Pre-colonial Systems of Writing and Post-colonial Languages of Publication

Abstract

Previous accounts of 'europhone' status (anglophone, francophone, etc.) have inadequately addressed spoken-written differences as well as different post-colonial developments taken by Southeast Asia, South Asia, North Africa and East Africa vis-a-vis those of West Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. This paper investigates to what extent the presence or absence of precolonial use of systems of writing may be related to these differences. The paper begins by distinguishing 'languages of publication' (PLs) from official, national, colonial, and indigenous languages. Based on an investigation of shift in PLs from colonial times to the present in 59 countries, developments are generalised into three types: (1) 'vernacularisation' (Cobarrubias, 1983) of PLs, where an indigenous language replaces the former colonial language as PL, (2) 'internationalisation' of PLs, where a former colonial language is retained as PL, and (3) concurrent vernacularisation and internationalisation, where both occur. It is found that developments (1) and (3) generally occurred in areas where there had been significant precolonial use of systems of writing, and that the development (2) generally occurred where there had been none. When considered alongside key factors such as degree of linguistic homogeneity and linguistic population size, the 'precolonial writing system factor' provides a more comprehensive account of which countries have opted for- with regard to PL usage- vernacularisation, internationalisation, or both.