engleski

Unplanned Language Planning in the EU

Semantically contradictory though it might seem, the expression "unplanned language planning" has a meaning, in fact two: a) planning that is not explicit and b) ad hoc planning in unforeseen circumstances that affect language directly or indirectly and therefore demand a reaction. Hence "unplanned planning" is a type of language planning that helps solve language-policy questions that come up at a particular moment in a particular social context. On-going language policy in the EU is based on language diversity, multiculturalism and pluralism in the identities of official state languages and of minority languages, both those of autochthonous language groups and of allochthonous/non-autochthonous ones. All these feed into a complex multilingual European identity, but they do not all have the same rights: minority immigrant languages are even explicitly excluded from the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (in force since 1998). The Charter has a cultural role rather than a political one since it is oriented towards possibilities for using a language and not towards language rights of speakers ; it protects endangered languages and not minority languages. The hierarchy of minorities, autochthonous and non-autochthonous (refugees, economic migrants) suggests discrimination against the latter, who are often more numerous than the autochthonous. Although immigrant communities have lived in some countries for generations, they are not yet equal in language rights to much smaller numbers of speakers belonging to an autochthonous group. They are thus doubly in the minority: vis-à-vis the majority and vis-à-vis a privileged minority (for them again a majority, though on a different level). Although the Charter (the result of "planned" language planning) excludes them, "unplanned" or ad hoc planning needs to react to the new situation of ever more intensively migrating populations. Immigrant communities by their large size alone call for new approaches to their immigrant language rather than ''laissez-faire" attitudes. A multidisciplinary approach to the problem of immigrant minority languages and an analysis of the documents on European language policy and of varying practices in EU member countries will indicate the consequences both of planned and of unplanned language planning in the new, dynamic European context. In the near future, the new EU members together with their minorities – particularly the non-autochthonous – will surely intensify the changes in status planning for immigrant minority languages in a broader European context. A new language policy adjusted to real language usage will have direct repercussions on the position of immigrant minority languages vis-à-vis other, non-stigmatized minorities, defining their role in education and other domains of use. The European project, despite the policy of "monolingual identity" on the global level, could soon be faced with an impossible barrier of people and languages. Hence we must define both internal and external language policy for the EU (external meaning that all languages in the Union must be accessible), in order to achieve efficiency internally and transparency externally.

multilingualism; language planning; the EU; linguistic minorities; autochthonous minorities; imigrants; immigrant minority languages

LINEE - Language In a Network of European Excellence