Richard B. Baldauf

Language Planning in Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia is an archipelago of great social and linguistic complexity that covers an area about one-fifth that of the United States. Indonesia has an area of about 735,268 square miles (1,919,440 sq. km.), spread over an area much greater than that of the United Kingdom1, consisting of five major islands (Sumatra, Java [the most populous] Bali, Kalimantan, Sulawesi) in a total of about 17,000 (of which about 6, 000 are inhabited), kept apart by some 36, 000 square miles of inland seas. Indonesia stretches 3,180 miles east-west, equivalent to the distance from Boston to Los Angeles or from Dublin to the Caspian Sea and 1,100 miles north-south. (See Appendix A, Figure 9.) It has 224,784,210 people, with the largest concentration on Java. Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism have all influenced Indonesian cultures. Although Indonesia has an official language, Bahasa Indonesia, which serves as a common means of communication, according to the National Language Institute in 1972 there were 418 languages, 15 of which have more than a million speakers. However, the linguistic situation in Irian Jaya, now called Propinsi Papua, is still largely undocumented with the National Language Institute (in 1972) estimating there were 128 languages, Lynch (1998) estimating there were 205, while in 1978 the Summer Institute for Linguistics listed 569 languages (Nababan 1991).

Language Planning in Japan

Japan consists of four main islands (Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu and Hokkaido and the Ryukyu Islands—including Okinawa—also known as the Nansei-Shoto group, and possibly the disputed Kuril group and a number of smaller islands), lying along the northeast coast of Asia, covering some 145, 882 square miles (377, 835 sq. km.). If the Japanese islands were stretched out along the United States East Coast, they would reach from Maine to Florida (roughly 1, 300 miles). Japan has a population of some 126, 549, 976 people. (See Appendix A, Figure 5.)

Language Planning in Australia

Australia is an island continent, that includes a number of small off-shore islands, and the very large island of Tasmania, lying between the Indian and South Pacific Oceans and the sixth largest polity in the world with an area of 2, 967, 893 sq. miles or 7, 686, 850 sq. km. It is an arid ancient land that is about a third desert with most of the population (18, 783, 551) living along the coasts, in the south-east corner and in the capital cities. Australia is a federation of six states (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia), two Territories (Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory) with a number of overseas territories (Ashmore and Carter Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Island, Coral Sea Islands, Heard and McDonald Islands, Norfolk Island as well as claims to a large portion of Antarctica), some of which are not permanently inhabited. Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea lie to the north, other parts of Melanesia lie to the north east, New Zealand lies to the east across the Tasman Sea while Antarctica is to the south. (See Appendix A, Figure 13.) While English is the dominant language, there are more than 200 migrant languages spoken in Australia and perhaps 90 Aboriginal languages remain, although there is ongoing language loss of both languages and registers and only a small number—about 20— are spoken ‘right through’.

Language Planning in the Two Koreas

The Korean Peninsula is a large body of land suspended from China, bounded on the north-west by the Yalu River and on the north-east by the Turnen River, on the west by the Yellow Sea, on the east by the Sea of Japan, and on the south by the Korea Straits.1 The Peninsula is approximately 670 miles long and, at its widest point, approximately 320 miles wide; there are also some 3, 000 islands to the south and west of the Peninsular mainland which belong to Korea, though only the largest (e.g., Cheju-do) are inhabited. Korea (including the mainland and the islands) covers a total area of approximately 219, 020 km2 (85, 050 sq. mi.), 2 of which 120, 540 km2 lie in the North and 98, 480 km2 in the South, with a total population of something in the order of 69, 158, 519 million people (approximately 47, 470, 969 in the North and 21, 687, 550 in the South). (See Appendix A, Figure 6.)

Language Planning in Singapore

Singapore is a small 633 sq. km (244 sq. mile) island state located at the tip of the Malay peninsula—in the heart of the Malay speaking world. With a population of 3,531, 600 it is a densely packed city-state, dependent on trade and the resources of its mainly Chinese background population (76.5%). Malays (15%) and Indians (6.5%) make up most of the rest of the population—although there are quite a number of others (2%) including Eurasians and guest workers from the region as well as from English speaking countries. Singapore is tolerant of religious diversity and these religious practices—Buddhism and Taoism (56%), Christianity (19%), Islam (15%), Hinduism (5%) and other (5%)—reinforce Singapore’s multilingual and multicultural society. (See Appendix A, Figure 12.)

Language Planning in Melanesia

Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are three independent Melanesian Pidgin-speaking polities to the north-east of Australia. The largest, Papua New Guinea, with an area of 461, 690 sq km (178, 258 sq miles), occupies the eastern half of the Island of New Guinea, and includes about 600 smaller islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, and Bougainville. It is roughly twice the size of the United Kingdom and more than 10 per cent larger than California. It has a population of 4, 705, 126. (See Appendix A, Figure 15.) The Solomon Islands to the east of Papua New Guinea and to the south-east of Bougainville are 28, 450 sq km (10, 985 sq miles) in area with a population of 455, 429. The landmass of the group is similar in size to Maryland, Vermont or Belgium. (See Appendix A, Figure 16.) Vanuatu, an archipelago of 13 large islands and 70 smaller ones, lies to the south of the Solomons with an area of 14, 760 sq km (5, 699 sq miles) and a population of 189, 036. It is about 20 per cent smaller than Kuwait, but larger than Connecticut. (See Appendix A, Figure 17.)

Language Planning in Perspective

One of the early questions that language planners (Rubin and Jernudd 1971) asked was—Can language be planned? Having looked in some detail at the development of language policy and planning initiatives in the Pacific Basin, we think it can be said that these studies vividly demonstrate not only that language can be planned, but that planning occurs to meet in a number of different goals. This chapter draws together and describes the disparate threads of language planning that has occurred in the Pacific Basin by examining of some of the underlying language policy-planning and cultivation-planning goals that the polities in this volume illustrate.

Language Planning in New Zealand

New Zealand, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations having gained Dominion status in 1907, is a small polity consisting of two large islands and a number of smaller ones1 covering approximately 268, 680 sq. km. (103, 884 sq. mi., about the size of Arizona, Colorado, or Nevada in the US and globally about the size of Burkino Faso, Gabon, Laos, Romania, Uganda, or the UK), and having a population of 3, 819, 762 people (roughly comparable to that of Arizona or Puerto Rico). (See Appendix A, Figure 14.) It was first settled by the Maori, a Polynesian people, between 1, 000 and 1, 300 CE; the Maori subjugated the indigenous Morioka inhabitants (a Polynesian group whose origin is unknown). The first European to ‘discover’ the islands was Captain Abel Tasman, in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, in 1642. Captain James Cook ‘rediscovered’ the islands in 1769, but British settlement of the islands did not seriously begin until 1839. Britain formally annexed the islands in 1840, signing the Treaty of Waitangi with the Maori Chiefs that ceded the islands to Britain; in exchange for a British government promise to protect the Maori people and to recognise Maori land rights. Despite the treaty, Pakeha (inhabitants of European descent) continuously violated Maori land rights, leading to the New Zealand Wars between 1861 and 1871 which delayed the creation of appropriate government and of genuine economic development. A full parliamentary government had been created in 1856, but it was not until the early 1870s that it became fully operational when the Maori people were granted special representation in Parliament.

Language Planning in the Philippines

The Republic of the Philippines consists of a group of some 7,100 islands of varying size, of which only 730 are inhabited. Located just north of the equator, it stretches about 1,132 miles (1,820 km.) from north to south and about 688 miles (1,100 km.) from east to west; the area (115,830 sq. mi. – 300,000 sq. km) is roughly comparable to that of Wisconsin and Illinois combined—or to that of Ecuador, Vietnam, or Poland. (See Appendix A, Figure 8.) The northernmost islands lie some 330 miles (530 km.) from the mainland of Asia, facing the straits of Luzon and the island of Taiwan; to the east lies the Philippine Sea, to the south lies the Celebes Sea and the archipelago of Indonesia; the Sulu Sea and the island of Borneo lie to the southwest, and the South China Sea and the east coast of continental Vietnam lie to the west. The islands consist of three major sub-groups; the Luzon group (including Luzon [41, 765 sq. mi.—the largest island and the site of the Capitol, Quezon City, and of Manila] and Mindaro [3, 759 sq. mi.]); the Visayan group (including Bohol [1,590 sq. mi.], Cebu [1,965 sq. mi.], Leyte [3,090 sq. mi.], Masbate [1, 262 sq. mi.], Negros [4, 905 sq. mi.], Palawan [4, 550 sq. mi.], Panay [4,446 sq. mi.] and Samar [4,050 sq. mi.]); and the Mindanao group (Mindanao [36,537 sq. mi.] and the islands of the Sulu Archipelago [c. 400 islands with a total area of 1,086 sq. mi.]).

Language Planning in Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam

Malaysia and Brunei are two quite different polities, brought together in this chapter by a common language, aspects of history and geographic proximity on the island of Borneo. Malaysia consists of 11 states in peninsula Malaysia, which gained their independence from Great Britain in 1957, and Sabah (formerly North Borneo) and Sarawak on the north and west portion of the island of Borneo, which joined with Malaya in September 1963 to form Malaysia. (See Appendix A, Figure 10.) Singapore initially gained its independence as part of the newly formed Malaysia, but withdrew in August 1965 to become an independent country. (See Appendix A, Figure 12.) Brunei Darussalam (henceforth Brunei), a Sultanate formed by two enclaves on the west coast of Borneo, initially considered becoming a state in the new Malaysia, but ultimately decided to retain its independence. (See Appendix A, Figure 11.) Malaysia has an area of 127,316 sq. miles (329, 750 sq. km) and a population of 21, 376,066, while Brunei has an area of 2,228 sq. miles (5,770 sq. km.) and a population of 322,982.