Welsh Journals

Issues and Developments in Planning in Wales Edited by PHILIP COOKE Lecturer in Town Planning, U.W.I.S.T., Cardiff LANGUAGE PLANNING: Part Two Language Erosion A Spatial Perspective STEPHEN WYN WILLIAMS Department of Geography, University of Keele Introductlon In common with other forms of planning, language planning involves the process of problem identification, establishment of goals, select- ion of means and the prediction of outcomes in a systematic and ex- plicit manner. In particular, language planning focusses upon the solutions to language problems through decisions about alternative goals and the means and outcomes to solve these problems The problems which face language planners can perhaps be seen most clearly in developing nations especially in the wake of decoloniz- ation, where the resolution of linguistic problems is crucial to socio- cultural integration. However, multilingual nations exist in all parts of the world. Nearly all European countries contain linguistic minorit- ies, that is, groups of speakers who have as their native variety a language other than the dominant language or 'language of wider communication' of the country in which they live. For such minority groups the overriding problem is one of language maintenance or language erosion in the face of a dominant language or culture. With- in this context the purpose of the present paper is not prescriptive, rather the intention is to examine some basic socio-economic factors which underly the present position of the Welsh language, the full appreciation of which is seen as being fundamental to policy form- ulation. Language Malntenance and langnage Erosion J.A.Fishman has written "the study of language maintenance and