Rethinking Multilingualism in South Africa

Indilinga: African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge …, 2008

This article provides a socio-historical and ethnographic perspective on the development of multilingualism in South Africa. By using theory of social practice, I argue that people had always used their languages as important symbolic resources and for the creation of the structured social dispositions. History shows that languages were considered as ethnocentric and the proliferation of groups in a limited space created collusions and conflicts. In South Africa this situation is now being managed through a multilingual language legislation that came as a result of the new democracy in the country.

2002

2006

This contribution focuses on the survival of Afrikaans within the framework of a multilingual South Africa. The first section provides a brief historical reconstruction of the power-political shifts that Afrikaans underwent between 1966 and 2004. In the second section some of the arguments that were used for and against Afrikaans between 1994 and 2004 are presented. In the last section these arguments are shifted to the terrain of contemporary normative political theory, where three aspects are important: the question of addressing language loss in the world; the importance of multicultural citizenship, and the need for a more profound and multilingual understanding of democracy. In short: a democracy is not just characterised by the instrumental counting of votes, but also by the qualitative articulation of different voices. Veeltaligheid, Afrikaans en normatiewe politieke teorie Hierdie bydrae fokus op die oorlewing van Afrikaans binne die raamwerk van 'n veeltalige Suid-Afrika. In die eerste afdeling word 'n bondige historiese rekonstruksie van die magspolitieke verskuiwinge wat Afrikaans tussen 1966 en 2004 ondergaan het, verskaf. In die tweede afdeling word enkele argumente wat tussen 1994 en 2004 vir en teen Afrikaans aangebied is, gesistematiseer. In die laaste afdeling word hierdie argumente na die terrein van die kontemporêre normatiewe politieke teorie verskuif, waar veral drie aspekte uitgesonder word: die kwessie van taalverdwyning in die wêreld; die belang van multikulturele burgerskap en die noodsaaklikheid van 'n diepgaande en veelstemmige verstaan van demokrasie. Kortom: in 'n demokrasie moet dit nie net gaan oor die instrumentele tel van stemme (votes) nie, maar ook oor die kwalitatiewe luister na verskillende stemme (voices).

International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147- 4478)

The reality is that there is a relationship between language and race as advanced and qualified by ethnolinguistics. Such a relationship points to the subjugation of the isiXhosa language (habitually situated in South Africa), among other prescripts, which was fueled by racial hierarchization that ought to be debated within the paradigm of scholarly discourses. The subjugation, distortion and erosion of the isiXhosa language were led by the colonial, apartheid governance and administration that sought to impose censorship. Therefore, this article employs post-colonial theory to argue and scholarly prove that the language and many South African indigenous languages were oppressed based on racial notions that sought to accelerate neo-liberalist and imperialist perceptions. Hypothetically speaking, the isiXhosa language still suffers from the effects of (post)colonialism carried by colonial agents who continue to mock and humiliate the language. The debates and findings underline that ...

Language and Culture

The present research into the linguistic situation in the Republic of South Africa, which is characterized by the legislative support of multilingualism and equality between the official languages, is relevant because of the danger of a loss of linguistic and cultural diversity in the former colonies of the African continent, most of which, on achieving independence, granted the status of official language only to the language of the former metropolis. The goal of the given article is finding out the nature of interrelations between languages and cultures in multilingual South Africa, and determining the functions which South African languages perform in various spheres of the country's activities. In accordance with the set goal, the authors sought answers to a number of questions connected with interrelations of languages in South Africa as well as the role of English as one of the official languages. The most important of these questions are the following: 1) which of the official or unofficial South African languages performs the role of the language of common communication (lingua franca)?; 2) is the language balance in South Africa stable, and does the English language present a danger to the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country?; 3) what are the reasons for the difficulties connected with realizing in South Africa the policies of the equality of the official languages?

2016

Liesel Hibbert is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa. Her interests include discourse studies, South African writing, linguistic ethnography, political rhetoric, stylistics, the bilingual classroom and higher education pedagogy. Her previous publications include Multilingual Universities in South Africa (Multilingual Matters, 2014), which she co-edited with Christa van der Walt.

Multilingual Margins: A journal of multilingualism from the periphery

There is an urgency in theorising howdiversity is negotiated, communicated,and disputed as a matter of everydayordinariness that is compounded by theclear linkages between diversity, transformation,voice, agency, poverty andhealth. The way in which difference iscategorised, semiotised and reconfiguredin multiple languages across quotidianencounters and in public and media forumsis a central dynamic in how povertyand disadvantage are distributed and reproducedacross social and racial categorisations.In the South African context,finding ways of productively harnessingdiversity in the building of a better societymust be a priority.

English in multilingual South Africa. The linguistics of contact and change, edited by Raymond Hickey, Cambridge U Press, 2020

This is a draft paper presented some years ago. It investigates the state of South Africa's official languages and the threat that is posed by English. The paper suggests that South African languages are more resilient than is usually acknowledged.