Abstract
Drawing from Fishman’s ideas on language planning and multilingualism, the aim of this article is to explore isihlonipho sabafazi ‘women’s language of respect’, a variety of the Ndebele language spoken in Zimbabwe, as a minority language by analyzing the attitudes and ideologies directed at female isihlonipho speakers by not only male but also female legal experts in rape trials. In analyzing data consisting of interview transcripts with male and female attorneys on how they view and respond to isihlonipho in the courtroom, the focus is on the societal biases, ideologies, and attitudes towards isihlonipho use that are demonstrated. The findings suggest that language planning is an elitist enterprise that conceals inequalities and leads to injustice under the guise of law. Use of isihlonipho in the courtroom allows insight into how language planning is based on hegemonic discourses that permit discriminatory language practices. Given that speakers of isihlonipho do not adapt to the dominant language ideology, they then face dual marginality and are denied access to justice. This, in turn, raises important questions about power and ethics in language planning in that while language planning may address issues of multilingualism, at minimum it addresses diversity from without and not within.
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©2017 by De Gruyter Mouton
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introducing the Joshua A. Fishman Award
- A feast of letting go
- Articles
- Introduction: Joshua Fishman – public intellectual and intellectual activist
- Joshua A. Fishman: a scholar of unfathomable influence
- “Shikl, what did you do for Yiddish today?” An appreciation of activist scholarship
- A researcher writes for his people: who writes what language for whom and when?
- From language maintenance and intergenerational transmission to language survivance: will “heritage language” education help or hinder?
- Language ideology and language order: conflicts and compromises in colonial and postcolonial Asia
- On the relation between the sociology of language and sociolinguistics: Fishman’s legacy in Brazil
- Status of “women’s language” in a multilingual jurisdiction: power and ethics in legal monolingualism
- Translation and language policy in the dynamics of multilingualism
- Shh, hushed multilingualism! Accounting for the discreet genre of translanguaged siding in lecture halls at a South African university
- Book review
- Hult, Francis M. & David Cassels Johnson: Research methods in language policy and planning: A practical guide
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introducing the Joshua A. Fishman Award
- A feast of letting go
- Articles
- Introduction: Joshua Fishman – public intellectual and intellectual activist
- Joshua A. Fishman: a scholar of unfathomable influence
- “Shikl, what did you do for Yiddish today?” An appreciation of activist scholarship
- A researcher writes for his people: who writes what language for whom and when?
- From language maintenance and intergenerational transmission to language survivance: will “heritage language” education help or hinder?
- Language ideology and language order: conflicts and compromises in colonial and postcolonial Asia
- On the relation between the sociology of language and sociolinguistics: Fishman’s legacy in Brazil
- Status of “women’s language” in a multilingual jurisdiction: power and ethics in legal monolingualism
- Translation and language policy in the dynamics of multilingualism
- Shh, hushed multilingualism! Accounting for the discreet genre of translanguaged siding in lecture halls at a South African university
- Book review
- Hult, Francis M. & David Cassels Johnson: Research methods in language policy and planning: A practical guide