Family language policy: The case for a bottom-up approach in conserving Zimbabwe’s minoritised languages

Diasporean 1 Southern African Perspectives

“…Most studies have focused on how immigrant families, particularly in Europe, America, and Asia, negotiate their family language policies to foster the maintenance of their heritage languages (Hua & Wei 2016;Kasatkina 2011;Seloni & Sarfati 2013). Among the many topical themes, some studies revolve around understanding how family language ideologies influence the nature and direction of family language policy in indigenous and immigration contexts (Maseko 2021;Maseko & Mutasa 2018;Pérez Baez 2013;Seloni & Sarfati 2013). Other studies have centred on how parents' aspirations for their children's educational success and needs influence parents' orientations towards children's multilingual development trajectories and language socialisation (Hua & Wei 2016;Luykx 2005;Said & Zhu 2019).…”

“…In the African context, the field of family language policy remains largely underexplored. However, this seems to be changing as scholars seek to understand the involvement of family institutions in language revitalisation and how language practices and ideologies impact the trajectory of intergenerational language transmission of minoritised indigenous languages (Maseko 2021;Maseko and Mutasa 2018;. No study known to the authors has been done to understand the family language policy of any Zimbabwean transnational and diaspora communities in a xenophobic context.…”

Ethnolinguistic vitality in Thulamela Local Municipality: A case of Xitsonga

“…In a setting such as the TLM, it may be relatively easy or convenient for the speakers of minority languages such as Xitsonga to shift from speaking their languages and adopt the language(s) spoken by the majority, that is Tshivenḓa and English, owing to these languages' 'relative demographic and functional subservience' (Maseko 2021). Language shift occurs when a community increasingly uses more of a particular language at the expense of another language (Maseko 2021).…”

“…In a setting such as the TLM, it may be relatively easy or convenient for the speakers of minority languages such as Xitsonga to shift from speaking their languages and adopt the language(s) spoken by the majority, that is Tshivenḓa and English, owing to these languages' 'relative demographic and functional subservience' (Maseko 2021). Language shift occurs when a community increasingly uses more of a particular language at the expense of another language (Maseko 2021). This shift may result in the endangerment or even extinction of a language, especially if such a language is not used for official purposes, as its speakers may view it as either inferior or worthless because of its functional limitations (Ditselê 2014:1).…”

“…to maintain the language of the community is for parents to tell their children about it, including teaching them to embrace their language and be proud of being a mother tongue speaker of Xitsonga (see Maseko 2021). In other words, when parents and other community members teach and show children the importance of the promotion and development of African languages, children will be motivated to study them.…”