ABSTRACT
Do you remember the bible’s Book of Esther? Since you are interested in language planning, you may want to go back and read it again (or even read it for the first time). It is not only a brief and exciting story, which includes a beauty contest to find a new Queen for the great King of Persia and Media (whose empire is said to have spread from India to Ethiopia), but it also contains explicit references to a very modern and multicultural language policy for those ancient times. When the mighty Ahasuerus sought to notify the people in the many provinces of his decision to choose a new queen, based on a criterion of beauty alone, he sent news of an impending beauty contest for this very purpose to all corners of the far-reaching empire consisting of over 127 provinces and even more “peoples”. And how was the news delivered by swift runners, dispatched in every direction, in order to make the king’s plans known far and wide? The text tells us that letters were sent: “into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language” (Esther 1:23 King James Version).
