MAR .ICATTIiI I cTi'1 UTF S HALL4-263 FL1:fJP Center ef1 - .asa*U(t fltk /L&" will follow at a later date. The Academy of Ethiopian 2. The Department of Linguistics prepares descriptive, contrastive, and Languages comparative-historical studies of Ethiopia's several and language families. At Jack Fellman* languages present, the department is most actively the most Ethiopia is, after Egypt and Nigeria, involved in alphabetizing languages for in Africa, with some 32 million populous country Ethiopia's massive and intensive literacy some 60-70 A inhabitants speaking languages. programs begun in 1974 and continued most tribes and veritable mosaic of peoples, tongues, successfully in the years following. Indeed, in offers and Ethiopia many challenging problems 1980, Ethiopia received the award of the who must come to ' prospects to the language planner International Reading Association for her grips with such pluralism. success in mass literacy. of The Academy Ethiopian Languages 3. The Department of Literature collects, records, (yäityoppaya qwanqwawoff akadami) was established and studies the folklore of the various in 1976 'under the of the of Culture and aegis Ministry linguistic-ethnic groups of Ethiopia. It also Sports of Socialist Ethiopia to deal with the country's collects, records and transcribes traditional It was set to linguistic pluralism. up expressly replace religious poetry in Classical Ethiopic (Ge'cz), the Amharic previously existing Language Academy and orally transmitted Ge'ez and Amharic organized during the reign of the late deposed Bible commentaries. Haile Selassie.5 As its name the Emperor implies, 4. The Department of Terminology seeks to previous Academy completely disregarded Ethiopia's develop and modernize the vocabularies of as of the linguistic diversity, part single-language Ethiopia's languages to meet the needs of the Amharization of the Such policy previous regime.2 twentieth century. At present, with a grant exclusiveness was now to be a mere relic of linguistic from the United Nations, the department is the past. actively working or expanding Amharic, the At the present, Ethiopian Languages' Academy country's dominant in various has a staff of and is language, permanent 22 language specialists, scientific and technical fields. Some 12,500 headed by a committee of 21 members, including English terms are being analyzed by a dozen writers, teachers, and traditional learned linguists, translation teams of linguists and scientists who men, others. While committee members among meet meet at least once a week for not less than two in session the work plenary every fortnight, ongoing hours in an effort to find Amharic equivalents of the Academy is organized around four for them. departments: The Academy has close contacts with other state 1. The of Department Lexicography compiles institutions involved in planning and modernization, and dictionaries for monolingual bilingual such as the Ethiopian Standards Institute, the Ministry At four Ethiopia's languages. present, of Education, the University, the Armed Forces, and dictionaries are for being prepared Ethiopia's others. The work of the Academy is publicized four Oromo, largest languages (Amharic, through its journal Zena Lossan (Language News) and Welaita), and further Tigrinya languages published three times yearly since October, 1980, and and seminars on of Hebrew and through various programs, symposia, *The author is a senior lecturer in the Department Ramat-Gan, on Semitic Languages, Bar-Ian University, Israel. (Continued page 2) language topics which also receive coverage (albeit Journal of the Language Association qf Eastern Africa It of the is now the briefly) in the newspapers and on radio and television. 1.1-1970-26-30. is interest that author Secre General of the Language planning is new in Ethiopia, and the present tary- Ethiopian Languages' Academy. Academy has only begun its work. We have great For some discussion of this cf. M. Chauvin expectations for the future of its endeavors. policy, "Politique linguistique du gouvernement 6thiopien Notes (1973-1975), Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference 1. For some discussion of this Academy, cf. A. of Ethiopian Studies (Nice, December 19-22, 1977), Gabre-Mariam "The Amharic Language Academy," Rotterdam, 1980, 425-446. - - Mar4afias Language ConferencI I e SYMPOSIUM Languages in National Policies and international 7!NFERENCEThe Marianas Island Language Conference will Relations The 5th Delaware on be held in Saipan, CM on July 13-15, 1983. The major Symposium Language objectives of the conference are as follows: Studies will be held October 13-15, 1983 at the of 1. To address the question of the survival of the University Delaware. The following topics will be addressed submitted Chamorro and Carolinian languages in by papers: modern social institutions. *Governmental decisions on language use, 2. To provide a forum for serious and informed instruction, and dissemination in and discussion of language issues in the Mariana *Language engineering newly developed third world Islands by policy-makers and interested countries individuals. *Language use in international trade, politics and commerce 3. To increase public awareness on the issue of *The flow of technical and scientific information indigenous language retention. across barriers of culture and 4. To develop specific recommendations to insure language, politics a supportive environment for Chamorro and *Research and practice of simultaneous and consecutive Carolinian in religious, government, economic, interpretation media, and educational activities. *The role of world languages in the international scene 5. To generate research and position papers on contemporary For further information, write: the issue of indigenous language retention by native-language speakers themselves. Nancy Schweda Nicholson Coordinator The Conference was conceptualized and planned Symposium of and Literature by a voluntary committee of educators from Guam Department Languages and the Northern Marianas. The Conference will University of Delaware Newark, Delaware 19711 invite the public to participate. However, there will be - a special focus on two groups in addition to the MEETING Dictionary Society of North America conference presenters who present papers. The first and American Dialect Society of group are the policyrnakers of the Governments of The biennial meeting of the Dictionary Society Guam and the Northern Marianas. Special efforts will North America and the summer meeting of the be made to ensure the invitation of key government American Dialect Society was held on June 9-11, 1983 leaders. A second and equally important group are at the Conference Center at the University of community leaders who are vitally interested in the Delaware. retention of the Chamorro and Carolinian languages. For further information, contact: All essays at the conference will be on the topic "How Roger J. Steiner can the Native Languages of the Marianas Be Department of Languages and Literature Maintained." A special feature of the conference is University of Delaware that all papers will be simultaneously translated into Newark, Delaware 19711 Chamorro, and Carolinian. All be English, papers may MEETING - Use of the Languages of the Spanish To ensure a presented in any of the three languages. State in Public Administration balanced and broadbased level of participation, twenty The School of Public Administration in Barcelona, from the other islands will be invited to participants Spain is sponsoring a meeting about "The Use of the the conference from Guam, 5 from Tinian, 5 from (10 Languages of the Spanish State in Public information, write: Rota). For more Administration" between the 3rd and 15th of October, Rosa S. Palomo 1983. Topics covered include: P. 0. Box 909 *Definition and characteristics of administrative Agana, Guam 96910 language 0 2 Language Planning Newsletters Volume 9 Number 3 MEETING - et *Description of the legal situation of official use Aménagement linguistique and of languages développement (Language planning *Description of the normalization process of the development) official use of languages The 2e Colloque de terminologie franco-arabe in Rabat, Morocco *Description of the different administrative was held on September 13-18, 1982 - et languages of the Spanish state (including on the subject of Aménagement linguistique and Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician, Bable, and développement (language planning development). Occitan) The conference was organized jointly by Mohammed V University in Rabat and the University of Tunis. For further information, write: There was a discussion of problems related to Enric Rebés i Sole Josep linguistic development as well as co-operation between Director French- and Arabic-speaking countries. Escola d'Administracio Publica Got information, contact: de Generalitat Catalunya Corbeil Barcelona, Jean-Claude Spain CIRELFA 1410, rue Stanley Montréal, H3A 1P8 Canada - INFORMATION WANTED Language Planning in resolution 4/Ol/C.6.A approved by the General Africa Conference of UNESCO to encourage "The utilization Reader Babacar Ndiaye, an M.A. student at of the media in national and international Lancaster University, is presently working on a thesis programmes of rural development." entitled "Language Planning: An Essay Towards a The conference brought together experts from Solution To The Languages Problems of Senegal." He Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and would like to get in touch with anyone