LANGUAGE IN THE WORKPLACE

Multilingualism in South Africa

 At a glance

Outline
Multilingualism – a world-wide phenomenon
Multilingualism in South Africa
English in the global context
English in South Africa
 A Multilingual Planet
Our world is a multilingual planet
There are more than 6, 000 languages out there
More than 2, 000 of these are in Africa
More than 30 of these are in South Africa, according
to ethnologue

Multilingualism is the norm, not the exception, in the

world.
Monolingualism is the exception, not the norm.
 Constellation of World Languages
The Global System of Languages

Supracentral
Languages

Central
Languages

Intermediate
Languages

Peripheral
Languages

Language Learning is
in favour of more
central languages

At the centre of this constellation of languages is English

 South Africa Language Statistics
IsiZulu 22.70%
IsiXhosa 16.00%
Afrikaans 13.50%
English 9.60%
Sepedi 9.00%
Total = 50,961,443
(StatsSA Census Setswana 8.00%
2011) Sesotho 7.60%
Xitsonga 4.50%
SiSwati 2.50%
Tshivenda 2.40%
IsiNdebele 2.10%
Other 1.60%

Sign language 0.50%

 Languages in contact
• Languages in contact are languages in conflict
(Edwards, 1994).
• Where there is conflict casualties inevitably arise.
• Peripheral languages bear the brunt of this
conflict.
Difficulty in gaining new members
Difficulty in transmitting the language to the next
generation
 Languages in contact
High rates of language attrition among younger
generation speakers
• The preponderance of bilingualism is higher
among peripheral language speakers than it is
among core language speakers,
• In post-colonial Africa most bilinguals are
proficient in an ex-colonial language
(English/French/Portuguese)
 Languages in contact
• In South Africa bilingualism goes in the
direction of English and (to varying degrees)
Afrikaans.
 Languages in contact
Languages in contact affect each other in some
way.
Borrowing of vocabulary is the most common
But grammatical features also occurs.
 The case of busy

• Afrikaans progressive besig om te ‘busy to’ =

‘is VERB-ing’) as a potential source for ….
SA English:
• He was busy relaxing.
• … the victim was busy dying.
• My twins were busy being born.
• Those jeans were busy being worn.
(Contact-induced grammaticalization)
 busy is also attractive to other languages

Urban Zulu:
A-wu-bon-i si-bhizi si-ya-dla
NEG-you-see-NEG we-busy we-PRES-eat
‘Can’t you see we are eating’ (in the process of
eating) – Aycard 2014.
 The case for for
Urban isiXhosa

Uluyanda uzopheka ukutya for abantwana

Luyanda will cook food for the children
 The case of English: current status

• English enjoys overt prestige on a global scale: it is the main

language in the world of science and technology, finance and
popular culture.
• English dominates the airwaves, print and electronic media.
• English is the most widely used language in the field of
Education.
• English has the biggest number of language learners.
 Varieties of English (Kachru, 1985)
The traditional bases (inner circle)
• USA
• Canada
• UK/British Isles
• Australia
• New Zealand

Non-traditional bases
• The ‘Outer Circle”: former British colonies where English has been
institutionalized in non-native contexts. English functions as one of the
official languages in a given territory. This is a numerically large and
diverse speech community with distinct characteristics

• The ‘Expanding Circle’: Territories with no colonial ties with Britain (e.g.
China, Japan, Russia, etc.), where English has very restricted use.
 Who owns English?
‘Inner Circle’ varieties are generally know as norm setting
varieties; but ‘Outer Circle’ varieties have their own
innovations – and set their own standards.
Lexical innovations in the ‘Outer Circle’
•bush child ‘child born out of wedlock’ (Africa)
•co-wife ‘the second of two wives’ (Africa)
•Brother in marriage ‘a husband of one’s sister-in-law’ (Africa)
•love muti ‘a charm to entice people to love’ (Africa)

Now there are ‘Englishes’ around the world, not just English
 Multilingualism in South Africa
Constitutionally: at least, English has the same status (rights and
privileges ) as the other ten languages.
Reality: these languages are in competition –with some
languages more peripheral than others.
Geographical location, sometimes determines the degree to
which a particular language is central/peripheral.
 Multilingualism in the workplace
Workplaces, especially in large metros, are sites for linguistic
diversity.
A multilingual workplace means languages will play different
roles.
Language for documentation
Language for formal communication (e.g. formal meetings)
Language(s) for informal communication.

How we conduct ourselves in the workplace calls for

sensitivity to linguistic diversity and providing space for the use
of other languages whenever the situation warrants it.