DOCSLIB.ORG

Some Morphosyntactic Features and Variety Status of Zimbabwean English: a Corpus-Based Study

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Some Morphosyntactic Features and Variety Status of Zimbabwean English: a Corpus-Based Study Some morphosyntactic features and variety status of Zimbabwean English: A corpus-based study Thadeus Marungudzi Thesis submitted for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in English at the Vaal Triangle Campus of the North-West University Promoter: Prof. Bertus Van Rooy November 2016 DEDICATION To my mother Jerita Marungudzi nee Chikati i Acknowledgements Glory to God the Almighty for granting me good health and auspicious days during the course of the research culminating in this thesis. This thesis would not have seen the light of day without the dedicated and patient guidance and mentorship of my supervisor, Professor Bertus Van Rooy. Thank you for your always timeous, meaningful and enlightening comments at various stages of the writing of the thesis and for always being forthcoming when in various ways, I needed your assistance. I also want to thank all the individuals and organisations (not mentioned here for purposes of anonymity) who participated in the generation of spoken and written data for this thesis. Your contribution was invaluable. I would also want to thank Ms. Theresa Louw and Mrs Vongai Madzimure for their assistance with corpus transcription. To colleagues and friends in the department of English and Media Studies (GZU); Kizito Muchemwa, Golden Maunganidze, Pepukai Chiwewe, Amos Mushati and Tendai Mangena, thank you for your support and encouragement. To my ‘diasporan’ friends; Bob Marimbire, Pepukai Bengura and Mind Dhanere, thank you for believing in me and for cheering me on from across oceans and rivers. To members in the department of African Languages and Culture (GZU) including Godwin Makaudze, Khensani Madlome, Hellen Shoko and Faith Sibanda as well as Isaac Mhute (ZOU), thank you for the illuminating discussions on aspects of the thesis relating to Zimbabwean indigenous languages and for directing me to appropriate references. And to my wife, ‘Mai Taa’, thank you for your prayers and for being my unshakeable pillar of support and my never-drying oasis of love in all circumstances. To our three kids, Tariro, Nokutenda and Akudzwe, it’s all because of you. I love you and be blessed. ii Abstract This study aimed to explore the morphosyntactic features characteristic of Zimbabwean English (ZimE) i.e. English as used by Black second language users, and on that basis, determine its variety status. The study mainly adopted the corpus linguistics methodology in which a special corpus of oral and written discourse was collected from various Zimbabwean contexts of use. The corpus was then analysed through Wordsmith Tools to determine the extent to which various morphosyntactic features were characteristic of this new English. The morphosyntactic features were in turn explained in terms of possible factors behind their occurrence and compared with features of other peer new English varieties on one hand and Standard English conventions on the other. The study showed that Zimbabwean English in the main shared, to various degrees, a number of features with peer new English varieties in Southern, Eastern and Western Africa. Among the features which were attested in the ZimE corpus were the extension of the progressive aspect to stative verbs, the deletion of be before verbs in the progressive form, the deletion of be before the auxiliary gonna, use of the resumptive pronoun, use of too, too much, very much for very qualifier, addition of a to-infinitive where Standard English has a bare infinitive, inverted word order in indirect questions, use of like as a focussing device. Other features which did not occur in the corpus at all or were extremely rare were also identified. It emerged that, though there are certain features of ZimE which are uniquely Zimbabwean, to a great extent, there were very few areas of morphosyntactic structure in which it departed from Standard English conventions. The attested characteristics of new Englishes or pidgin varieties reported in the World Englishes literature were found to be largely rare or non-existent in the variety altogether. The occurrence of the features attested in the ZimE corpus were explained through factors related to the educational acquisition context of the variety, pragmatic aspects of information-processing as well as cross-linguistic and intralingual factors related to the languages in contact themselves. The variety status question was settled through appeal to the Dynamic Model of the development of new Englishes (Schneider, 2003; 2007) as a well as a consideration of the characteristic linguistic features of ZimE attested in the corpus. It emerged that though there is evidence of nativisation at the linguistic level, the absence of codification and acceptance (institutionalisation) of the Zimbabwean variety of English, despite an officially pronounced national indigenisation stance in the socio-economic and cultural life of the country, iii are holding back ZimE from progressing beyond the nativisation stage, with chances that the status of the variety is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. Key words: morphosyntactic, Linguistic features, Zimbabwean English, new English, interlanguage, language variety, variety status, ICE. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Problem statement and contextualisation 2 1.3 Theoretical background 5 1.4 Research questions 9 1.5 Research objectives 9 1.6 Research methodology 9 1.6.1 Broad approach 9 1.6.2 Data collection and analysis 11 1.6.3 Features explored in the study 11 1.7 Ethical considerations 12 1.8 Justification of the study 12 1.9 Structure of the thesis 13 CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 14 2.1 Introduction 14 2.2 English as a world language 16 2.2.1 Reasons for the emergence of English as a world language 18 2.2.2 Attitudes towards English as a world language 19 2.3 Study of world Englishes: Theoretical conceptualisations 22 2.4 Research traditions and orientations in the study of world Englishes 27 2.5 The linguistic tradition in the study of world Englishes 31 2.6 Determining statuses of new Englishes 34 2.7 New Englishes and Pidgins and Creoles 37 2.8 African varieties of English: West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa 40 2.9 The sociolinguistic history and status of English in Zimbabwe 47 2.10 Some studies of English in Zimbabwe 52 2.11 Conclusion 56 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 58 v 3.1 Introduction 58 3.2 Historical origins of corpus collection 58 3.3 The influence of technology on corpus linguistics 59 3.4 Motivation for modern corpus collection 60 3.5 Definition of corpora and types of corpora 61 3.5.1 Corpora, archives and other databases 62 3.5.2 Types of corpora 63 3.6 Reasons for building one’s own corpus 64 3.7 Basic considerations to be made when building a corpus 65 3.7.1 Recording 67 3.7.2 Transcribing 68 3.7.3 Coding 68 3.8 Limitations in using corpora for research purposes 70 3.9 The possibilities of corpus linguistics in non-native English contexts 71 3.10 Building a corpus to represent a variety of a language 73 3.11 The corpus design of the present study 76 3.11.1 The research questions addressed by the corpus study 76 3.11.2 The corpus sample 76 3.11.3 Data collection procedures 79 3.11.3.1 The collection of spoken data 80 3.11.3.2 The collection of written data 81 3.11.4 Nature of texts and file-naming conventions 84 3.11.5 Corpus analysis techniques 85 3.11.5.1 Frequency lists 85 3.11.5.2 Concordance analysis 86 3.12 Conclusion 88 CHAPTER 4 DATA: PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 89 4.2 The eight salient morphosyntactic features of ZimE 90 4.2.1 Extension of progressive aspect to stative verbs (Feature 88) 90 4.2.1.1 Description of the feature in Standard English 90 vi 4.2.1.2 Possible ways in which ZimE and other new varieties of English differ from Standard English 92 4.2.1.3 Results from the corpus 94 4.2.1.4 Interpretation and discussion 96 4.2.1.5 Conclusion 97 4.2.2 Deletion of be auxiliary before progressive (Feature 174) 98 4.2.2.1 Description of feature in Standard English 98 4.2.2.2 Possible ways in which ZimE and other new varieties of English differ from Standard English 99 4.2.2.3 Results from the corpus 99 4.2.2.4 Interpretation and discussion 101 4.2.2.5 Conclusion 102 4.2.3 Deletion of auxiliary be before gonna (Feature 175) 103 4.2.3.1 Description of feature in Standard English 103 4.2.3.2 Possible ways in which ZimE and other new varieties of English differ from Standard English 103 4.2.3.3 Results from the corpus 103 4.2.3.4 Interpretation and discussion 105 4.2.3.5 Conclusion 106 4.2.4 The resumptive pronoun (Feature 194) 107 4.2.4.1 Description of feature in Standard English 107 4.2.4.2 Possible ways in which ZimE and other new varieties of English differ from Standard English 109 4.2.4.3 Results from the corpus 109 4.2.4.3.1 Distance of resumptive pronoun to the head noun 111 4.2.4.3.2 Head noun semantics 113 4.2.4.4 Interpretation and discussion 115 4.2.4.5 Conclusion 116 4.2.5 Addition of ‘to’ where StE has bare infinitive (Feature 209) 117 4.2.5.1 Description of the feature in Standard English 117 4.2.5.2 Possible ways in which ZimE and other new Englishes may differ from vii Standard English 119 4.2.5.3 Results from the corpus analysis 120 4.2.5.4 Interpretation and discussion 122 4.2.5.5 Conclusion 127 4.2.6 Too, too much, very much for ‘very’ as qualifier (Feature 222) 129 4.2.6.1 Description of feature in Standard English 129 4.2.6.2 Possible ways in which ZimE and other new Englishes may differ from Standard English 130 4.2.6.3 Results from the corpus 130 4.2.6.4 Interpretation and discussion 134
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Amakhosi Theatre Ako Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
    AN EXAMINATION OF AN AFRICAN POSTCOLONIAL EXPERIENCE OF LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND IDENTITY:AMAKHOSI THEATRE AKO BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE Violet B. Lunga B.A.(Hons.), University of ZimbabweJ982 Grad. CE., University of Zimbabwe,l987 M.A., University of Zimbabwe,l990 THESIS SUBMITIED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Education O Violet B. Lunga 1997 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY October 1997 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. National Library '. Bibliotheque nationale of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliograph~ques 395 Weilfngton Street 395. we Wellmgton Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Ottawa ON K 1A ON4 Canada Canada Ymr hb Vorre reference Our file Kolre reference The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non + exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pennettant a la National Library of ~anadato Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prster, dstnbuer ou copies of hsthesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfichelfilm, de ' reprodwtion sur papier ou sur format electronique. , The .author retains ownership of the auteur conserve la propnete du copyright in hsthesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othenvise de celle-ci ne doivent Ztre imprimes .reproduced . without the author's ou autrement reprohits sans son permission.
    [Show full text]
  • THE DEVELOPMENT of ACCENTED ENGLISH SYNTHETIC VOICES By
    THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACCENTED ENGLISH SYNTHETIC VOICES by PROMISE TSHEPISO MALATJI DISSERTATION Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in COMPUTER SCIENCE in the FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE (School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences) at the UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPO SUPERVISOR: Mr MJD Manamela CO-SUPERVISOR: Dr TI Modipa 2019 DEDICATION In memory of my grandparents, Cecilia Khumalo and Alfred Mashele, who always believed in me! ii DECLARATION I declare that THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACCENTED ENGLISH SYNTHETIC VOICES is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references and that this work has not been submitted before for any other degree at any other institution. ______________________ ___________ Signature Date iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to recognise the following people for their individual contributions to this dissertation: • My brother, Mr B.I. Khumalo and the whole family for the unconditional love, support and understanding. • A distinct thank you to both my supervisors, Mr M.J.D. Manamela and Dr T.I. Modipa, for their guidance, motivation, and support. • The Telkom Centre of Excellence for Speech Technology for providing the resources and support to make this study a success. • My colleagues in Department of Computer Science, Messrs V.R. Baloyi and L.M. Kola, for always motivating me. • A special thank you to Mr T.J. Sefara for taking his time to participate in the study. • The six Computer Science undergraduate students who sacrificed their precious time to participate in data collection.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of the Classroom Language Of
    AN ANALYSIS OF THE CLASSROOM LANGUAGE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHERS WITH REFERENCE TO ITS INTERLANGUAGE FORMS, COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES AND INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES WITH IMPLICATIONS OF THESE FOR TEACHER TRAINING IN ZIMBABWE by P. H. MHUNDWA THESIS SUBMITTED IN FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION SEPTEMBER 1987 2 ABSTRACT This study was designed to analyse and to describe the language of non-native student-teachers who use English as a medium of instruction and who also teach it as a subject. The aim was to describe the formal and functional features of the variety of English they use and to discover whether it constitutes a language system that applies identifiable and descriptively adequate sets of rules. In his analysis, the researcher discussed definitions and 'general properties' of communication to establish criteria within which communicative activities were described in terms of information structuring by student-teachers and information processing by learners. He observed that student-teachers' language generally consists of systematically occuring features that constitute a spoken interlanguage that can be described as a language in its own right. He also observed that the interlanguage variety consists of syntactical and stylistic features some of which are identical to those that characterise native-speaker discourse. At the level of communication, the reseacher observed that student-teachers' and pupils' communicative utterances tend to be defective in situations where higher order thinking processes and ideas need to be articulated in the L2. Another important observation was that student-teachers do not adequately use their interlanguage to realise the important pedagogical functions of explaining, elaborating and classifying key concepts and issues that arise in teaching/learning situations.
    [Show full text]
  • Cape Flats English'i
    The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University , II , Focusing and Diffusion inI 'Cape Flats English'I A sociophonetic study of three vowels Justin Brown (BRWJUS002) A minor dissertation submitted in partial fullfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics Faculty of the Humanities UniversityUniversity of of Cape Cape Town Town January 20122 COMPULSORY DECLARATION This work has not been previously submittedIII"\I"II'HIT.c.1'II in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature:, ________________Date: _____ Abstract This research contributes to the wider fields of sociophonetics and the social dialectology of English in South Africa. The study looks at three vowel sets; GOOSE, BATH and KIT taken from Wells (1982). The study was designed to identify and attempt to explain potential differences in pronunciation amongst speakers in an English-speaking community living in Cape Town and classified as 'Coloured' during apartheid. The community in question has used English as their first language for several generations and has enjoyed some of the economic advantages attached to this while at the same time being the victims (historically) of discrimination and marginalization.
    [Show full text]
  • English in South Africa: Effective Communication and the Policy Debate
    ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND THE POLICY DEBATE INAUGURAL LECTURE DELIVERED AT RHODES UNIVERSITY on 19 May 1993 by L.S. WRIGHT BA (Hons) (Rhodes), MA (Warwick), DPhil (Oxon) Director Institute for the Study of English in Africa GRAHAMSTOWN RHODES UNIVERSITY 1993 ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND THE POLICY DEBATE INAUGURAL LECTURE DELIVERED AT RHODES UNIVERSITY on 19 May 1993 by L.S. WRIGHT BA (Hons) (Rhodes), MA (Warwick), DPhil (Oxon) Director Institute for the Study of English in Africa GRAHAMSTOWN RHODES UNIVERSITY 1993 First published in 1993 by Rhodes University Grahamstown South Africa ©PROF LS WRIGHT -1993 Laurence Wright English in South Africa: Effective Communication and the Policy Debate ISBN: 0-620-03155-7 No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Mr Vice Chancellor, my former teachers, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen: It is a special privilege to be asked to give an inaugural lecture before the University in which my undergraduate days were spent and which holds, as a result, a special place in my affections. At his own "Inaugural Address at Edinburgh" in 1866, Thomas Carlyle observed that "the true University of our days is a Collection of Books".1 This definition - beloved of university library committees worldwide - retains a certain validity even in these days of microfiche and e-mail, but it has never been remotely adequate. John Henry Newman supplied the counterpoise: . no book can convey the special spirit and delicate peculiarities of its subject with that rapidity and certainty which attend on the sympathy of mind with mind, through the eyes, the look, the accent and the manner.
    [Show full text]
  • The Conference Program
    INTERNATIONAL LINGUISTIC ASSOCIATION ENGLISH—GLOBAL AND LOCAL 58th Annual Conference Kingsborough Community College April 12-14, 2013 On behalf of the International Linguistic Association, we extend a warm welcome to all the participants in this conference. We acknowledge with gratitude the generosity of Kingsborough Community College in hosting it and the College’s Department of English in officially sponsoring it. We owe special thanks to Kingsborough’s Associate Provost Reza Fakhari and Professor Martha Cummings for taking care of the on-site organization. Alice Deakins Cathy McClure Kate Parry Conference Co-Chairs CONFERENCE OVERVIEW Individual presentations are identified by abstract number. The numbers are listed in proposed order of presentation. The letters A, B, and C indicate rooms. Each presentation will last 20 minutes with 5 minutes for questions. FRIDAY, April 12 A B C 2:30-3:45 LINGUISTIC HISTORICAL ENGLISH IN HIGHER LANDSCAPES PERSPECTIVES EDUCATION 14, 90, 86 38, 21, 27 22, 77, 6 4:00-5:40 DIGITAL DISCOURSE MORPPHOLOGY AND WRITING IN ENGLISH 9, 37, 18, 64 SYNTAX 30, 29, 31, 49, 69, 56, 33, 34 6:00-7:00 PLENARY - Luis H. Francia: Philippine English: burden or benediction? 7:00-8:30 RECEPTION SATURDAY, April 13 A B C 8:30-9:45 ROLE OF ENGLISH IN ENGLISH IN LINGUISTIC TEACHER TRAINING FOR A IDENTITY HYBRIDIZATION GLOBAL WORLD CONSTRUCTION 63, 36, 53 74, 4, 5 82, 40,,66 10:00- ATTITUDES TOWARDS SEMANTICS AND VOICE AND IDENTITY IN 11:15 ENGLISH PRAGMATICS THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM 68, 57, 51 91,16, 35 26, 61 (panel with two papers) 11:30- PLENARY 12:30 Janina Brutt-Griffler: Encounters with English: present-day English in a multilingual world.
    [Show full text]
  • The Development of the Liberation War Novel
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Unisa Institutional Repository INTERFACE OF HISTORY AND FICTION: THE ZIMBABWEAN LIBERATION WAR NOVEL By ITAI MUWATI UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA NOVEMBER 2009 INTERFACE OF HISTORY AND FICTION: THE ZIMBABWEAN LIBERATION WAR NOVEL By ITAI MUWATI submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject of African Languages at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: PROF D E MUTASA JOINT SUPERVISOR: DR M L BOPAPE NOVEMBER 2009 DECLARATION Student number: 4310-995-0 I declare that Interface of History and Fiction: The Zimbabwean Liberation War Novel is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. 30 September 2009 Signature Date i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to acknowledge first and foremost, the efforts of and the selflessness shown by my Promoter, Professor Davie E. Mutasa. His encouragement and belief in me made me walk what appeared to be an unwalkable doctoral research journey. I am also very thankful to my Co-Promoter, Doctor Malekutu L. Bopape, who, together with Professor Mutasa, convinced me that I was intellectually tall each time I felt I was short. These two men’s views and expert guidance helped significantly in shaping this thesis. My gratitude also goes to the Financial Aid Bureau (FAB) which offered me a bursary that enabled me to pursue doctoral studies with the University of South Africa. I am further thankful to Professor Zifikile Gambahaya, my mentor and colleague, who allowed me unfettered access to her library and other resources.
    [Show full text]
  • 17 World Englishes and Their Dialect Roots
    Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2020 World Englishes and their dialect roots Schreier, Daniel Abstract: This chapter investigates the persistence and development of so-called dialect roots, that is, features of local forms of British English that are transplanted to overseas territories. It discusses dialect input and the survival of features, independent developments within overseas communities, including realignments of features in the dialect inputs, as well as contact phenomena when English speakers interact with those of other dialects and languages. The diagnostic value of these roots is exemplified with selected cases from around the world (Newfoundland English, Liberian English, Caribbean Englishes), which are assessed with reference to the archaic/dynamic character of individual features in new-dialect formation and language-contact scenarios. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108349406.017 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-198161 Book Section Published Version The following work is licensed under a Publisher License. Originally published at: Schreier, Daniel (2020). World Englishes and their dialect roots. In: Schreier, Daniel; Hundt, Marianne; Schneider, Edgar W. The Cambridge Handbook of World Englishes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 384-407. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108349406.017 17 World Englishes and Their Dialect Roots Daniel Schreier World Englishes developed out of English dialects spoken throughout the British Isles. These were transported all over the globe by speakers from different regions, social classes, and educational backgrounds, who migrated with distinct trajectories, for various periods of time and in distinct chronolo- gical phases (Hickey, Chapter 2, this volume; Britain, Chapter 7,thisvolume).
    [Show full text]
  • Corpus of Zimbabwean English at the University of Zimbabwe Computer Centre
    The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library. Find more at: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/ Available through a partnership with Scroll down to read the article. Zambezia (1993), XX (H). RESEARCH REPORT CORPUS OF ZIMBABWEAN ENGLISH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE COMPUTER CENTRE W. E. LOUW Department of English, University of Zimbabwe and JOSEPHINE JORDAN Department of Psychology, University of Zimbabwe Abstract A corpus of Zimbabwean English comprising Dawson's Structures and Skills in English and Grant et al, English for Zimbabwe: an English course for secondary schools is available on computer tapes at the University of Zimbabwe Computer Centre. Also on tape is the dictionary hie which lists in alphabetical order all the words contained in the books, together with a frequency Hie, which lists the words in order of use. The corpus provides a readily accessible source of lexical items encountered in Zimbabwe secondary schools and demonstrates the employment of these lexical items in grammatical structure and idiom. BETWEEN OCTOBER 1987 and December 1993 a partial corpus of Zimbabwean English was captured and installed at the University of Zimbabwe Computer Centre. The corpus contains two sets of secondary school English Language textbooks, each comprising four volumes. The series are Dawson, Structures and Skills in English and Grant et al., English for Zimbabwe. The corpus is housed on a 2 400 foot magnetic tape which occupies 3,5 megabytes when fully loaded and has 592 994 words (tokens) of running text.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pronunciation of English in South Africa by L.W
    The Pronunciation of English in South Africa by L.W. Lanham, Professor Emeritus, Rhodes University, 1996 Introduction There is no one, typical South African English accent as there is one overall Australian English accent. The variety of accents within the society is in part a consequence of the varied regional origins of groups of native English speakers who came to Africa at different times, and in part a consequence of the variety of mother tongues of the different ethnic groups who today use English so extensively that they must be included in the English-using community. The first truly African, native English accent in South Africa evolved in the speech of the children of the 1820 Settlers who came to the Eastern Cape with parents who spoke many English dialects. The pronunciation features which survive are mainly those from south-east England with distinct Cockney associations. The variables (distinctive features of pronunciation) listed under A below may be attributed to this origin. Under B are listed variables of probable Dutch origin reflecting close association and intermarriage with Dutch inhabitants of the Cape. There was much contact with Xhosa people in that area, but the effect of this was almost entirely confined to the vocabulary. (The English which evolved in the Eastern and Central Cape we refer to as Cape English.) The next large settlement from Britain took place in Natal between 1848 and 1862 giving rise to pronunciation variables pointing more to the Midlands and north of England (List C). The Natal settlers had a strong desire to remain English in every aspect of identity, social life, and behaviour.
    [Show full text]
  • Intergovernmental Conference on Language Policies in Africa
    LANGUAGE POLICIES IN AFRICA INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE POLICIES IN AFRICA Harare, Zimbabwe 17-21 March 1997 FINAL REPORT (revised) by Herbert Chimhundu (Rapporteur General / University of Zimbabwe) Unesco Web version edited by Karsten Legère INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE POLICIES IN AFRICA Harare, Zimbabwe, 17-21 March 1998 FINAL REPORT by Herbert Chimhundu (Rapporteur General / University of Zimbabwe) ©UNESCO 2002 Preliminary remarks The material enclosed in this web version of the forthcoming publication “Language Policies in Africa” was originally compiled by Herbert Chimhundu after the Harare conference in March 1997. At that time, Prof. Chimhundu was commissioned by UNESCO to write a report on the meeting and to compile the speeches and other documents. The manuscript that he subsequently submitted to UNESCO was left unattended until Director Noriko Aikawa (Intangible Heritage Unit of UNESCO) approached me in a letter dated February 6, 2001, where she expressed UNESCO’s wish to have the manuscript published as soon as possible. She suggested that both a publisher and funds for subsidising the publication be found. The latter was a rather difficult issue, since a number of potential donors who were contacted while I was in Namibia were not able to support the publication. Finally, some Norwegian colleagues from Oslo University responded positively. They were prepared to fund publication of the document in Namibia within the framework of the trilateral cooperation between Universities of Oslo, Zimbabwe and Gothenburg. In the meantime, the manuscript returned by UNESCO was thoroughly checked to make sure that the version to be submitted to potential donors and publishers was in a proper shape.
    [Show full text]
  • Using Indigenous Languages for Teaching and Learning in Zimbabwe Juliet Thondhlana
    Using Indigenous Languages for Teaching and Learning in Zimbabwe Juliet Thondhlana The question of which language(s) to use for teaching and learning is a crucial one in bilingual and multilingual contexts. In former colonial countries, it is a question that has occupied the agendas of many governments since they attained independence. Some countries have made strides towards addressing it (e.g., Tanzania and Nigeria), although it continues to haunt others. As recently as 1997, African state representatives gathered in Harare, Zimbabwe for an inter- governmental conference on language policies in Africa hosted by UNESCO in order to discuss the question of language planning and policy in Africa. The meeting resulted in the Harare Declaration in which each country represented declared its commitment to the vision for Africa as expressed in the following statements: • A democratic Africa that seeks to enhance the active participation of all citizens in all institutions—social, economic, political, et cetera; • A democratic Africa where development is not construed in narrow economic goals but instead in terms of a culturally valued way of living together; and within a broader context of justice, fairness and equity for all; respect for linguistic rights as human rights, including those of minorities; • In broader terms, Africa that acknowledges its ethno-linguistic pluralism and accepts this as a normal way of life and as a rich resource for development and progress; • A democratic Africa that seeks to promote peaceful coexistence of people
    [Show full text]