Language planning and the British Empire
This paper seeks to provide historical context for discussions of language planning in postcolonial societiesby focusing on policies which have influenced language in three former British colonies. If we measurebetween the convenient markersof John Cabot’s Newfoundland expedition of 1497 and the 199...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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2002
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.608.5624 http://www.sabrizain.org/malaya/library/langplanning.pdf |
| Summary: | This paper seeks to provide historical context for discussions of language planning in postcolonial societiesby focusing on policies which have influenced language in three former British colonies. If we measurebetween the convenient markersof John Cabot’s Newfoundland expedition of 1497 and the 1997 return of Hong Kong to Chinese sover-eignty, the British Empire spanned 500 years,2 and at its greatest extent in the 1920s covered a fifth of the world’s land surface. Together with the economic and military emergence of the United States in the 20th century, British colonialism3 is widely regarded as the main reason for the global role played by English today.4 It is also an indispensable element of debates about imperialism in general and linguistic imperi-alism in particular. Aims and Scope To discuss postcolonial language planning it is necessary to delve into policies which had a direct influence on language during colonisation. My main aims in this paper are to review the history of language policies in three areas of the Brit- |
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