ABSTRACT
South African society is characterized by extensive diversity The society is multiracial, multicultural, multireligious, and multilingual. Indeed, the diversity present in contemporary South Africa is arguably nowhere manifested more clearly than in the case of language. In addition to Afrikaans and English, which during the apartheid era served as the country’s dominant and official languages, nine indigenous African languages and five Indian languages are spoken (see Table 12.1). The picture is further complicated by the presence of a number of immigrant languages, languages used primarily or exclusively for religious purposes, and various kinds of nonstandard and koine languages. Despite this high degree of linguistic diversity, which is far from uncommon in “developing societies,” South Africa nonetheless also shares a number of linguistic characteristics with the world’s “developed” nations. The country’s linguistic diversity includes a language of wider communication, English, which is widely spoken throughout the country, and by members of virtually all of the different ethnolinguistic groups. There is a high level and degree of bilingualism and even multilingualism, reflecting the educational level of the population as well as the extensive intergroup contact that continues, in spite of the legacy of apartheid, to characterize South African society (see Kaschula & Anthonissen, 1995). And, although still far too low to be acceptable, and certainly skewed disproportionately toward certain groups at the expense of others, the literacy rate in South Africa is impressive by “third world” standards, if not by Western ones (see, e.g., French, 1982; National Education Policy Investigation, 1993b). Although it is obviously not possible to provide a complete survey of the linguistic situation in contemporary South Africa here, it is appropriate for this diversity to be briefly discussed at this point. Languages Spoken in South Africa as Home Language
|
Language |
Number of Speakers |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Official Languages |
Afrikaans |
6,188,981 |
|
English |
3,432,042 |
|
|
Xhosa |
6,891,358 |
|
|
Zulu |
8,541,173 |
|
|
Ndebele |
799,216 |
|
|
Pedi |
3,437,971 |
|
|
Tswana |
3,601,609 |
|
|
Swazi |
926,094 |
|
|
Venda |
763,347 |
|
|
Tsonga |
1,349,022 |
|
|
Indian Languages |
Gujarrati |
25,120 |
|
Hindi |
25,900 |
|
|
Tamil |
24,720 |
|
|
Telegu |
4,000 |
|
|
Urdu |
13,280 |
|
|
European Languages |
Dutch |
11,740 |
|
French |
6,340 |
|
|
German |
40,240 |
|
|
Greek |
16,780 |
|
|
Italian |
16,600 |
|
|
Portuguese |
57,080 |
|
|
Other Languages |
25,440 |
