Between the Local and the Global: South African Languages and the Internet

ABSTRACT This article addresses some of the potential of the Internet in building a new South African nationhood, especially through language. However, before the Internet can really promote multilingualism and multiculturalism in South Africa, the severe inequalities that mark access to the medium need to be overcome, possibly by sharing resources between minority languages, of which Afrikaans is economically in the strongest position. Within the globalised world order, English is at the top of the hierarchy of dominance. It is the most commonly spoken second language and the lingua franca in the international business, media, scientific and academic worlds. While some welcome English as a means of communication with the potential of overcoming the global tower of Babel, others argue that minority languages might become threatened by 'language death'. For instrumental purposes, English has become the lingua franca in South African public life. While this means that the use of Afrikaans has been dramatically scaled down to occupy the position of a minority language, the other nine indigenous languages are at an even bigger disadvantage. Probably the greatest barrier in the way of indigenous languages gaining a presence on the Internet remains the problem that has come to be known as the digital divide. Access to the Internet is still marred by severe inequalities.

Download Full-text

A Literary Standard and Its Discontents

Mixed Messages ◽

10.7591/cornell/9781501750502.003.0005 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 115-142

Author(s):

Kathryn E. Graber

Keyword(s):

News Media ◽

Indigenous Languages ◽

Indigenous Language ◽

Minority Languages ◽

Social Functions ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

Linguistic Resources ◽

Language Standardization ◽

Hard Time ◽

Crucial Component

This chapter analyzes Buryat language standardization as an example of truncated standardization, a problem that characterizes many minority languages in postcolonial contexts. It discusses why indigenous languages like Buryat are more likely to be surrounded by a different lingua franca, such as Russian, and used between speakers of different dialects to reduce the immediate need for a standardized indigenous language. It assesses how media makers and other language elites persist in trying for standardization in an effort to create and maintain a strong literary standard as a crucial component of the Buryat modernizing project. The chapter also talks about contemporary audiences who control colloquial forms of Buryat but have a hard time understanding Buryat-language media, particularly news media. It investigates linguistic resources, such as dialects and Russian–Buryat mixed forms, that are not part of the literary standard but serve important social functions in certain contexts.

Download Full-text

Between the Local and the Global: South African Languages and the Internet

10.1163/9789004474048_005 ◽

2003 ◽

pp. 65-83

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Global South ◽

The Internet ◽

African Languages

Download Full-text

Between the Local and the Global: South African Languages and the Internet

African and Asian Studies ◽

10.1163/15692090260449995 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 1 (4) ◽

pp. 303-321 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Herman Wasserman

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Global South ◽

The Internet ◽

African Languages

Download Full-text

The Choice of Language for African Creative Writers

English Linguistics Research ◽

10.5430/elr.v7n2p46 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 46 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Edadi Ilem Ukam

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

African Literature ◽

Indigenous Languages ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

Native Languages ◽

African Languages ◽

Know How ◽

European Languages ◽

Creative Writers ◽

African Writers

Language issue has been considered as a major problem to Africa. The continent has so many distinct languages as well as distinct ethnic groups. It is the introduction of the colonial languages that enable Africans to communicate with each other intelligibly: otherwise, Africa has no one central language. Among the colonial languages are English, French, Arabic and Portuguese which today serve as lingua franca in the mix of multiple African languages. Based on that, there is a serious argument among African critics about which language(s) would be authentic in writing African literature: colonial languages which serve as lingua franca, or the native indigenous languages. While some postcolonial African creative writers like Ngugi have argued for the authenticity and a return in writing in indigenous African languages, avoiding imperialism and subjugation of the colonisers, others like Achebe are in the opinion that the issue of language should not be the main reason in defining African literature: any languagecan be adopted to portray the lifestyles and peculiarities of Africans. The paper is therefore, designed to address the language debate among African creative writers. It concludes that although it is authentic to write in one’s native language so as to meet the target audience, yet many Africans receive their higher education in one of the colonial and/or European languages; and as such, majority do not know how to write in their native languages. Rather, they write in the imposed colonial languages in order tomeet a wider audience. Not until one or two major African languages are standardised, taught in schools, acquired by more than 80 per cent of Africans and used as common languages, the colonial languages would forever continue to have a greater influence in writing African literature. The paper recommendes that Africans should have one or two major African languages standardised, serving as common languages; also African literature should be written in both colonialand African languages in order to avoid the language debate by creative African writers.

Download Full-text

3. LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s0267190503000187 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 23 ◽

pp. 44-57 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Leanne Hinton

Keyword(s):

Language Revitalization ◽

Indigenous Languages ◽

Minority Languages ◽

Language Death ◽

Oral Fluency ◽

Literary Traditions ◽

Legal Documents ◽

Proactive Approach ◽

Continued Use ◽

Conversational Fluency

This chapter surveys developments in language revitalization, a movement that dates approximately from the 1990s and builds on prior work on language maintenance (see Fishman, 1991; 2001) and language death (Dorian, 1981; 1989). Focusing on indigenous languages, it discusses the role and nature of appropriate linguistic documentation, possibilities for bilingual education, and methods of promoting oral fluency and intergenerational transmission in affected languages. Various avenues for language revitalization, a proactive approach to the continued use of a particular language, are then described (see Hinton & Hale, 2001). In contrast to the smaller minority languages of Europe that have long literary traditions, many indigenous languages in the Americas and elsewhere are solely or primarily oral languages; thus, revitalization efforts aim to promote conversational fluency among speakers in a community. Related literature falls into four main categories: (a) theoretical and empirical works on language revitalization; (b) applied works on revitalization in practice; (c) pedagogical and reference publications; and (d) legal documents that support or impede revitalization of languages. Recent examples of current literature in each category are reviewed.

Download Full-text

FOLKTALE NARRATION IN THE INDIGENOUS SOUTH AFRICAN LANGUAGES: AN ARTFUL CUL-DE-SAC?

Southern African Journal for Folklore Studies ◽

10.25159/1016-8427/671 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 24-37

Author(s):

Eric Mabaso

Keyword(s):

Empirical Study ◽

South African ◽

African Languages ◽

Pros And Cons ◽

A Performance

This article highlights the problem that the print mode that the indigenous South African languages (IndiSAL) have largely adopted to preserve the folktale is inadequate. It raises shortfalls in support of the contention that not enough is being done to preserve the art of folktale narration and suggests a way out of the cul-de-sac. Most works on IndiSAL folktales focus on the value of preserving the art itself rather than the mode of preservation. The research follows a performance-centred approach as advocated by inter alia Marivate (1991), Bill (1996), Dorji (2010) and Backe (2014). Compared to countries such as Nigeria and Malawi, IndiSAL are lagging behind in digitization for the preservation of folktales. The article is an empirical study based on the author’s experiences and observation of folktale narration and the analysis of the transcribed form. The article critically reviews the various preservation modes and highlights their pros and cons.

Download Full-text

Khawuleza—An Instantiation of the Black Archive

Imbizo ◽

10.25159/2663-6565/7025 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Siseko H. Kumalo

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Knowledge Production ◽

African History ◽

Art Practice ◽

African Languages ◽

Philosophical Consideration ◽

Theory Generation ◽

Artistic Works

South African history is such that Blackness/Indigeneity were excluded from institutions of knowledge production. Contemporarily, the traditional University is defined as an institution predicated on the abjection of Blackness. This reality neither predetermined the positions and responses, nor presupposed complete/successful erasure of Blackness/Indigeneity owing to exclusion. I contend and detail how theorising, thinking about and through the Fact of Blackness, continue(d)—using the artistic works of Mhlongo, Makeba, Mbulu, and contemporarily, Leomile as examples. Analysing the music of the abovementioned artists, a move rooted in intersectional feminist approaches, will reveal modes of theorising that characterised the artistic expressions that define(d) the country. Theory generation, so construed, necessitates a judicious philosophical consideration if we are to resurrect the Black Archive. I conclude with an introspective question aimed at inspiring similar projects in other traditions that constitute the Black Archive, i.e. African languages and literature, theatre, art practice and theory.

Download Full-text