Dr.
Paolo Coluzzi
After a
general introduction on Brunei and its linguistic repertoire, the paper goes on
to describe the level of ethno linguistic vitality for the minority languages present
in the country: Brunei Malay, Kedayan,
Tutong, Belait, Dusun, Bisaya, Murut (Lun Bawang), Iban, Penan, Mukah, which
are all Austronesian languages, in addition to various Chinese varieties spoken
by the local Chinese population: Mandarin, Hakka, Hokkien, Cantonese,
Hainanese, Teochew, Foochow.
The second
part of the paper looks at language planning, the discipline that deals with
the maintenance and/or revitalization of languages in general, particularly
minority languages. After a general outline on how language planning works,
specific suggestions are put forward as far as the promotion of the languages
of Brunei are concerned. These suggestions comprise the three stages or areas
in which language planning is normally divided into: corpus planning (i.e. the
elaboration of the linguistic code, divided into: graphization, standardization
and modernization), status planning (i.e. the process of giving status and
prestige to the language by extending the functions for which it is going to be
used) and acquisition planning (i.e. any effort leading to the acquisition of
the language on the part of the people targeted by the language planning). So
far in Brunei, with regards to minority languages, only some aspects of corpus
planning and acquisition planning have been dealt with, and not for all
languages.
The paper
closes with some general considerations about the importance of linguistic
diversity.
Key words:
Acquisition planning, corpus planning, language planning, language vitality,
minority languages, status planning.
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