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Title Some characteristic features of Englishes in Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland
Full text http://perlinguam.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/88; http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/17553
Date 2011
Abstract This article discusses the function of the English and the local form it takes in three Southern African countries, namely Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland. English was introduced in these countries as a result of contacts between the indigenous people and British traders and missionaries during the 19th century. English, which had initially been the language of trade, became the official language in colonial administration. Since then, English has had shifting but always important roles alongside the indigenous languages. As usually happens with languages in contact, there has been a fair amount of mutual influence. In this article, we examine some of the changes in English, concentrating on the usage of non-L1 speakers. Kachru (1982) speaks of this process as 'indigenisation': changing the language to suit the communicative needs of non-native users in new, un-English contexts. That explanation is only partly satisfactory. Languages influence one another in sophisticated sociolinguistic ways that require more penetrating analysis. In this article, we are concerned mainly with examining and describing the transfer of syntactic, phonological, lexical and semantic features from indigenous languages into English. From observation, most of the Africanisms that apply in the three countries discussed, particularly in Malawi, could well apply to Zambia and Zimbabwe as well. Finally, we reflect on some future possibilities.
Language en
Publisher Stellenbosch University
Type of publication Peer-reviewed Article
Format application/pdf
Source Per Linguam; Vol 19, No 1 (2003)
Identifier 10.5785/19-1-88
Repository Stellenbosch - Stellenbosch University
Added to C-A: 2014-06-20;14:04:26