South African Englishes

Introduction

For almost half a century, 1948–94, South Africa was known to the rest of the world
particularly for its now defunct racist system, apartheid. The proponents of apartheid
believed strongly that races were inherently unequal, and that each racial group had to have
its own territorial area within which to develop its unique cultural personality. As a result,
South Africa was divided into tribal, language-based homelands for the black population on
the one hand, and separate, skin-color-based areas for the Indians, the whites, and the so-
called “Coloreds,” the people of mixed races. Where people could not be divided on the basis
of their skin, as was the case for whites of British and Dutch descent, then language was used
as the dividing criterion.
One of the characteristic features of South Africa is its linguistic diversity. The
country has a multiracial population of 40,583,573, speaking at least 25 languages from three
major groups: African, European, and Asian. As a result of the end of apartheid in 1994, 11
of the country’s estimated 25 languages were accorded official status. They include English
and Afrikaans and nine African languages, including Venda, Xhosa /ˈkoʊsə/, Zulu, etc.
Constitutionally, all the languages have equal status. The reality, however, suggests
asymmetrical multilingualism. According to the 1996 census, Zulu is demographically the
most commonly spoken first or home language in South Africa (spoken by 23% of the
population), followed by Xhosa (with 18%). Afrikaans (14%) and English (9%), while
widely spoken throughout the country, are not as commonly used as home languages as are
Zulu, Xhosa, and other indigenous languages.

History
Prior to the birth of democracy in 1994, South Africa was subjected to three
consecutive colonial rules. The country was first colonized by the Dutch from 1652 to 1795,
followed by the British from 1795 to 1948, and once again by the Dutch, who by then called
themselves Afrikaners, from 1948 until the country liberated itself from apartheid in 1994.
During these 342 years, white minority (British and Dutch) was privileged in every way. As a
result, the history of English in South Africa is interwoven with that of Afrikaans, an
offspring of Dutch. The two languages struggled for supremacy in South Africa.
In 1806 the British retook control of the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch, and one
of their primary goals was to replace Dutch with English, so they embarked on a policy of
Anglicization. They banned Dutch from all spheres of life and imposed the use of English
throughout the colony. The British justified the banning of Dutch by a myth that the Anglo-
Saxons are the Chosen People. Lord Somerset brought out Scottish Presbyterian ministers to
serve in Dutch Reformed churches and Englishmen to teach in country schools. The
Anglicization in the colony and the Afrikaners’ resistance against it led to the Anglo-Boer
war of 1899–1902, which the British won. In 1910 the Union of South Africa was formed,
thus giving English and Dutch equal status as the co-official languages of the Union. In
practice, however, the British never accepted parity between Dutch and English, especially in
education.
 In 1948 Anglicization ended and Afrikanerization was introduced. Afrikaans became
the main language for the conduct of the business of the state. In 1953 the apartheid
government adopted a controversial language policy, the Bantu Education Act. The Act
sought to impose Afrikaans as the medium of instruction and reduce the influence of English
in black schools. This led to the bloody Soweto uprisings of June 16, 1976, in which several
pupils lost their lives. As a result, Afrikaans became the language of oppression and English
the language of liberation. It is ironic that the Bantu Education Act had the opposite effect to
that desired for it.

Users of English
According to Kachru’s diagram, South Africa belongs simultaneously to the Inner
Circle and the Outer Circle. This is because English is used as a native language by some, for
instance, whites of British descent and the younger generations of South African Indians, and
as a second language by others, namely the black population, the older generations of South
African Indians, and the whites of Dutch descent, the Afrikaners. According to the census
from 1996, English is a home language for 9% of population, and it is supported by all of its
users for its global supremacy.
The language has a wider distribution than most of South Africa’s official languages,
but the majority of its speakers are concentrated in metropolitan and urban areas. In South
Africa English is not monolithic. It has a wide range of varieties. Clear distinctions can be
made between the following varieties: White South African English (SAE), Black SAE,
Indian SAE, and Colored SAE. These varieties each have their own standards and sub-
varieties.
Lanham (1986), for instance, distinguishes three varieties within White SAE:
Conservative SAE, Respectable SAE, and Afrikaans English, including its variant, Extreme
SAE. The first is associated with whites of British descent; the second with whites of Jewish
descent; and the third with whites of Dutch descent. Similarly, recent studies show that each
black language community, such as the Zulu, Xhosa, and Tswana, has its own distinct variety
of English. South Africa’s second-language varieties of English are heavily marked at every
level of linguistic structure by the primary languages of their speakers: African languages for
Black SAE, Afrikaans for Colored and Afrikaans SAE, and Indian languages for Indian SAE.
Lanham remarks that, despite the fact that South African Indians have lost their languages
and have shifted to English, their English is characterized by an accent carrying the hallmarks
of Indian English elsewhere in the world.

The Uses of English

English is highly valued in post-apartheid South Africa and enjoys far more prestige
than any other official language, including Afrikaans. The language serves all the functions
identified in Kachru’s framework: interpersonal, instrumental, regulative, and
innovative/imaginative. The interpersonal function refers to the use of English both as a
symbol of eliteness and modernity, and as a link language between speakers of various
languages in a multilingual society. The instrumental function refers to the use of English in a
country’s educational system. The regulative function concerns the use of English for the
regulation of conduct in such domains as the legal system and the administration. And the
imaginative/innovative function entails the use of English in various literary genres.
4.1 The interpersonal function
In South Africa, English is the unmarked language in all inter-racial as well as in most
inter-ethnic communication. There is perhaps no clearer evidence of this than in the language
used in South Africa’s Parliament. As Pandor observes, in 1994 87% of the speeches made in
Parliament were in English, although there are 10 more official languages. A more recent
study by Hibbert (2001) indicates that the percentage has actually increased from 87% in
1994 to over 95 % in 2001. English is not only a link language, but it is also a status symbol.
To be educated and be seen as modern goes hand in hand with being able to express oneself
in English.
4.2 The instrumental function
The majority of parents (and this includes parents in some sections of the Afrikaans-
speaking communities) want their children educated in English-medium schools. English is
the medium of instruction at more than 80 percent of South African schools. Since English is
the language of power, job opportunities, prestige, and status, it is seen by many as a free
means of which one can achieve unlimited vertical social mobility. English is the language
that some believe “can get you anywhere and everywhere”. As Grin remarks pointedly, even
at lower levels of competence, a little English is always associated with higher earnings.
4.3 The regulative function
English plays a central role in the administration of contemporary South Africa.
Despite the country’s Constitution, English is emerging as the sole language for the conduct
of the business of the state. Most provincial legislatures use English rather than any other
official language. English is also the language of business, commerce and international trade,
science, technology, diplomacy, international communication, the internet, and the media.
Both electronic and print media have accorded English a special status, one that no
other language can match. For example, South Africa has three public television channels,
SABC1, SABC2, and SABC3 (SABC standing for South Africa Broadcasting Corporation);
English has the largest part of airtime for all three channels. The same is true for language use
in the medium of radio and in the print media.
English also prevails in the courts, a domain that used to be the preserve of Afrikaans.
Recently the Minister of Justice proposed, and Parliament approved, the idea that English
should become the sole language of record in the courts, in order to cut down the costs of
keeping record in all the 11 official languages (The Daily News, October 20, 2000). The
choice of English again bears testimony to the high esteem in which the language is held in
South Africa.
4.4 The innovative/imaginative function
English has co-existed with South African indigenous languages and Afrikaans for the
past two centuries. As a result, the languages have mutually colored one another. There is
evidence of Englishization and Africanization or nativization. The former refers to the impact
of English on Afrikaans and African languages; and the latter to the impact of African
languages and Afrikaans on English.
Several loan words from Afrikaans and the African languages have been integrated
into the English lexicon. These words are substantially documented in the Dictionary of
South African English on Historical Principles edited by Silva et al. (1996). Some of the
examples are: lekker [l/eh/k/e/r] (from Afrikaans), cool, better, delicious; muti (moo-ti) (from
Zulu and Xhosa), traditional medicine, magical charm; mampara (mum-pa-ruh) (perhaps from
Sotho [sɪ̀sʊ́tʰʊ̀ ]), waste material, idiot.
Also, there is internal lexical creativity, lexical changes that are taking place within
English as a result of social changes, not caused by contact between English and South
Africa’s indigenous languages. The compound “rainbow-X,” where X can be any English
noun, is a case in point. It refers either to the coming together of people from previously
segregated communities or to something that affects or benefits these communities. This has
resulted in compounds such as the following: rainbow nation, rainbow complacency,
rainbow swimming pool, rainbow gathering, and rainbow alienation.

Attitudes towards English

For the white Afrikaansspeaking community, English has always been characterized
as die vyand se taal, ‘the language of the enemy’. For this community, the language is seen as
a serious threat to Afrikaner identity and culture. Unlike the Afrikaners, South African
Indians have, for pragmatic reasons, always had positive attitudes toward English. The Indian
community has shifted completely to and is now monolingual in English. The black
community’s attitude toward English has also been positive, as can be recalled from the
aftermath of the Soweto uprisings of 1976.
Despite the support it has in the black community, English has often been considered
a double-edged sword. Although English provides access to education and job opportunities,
it also acts as a barrier to such opportunities for those who do not speak it, or whose English
is poor. Also, it is being seen as the major threat to the maintenance of indigenous languages.
Some newspaper headlines express the concerns that the black community has about
the increasing spread and hegemony of English, a language that some in the community
consider a threat to the very survival of their indigenous African languages.

Conclusion
This chapter has presented a sociolinguistic profile of English in South Africa. Unlike
in other former British colonies, in South Africa English is used both as a native language by
the more than a million British, and as second language by a minority of South Africa’s
population. Because of its instrumental value and its status as an international language,
English is widely held in high esteem in South Africa, both by those who are fluent in it and
those who are not. So English has a secure place in South Africa, one that no other official
language can match.
Some, however, are against it (predominantly those of Dutch origin) and see it as a
threat to South African culture. Some black people also see English as a threat to further
marginalization of the indigenous African languages.