Abstract
Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size ABSTRACT Language politics could be described as administrative regulations regarding language (Renkema 1987). This definition however does not clearly reflect the ideological side of language politics as is illustrated by the two cases in point: the politics of defining Standard Afrikaans and the politics of language corpus planning for Standard Afrikaans. The recent decision by the language commission of the S.A. Academy that capital letters should be avoided in the spelling and use of group (and colour) terms, i.e. black in stead of Black, signifies the role of the current reform politics in corpus planning. It could therefore be argued that a definition for Standard Afrikaans is no longer a mere linguistic issue. The definition formulated by a reform orientated Afrikaner linguist will differ from that by a conservative. Another issue involved is what Milroy & Milroy (1985) have proposed as the ideology of standardisation. One should thus resort to a definition that reflects (a) the regulating aspect of language politics, (b) the ideology of language politics and (c) the ideology of standardisation.
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