission. In Finland, tween the United States and the nations of Asia and the the Finnish language was the result of a deliberate Pacific through cooperative study, training and research." effort by a sma" elite group wanting to break up Each year the East-West Center brings together more Swedish linguistic domination. This effort at the than 1,500 men and women from the many nations and national level was to give Finland its linguistic cultures of these regions. They work and study together while exchanging ideas and experiences in cooperative independence. programs seeking solutions to important problems of mutual concern to East and West. For each participant Editor - Joan Rubin from the United States in Center programs, two partici­ Associate Editor - Bjorn Jernudd pants are sought from the more than 60 countries and territories in Asia and the Pacific area. Editorial Board Five institutes with international, interdisciplinary aca­M. H. Abdulaziz Monsur Musa demic and professional staffs conduct the East-West Cen­Joshua Fishman JiH Neustupny ter's problem-oriented programs. Berti! Molde The Center is directed by the Board of Governors of a public. non-profit educational corporation-known as Copies are available free of charge. All correspon­ "The Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Be­dence should be addressed to: tween East and West, Inc."-created by the Hawaii State Joan Rubin . Ed itor. Language Planning Newsletter Legislature in 1975. The U.S. Congress provides basic Culture Learning Institute funding for Center programs and a variety of scholarships. East-West Center fellowships, internships and other awards. Honolulu. Hawaii 96822

6 LANGUAGE PLANNING NEWSLETTER • NO. 3