ABSTRACT
Language planning projects in most states stem from, and also feed into, policy statements on language. Their aim is generally to underwrite political decisions concerning language that have already been made or to provide political decision makers with a ‘secure basis’ on which to shape language policy. Ideally of course, the state commissions linguists and sociolinguists to carry out language planning projects and to provide the secure basis needed by the politicians in power, although reality frequently clashes with this ideal. Indeed, even in the ideal cases in which the ‘expertise’ of linguists and sociolinguists has been sought — and the case that I shall discuss in this chapter is one of these — there is a very real danger of collaborating with or openly opposing ideologies which politically legitimise the social construction of state, ethnicity citizenship, etc. 2 The policies themselves and the decisions deriving from them, however, may have far-reaching effects on the people for whom they are made, effects which they may not always perceive to be in their best interests.
