Aspects of Culture and Meaning in Botswana English

Abstract

Using samples from local newspapers, letters and public speeches, this article argues that English assimilates to and reflects the Botswana culture through borrowing and semantic modification. It discusses those terminologies and expressions that depict the cultural values of Batswana in the usage of English in Botswana. Two types of borrowed items are discussed: those depicting old traditional practices that cannot be translated into English (kgosi and mophato) and those reflecting recent socio-political experiences in Botswana including the HIV/AIDS threat (tebelopele and omang). The people's culture is also expressed by items such as brigade and the lands that have been semantically modified.

Botswana English: implications for English language teaching and assessment

“…The second consists of items that have been recently introduced in response to certain sociopolitical changes in the country, such as Bulela Ditswe (a political slogan which means to open the kraal and let out the cattle to graze) and Botho (one of the pillars of Vision 2016, 5 which means to be humane). Since their study also shows that some aspects of the discourse of BE correlate significantly with those of Setswana and Batswana culture, Alimi and Bagwasi (2009) provide some useful insights into the processes of deculturation and acculturation of English in Botswana.…”

“…The lexical distinctiveness of BE is further reiterated by Alimi and Bagwasi (2009), who report that the lexicon of BE consists of two broad categories. The first category comprises items that have been either borrowed or semantically modified from Setswana because there are no equivalents in English or because of the need to depict cultural and traditional practices.…”