Language policy

Language policy refers to the deliberate arrangements made to establish the relationship between a language (or languages) and the society in which it (or they) are used. The process of planning, executing and evaluating such action is referred to as language planning.

 

Language policy and language planning can focus on, for example, the status of a language in society. Finland, for instance, has a range of legislation (e.g. Language Act, Saami Language Act) that ensures the right of individuals to use their own language in dealings with public authorities. Planning the status of languages may also include reviving the use of a threatened language or deciding on the languages used in education.

 

Language policy may also be directed at the content of a language, in which case the language planning undertaken is known as corpus planning. The consolidation of a particular form of language into a standard language and issues concerning the use of a language are also within the realm of corpus planning.

 

A further category of language planning concerns the teaching of national languages, foreign languages and regional and minority languages.

 

Matters concerning status planning and corpus planning fall within the remit of the Institute for the Languages of Finland.