Why English dominates the central economy

Abstract

This paper sets out to formulate some of the economic reasons for the continuing dominance of English in the boardrooms, government forums, parastatals and laboratories of South Africa, to consider whether this situation is likely to change, and to assess the extent to which such a state of affairs is at odds with South Africa’s new language policy. The historical reasons for the dominance of English in this sphere are well known: the language’s imperial history, its status as a world language, its role as a medium for political opposition during the apartheid conflict, and the accumulation of capital and economic influence by English-speakers from the mid-nineteenth century onward. However, the day-to-day economic basis for the continuing dominance of English at the apex of South African society has hardly been considered.

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).…”

Language and value

“…We should instead conceive these different kinds of language attachment as falling along a continuum, with predominantly instrumental motivation at one pole and predominantly associative or affective affiliation at the other. It might also help to acknowledge that in the case of English in South Africa this continuum straddles the rural-urban divide, with instrumental motivation dominating in deep-rural areas where there is a strongly embedded home language and little exposure to English; while associative attachment to English becomes more prominent in middle-class urban areas where linguistic complexity and the dominance of English in the formal sector undermine the socioeconomic value of a single home African language (see Wright 2002b).…”

“…1 Afrikaans is being edged into a supplementary niche. In an earlier paper I described some of the economic factors which collude with linguistic behaviours in the long term to maintain this form of "elite closure" at national level (Wright 2002b). 2 A fully articulated language dispensation for a country as linguistically complex as South Africa has many foundational challenges to surmount before there could be credible practical grounds for attempting to dislodge English from its current role (ideological desires are a different matter).…”