linguistic imbalance

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

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.

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.