Subject: language policy

admittedly , i ' m coming in on the middle of this discussion , having missed the earlier messages . however , i was struck by m . hale 's disturbing feelings about " references to such ( non-linguistic ) issues as " citizenship " and " ethnicity " " . how can you manage a language planning project without taking into consideration such non-linguistic factors , in addition to a study of language attitudes , government policies past and present , language of education and social mobility , etc . etc . ? and something else to think about perhaps . . . while the language planner ( s ) might not favor legal restrictions outright , the legal promotion of a language or languages , which seems like the opposite course , could actually lead to unofficial restrictions of the other language ( s ) . someone mentioned the case of spanish and english in the us . last week i heard a radio ( npr ? ) news report that some monolingual english speakers can't find work in the miami area because they do n't speak spanish ( the report was in reference to a politician 's support of making english the official language of the us ) . at a national / federal level , one could argue that spanish is a minority language ; at a local / city level , one could argue that it is not . do we have here a case of the promotion of spanish leading to unofficial restrictions on english - speakers , at least at a city level , in terms of employment opportunities ? my point is that the definition of " minority language " is going to depend on the specific situation . i am currently involved in a small-scale language planning project ( in the capacity of director ) and the toughest decisions i come across have to do with the " non-linguistic " factors : the people , the emotions , the feelings and the ideas they have towards the other people who do n't speak their language . even a small project is extremely complex . deborah du bartell , ph . d . linguistics program edinboro university of pennsylvania edinboro , pa 16444 usa 814-732 - 2736
