linguistic imbalance

Noun

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.
   • Before the emergence of democracy in South Africa, the apartheid regime had brought linguistic imbalance.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...
   • 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...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
2. The differential in skills of a polyglot among the languages they know.
   • 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.2002, P. Herdina, U. Jessner, A Dynamic Model of Multilingualism: Perspectives of Change in Psycholinguistics, Multilingual Matters, page 25
3. The use of terminology in a language that treats different social categories (such as gender) unequally.
   • 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.1998 Pauwels quoted in Ronald Wardhaugh and Janet M. Fuller, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, John Wiley & Sons, 2014
   • This linguistic imbalance denies the woman certain privileges, a bias phenomenon that is recurrent in language.2012 Oscar C. Labang, "Binaric structures and female erasure in Ezra Lim’s 'Woman'", Epiphany: Journal of Transdisciplinary Studies Vol. 5, No. 1, 2012