linguistic imbalance

linguistic imbalance (countable and uncountable, plural linguistic imbalances)

1. The levels of official use or representation of languages that are perceived not to reflect their use in the population.
   • 2002 Ntombela Berrington Xolani Siphosakhe, "Language in education : a sociolinguistic aspect in Black African high schools in Eshowe District," A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English at the University of Zululand, 2002. [abstract]

     Before the emergence of democracy in South Africa, the apartheid regime had brought linguistic imbalance.

   • 2009 October 1, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, “Resistance to linguistic feudalism and Darwinism: Conditions for creating a reading culture in Africa”, in Pambazuka News, number 450:

     We can then generalise and say that where there is a situation of domination and subordination, between any two groups, whatever their colour or religion, this will be reflected in the language relationship. Unfortunately the linguistic imbalance of power takes a life of its own and may continue even after the underlying economic and political situation has changed.

   • 2011 Pierre Anctil, "Reasonable Accommodation in the Canadian Legal Context: A Mechanism for Managing Diversity or a Source of Tension?" in H. Adelman and P. Anctil, eds., Religion, Culture, and the State: Reflections on the Bouchard-Taylor Report, University of Toronto Press, 2011.

     Being vulnerable as an official language minority within the Canadian federation, the Québec francophones thus reaffirmed their commitment to the values of pluralism and diversity while also taking measures to prevent the worsening, through the anglicization of immigrants, of the existing historical linguistic imbalance within Canada.

   • 2012 J. McDonagh, et al, "Sustainability and Getting the Balance Right in Rural Ireland," in T. Varley et al, eds., A Living Countryside?: The Politics of Sustainable Development in Rural Ireland, Business and Economics, 2012.

     Linguistic imbalance, reflecting and [sic] the growing dominance of English and the continuing decline of Irish, are addressed in Mac Donnacha and Ó Giollagáin's paper where the nature of this decline, its extent and attempts at countering it are all explored.

   • 2013, Susan Bassnet, Translation‎, Routledge:

     Such dominance by one language has implications for other, less widely spoken languages; it also produces another kind of linguistic imbalance, as foreign language learning among native English speakers is in decline, a fact that has serious implications for the future.

   • 2014 M. Bielenia-Grajewska, "Linguicism," in L.H. Cousins, ed., Encyclopedia of Human Services and Diversity, Sage Publications, 2014.

     Another type is informational linguicism, which is connected with limited access to information caused by linguistic imbalance in a given setting.

2. (linguistics) The differential in skills of a polyglot among the languages they know.
   • 2002, P. Herdina, U. Jessner, A Dynamic Model of Multilingualism: Perspectives of Change in Psycholinguistics, Multilingual Matters, page 25:

     Whilst the principle of linguistic imbalance is confirmed by a number of researchers, Ridley and Singleton (1995), amongst others (e.g. Kellerman & Sharwood Smith, 1986), point out that the perception of language distance is at least an equally important factor.

3. The use of terminology in a language that treats different social categories (such as gender) unequally.
   • 1998 Pauwels quoted in Ronald Wardhaugh and Janet M. Fuller, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, John Wiley & Sons, 2014

     The aims of many feminist LP [language planning] efforts are to expose the inequalities in the linguistic portrayal of the sexes which reflect and contribute to the unequal positions of women and men in society and to take action to rectify this linguistic imbalance.

   • 2012 Oscar C. Labang, "Binaric structures and female erasure in Ezra Lim’s 'Woman'", Epiphany: Journal of Transdisciplinary Studies Vol. 5, No. 1, 2012

     This linguistic imbalance denies the woman certain privileges, a bias phenomenon that is recurrent in language.