Richard Cameron Blake, English
In April, 1994, the first all-race presidential and parliamentary elections were held In South Africa after several years of multi-party constitutional negotiations. J’ielson Mandela, a political-prisoner-turned-president, was given the charge to uphold the new constitution, one In which all South Africans are regarded equally, regardless of race. Part of that constitution is a new language policy designed to reflect the wide diversity of languages In the country. Under the new language policy, 11 languages (nine of them spoken by different African tribal groups) are now recognized as official languages instead of only English and Afrikaans (a Dutch-based language spoken by a majority of the white population) like in the previous constitution.
Language policy In South Africa has been a controversial topic in the past; on at least one occasion during apartheid it led to violent political protests. The Soweto Riots of 1976 began as a result of the State policy of mandatory Afrikaans instruction in Bantu (Black) schools. With the new policy in place it is unlikely that violence of this nature will arise from language issues again. But language policy and language practice are not always the same thing. Just because these languages are now official does not ensure that they will develop to the strong “status” 1 levels of the former official languages. The question remains: What is the future of the Black languages? Will the former official languages continue to dominate them in the public and private sector? Will use of these languages increase or diminish?
Unfortunately, most of the literature on South African language policy for the fifteen years before independence neglected the long-standing question of the future of black languages. A small amount of research focused specifically on these languages, and linguists specializing In language policy devoted portions of their work to proposing policies for developing black languages. Several language policy conferences held before the elections spent large portions of time on the question of the black languages. Few publications, however, have solely focused on the future of these languages. In addition, no publication of which I am aware has specifically addressed the changes in language use in the black languages after South Africa’s independence.
Using sociolinguistic analysis I attempted to understand the present situation of the black languages of South Africa and predict their future. A sociolinguist analysis examines language issues from a social as well as a linguistic perspective, and makes policy recommendations from how language is actually used in society rather than from political or economic motivations. In my research, I used up-to-date electronic database methods and also contacted noted scholars in sociolinguistics and language policy in South Africa over electronic mail. Through these investigations I was able to list the different “domains”‘ in which the use of black languages in society has expanded since the elections. I also examined current attitudes towards different South African languages and how they might affect current and future language use.
My research showed that with a new language policy and changing private and public practice, the “status” of these languages will improve relative to their former position. The black languages may eventually equal or surpass Afrikaans in status, but it will be difficult for the black languages to overcome English as the language of widest communication. While no black language is likely to become more powerful than the others on a national level, it will continue to be the case that certain black languages will dominate the others on a regional basis. For instance, Zulu is quite strong in Zululand/Natal province, but not in the Lebowa province, where Northern Sotho is the dominant black tongue. Because of the similarity between the different black languages and the tendency for Africans to “code switch,”‘ it is possible with time that these languages will merge closer to each other, resulting in one or two languages rather than the nine which currently exist, but this change will be very slow in coming-if at all.
South Africa may yet see a time when Bantu languages are used more than presently predicted. For now, these languages enjoy prominence and status in society at levels never before enjoyed. Language policies seldom cause social or linguistic change without desire in the people for this change to occur. Current linguistic changes may be occurring not as a result of the new language policy but because of social forces much stronger than policy. Future linguistic changes may or may not occur as a direct result of the new constitution’s mandate. If nothing else, the new language policy in South Africa shows a desire by policy makers to grant a right to the people which they previously did not have-the right to use their first language in wider domains.