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Centre for Applied Linguistics On South African English By Georgina Ma 2008 Introduction English has been dominant in South Africa for two centuries and with its rival Afrikaans, it has changed the linguistic ecology of Southern Africa irrevocably. (Mesthrie, 2002:1) In this paper, I follow the development of Standard South African English and its evolution into different varieties in South Africa. I critique the limitations of the classification of South African English as one inner circle variety and suggest an alternative representation. I examine the features of Standard South African English and discuss the importance and benefits of having it as the recognised and implemented standard of English in English language teaching in South Africa. The Development of English in South Africa Language, English in particular has played a pivotal role in South Africa’s transition from Dutchification (1652 – 1795) to Anglicization (1795 – 1948) to Afrikanerization (1948 – 1994) to Democratization (1994 – ). (Kamwangamalu, 2002: 1) Although there was contact with English in South Africa prior to and during the Dutch colonisation of the Cape (now Cape Town, see Appendix 1) between 1652 and 1795, it was only officially introduced to the region from 1806. In the pursuit to control the strategic sea- route between Europe and Asia, a colony was established in the Cape by the British. The Anglicization that had begun in the area as early as 1803, was intensified with a policy that ‘sought to replace Dutch by English in all spheres of public life’ (Davenport in Kamwangamalu, 2002) by making English the official language of the colony. English, previously limited to the Cape, began to be used in different parts of the country and the origins of the different varieties of South African English can be identified. As early as 1806, English was taught by missionaries in schools set up in the Cape and later other regions for black and coloured people. English moved east with the establishment of an official settlement of 5000 British settlers in the Eastern Cape to quell frontier problems with the local Xhosa people. (Lass in Mesthrie, 2002) English moved north when in their attempt to escape British rule, ‘the Dutch settlers took English as a second language with them on the Great Trek of 1836’ (Crystal, 2005) to the Transvaal and Orange Free State, this would later become Afrikaans South African English. Further settlements of English speakers in the 1840s and 1850s in Natal and the influx of Europeans into the Witwatersrand and other 1 areas with the discovery of gold and diamonds and the establishment of mining camps from 1875 – 1904 resulted in the further entrenchment of Southern British English in South Africa, later recognised as White South African English. The influx of Indian labourers from 1860, for whom English would later become a first language, resulted in Indian South African English. English shared dual status with Afrikaans in the Union of South of Africa from 1910, however Anglicization was replaced with Afrikanerization in 1948. With an Afrikaner government in power Afrikaans replaced English as the main language for the business of the state. (Kamwangamalu, 2002) Through the segregation of the people along the lines of race, the English used in different language communities evolved to become different autonomous varieties such as Black and Coloured South African English. Afrikaans and English medium schools divided white South Africans, which deepened the distinction between Afrikaans and White South African English. In 1953, the Apartheid regime adopted the Bantu Education Act, which entrenched the use of mother-tongue as a medium of instruction in the early years of education and the role of Afrikaans was increased in secondary schools. (Kirkpatrick, 2007) This led to the Soweto uprisings of June 16, 1976 where black pupils were successful in resisting the implementation of this policy and ‘English re-emerged as the overwhelming choice’ (ibid., 2007:107) as the medium of instruction from senior primary school. Ironically, English was increasing seen as the language of liberation by Black South Africans during the Apartheid era. From the birth of democracy in South Africa in 1994, English has co-existed as one of the 11 official languages. Despite the fact that section 3 (2) of the New Constitution of South Africa stipulates that ‘any person may communicate in writing or orally with a government department in any official language’ and ‘any attempt by the government to act in any linguicist manner or... allow any language or languages to dominate others would be unconstitutional.’ (Constitution of South Africa 1996 in Kamwangamalu, 2002b: 161), English has more prestige and hegemony in South Africa than any other language. English is the medium of instruction in most schools and universities, it dominates other languages in the print media, radio, television and the internet and is the language of government, science, technology and business and is used in most interethnic and international communication. (Kamwangamalu, 2002) The importance of English is reinforced below by Samuels: It is seen by many as the language of power, prestige and status, and as an ‘open sesame’ by means of which one can acquire unlimited vertical social mobility. (in Kamwangamalu, 2002:3) 2 South African English – An Inner Circle Variety? As a result of colonialism South African English is classified by Kachru as an inner circle variety, along with other varieties such as Australian and New Zealand English. Kachru’s inner, outer and expanding circles, characterize the different roles or statuses of English in the World and are a useful starting point for understanding the pattern of English Worldwide. (Graddol, 1997) Many countries can fit neatly into this categorisation, however for some countries, such as South Africa, the role and status of English as an inner circle variety is complex. Can South African English really be classed an ‘inner circle’ variety? In the 2001 Census, the most spoken languages in South Africa were isiZulu (10.7 million speakers), isiXhosa (7.9 million speakers), Afrikaans (5.9 million speakers), Sepedi (4.2 million speakers), followed by English (3.6 million speakers). Based on these figures, the English speaking population constitutes approximately 8.2% of the population and is made up of 1.6 million Whites (39.3 %), 1 million (93.8 %) Indians or Asians, 756 000 Coloureds (18.9 %), 184 000 Black Africans (0,5 %). (Statistics SA, 2003) To further complicate the situation, due to the socio-political history, as outlined previously in the section on the development of English in South Africa, the English spoken by first and second language speakers comprises of not only one variety of English with different ranges on a sociolinguistic continuum from conservative to broad, as with the Australian variety of English; but also a range of autonomous varieties, each too with their own continuum. White, Coloured, Indian and Black South African Englishes are classified as ‘distinct ethnolects’ by Lass (in Mesthrie, 2002) or ‘pan-ethnic varieties’ by de Klerk (1996); however this seemingly ‘cut and dried’ practice of classifying the varieties of South African English along the lines of race is unreliable. The term White South African English is misleading for a number of reasons. Firstly, the assumption is made that all white South Africans speak the same way, however as the English spoken by Afrikaans, Jewish, and other white language communities have different characteristics; this assumption is incorrect. Female Jewish speakers can be described as having a distinctly nasal quality, a characteristic which does not feature in Respectable South African English. Secondly geographic location plays a role in the type of English that is spoken. The pronunciation and lexis used by native English speakers in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng differ slightly; this can be seen in the use of ‘tea room’ by English speakers in KwaZulu-Natal to refer to a ‘convenience store’. Finally, due to the post- apartheid end to the segregation in schools and the growing non-white middle and upper 3 classes, the existence of these ‘ethnolects’ is not as prevalent in metropolitan and urban areas. This is well demonstrated in the audio clip from The Routes of English Volume 4 (Elmes, 2001) where three secondary school boys from the prestigious St. John’s College speak about their language backgrounds. The boys speak in a South African English that can be described as Respectable with many Received Pronunciation characteristics, bordering on Conservative South African English, despite the fact that only one of the boys actually speaks English as a first language, the others are a Black first language Xhosa speaker, and a White first language Afrikaans speaker. Although this is an extreme example, a growing number of black South Africans, who have access to Model C (formerly white schools) are beginning to speak in what is now becoming known as Model C English. How then can South Africa be classed as an inner circle country, when English is only spoken as a first language by a minority of the population? And how can South African English be classed as one variety when there are actually many different versions of South African English? It would be more accurate to represent English in South Africa as a microcosm of English in the world, by borrowing Kachru’s three circles of English. In this adapted version (Kamwangamalu, 2006), the ‘expanding circle’ represents English spoken as a foreign or other language by the growing migrant population of Chinese, non-English speaking refugees, well as indigenous people located in rural areas in South Africa, for whom English is playing a more significant role. The growing ‘outer circle’ represents English spoken as a second language by Black and Afrikaans speaking people, for who English increasingly used for official purposes, business, education, cross cultural and national communication.
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