Revaluing Indigenous Language Resources Through Language Planning

Abstract

Each article in this special issue makes reference to some aspect of language planning, although that particular terminology may not have been used. My comments are presented from this perspective. Language planning encompasses the various roles language plays in the building of communities and nations (Ruiz, 1994). Zepeda, Holm & Holm, and McLaughlin speak of how O'odham and Navajo, respectively, serve specific purposes in the schools and communities of their speakers. Begay, Dick, Estell, Estell, McCarty and Sells discuss the micro-level processes centered on language education and the revaluing of Navajo in the school at Rough Rock. All involve aspects of language planning. Ruiz (1990) distinguishes two categories of language planning: corpus planning and status planning. Corpus planning includes the graphic representation, standardization, functions of and attitudes toward the language. Holm & Holm, in their synopsis of the development of Navajo language education, give as examples of corpus planning the spelling of Navajo, standardization of its orthography, and the creation of a written literature. The pride in and attitudes toward Navajo described by Holm & Holm for students at Rock Point and Fort Defiance, Begay et al.'s discussion of similar changes at Rough Rock, the narrative accounts presented

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