Book reviews Links & Letters 5, 1998 259 A view on South Africa Vivian DE KLERK (ed.). Focus on South Africa. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1996. 328 pages. Kathleen HEUGH, Amanda SIEGRÜHN and Peter PLÜDDEMANN (eds.). Multilingual Education for South Africa. Johannesburg: Heinmann, 1995. ix + 150 pages. Russell H. KASCHULA and Christine ANTHONISSEN. Communicating Across Cultures in South Africa: Towards a Critical Language Awareness. Johannesburg etc.: Hodder & Stoughton, and Witwatersrand University Press, 1995. vii + 120 pages. L.W. LANHAM, David LANGHAM, Arie BLACQUIERE and Laurence WRIGHT. Getting the Message in South Africa. Intelligibility. Readability. Comprehensibility. Howick: Brevitas, 1995. iii + 132 pages. Rajend MESTHRIE (ed.). Language and Social History. Studies in South African Sociolinguistics. Cape Town and Johannesburg: David Philip, 1995. xx + 352 pages. The mid-1990s have seen the renewal of linguistic route to democracy and social a vigorous debate in South Africa around justice. Yet English will long continue to the issue of language, as indicated by the play a substantial role. It is at this point appearance of the five books to be dis- that concern tends to be voiced, for the cussed here. Democratisation has been unquestioned perpetuation of the accompanied by major shifts in the lan- present hegemony of English is seen as guage debate, away from the exclusive one of the chief dangers to democracy. focus on English and Afrikaans, and to- This newly heralded multilingualism wards the multiplicity signalled by the has consequences for any post-apartheid eleven official languages now enshrined discussion of English —as a glance at the in the Constitution. Of course the ap- works under consideration soon shows. pearance of the Interim Constitution in Linguists can no longer discuss English 1993 and the final Constitution in 1996 in isolation, or simply as an extension of does not mean that the language debate the metropolitan English from which it is now over. As Wright comments, ‘[t]he originated; the varying impact of its new political dispensation has quite present linguistic neighbours must be ac- rightly prompted language specialists knowledged. Furthermore the meaning and others to re-think the South African of the term ‘English language’ has broad- language conundrum. At such a historic ened substantially to include the differ- juncture, it is appropriate to throw the ent varieties of English spoken in South full pack of cards in the air many times to Africa, including non-standard varieties see the different ways they could fall.’ and specifically, the L2 varieties about (Lanham et al. 1995: 1) Among the con- which little is as yet known. tributors to these publications, however, Of the five books under considera- a high degree of consensus seems to have tion, only de Klerk (1996) and Lanham been reached as to the policies to be pur- et al. (1995) focus primarily on English. sued: the multilingualism required by These two, together with Mesthrie's the Constitution must indeed be imple- more wide-ranging volume (1995), are mented, for this is the most promising written from a sociolinguistic perspective 260 Links & Letters 5, 1998 Book reviews and for an academic readership. The col- instance, considers L1 English last, ‘be- lection of original articles edited by de cause most South Africans experience Klerk seeks to provide an ‘ongoing English as a second language’(de Klerk record of current scholarship’ (1996: 9) 1996: 34). In Section 2 of de Klerk's in the field of English in South Africa, by book, the ‘new’ English varieties intro- presenting an historic and synchronic duced historically by Branford are indi- treatment of sociocultural and pedagogi- vidually described and grounded in their cal issues. The five original articles in respective communities: Gough presents Lanham et al's volume (1995) focus on Black South African English (1996: the crucial issue of ‘effective communica- 53-77), Mesthrie, South African Indian tion’ (1995: 1), with the intention of English (1996: 79-98), Watermeyer, making a ‘small but deliberate interven- Afrikaans English (1996: 99-124) and tion in the debate on South Africa's lin- Malan, Cape Flats English (1996: 125- guistic future’ (1995: 1). Mesthrie's sub- 148). Mesthrie's volume has a similar stantial collection of articles (only five of range: he includes a discussion of South the twenty-five have been previously African English by Lass (1995: 89-106), published) seeks to ‘build a solid founda- Black South African English by Buthele- tion for the discipline of sociolinguistics zi (a reprint of an earlier article, 1995: in South Africa, by giving specialist treat- 242-250) and an article of his own on ments of salient sociohistorical and socio- South African Indian English (1995: linguistic issues concerning a variety of 251-264). In addition, McCormick dis- languages.’ (1995: xviii) Its two main cusses the language spoken in District thrusts are the sociohistory of languages Six, Cape Town, in terms of code- and language varieties, and language switching (1995: 193-208). It should be contact. The final two volumes, written noted that the quantity of research on for a broader readership, each address a which these several contributions can specific issue, respectively education draw varies greatly. As Gough points (Heugh et al. 1995) and cross-cultural out: ‘While research into white varieties communication (Kaschula and Antho- of English in South Africa is fairly well nissen 1995). The hegemonic position of established, research examining the Eng- the English language is reflected in its lish of black South Africans is still in its pivotal position in the discussion of these infancy’ (de Klerk 1996: 53). more general topics. The names used for the various vari- In the following, I will look at select- eties present something of a problem, ed themes which figure prominently varying as they do between ethnic labels both in these works and in the language and derivations from first languages and debate generally: South African varieties place names. Branford lists the varieties of English, English in multilingual spoken by ‘white speakers of Afrikaans, South Africa, the question of a standard coloured people, blacks, Indians and variety, English in education, and cross- English-speaking whites’ and comments: cultural communication. ‘An alternative classification by language The focus of research into South Afri- variety was tried and found impractica- can varieties of English has shifted sub- ble. A racial classification has the advan- stantially in the last decade. Clearly, tage of opposing a social variable (racial English is being reconceptualised to rep- or administrative grouping) to a linguis- resent the varieties actually spoken in the tic one (language or language variety)’ country, in their numerical preponder- (de Klerk 1996: 34). De Klerk also finds ance. Branford's valuable ‘Preliminary it necessary to comment on the use of overview’ of English in South Africa, for ethnic labels, which, she suggests, Book reviews Links & Letters 5, 1998 261 «should not be read as primitives but 350). Heugh's article discusses the per- rather as post-hoc descriptive tags. No iod up to late 1994, and the continuing ethnic group is neatly defined, and lan- overall trend towards English-language guage boundaries are notoriously fluid, monolingualism —in spite of the ap- with groups overlapping rather than di- pearance of important policy docu- viding neatly» (1996: 9). Of course such ments from the Ministries of Education labels may well suggest a greater unity and of Arts, Culture, Science and than actually exists, and by utilising Technology— only serves to validate place names for the variety studied, Mc- her concern. Cormick (Mesthrie 1995: 193-208) and With so many different varieties of Malan (de Klerk 1996: 125-148) avoid English, the issue of the future standard the dangers of a term such as ‘South Af- remains as yet unresolved. Under apart- rican coloured English’. Beyond this, the heid, proponents of so-called ‘restandard- inherent problems of the choice of ter- isation’ had argued that a marked Black minology become clearer in that the South African English should become the term ‘South African English’ has been re- new standard. The two papers addressing tained to apply to the English spoken by the issue here concur in rejecting the ex- whites. As the only variety label without treme restandardisation thesis and in ar- a qualifier, this must indicate the stand- guing that comprehensibility, both na- ard —an issue which will be discussed tionally and internationally, is of primary below. importance. In view of «phonological de- In the early 90s, much energy was de- viance as the major threat to the compre- voted to debating the future roles and hensibility of spoken English» (Lanham standing of English in multilingual South et al. 1995: 39), Lanham makes the case Africa. The two main viewpoints are pre- for the use of the educated standard of sented in de Klerk's volume by Titlestad the non-native speaker as formal norm. and Webb. Titlestad argues in favour of Wright endorses the «deliberate and in- leaving language developments to mar- formed cultivation of an educated variety ket values, which would clearly result in of (Black South African English) closely the wide-spread use of English as (inter- allied to the linguistic systems of standard national) lingua franca (de Klerk 1996: English», and continues: «This could well 163-173). (In the context of these vol- satisfy the desire for an English which ex- umes, this is clearly a minority view). presses the cultural identity of its users Webb points to ‘potential negative im- while retaining the practical social advan- plications for South Africa's cultural and tages of a language which is comprehen- linguistic diversity if English is allowed sible nationally and internationally» (de to dominate’ (de Klerk 1996: 177). Even Klerk 1996: 160).