A new language policy, old language practices: status planning for African languages in a multilingual South Africa

2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Practices ◽  
African Languages

14. SOCIAL CHANGE AND LANGUAGE SHIFT: SOUTH AFRICA

2003 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 225-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Language Maintenance And Shift ◽  
History Of

Studies of social change and language maintenance and shift have tended to focus on minority immigrant languages (e.g., Fishman, 1991; Gal, 1979; Milroy, 2001; Stoessel, 2002). Very little is known about language shift from a demographically dominant language to a minority but economically dominant one (e.g., Bowerman, 2000; de Klerk, 2000; Kamwangamalu, 2001, 2002a,b, & in press; Reagan, 2001). This chapter contributes to such research by looking at the current language shift from majority African languages such as Sotho, Xhosa, and Zulu to English in South Africa. In particular, it examines to what extent the sociopolitical changes that have taken place in South Africa (i.e., the demise of apartheid and its attendant structures) have impacted everyday linguistic interaction and have contributed to language shift from the indigenous African languages to English, especially in urban Black communities. It argues that a number of factors, among them the economic value and international status of English, the perceived lower status of the indigenous African languages, the legacy of apartheid-based Bantu education, the new multilingual language policy, the linguistic behaviors of language policy makers, etc., interact in complex ways to accelerate language shift in urban Black communities. In conclusion, the chapter explores ways in which the observed language shift can be curbed to prevent what Skutnabb-Kangas (2000) has termed “linguistic genocide,” particularly in a country that has a well-documented history of this phenomenon (Lanham, 1978; Prabhakaran, 1998).

Macro-Level policy and Micro-Level planning

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3.1-3.18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Barkhuizen ◽  
Ute Knoch
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
National Language ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Language Practices ◽  
Micro Level

This article reports on a study which investigated the language lives of Afrikaans-speaking South African immigrants in New Zealand. Particularly, it focuses on their awareness of and attitudes to language policy in both South Africa and New Zealand, and how these influence their own and their family’s language practices. Narrative interviews with 28 participants living in towns and cities across New Zealand reveal that while living in South Africa they were generally aware of macro-level language policies in the country, and were able to articulate how these policies influenced language practices at work and within their families. The absence of an explicit national language policy in New Zealand means that these immigrants, on arrival in New Zealand, base their understanding of the linguistic context in the country on the language practices that they observe in their day-to-day lives. It is these observations which guide their decision-making with regard to their own and their family’s language practices.

Macro-Level policy and Micro-Level planning

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3.1-3.18
Author(s):  
Gary Barkhuizen ◽  
Ute Knoch
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
National Language ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Language Practices ◽  
Micro Level

This article reports on a study which investigated the language lives of Afrikaans-speaking South African immigrants in New Zealand. Particularly, it focuses on their awareness of and attitudes to language policy in both South Africa and New Zealand, and how these influence their own and their family’s language practices. Narrative interviews with 28 participants living in towns and cities across New Zealand reveal that while living in South Africa they were generally aware of macro-level language policies in the country, and were able to articulate how these policies influenced language practices at work and within their families. The absence of an explicit national language policy in New Zealand means that these immigrants, on arrival in New Zealand, base their understanding of the linguistic context in the country on the language practices that they observe in their day-to-day lives. It is these observations which guide their decision-making with regard to their own and their family’s language practices.

Why English dominates the central economy

2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Wright
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
African Society ◽  
World Language ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Economic Basis ◽  
State Of Affairs

This paper sets out to formulate some of the economic reasons for the continuing dominance of English in the boardrooms, government forums, parastatals and laboratories of South Africa, to consider whether this situation is likely to change, and to assess the extent to which such a state of affairs is at odds with South Africa’s new language policy. The historical reasons for the dominance of English in this sphere are well known: the language’s imperial history, its status as a world language, its role as a medium for political opposition during the apartheid conflict, and the accumulation of capital and economic influence by English-speakers from the mid-nineteenth century onward. However, the day-to-day economic basis for the continuing dominance of English at the apex of South African society has hardly been considered.

scholarly journals The Evaluation of Harm and Purity Transgressions in Africans: A Paradigmatic Replication of Rottman and Young (2019)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeyemi Adetula ◽  
Patrick S. Forscher ◽  
Dana Basnight-Brown ◽  
Jordan Rose Wagge ◽  
Takondwa Rex Namalima ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Training Method ◽  
African Countries ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Training Materials ◽  
Moral Transgressions ◽  
Preparatory Work

Improving the generalizability of psychology findings to a culture requires sampling participants in that culture. Yet few psychology studies sample Africans. We believe we can expand the capacity of African psychology researchers by giving them freely available, cutting-edge research tools and workflows. We used a training method developed by the Collaborative Replication and Education Project (CREP) to support and train 23 African collaborators to conduct a paradigmatic replication of the psychology of moral transgressions (Rottman & Young, 2019) in 6 African countries (Egypt, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania). We completed extensive preparatory work, including developing training materials in African languages, assessing our collaborators’ current research capacity, and conducting a re-analysis of Rottman and Young’s original data. This project has the potential to improve research capacity in Africa and provide empirical evidence on Africans' moral judgment of purity transgressions.

scholarly journals New speakers of new and old languages: an investigation into the gap between language practices and language policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Spotti ◽  
Sjaak Kroon ◽  
Jinling Li
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Practices ◽  
New Speakers

Language Policy Execution

2020 ◽  
pp. 579-614
Author(s):  
Paul Hendry Nkuna
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
South African Universities ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
The Republic

South Africa is a multilingual country with 11 official languages. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, provides that every learner may use the official language of his or her choice in any public institution of the country. The Language Policy for Higher Education (Ministry of Education, 2002) requires all South African universities to develop and execute language policies. This chapter focuses on language policy execution by South African universities. The emphasis is on the execution of language policy in relation to the promotion and development of the nine official indigenous languages, namely isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga.

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