The Politics of ‘Unplanning’ of Languages in Nepal

Authors

  • Ram Ashish Giri Department of English

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v14i1.3089

Keywords:

Language planning, Unplanning of languages, Multilingualism, Linguistic elitism, Hegemony

Abstract

The elites, who have held power in Nepal since its inception in the eighteenth century, have deliberately ignored issues related to minority/ethnic languages in favour of the languages of their choice. While this ‘unplanning' of languages has been responsible for the loss of scores of languages, it has helped the elites to achieve ‘planned' linguistic edge over the speakers of other languages. This article outlines the sociopolitical and linguistic pretexts of the ‘unplanning' of languages which favours Nepali and English, and explains why privileging of Nepali and English, essential though they are for education, employment and access to the world resources, has, in the existing situation, done more harm than good.

Key words: language planning, unplanning of languages, multilingualism, linguistic elitism, hegemony

DOI: 10.3126/nelta.v14i1.3089

Journal of NELTA Vol.14, No 1&2, 2009 December Page: 32-44

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Author Biography

Ram Ashish Giri, Department of English

Reader in the Faculty of Education, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He has master’s degrees from Nepal and USA and a doctoral degree from Australia, Presently, he teaches at Monash University, Melbourne. He has written textbooks and book chapters and has published articles in the national and international journals. His research interests include English language education, language testing and language education policy. He has presented his research reports at the international conferences in the UK, Pakistan, South Korea, Australia and Nepal. He was the founding secretary of NELTA and also served as its general secretary and later vice-president. Currently, he is a reviewer for Journal of NELTA.

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How to Cite

Giri, R. A. (2010). The Politics of ‘Unplanning’ of Languages in Nepal. Journal of NELTA, 14(1), 32–44. https://doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v14i1.3089

Issue

Vol 14, No 1&2 2009

Section

Articles

License

© Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA)

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