Black South African English: Where to from here?

Abstract

Black South African English is generally regarded as the variety of English commonly used by mother-tongue speakers of South Africa's indigenous African languages in areas where English is not the language of the majority. This paper explores some of the problems involved in defining this variety, problems such as whether it is a`new' variety of English or a dialect, and problems relating to whose English it is: the English of those learners who have encountered only a smattering of English in informal contexts or the variety of English acquired during formal schooling. The second half of the paper focuses on the possible future of Black South African English (BSAE) against the backdrop of South Africa's new multilingual policy. Reasons for the continued appeal of English are examined, alongside the range of factors influencing the possible future growth of BSAE as a distinct variety. It is argued that South Africans are unlikely ever to be free not to learn English, owing to the huge economic, political and ideological constraints which make the`choice' of English inevitable. The success of current efforts to resist value judgements and recognise the worth of BSAE will depend not only on the goodwill of South Africans, and on the cooperation of all speakers of English, world-wide, but on the rate at which the variety drifts away from recognised standard forms of English.

An Assessment of High School Pupils' Attitudes Towards the Pronunciation of Black South African English

“…Secondly, it is probably close enough to WSAE as far as its linguistic properties are concerned to ensure that effective communication takes place. This closeness should go a long wat to allying the concern expressed by commentators such as De Klerk (1999), Titlestad (1996) and Wright (1996), namely that the adoption of a non-standard variety of English may pose a sever threat to intelligibility. As BSAE variety of the New South African elite, it might increasingly come to serve as an idealised target for language acquisition by BSAE learners in secondary education, even if it is not the English of their teachers.…”

“…Ling., Siippl. Lanham, 1985;Cooper, 1989;Young, 1991;De Kadt, 1993; De Klerk & Bosch, 1993 De Klerk, 1996, 1997, 1999Coetzee-Van Rooy, 2000). Although English has been thrust upon Black South Africans (De Klerk, 1999:311-312), English is regarded as a means toward upward mobility, economic and political power and prestige in the Black South African community and the broad South African community in general (De Kadt, 1993;Lazenby, 1996;Titlestad, 1996; Wright, 1996). These positive attitudes are not unique to South Africa either.…”

The Pronunciation of English in South Africa

“…However, English remained an important asset to the black community and it continued to be used in a range of functions (De Klerk 1999). Renewed claims about ownership of English started to emerge in the wake of the 1976 protest action in Soweto.…”

Investigating Black South African English In The New Millennium: on the Potential and Problems of Language Attitude Research

“…The focus of this paper is Black South African English, which is understood as the English of ESL speakers whose first languages are Bantu languages (cf. de Klerk 1999: 3 1 1). This description already includes the two factors that account for the extreme heterogeneity of BSAE: firstly, that it is a second language and, secondly, that there is a range of first languages to be considered.…”

“…With regard to BSAE, the social structures and dynamics have undergone such a lot of change that it might be difficult to assess those relevant to a specific study beforehand (cf. also De Klerk 1999). Instead, it would most likely be necessary to integrate a section on the relevant social and ethnolinguistic identities.…”