University of Novi Sad

Faculty of Philosophy
Department of English
language

Varieties of English
South African Englishes - Review

Student:
Sanja Crepulja EJ 14/11
chiasm11@yahoo.com

1. Introduction

December, 2014

Professor:
mr Jagoda Topalov

From 1948-94, South Africa was known to the rest of the world by its racist system,
apartheid, which was marked by the ideology whose objective was to ensure the supremacy
of whites of Dutch origin, the Afrikaners, over the black majority population of South Africa.
This type of system used language to protect white minority privilege and power in different
aspects of life-education, economy, politics, the media etc. The architects of apartheid divided
South Africa into tribal, language-based homelands for the black population, and separate,
skin-colour-based areas for the Indians, the whites, and the Coloreds, the people of mixed
races. This division emerged mainly because of the belief of the proponents of apartheid that
races were inherently unequal. The dividing criterion was the language English or
Afrikaans.
South Africa has a multiracial population of 40, 583, 573 people, speaking at least 25
languages from three major groups: African, European and Asian. When apartheid ended in
1994, 11 of the countrys estimated 25 languages gained official status. They include English
and Afrikaans, historically the only official languages of what had been considered a
bilingual state, and nine African languages, including Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swati, Tsonga,
Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu.
These languages are not, in reality, equal in status. English has a superior status over the rest
of the languages. According to the 1996 census, Zulu is the most commonly spoken first
language in South Africa (spoken by 23% of the population), followed by Xhosa (with 18%),
Afrikaans (14%), and English (9%). The section that follows is concerned with the history of
English in South Africa to provide a background in order for the unique position of the
language in the country to be understood better. The next two sections deal with the users and
uses of English. The sub-sequent section considers South Africans attitudes towards English
and is followed, in conclusion, by a brief discussion of the future of English and its effect on
South Africas indigenous languages.
2. The History of English in South Africa
This section reproduces an outline of the history of English in South Africa. As a background,
it has to be noted that prior to the birth of democracy in 1994, South Africa was subjected to
three colonial rules. The country was first colonised 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 to 1994, when the country liberated itself from apartheid.

For 342 years, Dutch or English was used to divide, control and rule South Africa and to
protect minority power and privilege, mostly at the expense of the majority black population.
The history of English in South Africa is closely related with the history of Afrikaans, an
offspring of Dutch, as the struggle between those two languages was constant. This struggle
began in 1795 when British troops invaded what was then the Cape of Good Hope, now Cape
Town, and overthrew the Dutch, to control the sea route between Asia and Europe. The
British returned the Cape to the Dutch in 1803, however, they retook control of the territory
in order to prevent it from falling to the French. When the British retook the control over the
territory, their goal was to replace Dutch with English, practicing the policy of Anglicization.
Consequently, they banned Dutch from all spheres of life, justifying that act on both
ideological and religious grounds. Lord Somerset, the Governor of the Cape, brought Scottish
Presbyterian ministers to serve in Dutch Reformed churches and Englishmen to teach in
country schools. Teachers were expected to influence Afrikaner acceptance of British rule.
Furthermore, imperial history was included as a large part of the curriculum. The British
determination to impose Anglicization and the Afrikaners resistance against it are the most
crucial factors that contributed to the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902, which the British won.
In 1910 the Union of South Africa was formed, giving English and Dutch equal status as the
co-official languages of the Union. However, the British never accepted parity between Dutch
and English.
The Anglicization policy ended in 1948, when the Afrikaners introduced Afrikanerization,
thus promoting Afrikaans as the main language for the business conduct of the state. In 1953
the apartheid government adopted a language policy known as the Bantu Education Act. The
Act sought to impose Afrikaans as the medium of instruction and reduce the influence of
English in black schools. The apartheid governments determination to implement the policy
and the resistance of the black pupils against the very policy led to the Soweto uprisings in
1976, in which several pupils lost their lives. The result of these uprisings was that black
South Africans began to associate Afrikaans with the oppression and to consider English as
the language of liberation. Ironically, the Bantu Education Act had the opposite effect to that
desired to be achieved. From the time of the Bantu Education Act until the beginning of a
democratic South Africa in 1994, English has become far more hegemonic than any other
language in the nation. Today, it has unique and powerful position in South Africa.
3. The Users of English

There are, according to Kachru, three concentric circles in the spread of English. The first,
recognised as the Inner Circle, includes countries in which English is used as a native
language (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the
United States of America). The second circle, known as the Outer Circle, includes countries
where English in used as an official language (former British colonies such as South Africa,
India, Zambia etc.). The third, the Expanding Circle, includes countries in which English is
used as a foreign language (Japan, China, Argentina etc.).
It can be noticed that South Africa belongs to the Inner Circle on the one hand, and to the
Outer Circle on the other. The reason for this is the fact that English is used in South Africa as
a native language by some, an as a second language by others. According to the 1996 census,
English is spoken as home language by 3, 457, 467 of South Africans (9%), including 1, 711,
603 whites (39%), 974, 654 Asians (94.4%), 584, 101 colored (16.4%) and 113, 132 Africans
(0.4%). English has a wider distribution than most of South Africas official languages, but
the majority of its speakers are located in metropolitan and urban areas.
English in South Africa has a wide range of varieties. There are the following varieties
recognised: White South African English (SAE), Black SAE, Indian SAE, and Colored SAE.
All these varieties have their distinct standards and sub-varieties. For example, there are three
varieties within White SAE: Conservative SAE, Respectable SAE, and Afrikaans English, as
well as its variant, Extreme SAE. Conservative SAE is associated with white British
descendents, Respectable SAE with whites of Jewish descent, and Afrikaans English with
whites of Dutch descent. Recent studies have shown that each black language community,
including Zulu, Xhosa, and Tswana, has its own variety of English. South Africas secondlanguage varieties of English are heavily influenced by the primary languages of their
speakers. As for the South African Indians, they have lost their languages and have shifted to
English, and their English is marked by an accent characterized by Indian English elsewhere
in the world.
4. The Uses of English
English in South Africa is the most prestigious language of all official languages, including
Afrikaans. It reached the very status after the Bantu Education Act of 1953 and the Soweto
uprising of June 16, 1976.English serves all the functions mentioned in Kachrus framework:
interpersonal, instrumental, regulative, and innovative/imaginative. The first one has to do
with the use of English both as a symbol of eliteness, 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 countrys educational system. The regulative function deals with
English being used in legal system and administration. As for the imaginative/innovative
function, it is concerned with the use of English in various literary genres.
4. 1. The interpersonal function
English is the unmarked language in all inter-racial an inter-ethnic communication. Although
the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa says that all of the 11 official languages must
be treated equally, Pandor observes that in 1994, 87% of the speeches made in Parliament
were in English, although 80% of the members of Parliament were Africans. A more recent
study conducted by Hibbert (2001) shows that the percentage of speeches made in English in
Parliament has actually increased from 87% in 1994 to 95% in 2001. It can be concluded that
English is not only a link language, but is considered to be a status symbol as well.
4. 2. The instrumental function
The majority of parents in South Africa (including some parents in Afrikaans-speaking
communities), choose to provide their children with education in English-medium schools.
English is the medium of education at more than 80% of South African schools. The country
currently has 22 full-fledged universities and 15 technikons, tertiary institutions that
educate individuals who have particular skills in order for them to work at the labor market
afterwards. Most of the technikons and 17 of the universities in South Africa are Englishmedium.
4. 3. The regulative function
English language is of crucial importance in the administration of contemporary South Africa
and it is emerging as the sole language for the conduct of the business of the state. It is the
language of business, commerce and international trade, science, technology, diplomacy,
international communication, the internet, and the media. English has a special status in both
electronic and print media. South Africa has 30 major newspapers, 21 of which are published
exclusively in English. English language prevails not only on television, on the radio and in
the print media, but also in courts, in which Afrikaans prevailed earlier.
4. 4. The innovative/imaginative function

There is a large body of creative literature written in English that originates in South Africa.
English has co-existed with South African indigenous languages and Afrikaans for the past
two centuries, and, as a result, these languages have affected each other to some extent. Some
loan words from Afrikaans and the African languages have been integrated into the English
lexicon, documented in the Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles,
edited by Silva et al. For instance, indaba (from Zulu and Xhosa), that is a serious meeting,
involving community leaders and lekker (from Afrikaans), meaning better, cool, delicious.
Furthermore, there are lexical changes that are taking place in English resulting from social
changes and not from contact between English and South African indigenous languages. For
instance, the compound rainbow-X, where X can be any English noun. 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 rainbow
nation, rainbow swimming pool, rainbow gathering and rainbow alienation.
5. South Africans Attitudes towards English
Attitudes towards English in South Africa can be described as community-specific, mainly
because of the legacy of apartheid. For the white Afrikaans-speaking community, English has
always been characterized as die viand se taal, the language of the enemy (Branford, 1996 :
39). This community considers English to be a serious threat to the identity and culture of
Afrikaner. The Afrikaners resentment against English emerged from their fall from power,
which resulted in overwhelming power of English, the language of rule in post-apartheid
South Africa.
As opposed to the Afrikaners, South African Indians have always had positive attitudes
towards English, mainly for pragmatic reasons. Furthermore, the Indian community has
shifted to English and is now monolingual in English. The black communitys attitude
towards English has also been positive, especially after the Soweto uprisings in 1976.
On the one hand, English provides access to education and job opportunities, but, on the
other hand, it also acts as a barrier to such opportunities for those who are not fluent in it.
Despite it being crucial for knowledge, science and technology, it is often seen as a threat
to the maintenance of indigenous languages. In addition, it is sometimes seen as a
language that flourishes on the graveyard of other peoples languages, as described by
wa Thiongo Ngg (1993 : 35).

There are certain headlines from South African newspapers which are related to the concern
of black community about the survival of indigenous African languages. Some of those
headlines are the following: Prominence of English kills African languages (Daily News,
Friday, September 24, 1999), English onslaught: Indigenous languages under threat (Daily
News, Wednesday, December 6, 2000) and Language barrier: South Africa has 11 languages,
but many could soon face extinction, writes Benison Makele (Sowetan Sunday World, August
5, 2001). The mentioned headlines present the headlines of the articles which deal with the
concern for African languages and their possible future disappearance. It is still not known
whether in the future English will be able to co-exist in harmony, rather than in tension, with
its sister official languages in post-apartheid South Africa.
6. Conclusion
This paper has discussed a sociolinguistic profile of English in South Africa. South Africa
distinguishes from other former British colonies in terms that there were more than a million
British who never left the colony when colonization ended. It is also a second language of
minority of South Africas population, and also has a status of international language. Despite
English being widely held in high esteem in South Africa, there are some attitudes against
English, especially in the white Afrikaans-speaking community, where English is seen as a
threat to Afrikaner identity and culture. In addition, language activists in the black
community are against English language as well, as they consider English to be one of the
triggers for the further marginalization of the indigenous African languages. In spite of all
these voices against English, it is becoming apparent that even the strongest opponents of
English see to it that their own loved ones master the language, as stated by Vivian de Klerk
(1996 : 17).

References:

Branford, William (1996) English in South African society: A preliminary overview. In

English around the world: Focus on South Africa. Edited by Vivian de Klerk.
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de Klerk, Vivian (1996) Introduction. In Englishes around the World: Focus on South
Africa. Edited by Vivian de Klerk. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 7-17.
Hibbert, L. (2001) Changing language practices in parliament in South Africa. Paper
presented at the Eighth International Association for World Englishes (IAWE)
Conference. University of Potchefstroom, South Africa, 29 November-1 December.
Kachru, Braj B. (1996) Models for non-native Englishes. In The Other Tongue: English
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Naledi

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Problems,

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