This is the Analytical Essay that we had to do about a specific aspect of this country.

NAME: VEGA GARCÍA MUÑOZ

COURSE: 1^ST TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION-Subgrupo 1

SUBJECT: METHODOLOGY OF STUDY AND ANALYSIS

DATE: 5^TH, DECEMBER, 2014

TITLE OF THE ANALYTICAL TEXT: LANGUAGES OF SOUTH AFRICA 

LANGUAGES OF SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa is a multilingual country where eleven languages are spoken: Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Sesotho sa leboa, Setswana, English, Sesotho, Tsonga, Swazi, Venda and Ndebele. (South Africa info, 2012) The most common languages spoken at home by South Africans is the Zulu (23.8 percent speak Zulu at home), followed by the Xhosa (17.6 per cent), and Afrikaans (13.3 per cent).

The aim of this paper is to study the development of the languages of South Africa as well as the disappearance of Dutch despite being the first settlement in this country. Also learn how the English in spite of being at number six in terms of spoken languages, is the “official” language of media, business and politics. Finally we will see an example of how languages affect in education at schools. The languages of South Africa are related to the history and culture of the civilizations that have passed through this country.

The first populations of South Africa were the Bantu and the Bushman. But South Africa is really known thanks to the arrival of Europeans. Around the 12th century the Bantu began to move to the South of the continent, and later, in the 17TH century, Portuguese, Dutch, French, German and English, together with the Malays, Indians and Indonesians, arrived by sea to the territory of South Africa. For many years, there were numerous fights between the Dutch and the British by the power of this region. These wars were called Anglo-Boer wars, and the British were winners and took over these lands then Dutch. (Sudáfrica en la Red, 2007). Thus was formed a very wide cultural diversity, with the corresponding issue of the situation of languages in contact.

During the next years of the war, the British failed in the attempt to reconstruct the country and the Afrikaners (who were the inhabitants of that time) were relegated to work in the field. Also failed, the British people, the establishment of its language and therefore the Afrikaan (language of Afrikaans) represented the population. (Historia de Sudáfrica, 2008-2014)

Nevertheless, the English and the Dutch were, until that moment, the official languages of the country and the Afrikaans was not set as an official language until 1925. This language derived somehow from the Dutch, used by the Boer and coloured people (Los Filólogos, 2000-2007). It was declared as an official language replacing the Dutch after the rise of nationalist movements.  After that, the English continued being the language used by the majority of white people. It was also used by black people that used it as a lingua franca to linguistic diversity.

During the years of Apartheid, black South Africans, suffered the consequences of the disaffected British that were not able to occupy its territory. That´s why the formation that black population was receiving during this period (that is too important to understand the history of South Africa) was minimal and it was in English and in Afrikaans. These languages were only used in terms of teaching, so they were excluded from all social scopes.

When Nelson Mandela arrived to South Africa made several changes to rebuild the country. To do this, he created a new multicoloured flag and the national anthem, which had five of the languages that are spoken nowadays. Thus, children could learn their mother tongue and in the judicial system each person should be informed with his own language. Besides all this, they sought to recover the marginalized ones. The way towards a multilingual nation is not easy (as it is still in process). For this reason they have created a number of organizations as the PanSALB (Pan South African Language Board), which has promoted the inclusion of some African languages, at the universities.

Now the problem with the multilingualism is English and the awareness that they have of this language. On the one hand it has been considered as the language of freedom for some people and on the other hand it is the most used language in the media and the Government. This is because it is a language spoken internationally. And despite being the sixth most spoken in South Africa, it is obligatory it learning. In spite of this advantages, there are also some disadvantages like that the 30% of the population does not understand any English. (Díaz García, 2013).

Because of all this, it has been created a project for education in South Africa. It is called PRAESA (Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa). They seek and develop programs of bilingualism from childhood and they try to increase the status of African languages both in the oral area and the written among other things. (PRAESA, 2012-2014)  

The problem of some families is that they speak a language and when they have children talk to them in that language at home but not at school. As it is the case of Xolisa Guzula, who bought a house in a suburb where no one spoke Xhosa (his mother tongue). She is complaining that children are forced to learn a language (English) that they only speak at the school. The problem is that many parents want to preserve their language but there are schools that offer only English and Afrikaans. As these schools have numerous activities and resources to learn other things, it creates a moral debate that parents must face.

Xolisa Guzula is a bi-literacy storyteller and author of children´s literature. She is a well known advocate and teacher trainer of bilingual Xhosa and she was one of the founders of the network of community literacy reading clubs emerging across the country. (NELSON MANDELA INSTITUTE) 

What this mother wants to say is that her child Tumi had no opportunity to learn Xhosa in the school and she just learnt English despite the efforts she put. One day he realized that the child did not want write in Xhosa, but he was not surprised because she didn´t learnt it at school. At home the two (mother and daughter) read in several languages. First in English to gain her confidence and then in Xhosa to preserve the language. Now Tumi is 6 years old and she can read and understand three languages. Now she get the feeling that I have succeeded more than the teachers with all the time and materials they have in school to teach children to read and write.

REFERENCES

South Africa info.(2012,November 6^th). Retrieved in November 22^th, 2014, from South Africa info: http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/language.htm#.VIFyGNKG-So

Sudáfrica en la Red.(2007) Retrieved in November 22^th , 2014, from Sudáfrica en la Red: http://www.sudafricaenred.com/content/guia_paises/sudfrica/datos-generales/16

Historia de Sudáfrica. (2008-2014). Retrieved in December 4^th, 2014, from Spanish Facts: http://noticias-de-hoy.es/historia_de_sud%C3%A1frica

Los Filólogos.(2000-2007). Retrievesd in November 30^th, 2014, from Los Filólogos: http://www.losfilologos.com/portal/index.php/linguistica/815-el-afrikaans-una-lengua-germanica-hablada-en-tres-paises-africanos

Díaz García,A. (2013, December 18^th). El legado ligüístico de Mandela. Retrieved in November 24^th, 2014, from El legado lingüístico de Mandela: http://makingofezine.com/2013/12/18/el-legado-linguistico-de-mandela-2/

PRAESA. (2012-2014). Retrieved in December 1^st, 2014, from PRAESA: http://www.praesa.org.za/about-praesa-2/  

NELSON MANDELA INSTITUTE. (n.d.). Retrieved on November 29^th, 2014 from NMI Senior Team: http://www.mandelainstitute.org.za/team.php