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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY


Sociolinguistics vs. the Sociology of language
• Sociolinguistics (society as a window to language)
investigating the relationships between language and society to
(a) better understand the structure of language
(b) better understand how languages function in communication
• Sociology of language (language as a window to society)
to discover how social structure can be better understood through the study of
language, e.g. how certain linguistic features serve to characterize particular social
arrangement

• Language and society → intertwined → impossible to understand one without the


other.
• The language used by the participants is influenced by a number of social factors.
What is sociolinguistics?
• Variation (Social, Geographical etc.)
• Culture (Power, Politeness, Thought, Ethnography, Gender)
• Contact
• Change (Historical Linguistics)
Language variation

• Topics
• Terminology
• Linguistic item and language variety
• Geographical variation
• Language vs. dialect, dialect continuum, isogloss
• Social variation
• Sociolect, slang, jargon
• Contextual variation
• Pronominals, idiolects, registers
• Language policy
Linguistic community
Language

Dialect 1 Dialect 2 Dialect 3

Idiolect 1 Idiolect 2 Idiolect 3, etc.


Language variation
• Languages vary
• from one place to another,
• from one social group to another, and Prestige
Standard Dialect
• from one situation to another
• Therefore we look at:
• geographical variation Social
• social variation
• contextual variation
• Variation has political implications, so we
also discuss language policy

The Three Dimensions of


Variation
Some basic terms
• Terms like ‘language’, ‘dialect’, ‘sociolect’, ‘accent’, ‘jargon’ and ‘register’ are
reasonably hard to define categorically
• For example, defining dialect as a geographical subdivision of a language
requires us to answer the questions -
• What is a ‘language’?
• What do we mean by ‘subdivision’?
• More basic terms required:
• Linguistic item
• Language variety
Linguistic items
• Any basic unit of language
• e.g. words, sounds, grammatical constructions
• Examples of different linguistic items:
• Pronouns yous ‘2pl’ and you ‘2 sg/pl’
• Words child and bairn (N. England, Scotland)
• Phonemes /ʌ/ and /ʊ/ in /sʌn/ and /sʊn/ (‘sun’, ‘son’)
• Suffixes /ɪŋ/ or /ɪn/ in /kʌmɪŋ/ or /kʌmɪn/ (‘coming’)
• Past tense forms caught and catched (dialect)
• Grammatical constructions
Give it to me! ~ Give me it! ~ Give it me!
Language variety
• Definition:
• A set of linguistic items with similar social (including geographical and
cultural) distribution
• May refer to
• a full-fledged language or dialect
• a small set of linguistic items (e.g. slang)
• anything in between (e.g. sociolect, idiolect)
Varieties of English
(a) Standard English No one has gone to the post office yet.
(b) Jamaican Creole Nobadi no gaan a puos yet. ‘No one has gone to the post office
yet.’
(c) Southern US white Non-Standard dialect from Atlanta Nobody don’t like a
boss hardly. ‘Hardly anybody likes a boss.’
(d) Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin) Papa, min bin mekim sin long God na long yu.
‘Father, I have sinned against God and against you.’
(e) Older Standard English of the ‘King James version’ Bible Father, I have sinned
against heaven, and in thy sight.
(f) Scots, from Leith When ah wis a boy ma mither an faither died. ‘When I was a
boy my mother and father died.’
(g) Standard English & English slang We jus run off at the mouth man. ‘We were
just chatting.’
Varieties of Arabic
(h) Chadian Spoken Arabic of Ulâd Eli
• Amm Muusa daxalat zeribt al-bagar
‘Mûsa’s mother entered the enclosure of the cows.’
(i) Moroccan Spoken Arabic
• Bi˘t nəkri sayyara lmuddət usbu:ʢ
‘I would like to hire a car for a week.’
•(j) Standard Maltese
• Mart is-sultan marida afna
‘The sultan’s wife is very ill.’
•(k) Standard Written Arabic
• Ra'aytu nāsan ayra sukkāni Makkata
‘I saw people who were not the inhabitants of Mecca.’
Standard Written Arabic: Classical Arabic and Modern Literary Arabic
Questions
• We have chosen variants of English and Arabic
• We could have compared many other “languages”
? Norwegian ↔ Swedish
? Hindi ↔ Urdu
? Bosnian ↔ Serbian ↔ Croatian
? Mandarin ↔ Cantonese
Do these varieties represent the same or different languages?
Do these varieties represent the same or different dialects of the same language?
How many languages are actually represented here?
• There are no unique (“correct”) answers!
Geographical variation
Dialect
• Topics
• Language vs. dialect “A geographical variety of a language, spoken
• Dialect continuum in a certain area, and different in some
• Isoglosses
linguistic items from other geographical
• Standard languages
varieties of the same language.”

 This is a common definition of ‘dialect’ used among linguists


 Different from the “popular” notion of a dialect being a
provincial variant of the “proper” language
 Problematic because it presupposes a satisfactory definition of ‘language’
Proposed definitions of ‘dialect’ - ‘language’
1. “A language consists of speech varieties that Norwegian  Swedish
Mandarin  Cantonese
are mutually intelligible”
2. “A language consists of speech varieties that Norwegian  Swedish
are considered subordinate to the same Mandarin  Cantonese (? possibly)
Most ‘languages’ have no standard variety
standard variety”
3.“A language consists of speech varieties in (Depending on what ‘large’ means)
Norwegian  Swedish
which a large percentage of words are
Mandarin  Cantonese (? probably)
etymologically related”
• Hindi: Central Tamil
• Braj Bhasha ( ज भाषा) Kongu Tamil
• Khari boli (खड़ी बोली) Madras Bashai
• Haryanvi (ह रयाणवी ) Madurai Tamil
• Bundeli (बु े ली ) Nellai Tamil
• Awadhi (अवधी) Kumari Tamil
• Bagheli (बघेली or बाघे ली) Batticaloa Tamil
• Kannauji (क़ ौजी) Jaffna Tamil
• Chhattisgarhi (छ ीसगढ़ी) Negombo Tamil
• Bhojpuri Sankethi
• Caribbean Hindustani Singapore Tamil
• Fiji Hindi
• A Niger-Congo language
• Spoken in 17 countries
• Mostly in West Africa, especially the Sahel
• Mauritania and Senegal in the west,
through Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger,
Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and
neighbouring areas
• Not geographically continuous
• Interrupted by many areas with hundreds
of other languages The Example of Fula
• Generally assumed to be a single language
with a number of different dialects
Dialects of Fula
• Different Fula-speaking areas can be
referred to as dialect areas • Speakers from neighbouring areas
• Between ten and fifteen major can communicate without problems
dialects; most important: • Each speaks his/her own native
variety
1.Northern Senegal, Southern Mauritania
2.Guinea • But speakers from one end of West
Africa have problems communicating
3.Mali
with speakers from the other end
4.Burkina Faso, Western Nigeria, Western
Niger • Abilities vary from person to
person depending on degree of
5.Central Nigeria
exposure to other dialects
6.Eastern Nigeria, Northern Cameroon
Dialect continuum
• A dialect continuum is a chain of dialects, let us say dialects A–H:
• Speakers of dialects A and B understand each other extremely well
• The same applies to B and C, to C and D, etc.
• Speakers of A and C understand each other rather less well
• Speakers of dialect A and dialect E less well again
• There comes to a point, say at dialect G, where dialect A is no longer intelligible
to the local people and vice versa.
? 
 ()   

A B C D E F G H

  
Isoglosses “The Rhenish Fan”

• Dialects can be mapped using isoglosses


• Lines on a map mark the boundary between
different linguistic items
• Usually no clear boundary between dialects
• The Rhenish Fan in Germany
• Varieties: Low, Middle, and High German
• Linguistic items: ‘ik~ich’, ‘Dorp~Dorf’, ‘dat~das’
‘I’ ‘make’ ‘village’ ‘that’ ‘apple’ ‘pound’
ik maken dorp dat appel pund

Germ-
Low
an
ich maken dorp dat appel pund
ich machen dorp dat appel pund

German
Middle
ich machen dorf dat appel pund
ich machen dorf das appel pund
ich machen dorf das apfel pund
ich machen dorf das apfel pfund
rm
Ge
Hi

Steve Pepper
Abstand languages and Ausbau languages
• Abstand language
• = “Language by distance”
• Regarded as a language by dint of its linguistic distance from other
languages e.g. Basque, Korean
• Ausbau language
• = “Language by development”
• Regarded as a language by dint of its autonomy with respect to related
languages e.g. (standard) Dutch and German
• Standardized form
• Used in schools
• Written form widely used (including as official national or regional
language)
• Ausbau languages arise out of situations with a dialect continuum
• One dialectal variety  standard
• Usually the variety used by educated people in the capital
• Autonomous with respect to other dialects
• Other dialects are heteronomous with respect to the standard
• Status can change over time
• Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian formerly heteronomous dialects of Serbo-
Croatian
• Since 1990s autonomous languages
• Scots, Plattdeutsch (Low German), Provençal once autonomous
• Now heteronomous with respect to English, German and French
(respectively)
Standard languages
• Prototypical properties of a standard language
• Used by educated users, e.g. in the professions, the media, etc.
• Defined in dictionaries, grammars, and usage guides.
• Regarded as more correct and socially acceptable
• Enjoys greater prestige. Non-standard varieties felt to be the province of the
less educated
• Used as a written language
• Used in important functions in the society
• Government, parliament, courts, trade, bureaucracy, education, literature,
industry
• Standard varieties rise and fall
• Reverse of standardization is dialectisation
Not all languages have a standard dialect.
The last word on language vs. dialect?
• ‫אַ שפּראַ ך איז אַ דיאַ לעקט מיט אַ ן אַ רמיי און פֿלאָ ט‬
• A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot
• A language is a dialect with an army and navy
• Usually attributed to Max Weinreich
Social variation
• Geographic distance leads to
language variation
• Social distance also leads to
language variation
• Topics
• Social organization
• Social networks
• Social stratification
• Sociolect
• Slang
• Jargon
Social networks
• Individual belongs to social
networks • Network strength based on
• Stronger or looser ties with degrees of density and
other individuals multiplex-ity
• Dimensions of solidarity
between individuals in their • Dense network
everyday contacts • Everyone knows everyone
else
• Strong networks
• Language changes more slowly • Multiplex relationship
• Stigmatized and low-status • A interacts with B in more
language items persist than one capacity (e.g. as
workmate and friend)
Social stratification • Rank society
• People born with certain rank,
• Hierarchical structure of a low social mobility
society • Speak language of birth
• Arising from inequalities of throughout life
wealth and power
• Different types of hierarchy • Class society
• Rank society • People born into certain class,
• Class society high social mobility
• Europe after ca. 1800 • Change their language in order
• Change from hierarchy of to improve social status
rank to hierarchy of class
From rank to class
• Traditional European rank society
• People spoke the dialect of their home area
• Only minor variation between the ranks
• Easy to locate someone geographically, but not socially
• Change to class society
• Ca. 1800: industrialization
• New social strata:
• Working class and bourgeoisie (middle class)
• Opportunities to improve economic and social status
The emergence of middle class English
• England, end of 18th century
• Standard written language, no standard spoken language
• Middle class speaking habits changed towards most prestigious variety
• Used at royal court in London
• Upper class (aristocracy) and lower class continue to speak local dialects
• Middle class dialect varied much less from place to place
• Network differences an important factor
• Close-knit solidarity characteristic of lower and higher social groups
• Leads to greater stability
• Weaker among middle sectors of society
• Easier to change
• Network structures result naturally from different life modes
• e.g. self-employed, wage-earners, professionals
Sociolects
• Language varieties used by particular societal strata
• Most language varieties have geographical as well as social
distribution
• Geographical variation now larger among lower classes than middle
and upper classes
Huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’
• The story of English -ing
• Originally two suffixes
• Verbal noun [-ɪŋe], written <-inge> e.g.
‘writinge’ cf. NOR skriving
• Present participle [-ɪnde], written <-inde> e.g.
‘writinde’ cf. NOR skrivende
• Erosion  neutralization
• pronounced [-ɪn], written <-ing>
-ɪŋe -ɪŋ
-ɪn
-ɪnde -ɪnd Three in Norway is an account of a “huntin’,
shootin’ and fishin’” trip to Jotunheimen in
• Middle class  [-ɪŋ] (conform to standard)
Norway by three English (actually two
• Upper and lower class retained [-ɪn]
English and one Irish) gentlemen in 1882
• Hence the phrase huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’
• Very informal language variety
• Includes new and sometimes not
polite words and meanings.
• Often used among particular groups of
people, e.g. teenagers or professional
groups, musicians
• Not commonly used in serious speech or
writing Slang
• Some expressions contain ordinary Cockney rhyming slang:
words with a special meaning, e.g. kisser 1. “dog” is short for “dog and bone”, and it
(mouth) means the phone (because “bone” rhymes
• New meanings, often based upon with “phone”).
2. “apples” for “apples and pears” is the
fanciful and creative metaphors and stairs.
metonymies 3. “Trouble” is another word for wife, short
• Other expressions contain special words for “trouble and strife”.
with no «non-slang» meanings, e.g. 4. “Plates” are the feet, or “plates of meat”.
kooky
Jargon Jargon of Fulani shepherds…
guddiri ‘bull without a tail’
• A set of vocabulary items used by wudde ‘cow without a tail’
members of particular professions jaabuye ‘cow with a large navel’
i.e. their technical terms lelwaaye ‘cattle with eyes like a gazelle’
gerlaaye ‘cattle that is like a bush-fowl’
• Computer: scroll bar, SCSI, short happuye ‘cow in milk after her calf has died’
cut, spam... mbutuye ‘cow whose calf has been killed so that
• Police: she may be fattened’
• Suspect elliinge ‘cattle with upright horns’
gajje ‘cattle with horns twisted back’ (also called
• 10-4 - Okay or I understand mooro)
• Code Eight - officer needs hippe ‘cattle with horns drooping forward’
help hogole ‘cattle with horns almost meeting’
lettooye ‘cattle with one horn up and the other
• Code Eleven - individual is at drooping’
the scene of the wijaaye ‘cattle with horns drooping towards the
ears’
tolle ‘cow with one horn’
wumale ‘cow without horns’
Legal Jargon
• Why, may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities
now, his quillities, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Why does he
suffer this mad knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty
shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum! This fellow
might be in’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his
recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: is this
the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his
fine pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of his
purchases and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair
of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will scarcely lie in
this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?
• (Hamlet to Horatio in Hamlet by Shakespeare)
Register
• Registers are varieties of language used in different situations, which are
identified by the degrees of formality.
• The addresses on the NPC is a formal register; a talk between friends is an
informal register.
• Registers can vary from vocabulary, phonology, grammar to semantics.

Register is determined by three factors:


• field of discourse: what is being discussed
• mode of discourse: oral or written
• tenor of discourse: relation between participants
The 3 variables determine the features of language fit with the situation.
Contextual variation – honorifics and politeness in
Korean
Variation within the individual / the idiolect
• Plain level you = nŏ
• speaker to any child; younger sibling, child, grandchild; daughter-in-law; intimate adult
friends whose friendship began in childhood
• Intimate level you = chane
• Close friends whose friendship began in childhood or adolescence
• Familiar level you = chagi
• E.g. male high school or college student; son-in-law; close adult friends whose friendship
began in adolescence
• Blunt level you = tangsin
• Authoritative, gradually disappearing, boss to subordinates, old generation husband to wife
• Polite level you = kŭ-dae (obsolete), taek
• Most popular level towards an adult, used by both males and females in daily conversations
• Deferential level you = ŏrŭsin (rare)
• Used in formal situations such as news reports and public lectures
Language Contact: Pidgins & Creoles
Pidgins
• In the stereotypical case, are formed when speakers of one language
engage or have limited social contact with speakers of another, and neither
knows the other’s language.
• It is the product of a multilingual situation in which those who wish to
communicate must find or improvise a simple language system.
• Limited functions (esp. trade, lingua franca)
• No native speakers (nobody’s mother tongue)
• Contact language involving at least two, often three different language
groups (superstratum and substratum languages)
• Very often, there is an imbalance of power among the languages. The
speakers of one language dominate the speakers of the other languages
economically and socially.
• The superstratum language supplies most of vocabulary
• The substratum language supplies much of the grammar (variable
depending on the speaker)
Expanded Pidgins
• Pidgins usually have limited life-span; can die out when the interactions that
they serve end (e.g., the end of a trade route, slave labour)
• Pidgins will survive longer if at least two substratum language groups are
involved.
• E.g. Non-European language groups not in frequent contact with each other until
arrival of trans-oceanic trade continued to use the Pidgins created.
• English, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, Hindi (Haflong Hindi and Andaman
Hindustani)
Expanded Pidgins
• So the pidgin becomes a link language among the non-Europeans,
who sometimes continue to develop and use it after the Europeans
have left
• True in many West African countries and South Pacific islands
• So it can become an expanded pidgin, like the Nigerian pidgin
Genesis, and remain in wide use.
• Grammar and vocabulary expand as types of interactions become
broader and more complex.
• But still no native speakers.
Hawaiian Pidgin
Labour brought into Hawaiian sugar plantations from Japan, Korea,
Phillipines, Puerto Rico. No consistent word order, no prefixes/suffixes,
no tense or other temporal markers, no complex clauses etc.)
Pidgin - Creole Origins
• Under certain circumstances, expanded pidgins can start to have native
speakers. When speakers of the pidgin marry and/or have children, those
children grow up with other children having similar language backgrounds.
• As they grow up and the language is increasingly used for a broad range of
activities (education, music, religion), it becomes more complex in terms of
grammar, vocabulary, and discourse.
• The pidgin has now developed into a creole, which is “the mother tongue
of a community.”
• Creoles can become dominant languages of communities and even post-
colonial nations: Jamaica Creole, Haitian Creole
• Creoles often co-exist with the standard dialect of a former colonial
European language, which may remain the language of
power/government.
Creoles
• A Creole is defined as a pidgin that has become the first language of a
new generation of speakers, i.e., creoles arise when pidgins become
mother tongues.
• A creole, therefore, is a ‘normal’ language in almost every sense.
• A Creole has expanded in structure and vocabulary to express the range
of meanings and serve the range of functions required of a first
language.
• A pidgin is identifiable at any given time by both linguistic and social
criteria, a Creole is identifiable only by historical criteria—that is if we
know that it has arisen out of pidgin. There are no structural criteria
which, in themselves, will identify a Creole as such, in the absence of
historical evidence.
Creole productions
Pidgins and Creoles
English-Based Pidgins and Creoles
- Hawaiian Creole
- Gullah or Sea Islands Creole (spoken on the islands off the coasts of
northern Florida, Georgian and South Carolina)
- Jamaican Creole
- Krio (spoken in Sierra Leone)
- Sranan and Djuka (spoken is Suriname)
- Cameroon Pidgin English
- Tok Pisin
- Chinese Pidgin English (a modified form of English used as a trade
language between the British and the Chinese, first in Canton, China, and
later in other Chinese trade centers (e.g., Shanghai).
Differences - summary
Social situation Linguistic correlate
1) Marginal contact Restricted pidgin
2) Nativisation Extended pidgin
3) Mother tongue development Creole
4) Movement towards standard language Decreolisation
(creole language reconverges with one of
the standard languages)
Creole Grammar

• Lexis (vocabulary)

• Pronunciation

• Grammar

• Social Functions
Lexis
• Drawn from dominant (lexifier) language (English, French, Portuguese,
Dutch)
• Lexis rules for pidgins are simpler than for mature languages
• Concepts encoded in lengthy ways (circumlocutions)
• Yumitripela “we, us”
• Gras bilong pisin “feathers”
(gras bilong fes; gras antap lang ai; mausgras)
• Extensive use of reduplication
• Pikpik “pigs”
• Gutpela liklik “fairly good”
Pronunciation
• Five vowel sounds: / i e (ɛ) a (ɔ) o u /
• “deep” / “dip” -> /dip/ • Superstrate sounds are not retained
• “work” / “walk” -> /wak/ (phoneme inventory can vary)
• Simplification of consonant clusters although the lexical items are from
• /-nd/ -> /-n/ : /paun/ “pound” the superstrate. Larger number of
• /-ks/ -> /-kis/ : /sikis/ “six” homophones
• Conflation of consonant sounds • /tiŋ/ -> “thing” / “think’
• /f/ -> /p/ : /pren/ “friend” • Syllable restructuring
• /š/ -> /s/ : /bus/ “bush” • Portuguese occupar > Principe
kupa and alma > alima
• English sister > Sranan sisa or
dog > Saramaccan dagu
Grammar
• Pidgins
• Variable from speaker to speaker
• Few if any inflections
• Simple negation: “no” + X
• Simple clause structure
• From pidgins to creoles
• Faster speech
• Consistency across speakers
• Assimilation & reduction processes
• Expanded vocabularies
• Tense system
• Greater sentence complexity
Pidgin Morphology and Syntax
• general lack of inflection, specifically loss of agreement e.g. Tok Pisin
• Sikspela man i kom Wanpela man i kom
• ‘Six people are coming’ ‘A man is coming’

• loss of gender e.g. Tok Pisin


• Em ‘him, her, it (object pronoun)’

• emergence of circumlocutions in place of inflections e.g. Tok Pisin


• haus bilong John in place of John’s house
Social Functions
• Pidgins: Limited range of social functions
• As contact languages, used for minimal communication purposes
• Extended pidgins and creoles: Wide range of social functions
• Oral/written literature
• Education
• Mass media
• Advertising
• Religion
Language policy
 The language situation varies enormously from country to country
 We look here at two very contrasting countries

• Cameroon • Korea
• Languages: 280 • Languages: 1
The linguistic situation in Cameroon
• A typical African village
• Galim, Adamawa Province
• 5–10 local languages
• approx. 3,000 inhabitants
• A local lingua franca (Fula)
• A national language (French)
 • Social-functional classification of these
languages
• LG 1: Fula
• LG 2: Hausa
• LG 3: Nizaa, Vute, Kanuri,
Mbum, Chamba
• Social groups
Patterns of multilingualism • SG 1 – Upper stratum:
merchants
• Fula spoken by everybody • High degree of
• Hausa second lingua franca intermarriage
• The only L2 for the Fulani people • Language(s) of this SG only
• SG 2 – Other villagers
Languages • Own languages and those of
Ethnic groups Fula Hausa Kanuri Other
SG 1
• Often other SG 2 languages
Sedentary Fulani L1 L2
SG1
• SG 3 – Nomadic Fulani
Hausa L2 L1 • On the fringe of village
Kanuri* <L1> L2 <L1> society
SG2
• Own language only; low
Nizaa, Vute,
Mbum, Chamba
L2 L3 L1 status
Nomadic Fulani L1 SG3
Language policy in Cameroon and Africa
• Colonial language French adds a further complication
• Official language since WW1
• Limited use until recently
• Schools, public offices
• Insufficiently understood to function as lingua franca OFFICIAL
(1)
• Only 13% have good grounding
in French from school
• Will probably not replace Fula in Northern Cameroon NATIONAL
• In Africa, the lingua franca tends to be an African (5–10)

language or a pidgin with a European


language superstrate LOCAL
(10s or 100s)
Our societies? Language Policy?
Eighth Schedule • Marathi
• 14 initially included in the
AssameseBengali • Nepali Constitution.
Bodo • Odia • Sindhi added in 1967
Dogri • Punjabi • Konkani, Manipuri and
Gujarati Nepali added in 1992
• Sanskrit
Hindi • Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and
Kannada • Santali
Santali added in 2003.
Kashmiri • Sindhi • Pending: Demands to
Konkani • Tamil include 39 more
Maithili • Telugu languages
Malayalam
• Urdu
Meitei (Manipuri)
• The three-language formula for language learning was formulated in
1968 by the Ministry of Education of the Government of India in
consultation with the states. The formula as enunciated in the 1968
National Policy Resolution which provided for the study of “Hindi,
English and modern Indian language (preferably one of the southern
languages) in the Hindi speaking states and Hindi, English and the
Regional language in the non-Hindi speaking States.”
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE RELATED PART-17 OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF INDIA: Article 343. Official language of
the Union
• (1) The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devnagari script. The form of numerals
to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian
numerals.
(2) Notwithstanding anything in clause (1), for a period of fifteen years from the
commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the
official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such
commencement:
• Provided that the President may, during the said period, by order authorize the use of the
Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devnagari form of numerals in
addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the
Union.
• (3) Notwithstanding anything in this article, Parliament may be law provide for the use, after
the said period of fifteen years, of-the English language, or Devnagari form of numerals, For
such purposes as may be specified in the law.
• Article 120: Language to be used in Parliament - (1) Notwithstanding anything
in part 17 (XVII), but subject to the provisions of article 348, business in
Parliament shall be transacted in Hindi or in English:
Provided that the Chairman of the Council of States or Speaker of the House of
the People, or person acting as such, as the case may be, may permit any
member who cannot adequately express himself in Hindi or in English to address
the House in his mother-tongue.
• (2) Unless Parliament by law otherwise provides, this article shall, after the
expiration of a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this
Constitution, have effect as if the words “or in English” were omitted there from.
Article 210: Language to be used in the Legislature
• (1) Notwithstanding anything in part 17 (XVII), but subject to the provisions of article 348,
business in the Legislature of a State shall be transacted in the official language or
languages of the State or in Hindi or in English:
Provided that the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly or Chairman of the Legislative Council,
or person acting as such, as the case may be, may permit any member who cannot
adequately express himself in any of the languages aforesaid to address the House in his
mother-tongue.
• (2) Unless the Legislature of the State by law otherwise provides, this article shall, after the
expiration of a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, have
effect as if the words “or in English” were omitted there from:
• Provided that in relation to the Legislatures of the States of Himachal Pradesh, Manipur,
Meghalaya and Tripura this clause shall have effect as if for the words “fifteen years”
occurring therein, the words “twenty-five years” were substituted:
• Provided further that in relation to the Legislature of the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa
and Mizoram, this clause shall have effect as if for the words “fifteen years” occurring therein,
the words “forty years” were substituted.
CHAPTER: 2 - REGIONAL LANGUAGES
• Article 345. Official language or languages of a State- subject to the provisions of articles 346 and
347, the legislature of a State may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State
or Hindi as the Language or Languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State:
Provided that, until the Legislature of the State otherwise provides by law, the English language shall
continue to be used for those official purposes within the State for which it was being used
immediately before the commencement of this Constitution.
• Article 346. Official languages for Communication between one State and another or between a
State and the Union- The language for the time being authorized for use in the Union for official
purposes shall be the official language for communication between one State and another State and
between a State and the Union:
Provided that if two or more States agree that the Hindi language should be the official language for
communication between such States, that language may be used for such communication.
• Article 347. Special provision relating to language spoken by a section of the population of a State-
On a demand being made in that behalf the President may, if he is satisfied that a substantial
proportion of the population of a State desire the use of any language spoken by them to be
recognized by that state, direct that such language shall also be officially recognized throughout that
State or any part thereof for such purpose as he may specify.
CHAPTER: 3 - LANGUAGE OF THE SUPREME COURT,
HIGH COURTS, ETC
• Article 348. Language to be used in the Supreme Court and in the High
Courts and for Acts, Bills, etc.- (1) Notwithstanding anything in the
foregoing provisions of this Part, until Parliament by law otherwise
provides-
• All proceedings in the Supreme Court and in every High Court,
• the authoritative texts of all Bills to be introduced or amendments thereto
to be moved in either House of Parliament or in the House or either House
of the Legislature of a State.
• of all Acts passed by Parliament or the Legislature of a State and of all
Ordinances promulgated by the President or the Governor of a State, and
• Of all orders, rules, regulations and bye-laws issued under this Constitution
or under any law made by Parliament or the Legislature of a State, shall be
in the English language.
CHAPTER: 4 - SPECIAL DIRECTIVES
• Article 350. Language to be used in representations for redress of grievances- Every person shall be entitled to submit
a representation for the redress of any grievance to any officer or authority of the Union or a State in any of the
languages used in the Union or in the State, as the case may be.
• Article 350A. Facilities for instruction in mother-tongue at the primary stage - It shall be the endeavor of every State
and of every local authority within the State to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother-tongue at the
primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups; and the President may issue such
directions to any State as he considers necessary or proper for securing the provision of such facilities.
• Article 350B. Special Officer for linguistic minorities- (1) there shall be a Special Officer for linguistic minorities to be
appointed by the President.
• (2) It shall be the duty of the Special officer to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic
minorities under this Constitution and report to the President upon those matters at such intervals as the President
may direct, and the president shall cause all such reports to be laid before each House of Parliament and sent to the
Government of the States concerned.
• Article 351. Directive for development of the Hindi language- It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread
of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the
composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms,
style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by
drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.

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