Sociolinguistic approaches to writing systems research

Abstract

Writing systems have attracted relatively little attention from sociolinguists, in spite of obvious connections with subjects of great sociolinguistic interest, such as ethnicity and identity. In fact, the literature contains a substantial amount of research on writing systems from a sociolinguistic perspective, but there is no recognised ‘sociolinguistics of writing systems’ within which different case studies can be researched and compared from a social and cultural point of view. This article will discuss and review research in the sociolinguistics of both writing systems and orthographies, taking a perspective drawn from literacy studies which treats writing systems as social practice. The paper will focus on stages of writing system development where social and cultural considerations typically play a role: the initial choice of script, the period when the orthography and/or script is developed, and once it is an established system in regular use. There is also a discussion of how social and cultural factors are involved in, and often stand in the way of, writing system reform.