South Africa

Geographical situation

South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa and its long coastline. Is a medium-sized country, with a total land area of more than 1.2 million square kilometers, making it approximately the same size as Niger, Angola and Colombia. It is one-eighth the size of USA, twice the size of France, and over three times the size of Germany.

Going from west to east, South Africa shares borders with Namibia and Botswana, touches Zimbabwe, has a strip of border with Mozambique, and finally curves in around Swaziland before rejoining Mozambique's border. In the curve of the Free State, is the small mountainous country of Lesotho, completely surrounded by South African territory.

With its 55,847,000 people, South Africa is the 24th largest country in the world by population. It is the 25th largest country in the world by area. 

How did English became an official language

In South Africa, English has been a very influential language, and a language influenced, by processes of adaptation within the country's communities. Recent estimates indicate that approximately 45% of South African population have a speaking knowledge of English. But the number of individuals who have English as a home language are only 10%. At least one in three English speakers come from ethnic groups other than the white one. This has shown some increase in recent years. 

The coming of the English

English people made initial contact with south Africa before the period of formal British colonization. From the 16th century forwards, English explorers who visited the region began to introduce a vocabulary describing the land and its people.

 In the late 17th century, a group of English sailors sank on the Natal coast, and settled among the native inhabitants, who received them friendly. The sailors learned the language and habits of the local people, and explored extensively. While some were rescued after a few years, a few remained, forming the first permanent poblation of English speakers in south Africa (a hundred years before the formal beginning of British colonization).

Besides these early encounters, there are three initial historical phases in the formal establishment of English-speakers in South Africa:

Boers

•  After the Britain's initial occupation of the Cape Colony in 1795, the first major establishment was in 1820. It was  of approximately 4 000 British immigrants. These settlers were mostly from southern England, and primarily of working class or lower middle class. A `settler English' developed which mixed features of the various English dialects originally spoken by the settlers, and which also revealed features indicative of extensive interaction with the Dutch farming community (Boers) already established in the area.

• The second major settlement was in the colony of Natal between 1849 and 1851. Unlike the 1820 settlers, these immigrants were of middle and upper middle class origin, and predominantly from the north of England. This group also appears to have maintained stronger ties with Britain.

•  From 1870, the discovery of gold and diamonds, and the industrial revolution, led to further British immigration and the emergence of a stratified urban society. 

English was declared the official language of the Cape Colony in 1822 (replacing Dutch), and the declared language law of the government was one of Anglicization. On the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, English was made the official language together with Dutch (which was replaced by Afrikaans in 1925). During the height of the era of Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid, this policy continued the African languages being no official status. Since the first democratic elections in 1994, English is now only on of eleven official languages in South Africa.

 Especially amongst the educated, English works as a lingua franca and is a primary language of government, business, and commerce. Educationally, it is a compulsory subject in all schools, and is the preferred medium of instruction.

English has typically been seen as the language of liberation and black unity, opposed to Afrikaans, which has been perceived as the language of the oppressor. 

Languages spoken: IsiZulu 22.7%, IsiXhosa 16%, Afrikaans 13.5%, English 9.6%, Sepedi 9.1%, Setswana  8%, Sesotho 7.6%, Xitsonga 4.5%, siSwati 2.5%, Tshivenda 2.4%, isiNdebele 2.1%, sign language 0.5%, other 1.6% 

Tipes of South African English

Indigenization is the process through which a language is adapted to its speakers and their circumstances. In South Africa, the indigenization of English reflects particular socio-historical processes which have resulted in the emergence of many varieties.

South African English is the set of English dialects spoken by South Africans. There is considerable social and regional variation within South African English. Three variants are commonly identified within White South African English; spoke primarily by White South Africans:

• "Cultivated", closely approximating England's standard Received Pronunciation and associated with the upper class.

• "General", is a social indicator of the middle class.

• "Broad", associated with the working class, and closely approximating the second-language Afrikaner variety called Afrikaans English. 

At least two sociolinguistic variants have been studied spoken by most Black South Africans: a high-end, prestigious "acrolect" and a more middle-ranging, mainstream "mesolect." 

Look at the following examples illustrating selected grammatical features of some varieties:

• General South African English

- `Busy' as a marker of the progressive: `I'm busy cooking'
- Reduplication of adverb `now' as `now-now', which denotes either `immediately' or `soon'

• African English

- Use of indefinite article before certain `non-count' nouns: `He was carrying a luggage'.
- Use of `can be able' for `can': `I can be able to do it'.

• `Coloured' English

- Use of `the dative of advantage': `I'm gonna buy me a new car'
- Use of `do' or `did' in unemphasized statements and questions: `I did tell him to come.' `Who did throw that?'

• South African Indian English

- Use of `y'all' as second person plural pronoun

They have some things in common with British English in the habitual use, but they have very specific terms of South African English, called regionalisms.

There are some curiosities, for example: to ask how are you, they say "Howzit?", and to speak of drinking and going to a party, they use the term "jol" ("I'm jolling with you soon").

A very typical characteristic in the phonetics of the English that is spoken in South Africa, is the "non rotic accent". That consists of the fact that the words that take a "r" are pronounced like a very soft "ere". It is not strange at all because in some places of the southeast of England people speak this way. The pronunciation of some words are very pronounced, like "All right", where the "right" does not sound "ai", but "oi". The intonation generally sounds much higher and emotive than British English.

                                  On this video we can see how is the South African accent

Nevertheless many accents get confused with one another like Australian, New Zealand and South African English. Lets look at the similarities between them:

 -Each tends to raise the “e” vowel in DRESS, so it may sound like “driss”. (“Yis, please!”)

-Each tends to raise the “a” vowel in TRAP, so it may sound like “trep”. (“Thet’s a bed idea, mate!”)

-They also tend to all front the “o” diphthong in words like GOAT, so that “boat” might sound a bit like “bout”. (“Ow now! Thet’s terrible!”)

Examples of South African accent 

• Native English: Male (Cape Town, South Africa)
• Native English: Female (Cape Town, South Africa)
• Native English: Male (Port Elizabeth, South Africa)
• Native English: Male (Nigel, South Africa)
• Afrikaans (Primary): Female (Pretoria, South Africa)
• Afrikaans (Primary): Male (Pretoria, South Africa)
• Afrikaans (Primary): Male (Pretoria, South Africa)

• Northern Sotho (Primary): Female (Polokwane, South Africa)

Spoken language: Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. It evolved from the Dutch vernacular of South Holland spoken by the mainly Dutch settlers of what is now South Africa, where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the course of the 18th century.