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LitNet Akademies Jaargang 9(2), Augustus 2012
such as communication with the public, the demarcation of language rights, etc. It shows that
one should be careful in comparing language acts that might not be of the same category and
type, which stresses the importance of a structural analysis and the weakness of normative
approaches where the one act serves as a norm for the other without taking cognisance of
their inherent differences.
A similar analytical comparison is then made between SALB I and SALB II. This enables the
analyst to conduct a relatively rational comparison between the two versions without
following a normative approach (Table 2 below).
Table 2. A comparison between SALB I and SALB II using the scheme for measuring
the presence of sociolinguistic principles of language legislation in different language
acts
Principles SALB I SALB II
Fundamental
Domain -
determining
Legal
instrumental
Proclamation of
official language
Treatment of
linking language
issue
Object of
language act
Communications
with citizenry
Language of
education
Linguistic aspects
of citizenship
3 0
3 0
5 3
3 3
0 0
0 0
Variety 5 5
Authoritativeness 5 5
Demarcation of
language rights
3 0
Total 27 16
The comparison reveals, among other things, that the version of SALB II published in
October 2011 proposes, in essence, a completely different type of statutory measure from that
of SALB I, published in 2003, signifying an important shift in thinking within government
circles regarding a language law. The core finding is that, in actual fact, it should not be
appraised as a potential national language act of the institutionalising type, but rather as a
kind of administrative language measure – and even as a language scheme, in other words as
a corrective normalising language act similar to what the Welsh have. It implies that the
tendency among especially Afrikaans activists and scholars to treat SALB I as normative in
their analysis of SALB II might run the risk of comparing the proverbial apples with pears,
which might draw our focus away from the actual inherent deficiencies of the October 2011
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