The concepts of discerned and designed languages and their relevance for Africa

Abstract

his paper starts by pointing out that pleas for increased use of African languages, for example as medium of instruction in education, seem to have fallen on deaf ears and attract almost no following from non-linguist circles. The paper argues that this is partly due to a linguistic focus on language as spoken, especially with regard to Africa, overlooking the importance of language in its written, formal forms. This is coupled to a lack of attention to language policy in linguistic research. A way out of this conundrum is proposed, inspired by earlier work of Kloss. The paper introduces a distinction between language as discerned and language as designed or formalized. Making this distinction makes it possible to consider using one designed (standardized) language to serve speakers of several related discerned languages (as happens in many parts of the world). In contrast to current thinking, such a designed language need not be mutually intelligible with all languages it serves – as long as it is easy to learn. For Africa, this means that rational choices for developing a limited number of languages into formalized form become possible. The paper proposes five principles that could guide such choices. The paper discusses the issue of ‘ease of language learning’, arguing that the limited research available points to its relevance for Africa. The paper concludes by pointing to a number of new research questions, related to the policy choices that need to be made and the planning that will be necessary in order to achieve a proper implementation of a transition to using African languages in formal domains.