The Language Planning Situation in South Africa

"Where art thou Sesotho?": Exploring the linguistic landscape of Wits University

“…Language policies that intend to promote indigenous languages require a concrete assessment value of the languages in question. Kamwangamalu (2001), for example, argues that market forces determine whether there is substantial demand for multilingual skills in the African languages for academic, administrative, economic and employment purposes. This suggests that the allocation of resources is critical for any language policy implementation plan (Madiba, 2010).…”

“…It contains decisions, rules, regulations and guidelines on the status and use of languages (Crawford, 2000). According to Kamwangamalu (2001), language policies are transitional tools that facilitate the move from old language functions that need to be discarded to new language functions that are aspired. During the apartheid era, English and Afrikaans were the only official languages in South Africa and universities were divided into English-and Afrikaans-medium institutions.…”

The current politics of African languages in Zimbabwe

“…Laws are especially powerful mechanisms for affecting language practices, as they are supported by penalties and sanctions and can therefore ensure that policies are carried out and turn from ideologies into practice (Shohamy, 2006).The view that language policies are instruments of social control and political activity is given credence by the close involvement of government and other influential stakeholders in the shaping of language use and status (Ricento, 2006;Tollefson, 2002;Masoke-Kadenge and Kadenge, 2013). Others, such as Kamwangamalu (2001), note that language policies are transitional tools that facilitate the move from old language functions that need to be discarded to new language functions that are aspired.…”

Living through Languages: An African Tribute to René Dirven

“…The conception that English is viewed by a large portion of the South African population as the language of empowerment, of progress, of transformation, of political correctness, is difficult to dispute (cf. Kamwangamalu, 2001;Ridge, 2000aRidge, , 2000bWright, 2002).…”

“…It thus would appear that there is a discrepancy between what is assumed on the basis of the policy and what is actually realised in practice, as if language practice is not matched with language policy (cf. Kamwangamalu, 2001Kamwangamalu, , 2004Verhoef, 1998). …”