Language Planning and Language Policy

The book examines the focal issues of language planning and policy in East Asia, including Japan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam, particularly those relating to the selection of official language, script, and written language. Geographical, historical and linguistic factors combined lend coherence to the volume. All the countries and regions in the book were under the strong influence of Confucianist doctrines originating in China in pre- modern times, and adopted or continue to adopt the logographic Chinese script as the sole or supplementary writing system for the indigenous languages. In the course of the transition from traditional to modernizing societies, they have faced very similar ranges of issues and concerns in which language has played a prominent role. Readers of this book will be able to observe and compare how these countries and regions with similar historical backgrounds have handled the various issues of language planning and policy on the road to modernisation. This is the first volume to provide an integrated perspective on this aspect of East Asian Societies. The book is intended for upper-level undergraduate students, for graduate and other researchers, and for educated readers with an interest in Asia in general and in language in particular (or the other way round). It is not an introductory textbook, nor is it intended primarily for specialists in linguistics. Rather, it will provide readers with a broad-brush picture of the major issues which have led to language planning and policy activities in the countries under discussion and have produced the great diversity of linguistic landscapes which prevail within them today.