The Language Situation, Sociolinguistic Profile Formulae and Bi- and Trilingual Ballot Papers

Abstract

In order to describe a language situation it is necessary to choose an adequate model which is a very complicated task owing to the fact that every language situation is unique in itself. During the 1960s, there were efforts made to discover general patterns for multilingual communities. Those efforts led to the identification of national sociolinguistic typologies and profile formulae. Their advantage is that they have been designed based on objective criteria and that they allow designations for newly discovered circumstances. I thus picked the sociolinguistic profile formula and applied it to the language situation in Georgia’s province of Kvemo (Lower) Kartli. The choice appeared to be successful in two ways: 1) the sociolinguistic profile formula appeared to be an adequate model for the language situation in this case; 2) a new function (viz., use as a language of ballot papers) was identified, so far not dealt with in the sociolinguistic literature. Hence, a new designation was added to the formula.