Globalisation and African Languages: Risks and Benefits [Reprint 2011 ed.] 9783110891614, 9783110180992

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Globalisation and African Languages

W DE G

Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs 156

Editors

Walter Bisang Hans Henrich Hock Werner Winter

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

Globalisation and African Languages Risks and Benefits

Edited by

Katrin Bromber Birgit Smieja

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

M o u t o n de Gruyter (formerly M o u t o n , The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter G m b H & Co. K G , Berlin.

© Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the A N S I to ensure permanence and durability.

ISBN 3-11-018099-5 Bibliographic

information published by Die Deutsche

Bibliothek

Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at < h t t p : / / d n b . d d b . d e > .

© Copyright 2004 by Walter de Gruyter G m b H & Co. K G , D-10785 Berlin All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. N o part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Berlin. Printed in Germany.

Karsten Legere

Dedicated to

Karsten Legere on the occasion of his 60th birthday

Foreword

The small languages of the world are losing relevance in a fast changing world. In the flow of economic, political and even linguistic globalisation, our knowledge on their history and structure is gradually getting lost, and by a change of power structure, they cannot defend themselves. The acknowledgement of these languages in Namibia and elsewhere, and their promotion and development for future generations, has always been one of Professor Karsten Legere's urgent concerns. With great pleasure, through this Foreword, I am taking the opportunity to contribute to this volume dedicated to Professor Karsten Legere on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Prof. Karsten Legere is not only a very highly esteemed colleague, but also a seriously committed scholar, who has made significant contributions to research on endangered African languages, and towards the improvement of their status. We, at the University of Namibia, are honoured to congratulate Karsten on his birthday, and we thank him for his work, which characterises him as an enthusiastic scholar, a researcher, a fund raiser, an organiser, a teacher, and a lot more. The University of Namibia is ever conscious of the fact that through his various academic activities, such as scholarly publishing (based on field research); organising training workshops, conferences, and symposia; and promoting the growth of African Languages in various African countries, Prof. Karsten Legere particularly helped in strengthening the position of this University in the increasingly globalising academic world. As a 'translocal researcher', who has considerable experience in establishing research networks among various Southern African countries, he has effectively promoted African languages in geographical areas where the limits of global interconnectivity are progressively being felt. This volume, which was synthesised in the spirit and continuity of Karsten's work, will significantly contribute towards promoting the necessary awareness-creation measures on globalisation processes, and on their impact on society. I sincerely commend his monumental contributions. Prof. Dr. Peter Katjavivi Vice Chancellor, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia, January 2004

Acknowledgements

While preparing the present volume we received enormous support from several colleagues whom we would like to thank for their co-operation and advice. Without all these people our work would have taken much longer and could not have been finished right in time for Karsten Legere's 60th birthday. Special thanks are due, first of all, to all the contributors for their spontaneous commitment and their very quick co-operation in sending in and proof-reading their papers. Furthermore, we want to thank Sandra Fitchat in Namibia, who as an English mother-tongue speaker, did a marvelous job in proof-reading and correcting many of the papers. Last but not least we would like to thank Dr. Anke Beck and Birgit Sievert from Mouton de Gruyter for their uncomplicated co-operation in publishing this volume. Katrin Bromber and Birgit Smieja January 2004

Table of contents

Foreword Vice chancellor of UNAMPeter

vii Katjavivi

Acknowledgements

ix

Tabula gratulatoria

xv

Karsten Legere - African language studies on the move: A short biography Birgit Smieja and Katrin Bromber

xix

Karsten Legere: A bibliography Introduction Katrin Bromber and Birgit Smieja

xxvii 1

Section I: Language use and attitudes Der übergeordnete ideologische Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte weltweit Rene Dirven and Martin Pütz

9

Indianer und andere Minderheiten - Überlegungen zu einer sprachplanerischen Minoritologie Peter Hans Neide

31

Setswana: An under-exploited national resource? Herman Μ. Batibo

53

Can a 'foreign' language be a national medium of education? Linguistic ecology and equality in Namibia Martin Pütz

65

xii

Table of contents

Revisiting reversing language shift: African languages in high modernity Christopher Stroud Triglossia: African privilege or necessity Rajmund Ohly t

85

103

Section II: Language policy and education Using Northern Sotho as medium of instruction in vocational training Vic Webb, Biki Lepota and Refilwe Ramagoshi

119

Developing a language policy in an African country: The case of Malawi Al Mtenje

147

Writing and reading in English and LI: Attitudes among pupils in Lira and Mpigi, Uganda Mechthild Reh

163

Section III: Language description and classification The impact of Kiswahili on Kiluguru Daniel J. Mkude

181

Loan words in Swahili Arvi Hurskainen

199

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language Christina Thornell

219

The infinitive as a part of speech in Swahili Nelli V. Gromova

243

On vowel systems in the southern Bole-Tangale languages Rudolf Leger

253

Table of contents

!Xun as a type Β language

xiii

263

Bernd Heine and Christa König How many languages are there in Africa, really?

279

Jouni Filip Maho Languages and language names in Mozambique, 150 years ago and now

297

Tore Janson Observations on Swahili and Midzichenda plant names

313

Franz Rottland and Ralf Grosserhode

Subject index

323

Tabula gratulatoria

Beside the authors and editors of this volume dedicated to Prof. Karsten Legere the following friends and colleagues wish to congratulate to the 60th birthday:

Jan Blommaert Ghent University Department of African Languages and Cultures Ghent, Belgium Andy M. Chebanne University of Botswana Faculty of Humanities Gaborone, Botswana Norbert Cyffer Department of African Studies University of Vienna Vienna, Austria Sandra Fitchat The Word Factory, Freelance Editor Namibia Helene Fatima Idris Göteborg University Department of Oriental and African Languages Göteborg, Sweden Kulikoyela Kahigi Department of Kiswahili University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

xvi Tabula gratulatoria

Gregory Kamwendo University of Helsinki Dept. Institute of African and Asian Studies Helsinki, Finland Mubanga £ . Kashoki University of Zambia Lusaka, Zambia Abdulaziz Y. Lodhi Uppsala University Dept. of Asian and African Languages Uppsala, Sweden Irmtraut Maral-Hanak Department of African Studies University of Vienna Vienna, Austria Joyce T. Mathangwane University of Botswana Dept. of English Gaborone, Botswana Amanda Miller-Ockhuizen Cornell University Dept. of Linguistics Cornell, USA Hermas J. M. Mwansoko University of Dar es Salaam Institute of Kiswahili Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Lydia Nyati-Ramahobo University of Botswana Faculty of Education Gaborone, Botswana

Tabula gratulatoria

Malin Petzell Göteborg University Dept. of Oriental and African Languages Göteborg, Sweden Renate Richter Leipzig Walter Schicho Institut für Afrikanistik der Universität Wien Vienna, Austria Noriko Thunman Göteborg University Dept. of Oriental and African Languages Göteborg, Sweden Rainer Vossen Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe Universität Institut für Afrikanische Sprachwissenschaft Frankfurt am Main, Germany Saida Yahya-Othman University of Dar es Salaam Dept. of Foreign Languages and Linguistics Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

xvii

Karsten Legere - African language studies on the move: A short biography Birgit Smieja and Katrin Bromber

Thinking about Karsten Legere's biography, one cannot help to feel that movement, in the broadest sense of the word, is and always has been involved. This might not be surprising at all, but quite common for an academic whose field of interest lies thousands of kilometres away from his home. So what makes his movements so different? To answer this question requires a closer look at the destinations, the purposes and the outcome of his academic travels. Moreover, one needs to call upon the 'sister' of movement - i.e. change, and to consider the intellectual flow he has generated, shaped and promoted. Karsten Legere was born October 29, 1943 in Glauchau, a small town in Saxony between Chemnitz and Zwickau, in the eastern part of Germany. He grew up in an inspiring intellectual atmosphere in Hohenstein-Ernstthal (the place where Karl May was born). Early in his life he read the books his father, Werner Legere, had written. Among several successful adventure books, there were Verschollen unter Korsaren ('Abducted by pirates') and Ich war in Timbuktu ( Ί was in Timbuktu'). The latter, which recounts the adventures of Rene Caillie in his travels to Timbuktu, Mali, enabled a whole generation of children in former East Germany to travel in space and time. It is perhaps not too far off the mark to assume that such stories would also have had some influence on Karsten Legere when he began to consider his career. A list of his seminar titles alone tells of the many foreign lands he has ventured to, e.g. 'Rukwangali Phonology', 'Oshindonga Oral Literature', 'Language and History in Africa South of the Equator', 'Oshikwanyama Syntax', or 'Lugha za Kibantu' ('Bantu Languages'). Furthermore, it was also the first generation of researchers in African languages and cultures that attracted him, as his articles on Carl Gotthilf Büttner and Dietrich Westermann clearly show.

xx

Katrin Bromber and Birgit Smieja

However, by the time Legere finished his Α-levels in 1962, his longing to pursue a life very different from his own could not immediately materialise because he was unable to secure a place at university. The question was his choice of a suitable academic field. His interest in the outstanding, the unusual, led him to Chinese studies. However, there were no more places available on the course. Some patience was needed to reach this aim in the former socialist republic of East Germany. Thus, he decided to engage in manual labour. He was employed for two years as a locksmith in an underground coal mine before being proposed for further studies. The manual labour had meanwhile entitled him to continue his studies - as a kind of privilege to the working class. Retrospectively, this was perhaps a fortunate twist of fate because he then applied for a place in African Studies at the then Africa Institute, which had just been opened at Karl Marx University (KMU) in Leipzig. There he enrolled in 1964. His commitment to his studies, especially African languages (major) and General Linguistics (minor), granted him a Master of Arts degree in 1968, with his dissertation entitled Tonological Problems in the Sonrai Language. He got married that year as well, and five years later, in 1973, his son Alexander was born. Despite his demanding academic obligations, he remained a devoted father, and now counts himself among a proud generation of grandfathers. However, for someone who was not a member of the state party, the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED) 'Socialist Unity Party of Germany', following his career was not always easy, in particular when contacts to colleagues abroad were at stake. Of course, there were travels to universities in the former Soviet Union (mainly Leningrad) between 1979 and 1983 or after 1986, where he built up connections and made friends, but it was not Africa (and never the "West"). In the meantime, while working as a lecturer in African languages (mainly teaching Kiswahili) at KMU, he wrote his doctoral dissertation entitled Issues Regarding a Contrastive Analysis of German and Kiswahili, and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1974. After being promoted to senior lecturer, he finally got his first chance to work in Africa for a longer period. Lecturing from 1975 to 1979 at the University of Dar es Salaam's Department of Kiswahili in Tanzania, Legere proved to be not only a proficient Swahili-speaker with a near-native competence, but also a very active scholar and researcher who has presented his field research results in various journals and books. Moreover, his voluminous habilitation entitled The Linguistic Situation in Tanzania (Mainland) and its

Karsten Legere - A short biography

xxi

Changes from the mid-19th Century to the Present, which was finished after his return to Leipzig in 1982, had a strong focus on the position of Kiswahili. One year later, in 1983, he was awarded the Leibniz Prize for outstanding academic performance. In the same year, this ardent fighter for African languages returned to the University of Dar es Salaam - now in the capacity of Associate Professor - until 1986. It is no surprise, therefore, that Legere has always had strong ties to his colleagues in Dar es Salaam, many of whom have become his close friends. While in Africa he was promoted to the rank of Appointed Associate Professor of Bantu Linguistics at KMU, followed by Associate Professor in 1986 after his return from Tanzania. Being awarded the Humboldt Medal (in bronze) by the East German Minister of Tertiary Education rounded off this stage of his professional career. When German reunification came in 1990, Legere and his alma mater now renamed as the University of Leipzig - found themselves with many new challenges as well as many new opportunities. Legere's academic excellence was by this time well known in the international arena. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that his network had grown in strength and scope and now includes colleagues from all over the world. Moreover, he did not allow the complicated political situation to distract him from his work. Despite the instability of this period of evolution, Legere presented new research results. His well-known publications like the German-Swahili Dictionary (1990), The Role of Language in Primary Education in Eastern Africa with Special Reference to Kiswahili (1991/1992), and Language Ecology in Africa (1993/1994) were produced during this time. He read numerous papers at conferences all over the world, and was awarded a certificate for services to the Swahili language, first in Kenya (1990), then in Tanzania (1995), which complemented and documented his main interest, i.e. Swahili. Nevertheless, from 1992 to 2000, Legere became a regular Visiting Lecturer (and subsequently Visiting Professor) at the University of Vienna, although he still lectured in Leipzig until 1994. By the time he had to leave Leipzig University, he had served that institution for almost three decades. By now, Vienna had become his second home. He settled here with his second wife, Rosl Legere-Laub, an Austrian. During this time, apart from lecturing on various topics concerning African linguistics, he taught a course on the history of African linguistics in the 19th and 20th centuries. He encouraged his students to move back in

xxii Katrin Bromber and Birgit Smieja

time and to collect data about a rather problematic era of African studies at their university - during the Third Reich. Although Legere had to move again, he retained his position at the University of Vienna as a Visiting Lecturer. A new start was made in 1994 that brought him back to Africa - this time to Namibia. Legere became Associate Professor at the Department of African Languages at the University of Namibia (UNAM) in Windhoek, and was awarded a full professorship in 1996. Apart from his teaching obligations, his work was characterised by various field research projects leading him to the north of the country to work, amongst others, on Oshiwambo and Rukwangali. This also initiated important workshops and conferences in Windhoek (e.g. the Fifth Triennial Conference of the Linguistics Association for Southern African Development Community Universities/LASU on the theme of 'Language and Democratization in the SADC area' in 1998) and Okahandja (e.g. 'African Languages in Basic Education' or 'Cross-border Languages'). He not only organised these, but also managed to raise funds to have the papers of each of these conferences published in dedicated volumes. When UNAM's management decided not to renew two senior staff positions at the Department of African Languages in 2000, it was a hard blow not only for Namibian languages in particular and the Namibian academia in general, but also for Legere: his position at UNAM and concomitant permanent residence had allowed him to study the languages very closely up to that point. Nevertheless, always ready for a new challenge, he was appointed Professor in African Languages (focus on Bantu languages) at the Department of Oriental and African Languages at the University of Gothenburg (Göteborgs universitet) in Sweden in 2001. In this post, besides his ordinary duties of engaging in language research projects and co-ordinating study programmes, he is actively involved in what he has done all his life: establishing contacts and partnerships with universities, institutions, enterprises, foundations, and government and non-governmental organisations such as the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) 'German Research Council', Deutsche Stiftung fur internationale Entwicklung (DSE) 'German Foundation for International Development', the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED, Namibia), the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), whether European, American or African, regional or continental, in order to find funding agencies, develop projects,

Karsten Legere - A short biography xxiii

co-ordinate international teams, initiate workshops and conferences, be an active member and/or advisor in linguistic associations like LASU, the African Languages Association of Southern Africa (ALASA), the Namibian Education Research Association (NERA), the Namibia Scientific Society (NSS), and Languages in Contact and Conflict in Africa (LICCA), and edit and publish books on the lesser-known languages of Africa. There is hardly an honourable position Legere has not yet filled: keynote speaker, chairperson, honorary member, advisor, co-ordinator - not to mention he has supervised MA candidates and PhD dissertations and served as an external examiner in several African and European countries since 1977. He took the latter task particularly seriously, presenting himself as an understanding and warm-hearted supervisor to his students, always prepared for discussion and to promote young colleagues. This traveller between worlds, cultures and languages convinced not only by his extraordinarily successful zest for activity, his academic professionalism within dozens of profound field research studies, but also by his sensitiveness in international politics and diplomatic negotiations with funding agencies as well as colleagues all over the world. It is no wonder, then, that his fundraising activities for those languages that are prone to be drowned in the whirlpool of language change and loss are so successful. Of course, this success is also based on Legere's personal gift for languages. Beside German, his mother tongue, he speaks both English and Swahili with close to native competence; he has good language skills in Hausa, French and Russian; and a solid working knowledge of Kwangali, Kwanyama Ndonga and Zulu, while he had also studied Amharic and taught Malagasy. His main interests in describing the lesser-known languages of Africa and to develop orthographies, grammars and textbooks for mother-tongue education as well as for tertiary studies have found their way into this volume dedicated to an outstanding scholar, colleague and friend - as many of the contributors to this volume have confirmed. Together with them, and thanks to some useful hints, four main areas of general interest were identified in Legere's range of tireless activities: (i)

language description and terminology research, e.g. research on plant names in different languages; (ii) education, especially mother-tongue education in African languages; (iii) sociolinguistic studies, e.g. on language use and attitudes; and (iv) language policy, and its reasons and consequences.

xxiv Katrin Bromber and Birgit Smieja

This selection of fields fits not only his past but also his current work and projects very well. For example, there is the ongoing joint project between the University of Dar es Salaam and the University of Gothenburg on the languages of Tanzania (funded by SIDA/SAREC, i.e. Swedish Agency for Research in Developing Countries), in which Legere is the Gothenburg counter-part. Other projects include the socio-linguistic description of Mozambican languages (in Mozambique; also funded by SAREC/SIDA), African languages (in Gothenburg, funded again by SAREC/SIDA), wild plant names (in the Central African Republic, Tanzania, and Namibia; funded by the Swedish Riksbanken, and Mbukushu glossaries (in Namibia; funded by the Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit [GTZ, 'Association for Technical Co-operation']). The glossaries contain terms relating to botany, health, the human body, language and literature, mathematics and zoology, and, together with a general section ultimately aim at producing a comprehensive Mbukushu dictionary. With regard to this dictionary, its purpose and aim are close to his heart: upgrading African languages, making them witnesses of time and history, and hopefully enable them to survive into the future. These desires also explain Legere's interest in literature, which resulted in a huge collection of oral stories in different languages, gathered in countless field research studies. So far, two textbooks have partly resulted from this collection, namely Namibian primary school readers in Kwangali and Ndonga. To bring this orature back into everyday life, and so make people aware about the unique value of this treasure, is one of his strongest aims. Thus, he helps to provide future generations of these communities to travel back in time, as his father had once done for him. At the beginning of this short biography the question was raised regarding what was so special about Legere's movements in the academic sphere. To answer this, they were, firstly, directed at and resulted in an immense increase in knowledge about African languages he personally studied, or the studies of which he actively promoted. Secondly, they enhanced the intellectual flow not only from the northern to the southern hemisphere and vice versa, but also within the South itself. In this regard there are the various research projects and conferences he co-ordinated, but also his valuable language descriptions, dictionaries and anthologies. Thirdly, in his current position, combined with his personal effort, he directs the more diverse flow of capital due to globalisation towards the less advantaged.

Karsten Legere - A short biography

xxv

The biographical facts, personal and professional, presented on the preceding pages (and also the more detailed bibliography that gives ample evidence to Karsten Legere's scholarly life) serve as a basis for this volume and as a bridge between the contributors, their study fields and their papers, which are all closely linked to Karsten Legere's life and work.

Karsten Legere: A bibliography

Abbreviations AALA Asien, Afrika, Lateinamerika (Berlin) EAZ Ethnographisch-Archäologische Zeitschrift (Berlin) JALL Journal of African Languages and Linguistics (Leiden) OLZ Orientalistische Literaturzeitung (Berlin) ZAST ZAST. Zeitschrift für Afrikastudien (Wien) ZPSK Zeitschrift für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung (Berlin) WZ Wochenzeitschrift

Books 1990 1994 1995 2000 2002

2003

German-Swahili Dictionary. Leipzig: VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie 1990. Rev: Bearth, Thomas in Multilingua 11 (2): 235-241. German-Swahili Dictionary. Leipzig and Munich: Verlag Enzyklopädie/Langenscheidt (revised 2nd edition, 4th edition 1999). Swahili Plants. An Ethnobotanical Survey. Cologne: Rüdiger Koppe Verlag (co-author Β. Heine). Concise German - Swahili Dictionary. Munich: Langenscheidt. Trilingual Ngh'wele-Swahili-English wordlist. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg, also downloadable pdf-version under: http://www.african.gu.se/research/nghwele.html. Trilingual Ngh'wele-Swahili-English and Swahili-Ngh'wele-English Wordlist. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg, Dept of Oriental and African Languages, downloadable under http://www.african.gu.se/ research/nghwele.html.

Edited volumes 1986 (with S. Brauner) Theoretical Issues concerning Languages of Asia and Africa. Berlin: Zentralinstitut für Sprachwissenschaft, Linguistische Studien, Series A, No. 148. 1991 The Role of Language in Literacy Programmes with Special Reference to Kiswahili in Eastern Africa. Bonn: Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung (German Foundation for International Cooperation).

xxviii

Bibliography

1991

The Role of Language in Primary Education in Eastern Africa with Special Reference to Kiswahili. Bonn: Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung.

1993

(with H.-V. Gretschel) Language Ecology in Africa. Windhoek: University of Namibia = Logos 13. (with H.-V. Gretschel) Language Ecology in Africa. Windhoek: University of Namibia = Logos 14, 1994. African Languages in Basic Education. Proceedings of the First Workshop on African Languages in Basic Education, Okahandja, 18-23 September 1995. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. (with P. Amakali) Nalenale okwa //... (Once upon a time... Tales and Stories of the Aandonga of long ago-in Ndonga). Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. Cross-Border Languages. Reports and Studies. Regional Workshop on Cross-Border Languages, Okahandja, 23-27 September 1996. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. (with Femi Dele Akindele) From the South. A Selection of Papers. (Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 66). Cologne: University of Cologne.

1994 1996

1998

1998

2001 2001 2002

2003 Forthc.

Νare nare pwa kere... VaKwangali Heritage. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. Web-Editor of Chimhundu, Herbert (ed.), Intergovernmental Conference on Language Policies in Africa: Final Report. (Web version edited by Karsten Legere.) Paris: Unesco. Downloadable pdf version under: http://www.african.gu.se/research/hararedoc.html. (with S. Fitchat) Talking Freedom. Language and Democratisation in the SADC Region. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. Thimbukushu-English/English-Thimbukushu Glossary (Health, Mathematics, Fauna and Flora, Language and Literature). Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan.

Articles in journals and volumes 1973

Contrastive sketch of post-nominal constructions in Kiswahili and parts of speech in German. In: Brauner, S. and W. Reuschel (eds.), Beiträge zur Afrikanistik und Orientalistik, 49-71. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.

1973

Remarks on the position of Swahili in the United Republic of Tanzania. In: Büttner, Τ. and G. Brehme (eds.), African Studies Afrika-Studien /. (Studies on Asia, Africa and Latin America 15), 329-347. Berlin: Akadem ie-Verlag.

1973

(with Th. Büttner) The University of Dar Es Salaam and the noncapitalist development of Tanzania. EAZ 14 (2): 679-687.

Bibliography 1973 1974

1975 1975 1976

1978 1980 1981 1982

1983 1983

1984 1985

xxix

(with R. Richter) Some experiences of the Soviet Union in solving language problems. Kiswahili 43 (2): 58-63. Linguistic and linguo-didactic issues of a contrastive analysis of German and Kiswahili. WZ der HUB (Ges.- u. Sprachw. Reihe) 23 (2): 221-223. The relationship between Kiswahili and local languages in Tanzania. ZPSK 28 (3/4): 342-348. (with S. Brauner and I. Herms) Diedrich Westermann. AALA 3 (3): 493-521. Integration in Eastern Africa and the language factor. African Culture and Integration. (Dissertationes Orientales 36), 153-172. Prague: Academia Publishing House. (with S. Brauner and C. Kapinga) Socio-linguistic research in Tanzanian Secondary Schools. Kiswahili 48 (2): 48-72. The linguistic situation in rural areas of the Mbeya region (SW Tanzania). Linguistische Studien (A) 64: 177-214. Nation-building in Sub-Saharan Africa and the formation of national languages. AALA 9 (4): 682-690. (with S. Brauner) Studies on the role of Kiswahili in the national integration process in Tanzania. In: Brauner, S. and Ν. V. Okhotina (eds.), Studien zur nationalsprachlichen Entwicklung in Afrika. (Studies on Asia, Africa and Latin America 34), 127-164. Berlin: AkademieVerlag. Local languages in Tanzania and changing communicative requirements of their speakers (Examples from Bondei). ZPSK 36 (1): 79-86. The emergence of a national language. The case of Swahili in Tanzania. In: African Studies IV. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 55-69. Reprint in: The Role of Language in Literacy Programmes with Special Reference to Kiswahili in Eastern Africa. Bonn: Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung 1990 (draft version), 27-38 and Bonn: Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung 1991: 115-126. Issues regarding the discussion of the language policy of a future independent Namibia. ZPSK 37 (5): 599-605. Linguae Francae and National Languages in Africa edited by Siegmund Brauner. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag (Papers on Kenya /110-114/, Mocambique /140-144/, Namibia 145-148/, RSA /180-186/, Tanzania /187-193/, Uganda /199-202/, Zaire /204-208/ and Zambia /161-164/, co-author of the theoretical part).

xxx 1986 1986

1987

1988 1988 1990 1990

1990 1990/91

1990

1991

1991

Bibliography Kimgao and Southern Kiswahili in Mainland Tanzania. Linguistische Studien {A) 148: 146-159. Portuguese loan-words in Kiswahili. Linguistische Studien (A) 172: 100-112, also published 1989 in: Perl, M. (ed.), Beiträge zur Afrolusitanistik und Kreolistik (Bochum-Essener Beiträge zur Sprachwandelforschung VI), 113-123. Bochum: Studienverlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer. Kiswahili na lugha nyingine katika harakati za kudai Uhuru Tanganyika (1945-1961) (Kiswahili and Other Languages in the Struggle for Independence in Tanganyika). Kiswahili 54 (1/2): 152-166. Bantu and Southern Cushitic. The Impact of Kiswahili on Iraqw. ZPSK 41 (5): 640-647. C. G. Büttner and the "Zeitschrift für afrikanische Sprachen". AALA 16 (6): 1036-1048. Issues concerning the language policy in contemporary Namibia. ZPSK 43 (4): 496-501. The role of language in the struggle against apartheid in the Republic of South Africa. In: Büttner, Th. and A. Kress (eds.), African Studies - Afrika-Studien. (Studies on Asia, Africa and Latin America 40), 249-264. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. Language standardization: The case of Kiswahili. In: Jazykovedne aktuality (Prague) 27: 152-157. Kuwepo kwa lugha nyingi na athari zake katika Elimu ya Watu Wazima (Multilingualism and its Influence on Adult Education Programmes). In: The Role of Language in Literacy Programmes with Special Reference to Kiswahili in Eastern Africa. Bonn: Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung (draft version), 319-339, and Bonn: Deutsche Stiftung fiir internationale Entwicklung 1991: 271-290 (under the revised title: Ulumbi na athari zake katika Elimu ya Watu Wazima na Kisomo cha Manufaa/in Swahili). Language standardization: The case of Swahili. In: Legere, Κ. (ed.), The Role of Language in Literacy Programmes with Special Reference to Kiswahili in Eastern Africa, 541-551. Bonn: Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung (draft version). Introduction. In: Legere, Κ. (ed.), The Role of Language in Literacy Programmes with Special Reference to Kiswahili in Eastern Africa, 123. Bonn: Deutsche Stiftung fiir internationale Entwicklung. Recent Development of Kiswahili, in: The Role of Language in Literacy Programmes with Special Reference to Kiswahili in Eastern Africa, 49-84. Bonn: Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung.

Bibliography 1991

1991

1991

1991

1992

1992

1992

1992

1993 1994

xxxi

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Ehret, C., The Historical Reconstruction of Southern Cushitic Phonology and Vocabulary. Berlin 1980. OLZ 81 (6): 610-611. Stirnimann, H., Praktische Grammatik der Pangwa-Sprache. Freiburg 1983. OLZ 82 (5): 517-518. Best, G., Culture and Language of the Turkana, NW Kenya. Heidelberg 1983. £ 4 Z 28: 366. Philippson, G., Gens des Bananeraies. Paris 1984. J ALL 9: 190-193. Hinnebusch, T., D. Nurse and M. Mould, Studies in the Classification of Eastern Bantu Languages. Hamburg 1981. OLZ 83 (1): 114-115. Schmied, J., Englisch in Tansania. Heidelberg 1985. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 34 (4): 365-366. Köhler, O., Linguistik - Südafrika. Berlin and Stuttgart 1985. A ALA 16 (6): 1131-1132. Caney, J. C., The Modernization of Somali Vocabulary. Hamburg 1984. OLZ 83 (4): 4 9 3 ^ 9 4 . Rottland, F., Die südnilotischen Sprachen. Berlin 1982. OLZ 84 (1): 99-100. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika, 6. Hamburg 1984/5. OLZ 84 (1): 120. Mann, M. and Ph. Dalby, Α Thesaurus of African Languages. London, 1987. AALA 17(3): 570-572. Batibo, H., Le Kesukuma (Langue Bantu de Tanzanie): Phonologie, Morphologie. Paris 1985.JALL 11 (2): 192-197. Weier, H.-I., Basisdemonstrativa im Bantu. Hamburg 1986. OLZ 84 (4): 487-487. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika, 7, 1 u. 7, 2, 1986. OLZ 85 (3): 3 7 8 379. February, V., And Bid Him Sing. London, New York 1988. ZAST 6:

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Introduction Katrin Bromber and Birgit Smieja

When choosing the theme of this volume dedicated to Professor Karsten Legere, namely "African Languages and Globalisation", the editors did not intend linking African language studies to one of the fuzzy keywords of the social sciences, or "the most important debate going on in economic, political and cultural thinking today" (Giddens 2002). Just the opposite. As the concept of 'globalisation' increasingly undergoes critical review, we aimed at exploring the contributions that African linguists of various provenience can make to this debate. In his critique of the globalisation paradigm, the African historian Frederick Cooper (2001: 189) rightly points out that this paradigm leaves crucial questions unasked as to the "limits of interconnections", "the areas where capital cannot go" and "the specificity of structures necessary to make the connections work". With regard to languages, the relation between language and power, or notions of'Empowerment through language' is at hand. Thus it is not surprising at all, therefore, that English -being the ex-colonial language, which strengthened its position in many African countries not only as a national but also as 'the' global language - was a major topic in the recently published volume Talking Freedom, which addresses issues of language and democratisation in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Region (Legere and Fitchat 2002). Frederick Cooper (2001: 204-206) further points out the pitfalls either of considering the present to be the most inclusive and 'latest' of a series of globalisations, or discerning ours as the "global age distinct from a past". He calls for more sensitive approaches in analysing the reorganisation of spaces, that is the "forging and unforging of linkages" (2001: 2 0 4 206). The whole concept of the nation state as an internally coherent unit is at stake. Thus, linguistic cross-border research, as executed by many contributors to this volume, not only increases the knowledge about distinct language and dialect clusters. It also provides in-depth studies of cultural connections that are crucial in facilitating cross-border language cooperation, such as developing a commonly accepted language standard. Thus,

2

Katrin Bromber

and Birgit

Smieja

the role of regional research associations like the Linguistics Association of SADC Universities (LASU) cannot be overestimated. In cultural matters, which by definition include language, there is often a sense that globalisation leads to a major trend of homogenisation, which results in a reduction of diversityon the one hand and, on the other, in new themes being incorporated into global (cultural) patterns. It goes without saying that the mass media play a crucial role in this trend, and that processes of identity construction in terms of modernity are accelerated (Dalby 2000: 2). However, this approach overlooks the existence of often conflicting and overlapping particularistic interests and their constructive as well as i/estructive potential. It is often said that persons have more than one identity and that these identities are implemented through various semiotic systems. With regard to language use, Joshua Fishman's (1965) well-known question, 'Who speaks what language, when, to whom and where?' — especially in such multilingual settings as those that exist in all African countries — is "omnipresent" (Legere 2002: 3). This question leads directly to the first section of this volume, Language use and attitudes, which addresses some of the burning issues in sociolinguistic research. Both language use and attitudes towards languages are influenced by and often result in what is termed language conflict. While conflict seems, in the first instance, to have a negative connotation, the contribution by Rene Dirven and Martin Pütz as well as that by Peter Neide point to its potential as a positive force, also with regard to minority or endangered languages. As they focus on European, North American and Asian linguistic environments as well, their articles can additionally be seen as contributions to a more conceptual debate. Furthermore, the concept of language conflict includes questions of language imperialism, mostly referring to the dominant position of English and its function in reproducing a language-based elite. Countermeasures could not only lead to awareness-raising, but also to the upgrading of the status of African languages. In this respect Herman Batibo's article shows that Setswana "is now regarded ... as not only the national language but also the second official language" beside English. Notwithstanding the crucial function which English fulfils, e.g. as the official and national language in Namibia, Martin Pütz also stresses the urgent need to revitalise the African languages of Namibia as well as counter negative attitudes towards them, i.e. seeing them as hindrance to national unity. Christopher Stroud discusses the trend of the diminishing role of African languages vis ä vis the metropolitan languages from a different per-

Introduction

3

spective altogether. Instead of reproducing Fishman's argument that language shift results from the loss of a language's function and power, he argues that complex language contact situations, as they exist in presentday Mozambique, lead to multilingual practices and linguistic syncretism of their own value and legitimacy. The use of more than one language is also the topic of Rajmund Ohly's 1 paper. He points to the fact that triglossia is more than an African privilege: it is a necessary condition for communication on a national level. However, to use the linguistic potential of all - and especially the African - languages depends on the attitudes of the speakers themselves as well as on a reasonable language and educational policy promoted by political will. These important issues are addressed in articles that comprise the second section of this volume: Language policy and education. Arguing that the use of Northern Sotho as a medium of instruction in vocational training leads to improved knowledge and better developed skills, Vic Webb, Biki Lepota and Refilwe Ramagoshi discuss the linguistic basis and provide a plan for its implementation via educational policy. The importance of these preparatory steps, to be taken by specialised academic institutions, is one of the main points raised in Al Mtenje's contribution about language policy in Malawi. Describing the various levels of implementation, he not only relates the pitfalls that are involved, but also shows the negative consequences of a lack of political will based on negative attitudes towards African languages as media of instruction. In this respect, another crucial question comes up: Do pupils follow the language policy in education? In this respect Mechthild Reh focuses on the changes in language attitudes in primary 7 and secondary 2 school classes in the primarily Lango-speaking Lira District and the primarily Luganda-speaking Mpigi District in Uganda. Her findings reveal that the use of English is considered more instrumental and less affective, while attitudes towards African languages show the opposite. The third section of the volume presents articles dealing with Language description and classification, and starts with Daniel Mkude's contribution on the impact of Kiswahili on Kiluguru, which bridges the sociolingiustic and descriptive issues by demonstrating which parts of the language system are affected through contact under historical and modern conditions. Similarly, but from the opposite vantage point, Arvi Hurskainen's paper sheds light on the impact of Arabic, English, Indian, Persian and Portuguese loan words on Kiswahili. His discussion is based on a compari-

4

Katrin Bromber and Birgit Smieja

son of eight very different corpora, whereby he disproves the statement that Kiswahili still makes use of more Arabic- than English-based loans. Christina Thornell, who focuses on the noun phrase in Kerebe, also hints at the possibility that the contact situation with Jita might influence the Kerebe nominal system. Nelli Gromova's article concentrates on one particular element of the noun phrase system, namely the infinitive. Developing her arguments primarily on the syntactic level, she raises the issue of verbal and nominal features of Swahili words belonging to CI. 15 and argues for the dominance of the former. Also working on the syntactic level, Christa König and Bernd Heine argue that !Xung - or rather, languages that belong to the IXung dialect cluster - is a type Β language. They analyse motives for the shift from a 'consistent' Subject Object Verb (SOV) structure to an '(in)consistent' SVO one. Rudolf Leger approaches the classification of West African languages from a phonological point of view, distinguishing between the northern and the southern Bole-Tangale groups. This distinction, and the special case of Tangale, can be fixed on its vowel development. Jouni F. Maho points out the difficulties in grouping languages in general. However, his contribution is an attempt to counterbalance SIL's (Summer Institute of Linguistics) number of African languages with other linguistic counts and descriptions about language classification. The difficulty of identifying languages from a historical perspective often result from one language having been named differently over various periods of study. This phenomenon is focused on by Tore Janson, and exemplified by a comparison of languages and language names in Mozambique from the 19th century to the present day. It goes without saying that language classification, like all classifications, aims at giving order to a complex phenomenon and, thus, conceptualising it as part of the world. The same applies to botanical terminology. On the one hand, such terms designate a plant; on the other hand, they conceptualise the plant's use and its belonging to a higher level of classification. Referring to Bernd Heine and Karsten Legere's (1995) typological approach on Swahili Plants. An Ethnobotanical Survey, Franz Rottland and Ralf Grosserhode attempt to cross-check the results from this book with their own findings about Midzichenda botanical terminology. One may ask what language description has to do with globalisation. However, is it not globalisation to raise funds, provide technical and intellectual resources and coordinate the preparation of a language atlas, including language descriptions, mainly by using international social capital and the Internet? Giddens (2002) rightly states that it is a mistake to treat

Introduction

5

globalisation simply as an "external force" or a unidirectional process. Rather, it is a two-way street, and leads to an increasing interdependence amongst the countries involved. However, to ensure that all sides benefit in a reciprocal manner means the impacts have to be monitored globally, regionally, nationally and locally. It is wrong to define globalisation only in terms of loss. There is much to be gained: the increasing interconnection of linguistic research and new technical facilities have the necessary potential to accelerate the collection of data on endangered languages and vanishing cultural knowledge. By disseminating and emphasising these findings as part of the global cultural heritage, African language studies may offer urgently needed new perspectives towards a rapidly changing world.

Note 1. We are inexpressibly sorry to announce that during the process of preparing this volume our highly estimated colleague Rajmund Ohly passed away. His contribution to this volume dedicated to Karsten is certainly one of the very last articles he wrote.

References Cooper, Frederick 2001 What is the concept of globalization good for? An African historian's perspective. African Affairs 100: 189-213. Legere, Karsten 1995 Swahili Plants. An Ethnobotanical Survey. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. 2002 Introduction. In: Legere, Κ. and S. Fitchat (eds.), 1-8. Legere, Karsten and Sandra Fitchat (eds.) 2002 Talking Freedom. Language and Democratisation in the SADC Region. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. Dalby, Simon 2000 A critical geopolitics of global governance. Conference proceedings of Columbia International Affairs Online 12/2000, www.ciaonet. org/isa/das01/, accessed May 2003. Fishman, Joshua A. 1965 Who speaks what language to whom and when? Linguistics 2: 6788.

6

Katrin Bromber and Birgit Smieja

Giddens, Anthony 2002 The great globalisation debate. Keynote speech at the Duisburger Akzente June 8, 2002.

Section I

Language use and attitudes

Der übergeordnete ideologische Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte weltweit

Rene Dirven und Martin Pütz

„Die größeren Fische fressen die kleineren". Eine ähnlich pessimistische Aussage ließe sich über die Ökologie von Sprachen treffen. Der Unterschied ist jedoch, dass sprachökologische Verhältnisse sich stets aufgrund politischer bzw. ideologischer Beweggründe manifestieren, wo auch immer Sprachkontaktsituationen der Beobachtung zugänglich sind. In diesem Beitrag für einen Afrikanisten wie Professor Karsten Legere, der den überwiegenden Teil seiner Forschung vor allem auch im Hinblick auf Sprachkonflikte durchgeführt hat, dürfte es wohl angebracht sein, die internationale Dimension dieses Problems erneut herauszustellen. 1

1.

Begriffsbestimmung von „Sprachkonflikt"

Sprachkonflikte sind das Ergebnis von politischen, wirtschaftlichen oder soziokulturellen Gewalt- und Machtstrukturen, die einer kleineren, bzw. schwächeren Sprach- und Kulturgemeinschaft von einer stärkeren auferlegt werden, wobei auch ggf. Sprachzwänge auftreten. Die Konfliktsituation besteht in dem nicht freiwilligen Charakter der Sprach-, bzw. Kulturübernahme, wobei jedoch zahlreiche Schattierungen und Abstufungen möglich sind. Sprachkonflikte setzen auch nicht notwendigerweise Widerstand voraus: ein Sprachkonflikt kann sich auch durch eine Kompromisslösung beseitigen lassen. So hat z.B. das katholisch-irische Episkopat im frühen 19. Jahrhundert als Gegenleistung für die Beibehaltung des katholischen Charakters der Volksschule die Bedingung Großbritanniens, Englisch als Unterrichtssprache zu verwenden, akzeptiert. Der Widerstand ist ggf. auch nur latent vorhanden und setzt sich möglicherweise erst nach etwa 50 Jahren durch, wie dies etwa im 19. Jahrhundert in Belgien in Bezug auf die ,flämische' Bewegung der Fall war: erst um 1880 gewann Flandern sein historisches Bewusstsein zurück und führte sodann eine allmähliche Nie-

10 Rene Dirvert und Martin Pütz

derlandisierung Flanderns im einsprachig französisch geplanten Staat Belgien durch. Auch in der Ex-Sowjetunion haben die Staaten das Verbot bzw. die Zweitrangigkeit der eigenen 130 verschiedenen Sprachen und Kulturen 70 Jahre lang hinnehmen müssen, waren jedoch beim Zusammenbruch der Sowjetunion zunächst noch sehr lebendig (Haarmann 2001: 39^9). Doch weltweit gesehen sind diese Belege eher als Ausnahmen denn als Regelfalle zu betrachten. Zahlreiche, vielleicht sogar die meisten zu beobachtenden Sprachkonfliktsituationen auf regionaler, nationaler und internationaler Ebene haben eine schwierige und zuweilen katastrophale Entwicklung durchlebt. Skutnabb-Kangas (2000) spricht denn auch nicht zu Unrecht von einem sprachlichen Genozid der unterlegenen Minderheitssprachen und wirft die Forderung nach linguistischen Menschenrechten auf, denen in zahlreichen Regionen der Welt kaum Rechnung getragen wird. Die Aufoktroyierung einer dominanten Sprache im Konfliktfall bezeichnen Phillipson und Skutnabb-Kangas (1999: 32) gar als linguistischen Imperialismus, etwa dann, wenn einer dominanten Sprache gegenüber den anderen kleineren Sprachen Priorität eingeräumt wird. Sprachkonflikte generell sind nach Coulmas (1985: 54) Ausdruck gespaltener Loyalitäten, die in sehr unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen auftretende nachdem wie sich die einzelnen Gruppen wirtschaftlich, sozial und politisch zueinander verhalten. Der Ursprung der Sprachkonflikte in Europa liegt im 16. Jahrhundert bei den damals aufkommenden und sich im 19. Jahrhundert fest etablierenden Nationalstaaten Frankreich, Großbritannien und Spanien. Durch die weltweite koloniale Expansion dieser Staaten und anderer Nationalstaaten vor allem im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert ist die Sprachenpolitik der ehemaligen europäischen Großmächte in sämtliche Teile der Welt hinausgetragen worden. Sprachphänomene wie Zweisprachigkeit und Diglossie sind nicht als das Ergebnis einer natürlichen historischen Entwicklung anzusehen, sondern in erster Linie als ein Ergebnis von Sprachdominanz, Sprachzwang und somit auch Sprachkonflikt. Das sog. Konfliktmodell der Sprachsoziologie wird dem traditionellerweise in der Soziolinguistik und der „Soziologie der Sprache" zugrunde gelegten 'HarmoniemodeH' bewusst gegenübergestellt (Williams 1992). Sowohl vorwissenschaftlich wie auch wissenschaftlich besteht die Tendenz, das 'HarmoniemodelΓ als Erklärungsgrundlage heranzuziehen und jedes Konfliktdenken als zu negativ zu erfahren und zurückzuweisen. Ein Harmoniemodell wird jedoch den äußerst bedenklichen, oft sozial-diskriminierenden und ggf. sogar existenzbe-

Der übergeordnete Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte weltweit

11

drohenden Tatsachen einer Sprachkonfliktsituation nicht gerecht und kann somit allenfalls den Zwecken der dominanten Sprach- und Kulturgemeinschaft dienlich sein. Diese zugegebenermaßen nicht unerhebliche Kritik an der Wissenschaftsauffassung der traditionellen Soziolinguistik und der Sprachsoziologie hat in den letzten Jahren sogar zugenommen. Gegenüber der herkömmlichen Anwendung des Ferguson'schen Diglossiebegriffs (1959) durch Fishman (1972) auf das Verhältnis zwischen dominanten und Minoritätssprachen, verweisen Kritiker der Diglossie-Theorie wie Gardy und Lafont (1981) auf die Dynamik einer Minoritätssprache wie etwa das Okzitanische im Südwesten Frankreichs. Laut EBLUL {European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages 2003) befindet das Okzitanische sich in einem Gebiet mit etwa 10 bis 12 Millionen Einwohnern, von denen 48% die Sprache ,verstehen', 28% sie auch sprechen' können und 9% sie täglich ,benutzen', was auf ca. eine Million aktiver Sprachbenutzer schließen lässt. Deswegen lehnen Gardy und Lafont auch jede sogenannte ,natürliche' Distribution der höheren und niederen Funktionen der dominanten und der Minoritätssprache ab. Das Französische und das Okzitanische stehen zueinander nicht in einem Komplementaritätsverhältnis, sondern in einem Konfliktverhältnis, da dem Okzitanischen jedes Anrecht auf höhere Funktionsaufgaben vom französischen Staat untersagt worden ist (Gardy und Lafont 1981). Diese Konfliktperspektive wurde auch von Forschern der keltischen Sprachen in Großbritannien wie MacKinnon und Denshaw (1989) für das Schottisch-Gälische und Roberts (1987) für das Walisische eingenommen: Fishman's extension of diglossia to include languages functionally separated in bilingual societies and his integration of diglossia with the concept of language domains is accomplished with reference to the stability of language situations rather than conflict which ... clearly forms a pervasive characteristic of language situations. (Roberts 1987: 312). Dieselbe Kritik wurde in Bezug auf die multilingualen Verhältnisse in Afrika angewandt, u.a. von Phillipson et al. (1986) und Phillipson (1988) fur Namibia und von Rubagumya (1990, 1991) für Tansania. Hier und in den anderen anglophonen Staaten Afrikas bleiben, wie zu Zeiten der Kolonisation, dem Englischen die höheren Funktionen der politischen Beschlussfassung, der Verwaltung, der Erziehung usw. vorbehalten, wobei die autochthonen Sprachen Afrikas, sogar das Kiswahili, das eine überstaatliche lingua franca in Ost- und Zentralafrika bildet, nur eine sekundäre Rolle einnehmen. Nicht zuletzt auch Karsten Legere (1990, 2001) hat immer wieder auf die sprachökologisch nicht vertretbare Situation des Ki-

12 Rene Dirven und Martin Pütz swahili und anderer Minderheitensprachen mit Bezug auf Tansania verwiesen. Die heftigste und grundsätzlichste Kritik am stillschweigend und oft implizit angewandten Konsens- oder Harmoniemodell kommt, wie bereits erwähnt, in Williams (1992: 103) zum Ausdruck. Dementsprechend lautet einer der gravierendsten Vorwürfe an Fishman (1972), dass er die Phasen der Diglossie und des Bilingualismus in die Tradition der Aufklärung stellt, welche die Entwicklung der Welt in Richtung einer besseren, komplexeren, zivilisierten Welt als eine mechanisch ablaufende, sich selbst vollziehende Entwicklung sieht, die jedoch nicht mit Gewalt und Konflikt beladen ist, sondern nur von Individuen (also nicht von Minoritätsgruppen) vollzogen wird, die sich dem höheren Status und Prestige der dominanten Sprache beugen: Ultimately the language of school and government replaces the language of home and neighbourhood. Precisely because it comes to provide status in the latter domains as well as in the former due to the extensive social change to which home and neighbourhood have been exposed (Fishman 1972: 102). Im Gegensatz zu der von Fishman (1972) vertretenen These schreibt Williams, [that] „language shift [is] part of a struggle over language" (Williams 1992: 121). Es sollte an dieser Stelle jedoch darauf verwiesen werden, dass Fishman selbst zwanzig Jahre (1992) später seine frühere These relativiert hat. Im Folgenden sollen nun die möglichen unterschiedlichen Entwicklungen von Sprachkonfliktsituationen in Europa dargestellt und eingehender beleuchtet werden, damit dieser weitere Rahmen auch für Einzelfalle wie ein beliebiges Land in Afrika, z.B. Namibia, erhellend wirken kann.

2.

Typen von Sprachkonfliktsituationen in Europa

Es werden drei Extremfälle zur Diskussion gestellt: (i) der Schwund des Elsässer Deutsch im Osten Frankreichs, (ii) die ambivalente Situation des Wallisischen in Wales, und (iii) die völlige Selbstrealisierung des Katalanischen in Spanien.

Der übergeordnete Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte weltweit

13

2.1. Französische Staatsraison: Schwund des Elsässer Deutsch Um die besondere Lage der elsässischen Bevölkerungsgruppe in adäquater Weise zu erfassen, sollte man sich zunächst ein Gesamtbild über die Beziehungen zwischen der dominanten Sprache und den Minoritätssprachen in Frankreich machen. Die konsequente Sprachpolitik Frankreichs ist es immer gewesen, die Exklusivität des Französischen hervorzuheben, den Purismus zu stärken und eindeutigen Vorrang gegenüber anderen unterlegenen Sprachen einzuräumen, was einer starken Diskriminierung gleichkommt (Coulmas 1985: 56). Dabei fallt auf, dass diejenigen Minoritätssprachen, die bis zu einem gewissen Grade anerkannt worden sind oder eine Anerkennung anstreben, auch eine äußerst aktive Rolle im Sprachenstreit gespielt haben. Die wichtige Frage stellt sich daher, wie es zu erklären ist, dass die nicht anerkannten Sprachgemeinschaften offensichtlich weit weniger darum bemüht sind, ihre Positionen durchzusetzen. Vergegenwärtigen wir uns zunächst die allgemeine Situation. Neben der offiziellen Sprache Französisch sind in Frankreich zusätzlich noch drei anerkannte regionale Sprachen vertreten, d. h. Sprachen, die teilweise auch im Grundschulunterricht verwendet werden, und zwar das Bretonische, das Katalanische und das Okzitanische wie auch verschiedene nicht anerkannte, und jetzt quasi ausgestorbene Sprachen, bzw. Dialekte, die zumeist offizielle Sprachen in den Nachbarländern sind, u.a. Deutsch (Elsaß), Italienisch (Provence), Niederländisch (Französisch-Flandern), Korsisch und Baskisch. Tatsächlich existieren innerhalb der französischen Nation somit zumindest 10 Kulturgemeinschaften (bzw. Restteile davon), von denen einige zu größeren Kulturgemeinschaften in Nachbarstaaten gehören. Das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen der politischen Entität ,Nation' und der kulturellen Entität ,Kulturgemeinschaft' kann in besonderem Maße akut werden und zu politischen Konflikten und Auseinandersetzungen fuhren. Solche Konfliktsituationen fanden, bzw. finden sich u. a. in der baskischen, in der okzitanischen und besonders in der korsischen Kulturgemeinschaft: diese beanspruchen fur ihre jeweilige Sprache den Status einer Regionalsprache (wie denjenigen des Bretonischen). Die Nicht-Anerkennung der drei ,Dialekte', die offizielle Sprachen in den Nachbarländern sind, hat offensichtlich rein politische Gründe und ist von jedem Harmonie- oder Konsensmodell weit entfernt: es soll jeder Versuch, einen kulturellen oder politischen Anschluss zur größeren Kulturgemeinschaft des Nachbarstaates anzustreben, von vornherein unterbunden werden. In offiziellen Dokumenten erhalten die nicht-anerkannten Spra-

14 Rene Dirven und Martin Pütz

chen nicht einmal eine eigene Bezeichnung, sondern werden lediglich generell als Dialekt (,patois') angedeutet. Dementsprechend wurde in einer detaillierten Umfrage von Ladin (1983) der erhebliche Prestigeverlust und der geringe Gebrauch des ,Elsäßer Deutsch' bestätigt. Zusammenfassend lässt sich die Politik des französischen Staates wie folgt bewerten: Die von den Jakobinern und Napoleon zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts eingeführte ,Departementalisierung' mit der Aufsplitterung von Oberelsaß und Unterelsaß, der Etablierung des Grundschulunterrichts mit der ,Verbannung' des Elsässischen, wie auch der Ausschluss dieser Sprache aus dem gesamten Kulturbetrieb und aus der Öffentlichkeit haben ihr Ziel erreicht: das Elsässische ist ein völlig isolierter Dialekt mit erheblichem Prestigeverlust, der von der höheren Bildungsschicht und der jüngeren Generation in zunehmendem Maße abgelehnt wird. Laut EBLUL gibt es im Departement Alsace 1.625.000 Einwohner, von denen in 1989 noch 60% den Elsässer Dialekt beherrschten; die entsprechende Zahl bei Grundschülern lag nur noch bei 36%. Im Departement Lorraine mit 400.000 Einwohnern beherrschten in 1989 noch 50% den ,Dialekt'; jedoch nur 20% benutzten ihn und nur 15% derjenigen, die in die Volksschule eingetreten waren, konnten die Sprache verstehen. Bezogen auf diesen Hintergrund können die Förderungsinitiativen einiger sehr verdienstvoller Privatvereine in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland nur dazu beitragen, den „Todeskampf' des Elsässischen zu verlängern, nicht aber ihn gleichsam auszuschalten. Nach BisterBroosen (1998: 200) bleibt die Zukunftsprognose weiterhin bestehen, „dass die Elsässer in absehbarer Zeit immer monolingualer auf französisch funktionieren werden".

2.2. Britischer Pragmatismus: Ambiguität des Walisischen Die Ironie der Geschichte ist, dass King Henry VIII, der das erste Sprachverbot für nicht-englische Sprachen verkündete, gleichzeitig auch ,Prince of Wales' war und seiner eigenen Kultur mit dem Aussterben drohte. Etwa 400 Jahre später wurde das keltische Walisisch offiziell wieder anerkannt, aber möglicherweise viel zu spät, um endgültig überleben zu können. Seit dem Sprachgesetz von 1967 hat Walisisch zusammen mit Englisch den Status einer offiziellen Sprache in Wales. Demzufolge wurde das Walisische im Gerichtssaal zugelassen, die Behörden konnten walisischsprechende Beamte und Angestellte einstellen und amtliche Formulare wurden zweisprachig. Der Welsh Language Act von 1993 führte gar zur Etablie-

Der übergeordnete Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte weltweit

15

rung des Walisischen im Nationalen Curriculum, so dass 26,1% der Grundschulen in Wales als Walisisch-sprechende Schulen eingestuft werden konnten (Grin und Vaillancourt 1999: 16). Trotz dieser offiziellen Anerkennung und Wiederbelebung ist die Zahl der Walisischsprechenden ständig zurückgegangen. Während es 1911 noch fast eine Million (genau 977.400) Walisischsprechende gab, war die entsprechende Zahl im Jahre 1967 bereits auf 656.000 gesunken (bzw. von insgesamt 2,7 Millionen Walisern damals fast auf ein Viertel); in 1981 verwendeten nur noch ca. 519.000 Sprecher das Walisische (Williams 1983: 238) und in 1991 betrug die Anzahl nur noch 500,000, d.h. 19% der Gesamtpopulation von Wales (EBLUL). Die Ambiguität der derzeitigen Situation des Walisischen besteht nun darin, dass eine offizielle Anerkennung nicht automatisch einer Sprache einen so hohen Status verleiht, dass sie von jedem verwendet werden möchte und dass andere gravierende Faktoren es verhindern, den weiteren Schwund der offiziell anerkannten Sprache aufzuhalten. Der bedeutsamste Aspekt dürfte wohl sein, dass die Dominanz des Englischen im 19. Jahrhundert und in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts im britischen Nationalstaat mit seinen Institutionen wie National-, Regional- und Lokalverwaltung, Gericht, Polizei, Schule, politische Parteien usw. äußerst tiefgreifend gewesen ist, was die Ausbreitung einer nahezu stabilen Bilingualität bei der walisischen höheren Bildungsschicht zur Folge hatte. Gerade die politisch und wirtschaftlich weit vorgerückte Dominanz des Englischen hat bei einem nicht geringen Teil der Bildungsschicht (die oft auch an englischen public schools studiert hat) eine doppelte Identität bewirkt, die eine uneingeschränkte Vormachtstellung für das Walisische nicht unterstützen kann. Dies zeigt auch, dass eine Sprachenpolitik, die in ihrer Entscheidung für eine bestimmte Sprachenregelung die individuellen Rechte der Bürger in Betracht zieht und weniger das Recht einer sozialen Gruppe bzw. Kulturgemeinschaft, nicht sehr erfolgreich sein kann. Es ist gerade dieser liberale Individualismus, der laut Williams (1992: 131) dem Denken Fishmans zugrunde liegt und ihn zu seinem sogenannten Konsensmodell fuhrt, das jedoch immer nur einen Konsens zwischen individuellen Bürgern beinhaltet, nicht einen Konsens zwischen Kulturgemeinschaften oder sozialen Gruppen. Wir werden jetzt im Folgenden am Beispiel Kataloniens sehen, dass eine Sprachenpolitik, die auf das prioritäre Recht der gesamten Sprach- und Kulturgemeinschaft orientiert ist, zu anderen Entwicklungen führt und dass die von Fishman implizierten evolutionären Tendenzen eine völlig andersartige Richtung einnehmen mögen.

16 Rene Dirven und Martin Pütz

2.3. Spaniens Föderalisierungsmodell: Katalanische Selbstbestimmung Einhundert Jahre später als Frankreich und Großbritannien, nämlich mit dem Decreto de Nueva Planta (1716) ist Spanisch die einzige offizielle Sprache des spanischen Kaiserreichs geworden und ist es geblieben bis zum Ende des Franco-Regimes in 1975. Unter Franco wurde eine starke katalanische Autonomiebewegung mit repressiven Maßnahmen unterdrückt und Kastilisch - die Sprache der Zentralgewalt - als einzige offizielle Sprache anerkannt (Coulmas 1985: 56). Mit der demokratischen Wende im Jahre 1978 wurde im spanischen Grundgesetz festgelegt, dass Spanien ein multikulturelles und multilinguales Land ist, in dem neben Kastilisch (d.h. Spanisch) auch Katalanisch, Gallizisch und Baskisch als Sprachen Spaniens anzuerkennen sind. Auch wurde die politische Struktur des spanischen Staates weitgehend dezentralisiert; 17 autonome Regionen mit eigenem Parlament und einer Regierung wurden konstituiert. Diese Autonomie gewährt jeder Region das Recht, eine eigene Sprachenpolitik durchzuführen. Das Grundgesetz legt aber fest, dass Spanisch die offizielle Sprache des Staates ist, ebenso wie die anderen Sprachen in denjenigen Regionen, in denen sie verwendet werden. Am 13. Juni 1983 nahm das katalanische Parlament einheitlich das Gesetz zur sprachlichen Normalisierung der katalanischen Sprache an. Dieses Gesetz beruht auf zwei Prinzipien: (i) Katalanisch ist die Sprache Kataloniens und muss vor allen anderen Sprachen in allen Situationen verwendet werden; (ii) Spanisch ist auch eine offizielle Sprache in Katalonien und alle Bürger haben, wie im Grundgesetz festgelegt, die Pflicht, Spanisch zu beherrschen und das Recht, es zu benutzen. Hier findet man somit eine Sprachgesetzgebung, die zunächst namens einer Kulturgemeinschaft und nicht namens des Nationalstaates festgelegt und durchgeführt wird, während in zweiter Instanz die Ansprüche des Nationalstaates dennoch berücksichtigt werden. Weshalb ist in Katalonien nun eine interne Dynamik der Kulturgemeinschaft möglich und in Wales oder im Elsaß nicht? Zum einen ist zu bemerken, dass Katalanisch und Spanisch nicht im gleichen Sinne Behandlung erfahren. Während dem Katalanischen eine absolute Vorrangsstellung mit dem Statusvermerk „MUSS" eingeräumt wird, ist dem Spanischen das Attribut „KANN" zugewiesen worden. Es ist jedoch festzustellen, dass das Gesetz zur sprachlichen Normalisierung der katalanischen Sprache nicht die Möglichkeiten hat, um außerhalb der amtlichen Domäne das Katalanische aufzuzwingen. Dies bedeutet, dass nur in der katalanischen Verwaltung - inklusive Schulen, Gymnasien und andere

Der übergeordnete Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte weltweit

17

offizielle Institutionen - grundsätzlich Katalanisch verwendet werden muss. Auch kann jeder Staatsbürger sich aufSpanisch an die Verwaltung wenden und ihm steht das Recht zu, in spanischer Sprache bedient zu werden. Es sind auch externe Faktoren zu nennen, welche die Stärke einer Sprache bestimmen. Katalonien zählt ca. sechs Millionen Einwohner, von denen etwa die Hälfte Katalanisch als Erstsprache benutzen. Die Hälfte der Bewohner siedeln zudem im Ballungsgebiet Barcelona, eine hoch industrialisierte Region mit einem sehr ausgedehnten Dienstleistungssektor. Nicht nur die numerische Stärke der Katalanischsprechenden (etwa die Hälfte) oder die politische Kraft der katalanischen Bewegung, sondern vor allem auch ihre wirtschaftliche Stärke haben somit die Selbstbestimmung der katalanischen Sprache ermöglicht: durch seinen metropolitischen und industriellen Kontext waren das Katalanische und die katalanische Bewegung gleichsam attraktiv für die progressive Mittelschicht; das Zusammenwirken dieser Faktoren führte zu einer absoluten Mehrheit für die nationalistische Partei (CIU) in 1984, die seitdem das Land auch regiert und die Sprachgesetzgebung implementiert hat. Eine im Jahre 1986 durchgeführte Volkszählung ergab, dass über die Hälfte der Einwohner Kataloniens Katalanisch als Erstsprache verwenden und sogar 90% der Befragten passive Kenntnisse aufweisen. Diese Zahlen haben sich inzwischen laut EBLUL im positiven Sinne weiterentwickelt: heute sind 79% der Einwohner Kataloniens des Katalanischen mächtig und 95% sind in der Lage, die Sprache zu verstehen. Hingegen aus sozialpsychologischer Sicht ist Katalanisch noch nicht am Ende seiner Bestrebungen angelangt, d.h. im bilingualen Spannungsgefüge als natürliche Erstwahl hervorzutreten. Nur ein (zwar wichtiger) Teil der katalanischen Bevölkerung benutzt Katalanisch in Alltagssituationen und entscheidet sich dafür als erste Option. Dies bedeutet, dass es zahlreiche Sprecher gibt, die in spontaner Rede eher Spanisch als Katalanisch verwenden. Dieselben Sprecher würden nur, wenn es notwendig erscheint, auch problemlos Katalanisch benutzende nach Teilnehmerkonfiguration und Gesprächsinhalt. Der relative Erfolg des Katalanischen hängt offensichtlich auch mit einer Reihe von domänen-spezifischen Faktoren zusammen: Die überwiegende Zahl der nicht Katalanisch sprechenden Migranten aus den südlichen Regionen Spaniens ist geneigt, sich der Katalanisch sprechenden Gruppe anzupassen. Zudem ist in der Verwaltung Katalanisch die bevorzugte Sprache, die sich in verschiedenen Ministerien unterschiedlich schnell durchsetzen konnte. Dieser offiziellen Verbreitung folgte eine reale, aber dennoch viel bescheidenere Parallelentwicklung in den Medien

18 Rene Dirvcn und Martin Pütz

und in Buchveröffentlichungen. Nach wie vor ist Spanisch in Zeitungen, Fernsehen, Radio und vor allem im Kino bevorzugtes Kommunikationsmedium. Im Schulwesen ist Katalanisch die einzige Unterrichtssprache und Spanisch ist ein Lernfach wie alle anderen; am Ende der Schulpflichtzeit wird von jedem 16jährigen Schüler erwartet, die beiden Sprachen mündlich und schriftlich verwenden zu können. Für die Hochschule legte das Gesetz fest, dass Dozierende und Studierende die von ihnen bevorzugte Sprache (Katalanisch oder Spanisch) verwenden dürfen. Festzuhalten ist jedoch, dass in Vorlesungen die bevorzugte Sprache Katalanisch ist, obwohl die Situation in jeder Fakultät und an jeder Universität unterschiedlich ausgeprägt sein dürfte. Ein typisches Faktum ist zudem, dass in den Universitäten die Studierenden es für selbstverständlich halten, dass ihre Lehrerinnen im Stande sind, auch wenn sie aus anderen Regionen Spaniens oder aus dem Ausland stammen, ihre Veranstaltungen auf Katalanisch anzubieten. Es hat sich somit innerhalb von 20 Jahren eine sehr bemerkenswerte Änderung durchgesetzt, die sehr weit von jeder Vorstellung eines sich selbst vollziehenden Prozesses entfernt ist und somit die Thesen von Fishman weitestgehend widerlegt hat. Fazit: Obwohl die zunehmende Verbreitung des Katalanischen innerhalb der letzten zwanzig Jahre einen deutlichen Trend aufzeigt, ist seine aktuelle Situation fortwährend neuen Diskussionen ausgesetzt. Viele katalanische Sprachforscher vertreten die Ansicht, die Sprache sei noch immer gefährdet, da Spanisch zu dominant sei, und infolgedessen Katalanisch im sozialen Verwendungsbereich noch nicht in ausreichender Weise wettbewerbsfähig. Zudem ist Spanisch primäres Kommunikationsmedium für die neuesten Migranten aus Lateinamerika, Asien und Afrika, so dass im informellen Kontext vornehmlich in größeren Städten Spanisch zunehmend an Attraktivität gewinnt. In Berücksichtigung dessen ist es zu verstehen, dass die katalanische Regierung vor einigen Jahren ein neues „Normalisierungsgesetz" im Parlament verabschiedet hat, um den Status des Katalanischen aufzuwerten, dies sogar unter Androhung von Geldstrafen. Diese Maßnahme blieb jedoch ungenützt, da die Einsicht vorherrscht, dass nur auf freiwilliger Basis neue Sprecher des Katalanischen hinzugewonnen werden können. Die Zahl der Sprachwissenschaftler sei hier nicht unerwähnt, die gleichwohl der Ansicht sind, dass Katalanisch nur ,überleben' kann, wenn es zur einzigen offiziellen Sprache Kataloniens erhoben würde. Dies würde hingegen ernsthafte politische Probleme mit sich führen, da die spanische Verfassung eine solche Statuszuweisung nicht vorsieht.

Der übergeordnete Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte weltweit

19

Im folgenden Teil soll nun überprüft werden, ob die drei prototypischen Konfliktmodelle Elsässisch, Walisisch, Katalanisch in anderen, von europäischen Einwanderern bzw. Kolonialherren besiedelten Kontinenten nachweislich vorhanden sind.

3.

Sprachkonflikt als europäischer Exportartikel

In gleicher Weise wie die ehemaligen europäischen Großmächte ihre Systeme der Verwaltung, des Rechts, der Erziehung, und sogar der Religionsgesetzgebung in Kolonialgebiete exportiert haben, so haben sie gleichsam ihre Sprachgesetzgebung, bzw. stillschweigende Konventionen auf die weitaus komplexeren Sprach- und Kulturverhältnisse der Kolonialgebiete übertragen. Dies soll exemplarisch anhand der sprachlichen Situationen in den USA, Afrika und Indien untersucht werden.

3.1. Der amerikanische „melting pot": „not for Latinos" Die Bezeichnung melting pot für die nordamerikanische „Mischung" verschiedener europäischer Sprach- und Kulturgemeinschaften kann zweifelsohne im Sinne Fishmans aufgefasst werden und als ein sich selbst vollziehender natürlicher Prozess der Assimilation an die dominante Sprachund Kulturgemeinschaft interpretiert werden. Dass dieser 'Assimilationsprozess' sich jedoch nicht notwendigerweise auch vollziehen mag, zeigt ein kurzer Vergleich mit Kanada: in gleichem Maße wie sich der Staat Kanada durch die Zuwanderung britischer und französischer Migranten etabliert hat, setzten sich auch die Vereinigten Staaten aus Einwanderergruppen mehrerer europäischer Sprach- und Kulturgemeinschaften zusammen, und zwar die angelsächsische in New England, die deutsche in Pennsylvania, Maryland und im Nordwesten der USA, die französische in Louisiana und die schon früher im Süden (Florida, Texas, Arizona. New Mexico) und im Westen (Kalifornien) angesiedelten spanischen Militärbesatzungen, Missionare und Siedler. Im Gegensatz zur zweisprachigen Situation in Kanada sind die meisten nicht-englischsprachigen Gruppen einschließlich der italienischen, irischen, polnischen u.a. Einwanderer in zunehmendem Maße amerikanisiert worden. Nur das Spanische bildet noch eine Ausnahme, auf die unten noch näher eingegangen werden soll.

20 Rene Dirven und Martin Pütz Die monolinguale Vorstellung eines Nationalstaates - eine Replik des Denkens in Frankreich und im Mutterland Großbritannien -

dominierte

damals w i e auch jetzt die sprachpolitische Diskussion in den Vereinigten Staaten. Obgleich es nie ein föderales Sprachgesetz gegeben hat, um das Englische als o f f i z i e l l e Sprache der Vereinigten Staaten festzulegen, haben verschiedene einzelne US-Staaten ein solches verabschiedet. Nur ein einziger Staat, N e w Mexico, wurde 1912 offiziell als bilingualer Staat (Englisch/Spanisch) proklamiert. In der Folgezeit haben einige Staaten jedoch ein Gesetz angenommen, das Englisch als alleinige Sprache vorsah. Illinois bezeichnete sich 1923 sogar als ,Amerikanisch'-sprachig, was erst 1969 widerrufen und durch ,Englisch' ersetzt worden ist. Noch im Jahre 1986 stimmte das Parlament Kaliforniens - ein Staat mit einer sehr zahlreichen und älteren spanischsprechenden Minderheit - massiv für ein Gesetz, welches das Englische als alleinige Sprache vorsieht. Seit 1981 ist zudem im Kongress wiederholt eine Resolution angenommen worden, die vorschlägt, Englisch als die offizielle Sprache der Vereinigten Staaten in der Verfassung zu verankern. Obwohl dieser Vorschlag auch später keine Mehrheit für sich beanspruchen konnte, hat sich eine starke Bewegung etabliert, um diese Regelung zu implementieren. Heute haben

13 Bundesstaaten ein

Gesetz erlassen, das Englisch als alleinige Sprache zulässt. Derartige Versuche und Gesetzgebungen sind Ausdruck einer tieferen Überzeugung, die in der Mehrheitsvorstellung der amerikanischen Bürger und Politiker fortlebt, nämlich dass die Anerkennung einer anderen oder zweiten offiziellen Sprache die nationale Einheit nur gefährden könnte. Santa Ana (2003) hat herausgestellt, dass der öffentliche Diskurs über Latinos vorrangig mittels Tier- und Krankheitsmetaphern ausgedrückt wird, die in den drei folgenden konzeptuellen oder zugrundeliegenden phern

zusammengefasst

werden

können:

PEOPLE

ARE

ANIMALS,

MetaSOCIAL

BACKWARDNESS IS A DISEASE, a n d SOCIAL MEASURES ARE MERELY REMEDIES FOR THE SYMPTOMS OF THE DISEASE.

Angesichts der Nicht-Akzeptanz dieser Lati-

no-Bevölkerungsgruppe als solche ist es nicht erstaunlich, dass auch ihre Sprache nicht in ausreichendem Maße Anerkennung finden kann, obgleich Mercado (2003: 166) eindringlich darauf hinweist, dass die Latino-Kultur und Spanisch insbesondere im Staate N e w Y o r k ein unübersehbares Faktum geworden ist und in entscheidender Weise die sprachliche Entwicklung im multilingualen Geflecht der U S A mit gestalten wird: Despite the low status that social (and more recently academic) uses of Spanish have had historically in schools and in US society in general, its in-

Der übergeordnete Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte weltweit

21

fluence is ineradicable, in the same way that the influence of English is pervasive in the world. Es ist durchaus davon auszugehen, dass die Ideen der französischen Aufklärung, die sich im amerikanischen Grundgesetz nachhaltig durchsetzen konnten, auch das Besinnen über einen neuen Nationalstaat, sei es das jeweilige Land oder der Bund, geprägt hat. Dieser daraus resultierende Sprachimperialismus im Namen der Aufklärung ist somit zum französischen Exportartikel in das neue Utopia-Land der Aufklärung, i.e. die Vereinigten Staaten, geworden.

3.2. Identitätskrise in Afrika: doppelte oder dreifache Loyalität In zahlreichen Ländern Afrikas haben die europäischen Kolonialmächte, insbesondere Frankreich, Großbritannien, Portugal, Italien, Belgien und mit Einschränkungen Deutschland (bis 1918) ihre Nationalsprache als selbstverständliches Instrument der Kolonialisierung im Verwaltungs- und Bildungswesen eingesetzt. In Entsprechung des jeweiligen Ex-Kolonialgebietes spricht man jetzt noch von den frankophonen, anglophonen und lusophonen Ländern Afrikas. Mit diesen Bezeichnungen kommt die Kluft zwischen den politischen und wirtschaftlichen Führungskräften und den breiten Massen der afrikanischen Bevölkerung auf tragische Art und Weise zum Ausdruck. Im Rahmen der Unabhängigkeitserklärungen in den sechziger Jahren haben die meisten neuen Staaten entweder stillschweigend oder explizit die frühere Kolonialsprache als Sprache der Politik, der Verwaltung, des Gerichts und des Unterrichts beibehalten, eine Situation, die sich nach Mazrui (1998: 429) mit dem Begriff „sprachlicher Eurozentrismus" beschreiben lässt. Da die europäischen Sprachen de facto als Instrumente der politischen, technologischen und industriellen Machtausübung auch heute noch führend sind, wird leicht verständlich, dass sie noch immer einen sehr hohen Statuswert in Afrika aufweisen, und dass sie 40 Jahre nach den Unabhängigkeitserkläi ungen noch immer als Sprachen der Regierung, der parlamentarischen Diskussion, der Gesetzgebung und des Unterrichts in der Grundstufe, der Sekundarstufe und des Tertiärbereichs gehandhabt werden. Die systematische Zurückweisung der autochthonen Sprachen Afrikas und die Dominanz der europäischen Sprachen in offiziellen Domänen, hat zu einer Reihe gravierender, negativer Konsequenzen geführt, von denen das Entstehen einer breiten Masse von ungebildeten Hilfskräften wohl die au-

22 Rene Dirven und Martin Pütz

genfälligste ist. Ihr gegenüber steht eine sehr kleine englisch-, französisch-, bzw. portugiesischsprachige Elite, die sich die politische, wirtschaftliche und erzieherische Dominanz in einer fast exklusiven Weise aneignet. So entsteht das typisch afrikanische Phänomen, dass 80 bis 90 Prozent der Bevölkerung systematisch von der Teilnahme an den Macht- und Wissensstrukturen der Nation ausgeschlossen bleiben, weil diese nur in französischer oder englischer Sprache zugänglich sind (Pütz 1985). Während diese Problematik der multilingualen Situation Afrikas in Europa oder Amerika noch nicht hinreichend erkannt worden ist, hat sich in Afrika bereits eine erste starke Bewusstmachung in der Welt der afrikanischen Linguistik und der Literatur durchgesetzt. Bereits im Jahre 1981 wurde von der UNESCO in Conakri (Guinea) eine Expertenkonferenz (UNESCO, 1981) einberufen, um eine Strategie der Förderung der afrikanischen Sprachen zu entwerfen; die dort vorgelegten Resolutionen sind jedoch bislang noch nicht zur Ausführung gebracht worden. Was Zuengler (1985: 250) über Kenia berichtet, trifft prinzipiell für alle afrikanischen Länder zu, wenn auch in einem unterschiedlichen Ausmaß: „The dominance of English in the schools parallels its dominance within the higher socioeconomic strata that every Kenyan pupil is striving to enter. The whole educational system in Kenya clearly continues to be focused on the minority who succeed." Im Gegensatz zu der Situation etwa in Indien (vgl. 3.3.) ist die sprachliche Vielfalt in Afrika somit zu einem Instrument der sozialen Ungleichheit und Ungerechtigkeit geworden, eine Situation, die sich mit dem Begriff linguistische Diskriminierung' bezeichnen lässt. Obwohl diese Tatsache recht genau nachweisbar ist, gestaltet es sich als äußerst schwierig, den bestehenden Teufelskreis zu durchbrechen, u.a. da die Spracheinstellungen der breiteren Bevölkerungsschichten selbst nicht leicht zu verändern sind und weil viele der autochthonen Sprachen keinen lexikalischen Ausbau erfahren haben. Sie sind oft sogar noch nicht einmal in eine Schriftform gebracht worden und auch noch nicht in ihrer geographischen Ausdehnung bzw. Zugehörigkeit zu einer bestimmten Dialektgruppe definiert worden. Durch die Vorrangstellung der europäischen Sprachen wie etwa das Englische in Botswana einerseits, aber auch durch eine noch intakt gebliebene Loyalität gegenüber einer afrikanischen Nationalsprache wie das Setswana und gegebenenfalls, gegenüber der eigenen autochthonen Erstsprache wie das Ikalanga (Smieja 2003) andererseits, hat sich in Afrika in zunehmendem Maße eine schwebende sprachliche Loyalität und entsprechende ethnische Identität entwickelt; man erachtet die europäische Sprache als positiv (in casu Englisch), will hingegen auch die eigenen Sprachen Afrikas

Der übergeordnete

Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte

weltweit

23

nicht abwerten oder verschwinden sehen (siehe auch Nyati-Ramahobo 1999). Diese Einstellung verrät eine gewisse Identitätskrise, die hingegen noch nicht vergleichbar ist mit derjenigen, die in Wales erkennbar wird, da die Zahl der Englischsprechenden in Afrika derzeit noch relativ gering ist. Eine Sprachenpolitik muss diesen Einstellungen jedoch Rechnung tragen und kann somit auch nicht bedenkenlos die jetzige Rolle der europäischen Sprachen aufgeben. Sie muss der Gesamtheit der vorhandenen Sprachen, d.h. den sog. Elitesprachen, den größeren afrikanischen Verkehrssprachen als auch den Minoritätssprachen gerecht werden, wie Adegbija (1991: 22f.) zu verdeutlichen sucht. Erst dann wäre man von einem Sprachimperialismus mit seinem vorprogrammierten Konfliktpotential weitgehend befreit. Es bleibt eine offene Frage, ob und inwiefern das Modell Indiens für Afrika bedeutsam sein könnte.

3.3. Symbolcharakter des Hindi vs. Englisch als Kommunikationsinstrument Was die katalanischen Bewohner in Spanien mit ihrem gestaffelten Bilingualismus verwirklicht haben, lässt sich als Ausdruck einer doppelten Loyalität und Identität bezeichnen, nämlich eine sprachliche und kulturpolitische Loyalität gegenüber dem Katalanischen, und eine sprachliche und staatspolitische Loyalität gegenüber dem Spanischen. Eine vergleichbare, doppelte Identität lässt sich in Indien nicht nachweisen, da das Englische in Indien, anders als in Afrika, nie einen positiven Symbolwert eingenommen hatte. Das Englische hat seit fast 250 Jahren in Indien Fuß gefasst. Es begann mit der Durchsetzung der politischen Führungsrolle der Ostindischen Kompanie im Jahre 1765; die Sprache war ein Jahrhundert später bereits so stark etabliert, dass 1875 die ersten drei Universitäten (nach dem Modell der auch im 19. Jahrhundert neu gegründeten Universität London) errichtet wurden. Nachdem hundert Jahre später im Jahre 1947 Indien die Unabhängigkeit erlangt hatte, war das Stadium des Bilingualismus so weit fortgeschritten, dass Englisch weiterhin die Sprache der politischen und wirtschaftlichen Elite, der Verwaltung, des Unterrichts und der überregionalen Presse geblieben ist. Der Widerstand gegen diese koloniale und postkoloniale Auferlegung des Englischen war hingegen ungleich stärker als dies jemals in andern Kontinenten auch nur denkbar gewesen wäre und so wurde - eher als Symbolfunktion als in der konkreten Realität - Hindi die offi-

24 Rene Dirven und Martin Pütz zielle Sprache der Union Indien, während andere indische Sprachen die offizielle Sprache einzelner Staaten Indiens wurden. Da der Staat jedoch in zwei größere Sprachgebiete unterteilt ist - vorwiegend Hindi-Sprachen im Norden und vorwiegend Dravidian-Sprachen im Süden - hat Hindi sich nie als einzige offizielle Sprache durchsetzen können, und Englisch wurde fortan als zweite offizielle Sprache der ersten offiziellen Sprache Hindi quasi angegliedert. Laut Parasher (1981: 60) sind Versuche, das Hindi den südlichen Staaten aufzuerlegen, nach scharfen Protesten des Südens misslungen. Andererseits ist Hindi in vier nördlichen Staaten als die einzige offizielle Sprache proklamiert worden. Die staatlichen Angelegenheiten werden jedoch weiterhin auf Englisch und in anderen indischen Sprachen abgewickelt. Ein weiteres Problem in Bezug auf das Hindi zeigt sich zudem dadurch, dass die Sprachplanungsinstanzen in Indien, und somit die indische Regierung, es verschuldet haben, dass das Hindi nicht zu einer akzeptablen Nationalsprache ausgebaut worden ist: „(They) were too much concerned with quantity of output [meist lexikalische Einheiten] and gave less attention to quality, user-acceptance and public reactions" (Das Gupta 1977: 77). Der politische Druck „von oben", das Englische in möglichst kurzer Zeit durch Hindi zu ersetzen, lässt sich somit als eine der Ursachen des Scheiterns aufzeigen. Die Einstellungen zum Englischen sind gemäß einer Untersuchung (Shaw 1983: 2Iff.) in der Stadt Hyderabad, die zentral zwischen den nördlichen Hindi-Sprechern und den südlichen Dravidian-Sprechern gelegen ist, sehr positiv: 67% der 342 befragten Inder hatten eine englischsprachige Sekundärschule besucht und 94% absolvierten im Anschluss daran eine englischsprachige Hochschule oder Universität; 50% sagten aus, dass Englisch auch zu Hause verwendet würde. Es ist weiterhin festzustellen, dass die Probanden davon ausgehen, dass sie in der Zukunft vornehmlich Englisch benutzen werden, ζ. B. mit Landsleuten bei Geschäftstransaktionen oder anderen sozialen Gelegenheiten oder im Kontakt mit Landsleuten, deren Erstsprache man nicht kennt, und erst an dritter Stelle mit Muttersprachlern des Englischen oder mit Personen aus Drittländern. Das Englische hat somit für sie eine rein instrumentelle Funktion, wobei sie kaum besonderen Wert auf eine britische Variante legen, sondern in erster Linie die Indisch-Englische Variante bevorzugen, die sie derzeit wie auch in der Zukunft nach eigenen Angaben noch zu 60% sprechen werden. Diese so ausgeprägte positive instrumenteile Einstellung dem Englischen gegenüber dürfte aber typisch für ein Grenzgebiet wie die Region um Hyderabad sein, das sich weder mit dem Norden, noch mit dem Süden identifizieren möchte

Der übergeordnete

Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte

weltweit

25

und deswegen voll auf Englisch setzt. Dieser Fluchtweg bleibt im Grunde jedem Individuum in der ganzen Nation offen.

4.

Schlussbetrachtung

Wie die oben skizzierten Typen von Sprachkonflikten gezeigt haben dürften, unterliegen Sprachkonfliktsituationen keinen vorhersagbaren, sich notwendigerweise vollziehenden Entwicklungen, sondern j e d e einzelne Variante ist das Ergebnis einer Reihe zusammenwirkender Faktoren, die in jeder Konstellation eine andere Wertung erfahren. Von größter Wichtigkeit ist der Faktor der I d e o l o g i e ' . Dieser war zu Zeiten der Bildung von Nationalstaaten im 16. Jahrhundert noch nicht so ausgeprägt wie in späteren philosophischen und politischen Diskursen, aber im Keim dennoch schon anwesend, wie aus der Begründung des Verbots des Walisischen durch Henry VIII hervorgeht: Erst in der französischen Revolution wurde die politische Ideologie des Nationalstaates mit tieferliegenden, sogenannten humanistischen Zielsetzungen verknüpft. In dem Aufklärungsdenken vertrat man die Vorstellung, im Namen des Fortschritts und der geistigen Emanzipation die lokalen Sprachen, bzw. Dialekte beseitigen zu müssen, um Λ

der Verbreitung neuer Ideen nichts in den Weg zu stellen . Auch der britische Pragmatismus, verknüpft mit seiner scheinbaren Toleranz, ist als wichtige ideologische Variable zu nennen: die britische Sprachenpolitik in Großbritannien und in den Kolonialgebieten ist zugegebenermaßen weniger extrem konzipiert und implementiert worden als die französische, hat aber letztendlich zu denselben undemokratischen Ergebnissen geführt. Aber vielleicht hat sich gerade aufgrund dieses eleganten Pragmatismus das Englische weltweit als lingua franca, in Asien als eine zweite offizielle Sprache, und in vielen Staaten Afrikas sogar als erste, bzw. alleinige offizielle Sprache durchsetzen können. Dabei divergieren die Einstellungen zum Englischen sehr stark zwischen einer rein instrumentellen Funktion und dem Wert eines Statussymbols. Ersteres scheint auf die sprachliche Situation in Asien zuzutreffen, w o das Englische eine rein instrumenteile Funktion hat und es die eigenen kulturellen Werte nicht verdrängt. Zweites trifft auf zahlreiche Länder Afrikas zu. In Afrika erhält die Sprachenpolitik dadurch einen erschütternden Effekt, da hier offenbar noch kein sprachliches, bzw. kulturelles autochthones Bewusstsein existiert. In anglophonen oder frankophonen Staaten Afrikas ist noch kein expliziter Wille zum Ausdruck gekommen, die ethnischen Sprachen und

26 Rene Dirven und Martin Pütz

Kulturen in erster Linie als wichtige Symbolträger und Instrumente der kulturellen Entwicklung aufzufassen, wodurch Afrika in eine schwere Identitätskrise geraten ist. Am stärksten wird eine positive Wende in Katalonien spürbar: das Selbstbewusstsein der Katalanen und ihre sprachliche wie auch kulturelle Identität ist derart stark ausgeprägt, dass dem Katalanischen absoluter Vorrang gegenüber dem Spanischen eingeräumt wird. Dass dieses Bewusstsein so explizit von der (höheren) Mittelschicht bestimmt wird, kann aus demokratischem Blickwinkel als etwas negativ oder bedauerlich erfahren werden, aber dies dürfte ein wesentliches Merkmal aller sprachlichen, bzw. kulturellen Prozesse sein. In gewissem Sinne ist die Bedrohung für das Walisische nicht so sehr eine externe Bedrohung, die vom Englischen ausgeht, sondern viel eher eine interne Bedrohung, die von einer nicht überzeugenden, da nicht selbsterzeugten Identität der Waliser Bildungsschicht ausgeht. Prinzipiell kann man mit der folgenden Aussage des Jenaer Wissenschaftlers Heinrich Luderer (1778-1847) weitestgehend konform sein, der behauptet hat: „Die Völker bekommen keine Rechte, die sie sich nicht selbst nehmen". Dies trifft zweifelsohne auch für ,Sprachenrechte' zu.

Anmerkungen 1. 2.

Dieser Beitrag ist eine stark überarbeitete Fassung eines früheren Aufsatzes: Dirven, Rene und Pütz, Martin (1996). Geeraerts (2003) bietet eine tiefgehende Analyse der beiden Hauptströmungen im Hinblick auf sprachpolitische Ansätze: (i) das Modell rationalistischer Aufklärung, das die „Eine-Sprache" - „Ein-Staat" Variante fordert und (ii) das Modell der Romantik, das Spracherhalt und Sprachenvielfalt in den Kontext von Multilingualität und Pluralismus situiert.

Bibliographie Adegbija, Efurosibina 1991 The Context of Language Planning in Africa: An Illustration with Nigeria. Duisburg: LAUD. 1994 Language Attitudes in Subsaharan Africa: A Sociolinguistic Overview. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Der übergeordnete Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte

weltweit

27

Bister-Broosen, Helga 1998 Sprachkontakte und Sprachattitüden Jugendlicher im Elsaß und in Baden. Frankfurt/Main: Lang. Coulmas, Florian 1985 Sprache und Staat. Studien zur Sprachplanung. Berlin und New York: Walter de Gruyter. Dirven, Rene, Roslyn M. Frank und Martin Pütz (Hrsg.) 2003 Cognitive Models in Language and Thought: Ideologies, Metaphors, and Meanings. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Dirven, Ren£ und Pütz, Martin 1996 Sprachkonflikt. In: Goebl, Η., P. H. Neide, Ζ. Stary und W. Wölek (Hrsg.), Kontaktlinguistik. Contact Linguistics. Linguistique de contact. Ein internationales Handbuch zeitgenössischer Forschung. An International Handbook of Contemporary Research. Manuel International des recherches contemporaires, 684-691. Berlin und New York: Walter de Gruyter. EBLUL (European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages) 2003 Internet www.eblul.org/wow (April 2003) Ferguson, Charles 1959 Diglossia. Word 15: 325-340. Fishman, Joshua A. 1972 Sociolinguistics: A Brief Introduction. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Fishman, Joshua A. (Hrsg.) 1992 The Question of an Official Language: Language Rights and the English Language Amendment. (= International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 60). Berlin und New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Gardy, Phillipe und Robert Lafont 1981 Diglossie comme conflit: L'exemple occitan. Langages 61: 75-91. Geeraerts, Dirk 2003 Cultural models of linguistic standardization. In: Dirven, R., R. M. Frank und Μ. Pütz (Hrsg.), Cognitive Models in Language and Thought. Ideology, Metaphors and Meanings, 25-68. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Grin, Francois und Francois Vaillancourt 1999 The Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation of Minority Language Policies: Case Studies on Wales, Ireland and the Basque Country. Flensburg: European Center for Minority Issues (ECMI). Haarmann, Harald 2001 Die Kleinsprachen der Welt - Existenzbedrohung und Überlebenschancen. Eine umfassende Dokumentation. Frankfurt/Main: Lang.

28 Rene Dirven und Martin Pütz Ladin, Wolfgang 1983 Sozio- und psycholinguistische Aspekte der Polyglossie im Department Untereisass - Zur Problematik von Sprachzählungen in Sprachgrenzgebieten. In: Neide, P. H. (Hrsg.), Theorie, Methoden und Modelle der Kontaktlinguistik, 3 7 ^ 8 . Bonn: Dümmler. Legere, Karsten (Hrsg.) 1990 The Role of Language in Literacy Programmes with Special Reference to Kiswahili in Eastern Africa. Bonn: Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung. Legere, Karsten 2001 Language policy and the situation at the grassroots - nongovernmental approaches. In: Trewby, R. und S. Fitchat (Hrsg.), Making the Right Choices. Language and Development in Southern Africa, 52-69. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. MacKinnon, Kenneth und Julian Densham 1989 Ethnolinguistic diversity in Britain: Policies and practice in school and society. Language, Culture and Curriculum 2: 75-89. Mazrui, Ali Α. und Alamin M. 1998 The Power of Babel. Language & Governance in the African Experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Mercado, Carmen I. 2003 Biliteracy development among Latino youth in New York City communities: An unexploited potential. In: Hornberger, Ν. Η. (Hrsg.), Continua of Biliteracy. An Ecological Framework for Educational Policy, Research, and Practice in Multilingual Settings, 166-186. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Neide, Peter H. (Hrsg.) 1983 Theorien, Methoden und Modelle der Kontaktlinguistik (Plurilingua). Bonn: Dümmler. Nyati-Ramahobo, Lydia 1999 The National Language. A Resource or a Problem? The implementation of the Language Policy of Botswana. Gaborone: Pula Press. Ouane, Adama und Peter Sutton (Hrsg.) 1991 Language Policy and Education (Special Issue of International Review of Education). Dordrecht: Foris. Parasher, S. V. 1981 Indian English. A Sociolinguistic Perspective. ITL - Review of Applied Linguistics 51: 59-70. Phillipson, Robert et al. 1986 Namibian educational language planning: English for liberation or neo-colonialism? In: Spolsky, B. (Hrsg.), Language and Education in Multilingual Settings, 77-95. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Der übergeordnete Rahmen der Sprachkonflikte

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Phillipson, Robert 1988 Linguicism: Structures and ideologies in linguistic imperialism. In: Skutnabb-Kangas, T. und J. Cummins (Hrsg.), Minority Education: From Shame to Struggle, 335-358. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Phillipson, Robert und Tove Skutnabb-Kangas 1999 Englishisation: one dimension of globalisation. In: Graddol, D. und U. H. Meinhof (Hrsg.), English in a Changing World, 19-36. Guildford: Biddies Ltd. Pütz, Martin (Hrsg.) 1995 Discrimination through Language in Africa? Perspectives on the Namibian Experience. Berlin und New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Roberts, Celia 1987 Polilical conflict over bilingual initiatives: A case study. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 8: 311-322. Rubagumya, Casimir Μ. (Hrsg.) 1990 Language in Education in Africa: A Tanzanian Perspective. Clevedon. 1991 Language promotion for educational purposes: The example of Tanzania. International Review of Education 37: 67-85. Santa Ana, Otto 2003 Three mandates for anti-minority policy expressed in U.S. public discourse metaphors. In: Dirven, R., R. M. Frank und Μ. Pütz (Hrsg.), Cognitive Models in Language and Thought. Ideology, Metaphors and Meanings, 199-228. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Schmied, Josef 1989 English in East and Central Africa l. Bayreuth African Studies Series 18. Shaw, William D. 1983 Indian Students' attitudes towards English. In: Smith, Larry E. (Hrsg.), Readings in English as an International Language, 17-28. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove 2000 Linguistic Genocide in Education or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights? London: Lawrence Erlbaum. Smieja, Birgit 2003 Language Pluralism in Botswana - Hope or Hurdle? A Sociolinguistic Survey on Language and Language Attitudes in Botswana with Special Reference to the Status and Use of English. (Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture 49). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

30 Rene Dirven und Martin Pütz Unesco 1981

Williams, 1983

Williams, 1992 Zuengler, 1985

La Definition d'une Strategie relative a la promotion des langues africaines (Documentation de la Reunion d'Experts qui a eu lieu ä Conakry), 21-25 Septembre 1981, Paris. Colin H. Language-related tension in Wales. In: Neide, P. H. (Hrsg.), Theorien, Modelle und Methoden der Kontaktlinguistik, 237-249. Bonn: Dümmler. Glyn Sociolinguistics - A Sociological Critique. London/New York: Routledge. Jane English, Swahili, or other languages? The relation of educational development goals to language of instruction in Kenya and Tanzania. In: Wolfson, N. und J. Manes (Hrsg.), Language of Inequality, 2 4 1 254. Berlin: Mouton.

··

Indianer und andere Minderheiten - Überlegungen zu einer sprachplanerischen Minoritologie

Peter Hans Neide

Lieber Karsten, verlasse bitte Dein Studierzimmer für ein Weilchen und begleite mich in Gedanken ein Stück in nordwestlicher Richtung, fliege mit mir über den Atlantik nach Montreal, besteige dort mit mir einen Zug, der alle zwei Tage in die kanadische Einsamkeit gen Labrador fährt, meistens mit zwei, drei Stunden Verspätung und ganz weit im hohen Norden von Quebec, da wo der St. Lorenzstrom in den Atlantik mündet, anhält, Dich und mich in einem kleinen Städtchen mit dem Namen New Richmond entlädt. Dort werden wir wenige Meilen vom Bahnhof entfernt auf eine Ansiedlung von ein paar Hundert Menschen stoßen, die nicht sogleich als besondere Gruppe, als Minderheit zu erkennen ist. Es handelt sich um Indianer, die sich nicht etwa Minderheit, sondern stolz First Nation/Premiere Nation nennen und in ihrem dortigen Reservatsgebiet über Sonderrechte verfügen, das heißt, ihre eigene (Algonquin-)Sprache benutzen und pflegen dürfen, wozu sie allerdings selbst wenig Lust verspüren und deshalb eine andere Sprache als die eigene Muttersprache, aber auch eine andere als die dortige Staatssprache gewählt haben. Sie weigern sich nämlich Französisch, die Quebecker Amtssprache, zu verwenden und in der Schule zu lernen: sie bevorzugen Englisch und sprechen eher nebenbei noch ihre autochthone Haussprache, das sogenannte Mic Mac, das von den über 40jährigen überwiegend noch beherrscht wird. Diese Mic Mac-Indianer umfassen 600 Sprecher auf einem eigenen Territorium (Gescapegiac), ausgestattet mit eigenen Gesetzen und politischen Strukturen, einer eigenen Polizei, einer Kirche im Wigwam-Stil, einem kanadatypischen convenience store/depanneur - und obendrein einem Hörfunksender. Den habe ich vor kurzem besucht und dachte, angesichts eines derartigen minderheitlichen Mikrokosmos, dass diese Indianer, die mit allen Auswüchsen moderner westlicher Zivilisation wie erhöhter Kriminalität, Alkoholismus und Drogenabhängigkeit konfrontiert wurden, und die heute wiederum die westliche Zivilisation mit diesen Menetekeln konfrontieren,

32 Peter Η. Neide

unter diesen Umständen noch ein starkes Selbstbewusstsein besitzen müssen, um ihre First Mrt/ow-Identität zu bewahren: Eine Zeitung gibt es nicht - die Leserschaft wäre zu klein - staatliche Fürsorge beschränkt sich nur auf den Sozialbereich, so dass dem einzigen Hörfunksender, der in einer kleinen, windschiefen Baracke mit einem noch schieferen Sendemast untergebracht ist, eine ganz besondere Bedeutung zukommen muss, nämlich die eines wesentlichen Verbindungselements, das das Miteinander und das Zusammenleben in der Gemeinschaft unambitioniert fördert. Bei einer so begrenzten Hörerschaft tauchen dabei sicherlich Probleme auf, die die Psyche und damit das Selbstbewusstsein der Verantwortlichen tangieren. Bei den „Programmverantwortlichen" habe ich mich erkundigt, was es für ein Gefühl sein muss, wenn man als Rundfunksprecher nicht einmal sicher sein kann, dass jemand zuhört, ein Stammesbruder oder eine Stammesschwester überhaupt den Transistor eingeschaltet hat. Ein paar Kommentare habe ich mir notiert. So stoßen wir auf den Chef des Stammes, Big Chief Douglas Martin, der bereit gefunden wurde, drei Stunden täglich - es handelt sich, wohlgemerkt, um ein Vollprogramm - von morgens sieben bis um zehn Uhr, eine Musikwunschsendung zu moderieren. Auch er fragt sich in so manchen Augenblicken, ob überhaupt jemand seinen Worten lauscht, er ist sich dessen keineswegs sicher. Hauptprobleme dieses Senders sind laut Chief Douglas menschliche Probleme - Neid und Eifersucht unter den Stammesangehörigen, der schon erwähnte Alkoholismus, eine den Indianern besonders wesensfremde Bürokratie. Letztere wird von der Außenwelt an sie herangetragen und verträgt sich keineswegs mit der bürokratiefremden Struktur des Stammes. Trotz alledem behauptet sich bei den Stammes- wie den Hörfunkverantwortlichen ein gewisser Idealismus, der stärker scheint als eine gefüllte Lohntüte. Die monatliche Gehaltszahlung der Programmpräsentatoren ist mit den ABM-Maßnahmen in Deutschland zu vergleichen, also Radiopräsentatoren als staatlich finanzierte Arbeitslose, die für diesen Obulus dann einige Stunden am Tag Diskjockey spielen. Dafür erhalten sie oft nur geteilte Zustimmung und befinden sich in einem ständigen Kampf zwischen unterschiedlichen Ansichten traditionalistischer und weltanschaulich progressiver Indianer, auch gegen Verbote des Stammesältesten, zuweilen gegen eine unzureichende Technik, denn so modern wie in vielen amerikanischen und europäischen Kleinstudios geht es bei unseren Mic Mac nicht zu; die Technik stammt aus den sechziger Jahren und viele Sendestunden fallen durch Versagen der Technik oder einen Streik des einzigen Technikers aus - hin und wieder schweigt der Sender tagelang. Dann flammt der Streit unter den Stammes-

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angehörigen wieder einmal auf, wobei sich im Laufe der Jahre zwei Gruppen gebildet haben und zwar eine Partei, die mächtigere, die am liebsten alle Hörfunksendungen verbieten möchte. So wurde beispielsweise nach dem letzten über Funk ausgetragenen Stammeszwist die Baracke mit dem Hörfunksender geschlossen, woraufhin das einzige weibliche Mitglied der Sendemannschaft die Sendeanlage in ihr privates Wohnzimmer überführte und von dort aus ohne Genehmigung eine zeitlang weitersendete. Kurzentschlossen meldete daraufhin der Ältestenrat des Stammes den Sender zum Konkurs an. Die bescheidene technische Ausrüstung wurde öffentlich zur Versteigerung ausgeschrieben. Bei der kurz darauf stattfindenden Auktion fand sich eine mit dem Ältestenrat in Opposition befindliche Fraktion ein, die das Gerät zurückkaufte und den Sendebetrieb, mit dem gleichen Material wie zuvor, einige Tage später wiederaufnahm - seither ist Come Home Radio Gescapegiac (CHRG) wieder im Äther. Wenn ich bisher betonte, die Minderheit umfasse 600 potenzielle Hörer, so ist das nicht ganz korrekt, da im Sendebereich noch ungefähr 6000 Nichtindianer, also überwiegend frankophone Kanadier unterschiedlichster Herkunft, wohnen. Der Selbsterhaltungstrieb der Mic Mac verpflichtet offensichtlich die Programmverantwortlichen, auch Gruppen zu berücksichtigen, die im Sendebereich liegen und anderssprachig (französisch) sind und von ihrer Mentalität und Bildung her sicherlich kein reines Indianerprogramm einschalten würden. Für unseren Kleinstsender eine nicht ganz leicht zu lösende Aufgabe, die durch besonders viel Wunschsendungen, Verkaufs- und Musikprogramme gemeistert wird. Eine der erfolgreichsten Sendungen ist die Tauschbörse (swop shop); beliebt ist der Straßenverkauf und -tausch alter Möbel und vieler alltäglicher Gebrauchsgegenstände. Obendrein lebt man von Hörerspenden und ein wenig Werbung, die zur Zeit vom örtlichen Frisör, einem Schuhgeschäft und dem einzigen Fast Food Restaurant der Küste - gerade außerhalb des Reservats gelegen - gesponsert wird. Ein größerer Werbeetat ist zur Zeit nicht in Sicht. Vier Mitarbeiter bilden die Kernmannschaft, sie sorgen dafür, dass die Sendungen um 7 Uhr morgens starten und um 21 Uhr abends enden. Um der Hörerschaft zu gefallen und nicht an ihren Wünschen vorbeizuproduzieren, hat man sich sogar zu einer Umfrage unter den Mitgliedern des Stammes durchgerungen und so erfahren, welche Musik am beliebtesten sei, und war so nach dem Prinzip Der Kunde ist König gezwungen, sich für Country Music zu entscheiden, was doch etwas paradox klingt, da der Wilde Westen als Heimat dieser Musikrichtung den Indianern keineswegs gut

34 Peter Η. Neide

gesonnen war, also im Grunde die amerikanisch-kanadische Kulturfehde des 19. Jahrhunderts jetzt in einer modernisierten Form ausgetragen wird. Trotzdem, so meine ich, eine hervorragendes Beispiel dafür, dass es möglich ist, auch unter Bedingungen, die Europäern beinahe anachronistisch erscheinen müssen, sich in der Wildnis ein Vollprogramm zu erkämpfen. Daraus ergibt sich ohne weiteres die Folgerung, dass wo ein Wille ist, sich auch ein Weg erschließt und dass ethnolinguistische Kleinstgemeinschaften bei entsprechender Motivation mehr erreichen können als viele „etablierte" europäische Minderheiten, die in ihrer Abhängigkeit von staatlichen und halbstaatlichen Zuschüssen spontane, ideelle Motivationsschübe verloren haben und sich in einer sozial halbwegs abgesicherten Umverteilungsgesellschaft ihrer ursprünglichen Eigendynamik und impulsiven Vitalität begeben haben. Inventive Pioniere wie die kanadischen Mic Macs bringen es - bei vergleichbarem Kostenaufwand und ähnlichen Lebenshaltungskosten und -standards wie in Deutschland - zu einem vollausgebauten Programm, das auch bei der anderssprachigen Bevölkerungsmehrheit auf zunehmendes Interesse stößt. Auch dort ist man sich überdies der jüngsten technischen Entwicklungen bewusst, nämlich dass sich durch die technisch machbaren Neuerungen des Medienbereichs im 21. Jahrhundert Wege und Möglichkeiten abzeichnen, die auch Kleinstsendern für Minderheitsgruppen den Zugang zum Äther erleichtern. Es sei hier nur auf die fortschreitende Digitalisierung verwiesen, die bei einer einzigen zugeteilten Frequenz Sendungen in mehreren Sprachen ermöglicht. Demnach stellt sich in Zukunft noch mehr als bisher die Frage nach der Bedeutung und Wirkung des Hörfunks bei kleinen Sprachgemeinschaften im gesamtgesellschaftlichen Kontext. Ist der Hörfunk ein das friedliche Zusammenleben von Mehrheit und Minderheit förderndes Medium? Nach den jüngsten Erfahrungen in Zentralafrika Globalisierungstendenzen auch im Sprach- und Kultursektor erlauben derartige räumliche Sprünge - seien trotz allen bisher zum Ausdruck gebrachten Optimismus aus belgischer Sicht einige Zweifel angemeldet. So scheint der Völkermord in Ruanda, der wahrscheinlich einer Million Menschen das Leben kostete, bei einer oberflächlichen Betrachtungsweise durch einen einzigen Hörfunksprecher in einem einzigen Sender, dem Radio Mille Collines ausgelöst worden zu sein. Hier wurden Angehörige von Völkerschaften mit verbalen Mitteln aufgepeitscht, um sich mit kriegerischer Gewalt gegen eine andere Ethnie (Hutus gegen Tutsis) zu richten: ein bedauernswertes Beispiel dafür, welch enormen Einfluss Einzelpersonen

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über ein Medium wie den Hörfunk ausüben können. 1 Vor einem solchen Medienmissbrauch schützen weder Verfassungen noch Menschenrechtsdeklarationen. In diesem Zusammenhang scheint es mir nicht unwichtig, auf die Arbeiten unseres Heidelberger soziolinguistischen Kollegen Klaus Mattheier hinzuweisen, der die Meinungsfreiheits- und Menschenrechtsdebatte durch einen Vergleich nationaler Gesetzestexte und den darin enthaltenen Schutzbestimmungen für Minderheiten und der im gleichen Land herrschenden Praxis der Behandlung, das heißt der Anwendung dieser Texte auf autochthone Minderheiten, überprüft hat. Mattheier gelangt zu der paradoxen Schlussfolgerung, dass in Ländern mit einem juristisch verfeinerten Minderheitenschutz in Verfassung und Gesetzgebung die ethnolinguistischen Minderheiten in vielen Fällen der Alltagspraxis besonders nachdrücklich diskriminiert und unterdrückt werden. Staaten wiederum, die ihren Minderheiten in der Praxis relativ viele Rechte zubilligen und kleine Gemeinschaften in zahlreichen Lebensbereichen schützen, stützen sich oft nur auf so etwas wie eine mündliche Überlieferung im Bereich des Sprachenrechts (Beispiel: Schweiz), Länder also, in denen statt verschriftlichter Schutzgesetze für die Sprachminderheiten eher orale Traditionen geltend gemacht werden. Die Moral aus dieser Erkenntnis? Man kann keineswegs immer davon ausgehen, dass gut formulierte Paragraphen eine Sicherheitsgarantie für das Überleben kleiner Sprachgruppen darstellen. Viel wesentlicher als die Frage des gesetzlich fixierten Schutzes von Minderheiten, also der legalen Möglichkeiten, das kulturell-sprachliche Überleben einer kleinen Sprachgemeinschaft durch eine - für den Fall des Hörfunks - großzügige Mediengesetzgebung zu regeln, scheint uns die Klärung der Frage - und davon hängen offensichtlich die Eingriffsmöglichkeiten des Staates durch schriftliche Vorgaben ab - welchem sprachpolitischen Denkkonzept die jeweiligen Dominanzsprachen zuzuordnen sind. Wenden wir uns einmal der europäischen Situation zu. Eine Konfliktanalyse sämtlicher europäischer Minderheiten {Euromoο

saic 1993-2004) hat ergeben , dass in Ländern mit einer zentralistischen Sprach- und Kulturpolitik (Beispiel: Frankreich) gesetzliche Schutzmassnahmen innerhalb der zentralistischen Verwaltungshierarchie von besonderer Bedeutung sind, um den Minderheiten einen Lebensraum zu garantieren. In Ländern mit einem föderalistischen Subsidiaritätsprinzip (Beispiel: Deutschland), wobei sprach- und kulturpolitische Entscheidungen auf der untersten Politikebene getroffen werden, sind die Funktionen des Zentralstaates - und somit dessen Eingriffsmöglichkeiten - deutlich einge-

36 Peter Η. Neide schränkt, so dass eine zentrale Gesetzgebung im Kulturbereich nur eine untergeordnete Rolle spielen kann. Europa befleißigt sich demnach im Sprach- und Kultursektor verschiedener Modelle und damit unterschiedlicher Geschwindigkeiten. Daraus ergibt sich folgerichtig die Feststellung, dass eine grenzüberschreitende europäische Vision, die allen Staaten und Volksgruppen gemein ist, bis heute fehlt. Auch fur die jüngste europäische Generation gilt, dass sie als nationalstaatlich zu identifizierende kleine Erdenbürger geboren, in der jeweiligen weltanschaulich nationalstaatsbezogenen Schule erzogen werden und trotz moderner nationaler Bildungssysteme nicht wissen, wie das zukünftige Europa aussehen wird und die deshalb schwerlich gemeinsame, für alle Europäer gültige Ideen entwickeln können. Heute ist es noch stets so, dass ein proeuropäischer junger Franzose, ausgestattet mit dem besten Willen, sich für Europa einzusetzen, dies in den Denkkategorien seines Landes und seines Bildungssystems tut. Frankreich ist - wie unserem jungen Franzosen in der Schule beigebracht wird - ein zentralistisch regiertes Land; also wird seine Europavision vom französischen Bildungssystem mit monokulturellen, nationalstaatlich determinierten Werten geprägt sein. Unser kleiner Franzose kann einen jungen Bayer aus Deutschland vom Denkansatz her kaum verstehen, der glaubt, Föderalismus sei die einzig sinnvolle Basis jeglicher Kulturpolitik. Offensichtlich haben wir es im Blick auf das deutsche und das französische Bildungssystem mit zwei unterschiedlichen Denkkonzepten zu tun. Das bedeutet im konkreten Einzelfall, wenn beispielsweise Entscheidungen in Bezug auf die Medien zu treffen sind, dass dann dafür in einem zentralistischen Staat eine detaillierte und starke Gesetzgebung unentbehrlich ist, da alle Entscheidungen von einer kulturpolitischen Hierarchie ausgehen, in der der zuständige Minister als Entscheidungshilfe gesamtstaatlich gültige Gesetze benötigt. In den Staaten, in denen sich jedoch - wie unser bayrisches Beispiel zeigt - eine Form des Föderalismus, das sogenannte Subsidiaritätsprinzip durchsetzt, kommen nicht alle Entscheidungen hierarchisch von oben, sondern dieses Prinzip bedeutet im kulturellen Bereich, dass die Entscheidungen möglichst auf der Kommunal- oder Regionalebene, das heißt möglichst auf einer unteren - in vielen Fällen auch auf einer privatrechtlichen - Ebene getroffen werden. Wir haben deshalb, als wir eine Untersuchung im Zusammenhang mit dem bereits erwähnten ersten sprachpolitischen Projekt der Europäischen Union - Euromosaic - zum Hörfunk und Fernsehen europäischer Minderheiten initiierten, sämtliche Regierungschefs Europas angeschrieben. Wir

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taten dies mit einem Brief, in dem wir die jeweiligen Kanzler oder Ministerpräsidenten um Auskunft baten, uns mitzuteilen, welchen Schutz sie den autochthonen Minderheiten ihres jeweiligen Landes angedeihen ließen, denn - wir Dir, Karsten, sicherlich bekannt ist, - verfügt außer Island und Portugal jedes europäische Land über größere und kleinere autochthone und allochthone Minderheiten. Aus Frankreich erhielten wir vom Kultusminister (!) postwendend eine hervorragend formulierte Antwort, der zu entnehmen war, dass Frankreich selbstverständlich seine Minderheiten schütze, vieles - vor allem im kulturell-folkloristischen Bereich - für sie täte und alles bisher dafür getan bzw. vorbereitet habe, um den sogenannten regionalen Sprachen und Kulturen, wie dort die autochthonen Minderheiten genannt werden, möglichst viele Rechte, jedoch weniger als der Staatssprache Französisch widerfahren zu lassen. Der gleiche Brief, geschickt an den damaligen Bundeskanzler Kohl, wurde nicht aus Bonn beantwortet. Anscheinend hat das Kanzleramt nicht gewusst, was es mit dieser Anfrage tun sollte. Da man sich offensichtlich nicht zuständig fühlte, wurde unsere Anfrage weitergeschickt und zwar gen Osten, wo offensichtlich der Umgang mit den neuen Bundesländern nach der Wiedervereinigung zu besonderer Vorsicht anmahnte. Der Brief landete in Dresden in Sachsen, weil man vermutlich von der Überlegung ausging, hier gäbe es noch eine autochthone Minderheit. Das Dresdener Kultusministerium hielt sich wohl auch nicht für befugt, dieses Schreiben zu beantworten, und so landete es schließlich in der „Hauptstadt Sorbiens", in der von einer Minderheit noch stets eine westslawische Sprache, das Sorbische, gesprochen wird. Ein Vertreter des sorbischen Kulturverbandes Domowina traf dann eine schnelle Entscheidung, rief in Brüssel in unserem Forschungszentrum an und erkundigte sich mit Unverständnis und zugleich Neugierde verratendem Unterton, „was man eigentlich von den Sorben wolle". 4 Dieses Beispiel aus dem französisch-deutschen Minderheitsalltag zeigt, wie unterschiedlich mit sprach- und kulturpolitischen Entscheidungen umgegangen wird. Während Paris sich auch für die Lothringer, die Bretonen, die nordwestfranzösischen Flamen und viele andere „Regionalsprachgebiete" zuständig fühlt, liegt die Verantwortung für die Sorben in Deutschland offensichtlich auf Länder-, Gemeinde- oder Verbandsebene, das heißt zum großen Teil bei der Minderheit selbst. Zentralismus und Subsidiarität sind zwei Geschwindigkeiten des unterschiedlichen kulturpolitischen Aufeinanderzuwachsens, die eine gemeinsame europäische kulturpolitische Vision erschweren, da Deutsche, Niederländer und Skandinavier - und

38 Peter Η. Neide neuerdings auch die Großbritannier - eine föderalistischere Betrachtungsweise entwickeln als Vertreter der der EU angeschlossenen Mittelmeerländer, in denen (z.B. Griechenland), ähnlich wie in Frankreich, zentralistische Konzepte vorherrschen. Und selbst in Ländern, die den Minderheiten starke Eigenrechte zubilligen - z.B. Spanien mit den Katalanen, Galiciern und Basken - besteht das ursprünglich zentralistische System zum Teil weiter, das heißt, wenn die Minderheiten sich im Gesamtstaat durchsetzen wollen, brauchen sie fallweise eine spezifische Gesetzgebung, die ihre jeweiligen Besonderheiten berücksichtigt. Gerade die wirtschaftlich erstarkten Katalanen sind ein gutes Beispiel dafür, dass alle sprach- und kulturpolitischen Sektoren gesetzlich regelbar sind und dies im Gegensatz zu den eher zurückhaltenden und unspezifischeren Regelungen nord- und mitteleuropäischer Länder. Diese, und im Gegensatz dazu die Mittelmeerländer mögen als Beispiel für die beiden Denkkonzepte und damit unterschiedlichen Geschwindigkeiten dienen, von denen eine noch zu entwickelnde, wahrhaft europäische Kulturdimension abhängen wird. Welche Auswirkungen haben derartige Konzepte auf die gegenwärtige Medienpolitik und was sind die sprach- und kulturpolitischen Voraussetzungen für eine erfolgreiche zukünftige Medienpolitik? Hierzu einige von der kontaktlinguistischen und soziologischen Minderheitenanalyse mosaic

Euro-

inspirierte Stichpunkte im Blick auf die kleineren autochthonen

Gemeinschaften Europas: Erstens: Medienpolitik sollte stets Teil einer Gesamtpolitik sein, das heißt also auch Teil der gesamtstaatlichen Sprach- und Kulturplanung. Deshalb kann eine Rundfunkpolitik nicht isoliert betrieben werden, sondern muss ein Teil der integralen Kulturstrategie einer Sprachgemeinschaft werden. Eine der entscheidenden Feststellungen bei der Analyse kleinerer Sprachgruppen ist die, dass der Erfolg und die Überlebenschancen einer Minderheit vom Sprachprestige der jeweiligen Minderheitssprache direkt wie indirekt abhängen. Damit steht das Sprachprestige im Mittelpunkt sprachplanerischer Überlegungen. Ohne eine Anhebung des Sprachprestiges ist selbst ein immenser Geldaufwand in Form von Fördermitteln für die Sprachgemeinschaft unergiebig; dagegen ist eine Förderung durch begleitende kulturpolitische Maßnahmen im Sinne einer Erhöhung des Sprachprestiges sicherlich der Mühe wert und lohnend. Zweitens: Ich hoffe, Minderheitspolitiker verstehen mich nicht falsch, wenn ich behaupte, Medienplanung allein auf der Basis folkloristisch mo-

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tivierter Kulturpolitik sei von vornherein zum Scheitern verurteilt. Mit einer gehörigen Portion Misstrauen sollten wir registrieren, dass Staatsmehrheiten - und das gilt vor allem für die großen Staaten Europas - mit folkloristischen Förderprogrammen und gelegentlichen Geldspritzen Minderheiten zu schützen vorgeben, ihnen die Freiheit einer eigenständigen Entwicklung versprechen, solange sich ihr Betätigungsfeld auf den Bereich der Folklore beschränkt. Gegen einen Tag des bretonischen Volkstanzes in Westfrankreich hat sich wohl noch nie ein Politiker der französischen Zentralmacht in Paris geäußert. Den Minderheitsvertretern ist sicherlich längst bekannt, wie ein solcher Tag abläuft: die überwiegend französierte, das heißt in den Alltagsdomänen das Französische bevorzugende Jugend trifft sich an einem schönen Sommertag auf den Dolmenhügeln der Bretagne, zieht die wunderschönen Trachten und historischen Kostüme an, reicht sich die Hände zum Volkstanzreigen, singt voll Idealismus und Begeisterung auf bretonisch, gegen Abend jedoch vertauscht man die Trachten mit den Jeans, geht in die Diskothek und spricht französisch wie zuvor. Sich nur auf die Folklore als minderheitserhaltendes Element zu stützen, ist sicherlich seitens der Sprach- und Kulturpolitik eine einseitige Fehlentscheidung. Einer der namhaftesten Minderheitssoziologen, Glyn Williams aus Bangor/Wallisien, äußert sich in besonders scharfen Argumenten gegen diese Blickverengung der Minderheitsförderung und geht so weit, zu behaupten, dass eine unidirektionale Förderung der Folklore ohne die Einbeziehung sozioökonomischer Regelungen zu einem schnelleren Rückgang der jeweiligen Sprachgemeinschaft führe. Stattdessen schlägt er sinnigerweise Begleitmaßnahmen im Werbe- und Medienbereich zur Hebung des Sprachprestiges vor, die, wie wir am Beispiel Wallisiens in den letzten Jahren beobachten können, bereits erste Erfolge zeitigen. Sicherlich sind derartige Maßnahmen am Anfang eines neuen Jahrhunderts, da alle europäischen Minderheiten - im Gegensatz zu den fünfziger Jahren des 20. Jahrhunderts - längst mehrsprachig geworden sind, viel wesentlicher und zugleich überlebenswichtig, weil ausschließlich volkskundlich ausgerichtete Fördermaßnahmen keine ausreichende Antwort auf die sozioökonomisch und psychologisch determinierten Gemengelagen von kleinen Sprachgemeinschaften bieten. Drittens: Medienplanung erfordert einen direkten Bezug zur Sprachwirklichkeit und Kulturwirklichkeit. Wo soll das Gehörte verwendet werden, wo gibt es einen Bezug zum ökonomisch bestimmten Alltag? Viele Minderheitssender, die erfolgreich sind, beziehen heute bereits die Werbung

40 Peter Η. Neide mit ein, betreiben Arbeitsvermittlung, sind konkret in ihren Aussagen zu den eigenen Überlebenschancen und haben den Mut, ihre kulturpolitische Differenzhaltung gegenüber den benachbarten Mehrheitssendern deutlich zu artikulieren. Deshalb ist es vonnöten, Konzepte zu vermitteln, die dem Europa der neunziger Jahre und der vorherrschenden Auffassung von moderner, interkultureller Mehrsprachigkeit entsprechen - ein Thema, das in der Schweiz zur Zeit intensiv behandelt wird und zwar aus ökonolinguistischer bzw. ökonomischer Sicht. Dazu gehört die nicht unwichtige Frage, ob sich das Einkommen im Falle der Beherrschung von zwei autochthonen Sprachen erhöhe (Beispiel: Rätoromanisch und Deutsch in der Schweiz), und in unserem Falle, wenn man Deutsch und Sorbisch meistern oder aber auch die gegenteilige Überlegung, ob mit der Mehrsprachigkeit eventuell finanzielle Nachteile verbunden sein könnten. Aus der Perspektive der Minderheiten in der Europäischen Union sollen nunmehr ein paar pragmatische Überlegungen in bezug auf eine künftige Sprach- und Kulturpolitik im komparatistischen Sinne angestellt werden. Im Blick auf die Sorben und Minderheiten vergleichbarer Größe und Bedeutung stellt sich die Frage, warum sich bei bestimmten Sprachgemeinschaften eine ausgesprochene Dynamik und Vitalität entwickelt, warum das bei anderen Gruppen nicht der Fall ist, warum bei manchen die Sprache als schrittmachender Prestigeträger auftritt, warum bei anderen nicht? Den üblichen ideologisch-politischen Ballast, mit dem wir im Minderheitsbereich so häufig konfrontiert werden, möchte ich jetzt gern einmal zur Seite schieben und mich der Minderheitenwirklichkeit zuwenden. Ich tue das am Beispiel der gegenwärtigen Sprachsituation der Europäischen Union: Schlagwörter wie Globalisierung bzw. Mondialisierung, Neoliberalismus, Internationalismus und vieles mehr sind uns allen mehr oder weniger vertraut. Im Falle der kleinen Sprachgemeinschaften werden die Folgen dieser seit einigen Jahren uns stets mehr in den Griff bekommenden Weltperspektiven zu einem praktischen Zweck „umfunktioniert": Es wird mit einer aus der Ökonomie abgeleiteten Folgerichtigkeit die Frage gestellt: wie kann man Kulturpolitik, ähnlich wie Wirtschafts- und Sozialpolitik, noch einfacher, noch billiger und trotzdem wirkungsvoller machen? Welche Aspekte gelten besonders für den Medienbereich? Werden wir in diesem Jahrzehnt der Weltöffnung nicht mit einer neuen Art von Mehrsprachigkeit konfrontiert? Diese sogenannte Neue Mehrsprachigkeit gibt sich in Europa dadurch zu erkennen, dass zum ersten Mal in der Geschichte der Menschheit ein Teil eines Kontinents - nämlich die Länder

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der Europäischen Union - sich entschließt, elf Sprachen als internationale Verständigungsmittel zu gebrauchen. Diese Sprachenhäufung hat es in der Geschichte der Menschheit bisher nicht gegeben, denn im Gegensatz zu allen früheren Situationen politikrelevanter Mehrsprachigkeit sind alle elf Sprachen zugleich Arbeits- und Amtssprachen. Dieser neuen Situation liegt ein Gleichheitspostulat aller beteiligten Staatssprachen zugrunde; doch dürfte nach wenigen Jahren bereits deutlich geworden sein, dass beispielsweise die Situation des Englischen in der Europäischen Union sich von der des Dänischen offensichtlich deutlich unterscheidet. Zu den elf Amts- und Arbeitssprachen in der Europäischen Union gesellen sich ungefähr 45 Minderheitssprachen, die unser multilinguales europäisches Schaufenster recht verwirrend und unübersichtlich gestalten. Aus den Größen- und Bedeutungsrelationen von Staatssprachen, die relativ wenig Sprecher haben (wie gerade das Dänische) ergibt sich, wenn diese Sprachen gleichzeitig als Amts- und Arbeitssprachen gefördert werden, dass logischerweise eine Minderheitssprache, die mehr Sprecher als die offiziellen Sprachen hat und ökonomisch mindestens so stark ist wie die Amtssprache Dänisch, geschützt werden muss. Ökonomisch und quantitativ starke Minderheiten, wie die Katalanen in Spanien, Italien und Frankreich oder die Schweden in Finnland und viele andere Gruppen, genießen zur Zeit zwar einen gewissen Schutz, sind aber den schwächeren Arbeitssprachen der EU (Dänisch, Portugiesisch) weit unterlegen und in ihrer Wirkung beschränkt. Das bedeutet, dass die Europäische Union offensichtlich bereit ist, diese Gruppen zu akzeptieren, auch wenn zur internationalen Verständigung und zur nationalen Kommunikation die Beherrschung der Minderheitssprachen kaum vonnöten ist. Wie in der Forschungsliteratur nachzulesen ist, ging man um die Mitte des vorigen Jahrhunderts noch davon aus, dass eine Minderheit durch Bilingualisierung — zu der minderheitssprachlichen Erstsprache gesellte sich im Rahmen des jeweiligen Bildungssystems die Zweitsprache als Mehrheits- und/oder Staatssprache - ihre Muttersprache verlöre, also Mehrsprachigkeit der Anfang vom Ende der eigenen Kultur- und Sprachentwicklung sei, eine Beobachtung, die man beispielsweise in präkontaktlinguistischen Arbeiten zu den Rätoromanen oder den Elsasslothringern antrifft. Nur die älteste Generation spräche noch die Minderheitssprache, die mittlere Generation sei zweisprachig und mit der jüngsten Generation verschwände die Muttersprache endgültig. 5 Inzwischen wissen wir, dass die meisten Minderheiten heute noch fast ebenso viele Sprecher oder sogar noch mehr zählen wie in den fünfziger Jahren des 20. Jahrhunderts, aber

42 Peter Η. Neide

dass sämtliche Minderheitsangehörige in den neunziger Jahren, bis auf ganz wenige Ausnahmen, zweisprachig geworden sind, ohne dass die jeweilige Sprache gefährdeter ist als in der Vergangenheit. Die Sorben sind hierfür ein gutes Beispiel vor allem, indem an ihnen deutlich wird, dass es methodologisch unergiebig ist, den Sprachentod linear vorauszusagen. Die Neuorientierung im Mehrsprachigkeitsbereich hat sich allerdings nicht nur bei Minderheiten durchgesetzt, sondern hat auch deutliche Folgen für die Mehrheiten. So fallt dem aufmerksamen Sprachpolitiker aus Brüsseler Sicht auf, dass die Macht der jeweiligen Einzelstaaten in den letzten Jahren erheblich reduziert wurde, was seine Ursache darin hat, dass zahlreiche Befugnisse der Nationalstaaten nach „Brüssel" transferiert wurden und „Brüssel" die gesetzgeberische Initiative mit der Folge an sich reißt, dass auch die großen Staaten in ihrer Machtausübung eingeschränkt werden. Gleichzeitig entwickelt sich in Europa zu dieser Machtreduzierung jedoch auch ein gegenläufiges Konzept. Während man einerseits dazu neigt, immer größere staatliche Zusammenhänge zu sehen und größere Dachverbände zu gründen - auch im Blick auf die Erweiterung der Europäischen Union im Mai 2004 nach Osten - betont man andererseits auf den unteren Ebenen stets mehr die jeweilige lokale bzw. regionale Identität. So könnte man heute in Europa von einer Mehrfach- oder Multiidentität sprechen, das heißt: j e nachdem unter welchem gemeinschaftspolitischen Aspekt sich beispielsweise Mitglieder der sorbischen Minderheit darstellen möchten, könnten sie sich als Bautzener, als Sorbe, als Obersorbe, als Sachse, als Ostdeutscher (oder als Mitteldeutscher?), als Deutscher schlechthin oder auch als Europäer bezeichnen. Wenn ein Sorbe sich zur Vermeidung von Missverständnissen in Japan als Europäer vorstellt, so wird er dort wohl durchaus ernst genommen; wenn er sich dagegen in Dresden als Europäer vorstellen würde, so klänge das im Jahre 2004 eher komisch. Multiidentität wird also zu einer kontextuellen und situativ bestimmten Identität. 6 Auf der anderen Seite bestimmen Wirtschaftsräume - und damit länderübergreifende Zusammenschlüsse - die Entwicklung der neunziger Jahre: Kanada, die USA und Mexico schließen sich zur NAFTA, die Staaten der Europäischen Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft zur Europäischen Union zusammen. Von Siegermächten der Weltkriege zusammengewürfelte, das heißt nicht organisch gewachsene Vielvölkerstaaten, fallen wieder auseinander und bilden Regionalstaaten mit stark betontem Nationalcharakter, indem sie die Sprachgrenze zur Staatsgrenze ausrufen - die ExTschechoslowakei, Ex-Jugoslawien, die baltischen Staaten und Moldawien

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liefern dafür überzeugende Beispiele. Alles das prägt die Neue Mehrsprachigkeit und verleiht auch dem kulturellen Europa ein neues Antlitz. Allerdings sollten neue Formen der Mehrsprachigkeit nicht den Blick für eine europäische - historisch gewachsene - individuelle Mehrsprachigkeit verschließen, die bis ins neunzehnte Jahrhundert trotz beschränkter Transportmittel und eingeschränkter Wirtschaftsbeziehungen die Kommunikation zwischen Dominierenden und Dominierten ermöglichte. So hat der Salzburger Professor für Mehrsprachigkeit, Hans Goebl, bei der Überprüfung der Sprachkenntnisse aller siebzehn Kaiser des Heiligen Römischen Reiches Deutscher Nation festgestellt, welche Sprachen die abendländischen Regierungshäupter aktiv wie passiv beherrschten. 7 Der am wenigsten „sprachbegabte" Kaiser sprach drei Sprachen. Der „sprachbegabteste" Kaiser drückte sich in neun verschiedenen Idiomen aus. Wenn man dessen Sprachkenntnisse mit denen der Herren Bush, Chirac, Blair und Schröder vergleicht, dann ist es ein leichtes, festzustellen, dass unsere Regierenden, die weltpolitisch nach der Jahrtausendwende den Ton angeben, sprachpolitisch nicht ausreichende Kompetenz besitzen, im Sinne der Neuen Mehrsprachigkeit und der erhöhten Anforderungen im Globalisierungszeitalter nicht wirklich kommunikationsfahig sind, da sie überwiegend als einsprachig bezeichnet werden können. Gibt es demnach im gegenwärtigen Zeitalter der grenzüberschreitenden Verbindungen und Zusammenschlüsse überzeugende Argumente für eine Neue Mehrsprachigkeit? Zumindest die europäische Jugend hat bereits entdeckt, dass die Neue Mehrsprachigkeit sich bezahlt macht. Mit der Beherrschung mehrerer Sprachen, mit tieferen Einblicken in Kulturen steigen auch die Verdienstmöglichkeiten, wie wir bereits angedeutet und wie Grin und Vaillancourt überzeugend nachgewiesen haben - bei der Jugend ein schlagendes und damit besseres Argument als die rein kulturell motivierte und volkskundlich ausgerichtete Rechtfertigung von Multikulturalität und Mehrsprachigkeit. Hierzu, lieber Karsten, hierzu eine persönliche Bemerkung: Mein Lieblingsbild in der abendländischen Malerei ist der Turmbau von Babel des flämischen Malers Pieter Breughel. An diesen unvollendeten Turmbau erinnert mich die Sprachsituation in Brüssel, jedoch mit dem Unterschied, dass selbst Breughel nicht von so vielen Sprachkombinationen (zur Zeit 110) geträumt hat, wie sie in der gegenwärtigen Brüsseler Praxis vorkommen. Hätte er sonst zur „Konfliktdarstellung" einen unvollendeten Turmbau gemalt, bei dessen Ausgestaltung die Zahl der Fensteröffnungen (Dolmetschkabinen?) allerdings deutlich hätte erhöht werden müssen, um der Neuen Mehrsprachigkeit in Europa gerecht zu werden?

44 Peter Η. Neide Eine derartige sprachliche Vielfalt führt zu Konflikten innerhalb der Europäischen Union und determiniert in besonderem Maße die Neue Mehrsprachigkeit. Diese Konflikte werden in der Kontaktlinguistik in jüngster Zeit unter dem Gesichtspunkt künstlich erzeugter und natürlich gewachsener Konflikte diskutiert und unterschieden. Demnach muss die Union die Probleme lösen, die sie selbst geschaffen hat (künstliche Konflikte). Viele dieser Konflikte sind „handgestrickt und hausgemacht". Wenn man heute in Brüssel fast viertausend Spezialisten (Dolmetscher und Übersetzer) benötigt, um unter europolitischem Aspekt adäquat miteinander kommunizieren zu können, dann liegt hierin bereits ein immanenter, in der EU erzeugter Sprachkonflikt. Zudem erheischen in gewissen Fällen auch die Minderheitssprachen von Brüssel Sonderrechte. Traditionelle und gewachsene Kommunikationsprobleme zwischen Mehrheiten und Minderheiten gehören zu den natürlichen Konflikten, und diese natürlichen Konflikte sind so unterschiedlich wie die Minderheiten, mit denen die Sprachpolitiker sich auseinander zu setzen haben. Da man Minderheiten, aber auch deren Konflikte nicht ohne weiteres miteinander vergleichen kann, muss in jedem Einzelfall die Spezifizität einer jeden Sprachgemeinschaft berücksichtigt werden. So gibt es Minderheiten, die leugnen, dass sie überhaupt in Konflikte involviert sind; es gehört wohl zum demokratischen Lebensstil und eventuell auch zu einem besonderen Harmoniebedürfnis der Skandinavier, um Konflikte eher herunterzuspielen und sie nicht etwa spontan auszutragen, wie es häufig in mediterranen Gemeinschaften geschieht, wobei es sich in Nordeuropa manchmal um subkutane, das heißt „unter die Haut gehende" Konflikte handelt, die nicht öffentlich diskutiert werden. Wäre es nicht sinnvoller, Konflikte nicht unbedingt als einen ausschließlich negativen Begriff zu konnotieren, da ein Konflikt doch durchaus etwas Positives in sich tragen kann, weil beispielsweise aus einem Konflikt wieder eine neue Situation entstehen kann? Das Leugnen oder Unterdrücken eines Konflikts ist dabei wenig hilfreich. Denken wir auch an die zahlreichen sprachlich bedingten Konflikte im Kontakt der Minderheitssprachen mit den Staatssprachen. So unterscheidet man zum Beispiel in Westfriesland, in den Niederlanden, das Stadtfriesische vom Landfriesischen. Mit Stadtfriesisch kennzeichnet man ein weitgehend niederlandisiertes Friesisch, also ein vom Standardniederländischen - der Mehrheitsund Staatssprache - überlagertes Friesisch, das „semilinguale" Mischformen und die für viele Minderheiten charakteristische Eins zu EinsÜbersetzung aufweist. Das gilt selbst für starke Sprachgemeinschaften wie

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die der Katalanen. Katalanische Sätze können - oft Wort für Wort - ins Spanische übersetzt werden und umgekehrt. Schwerer dürfte es sein, einen spanischen bzw. katalanischen Satz ins Mic Mac zu übertragen. Es gehört schon eine gehörige Portion Phantasie dazu, sich vorzustellen, dass ein solcher Translationsvorgang etwa mit mehreren Sätzen oder aber auch nur mit einem einzigen Wort möglich wäre - ein Problem, das selbstverständlich auch außersprachliche Aspekte hat (nationale Terminologien, Standardisierung). Die deutschsprachigen Belgier haben Probleme mit der deutschbelgischen Rechtsterminologie, weil sich im Königreich Belgien historisch bedingt - eine eigene, französisch geprägte Rechtsform entwickelt hat, die weder in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland noch in Österreich oder in der Schweiz eine Entsprechung hat. Ein überzeugendes Beispiel liefern hierzu übrigens die Iren, bei denen die Eins zu Eins-Übersetzungen so sehr zu einem Problem geworden sind, dass man sich des Eindrucks nicht erwehren kann, dass die Syntax des Englischen wörtlich - wie im Falle des charakteristischen question tag („isn't it?") - übernommen wird und zwar mit dem wenig erfreulichen Ergebnis, dass die Erstsprachensprecher des Irischen ihre eigenen Landsleute aus Dublin, die Irisch als Zweitsprache erlernen, nicht mehr ohne weiteres verstehen. Hier tut sich eine Kommunikationskluft auf, die - um in unserer komparatistischen Bildsprache zu bleiben - uns größer erscheint als der Verständigungssprung vom Standardtschechischen zum Obersorbischen. Kann man die aus diesen Kommunikationsproblemen resultierenden Konflikte vermeiden? Sind sprachlich bedingte Probleme leichter zu lösen als außersprachliche? Vergleiche der europäischen Minderheitenpolitiken zeigen, dass trotz unterschiedlicher Ausgangslage gewisse Konfliktbewältigungsstrategien Erfolge verbuchen konnten. So geben in den neunziger Jahren Konzepte in der Art der positiven Diskriminierung - der amerikanischen affirmative action nachempfunden - Anlass zu vorsichtigem Optimismus. Ein Beispiel: die Brüsseler flämische Minderheit, deren Größe, abhängig von den unterschiedlichen Kriterien und Vorbedingungen einer kontaktlinguistischen Stichprobenerhebung, zwischen 10 und 35% umfasst, hat dank eines positiven Diskriminierungsmodells auf der Basis des Territorialitätsprinzips drei einsprachige Domänen durchgesetzt und zwar in Gestalt des sogenannten Betriebssprachengesetzes, der gesetzlichen Regelung in Verwaltungsangelegenheiten und der Trennung der Bildungssysteme, die zu einem eigenen Schul- und Universitätssystem der Minderheit führte, das sich vom Mehrheitssystem beispielsweise durch kleinere Klassen, unterschiedliche Unterrichtsfächer und eigene Lehrpläne auszeichnet.

46 Peter Η. Neide Das minderheitliche Bildungssystem im mehrsprachigen Brüssel hat sich inzwischen einen ausgezeichneten Ruf erworben und gilt europaweit als beispielhaft: eine Anregung für andere Sprachgemeinschaften, dem eigenen Nachwuchs größere Bildungschancen in einer minoritären Situation zu bieten als in der Vergangenheit, das heißt den Versuch zu unternehmen, die quantitativ bedingten und sozioökonomisch motivierten Nachteile der dominierten Gruppe durch einen qualitativ hohen und ausbildungsfördernden Sonderweg auszugleichen. Die wesentlichen und auf eine größere Vitalität und Dynamik abzielenden Ausführungen zu meinen kontaktlinguistischen Überlegungen möchte ich zusammenfassen und einige Erfahrungswerte aus der Medienpraxis der europäischen Minderheitssprachen nunmehr auf den Hörfunk anwenden. Mein erster Punkt ergab sich aus der defensiven Frustrationshaltung von Minderheitssprechern, die sich in den Medien, besonders im Hörfunk, widerspiegelt. Meine kontaktlinguistische Argumentation zielte auf eine unzweideutige Erhöhung des Sprachprestiges ab, um die negativen Folgen einer psychologisch bedingten Abwehr- und Verteidigungshaltung abzufedern und durch ein höheres Wertbewusstsein bezüglich der eigenen Sprache und Kultur statt frustrationsbedingter Spannungen und unterbewusster Assimilationsversuche Normalität und Gleichwertigkeit im Umgang mit der Mehrheitsbevölkerung anzustreben. Für den Hörfunk im besonderen könnte das bedeuten, dass Sendungen für eingeschränkte Zielgruppen („Sendung für die Hausfrau"), Sendungen zu ungünstigen Zeiten, oder Sendungen, die nur mit besonderem technischen Aufwand zu empfangen sind, nicht den Bedürfnissen einer selbstbewussten und längst nicht mehr um Anerkennung ringenden Minorität entsprechen. Zu viele Themenstellungen sind auf rurale Minderheitsangehörige zugeschnitten - die Dorfbewohner als eigentliche Zielgruppe - oder auf Kirchgänger und/oder Senioren und stellen sich somit häufig als rückwärtsgewandt, konservativ, wenig experimentierfreudig und damit als unflexibel und zu statisch heraus. Wenn wir uns also freiwillig auf Nebenschauplätze des modernen Lebens beschränken, dann gibt es keinen Ausweg, die kleine Gruppe der Dominierten j e zu verlassen, die sich unter ständigem Sozialdruck befinden und durch deren Verhalten der Begriff „Minderheit" eine negative Konnotation erhält. Dadurch wird die beschriebene Defensivhaltung, die wir im Sinne einer Neuen Mehrsprachigkeit verlassen sollten, sicherlich noch verstärkt. Deshalb scheint mir der Versuch einer Prestigeerhöhung der Minderheitssprache in all diesen Fällen sinnvoll.

Indianer und andere Minderheiten

47

Zweitens halte ich es für erforderlich, und habe aus diesem Grunde das Beispiel der Mic Mac-Indianer zitieren dürfen, die Themendomänen großzügig zu erweitern. So hat sich bei recht selbstbewusst auftretenden Minderheiten (so bei den Wallisern und Iren) gezeigt, dass Werbung im Hörund Fernsehfunk dem für die Zukunft der Minderheit unverzichtbaren Mittelstand (jedenfalls im Falle Großbritanniens und Irlands) an vielen Orten Auftrieb und Einkommenszuwachs beschert hat; in der Werbepraxis richten sich die Medien intensiv an die kleineren und mittleren Unternehmen - offensichtlich bisher mit zunehmendem Erfolg. Unter Einsatz modernster Infomedien verlassen die Sendeverantwortlichen immer häufiger die Welt des Vergangenen, der Erinnerung, der Folklore und ergänzen die ursprüngliche Thematik um zeitgemäße Beiträge, die Minderheitsangehörige in allen Lebensbereichen in die Problematik moderner Gesellschaftsformen mit einbeziehen, wozu selbstverständlich auch die Themen der Mehrheit gehören. Wir erinnern uns, um den 600 Indianern ein erfolgreiches Programm zu ermöglichen, musste auch das Umfeld der ca. 6000 Anderssprachigen und deren Interessen läge berücksichtigt werden - eine minderheits-grenzüberschreitende Aktualität ist die Folge eines solchen vielversprechenden Konzepts. Drittens plädierte ich für die Einbettung der Medienpolitik in die allgemeine Sprachenpolitik. Rundfunkhörer benötigen weitere Referenzpunkte, das Radio allein reicht nicht aus. Also sollte der Rundfunk nicht isoliert dastehen, Printmedien sollten den Hörfunk fallweise ergänzen. Unsere Indianer arbeiten längst mit e-mail und Internet-Anschluss, neuen Errungenschaften der Infolandschaft, die sich beispielsweise in Sorbien anscheinend noch nicht überall durchgesetzt haben. Dazu gesellt sich bei unseren Indianern Originelles und Innovatives: dem Einfallsreichtum sind keine Grenzen gesetzt und man ist der Mehrheit stets einen Schritt voraus. Ob dass den erwähnten swop shop, den Straßenverkauf vor der Haustür oder gesponserte Lotteriespiele mit Sondergewinnen für die Chancenarmen betrifft - nicht das Niveau ist ausschlaggebend, sondern der praktische Nutzen für die Gemeinschaft. Um die Attraktivität auch für die anderssprachige Mehrheit, für „Abtrünnige", für „Mischehen" und Zugereiste zu erhöhen, die sich erfahrungsgemäß gegenüber wenig privilegierten Kleinstsprachensprechern zurückhaltend, ja abwehrend verhalten, kann ein solches Hörfunkprogramm nur als ein auf die Wünsche der Hörer abgestimmtes und ihren spezifischen Erwartungen entsprechendes Vollprogramm mit hohem Unterhaltungs- und Freizeitwert in konstruktiver Kooperation mit der Mehrheit ausgebaut werden.

48 Peter Η. Neide

In einem vierten Punkt versuchte ich, die finanziell-ökonomischen Vorteile der Neuen Mehrsprachigkeit einschließlich der Minderheitssprachenbeherrschung als einen konkreten Zugewinn in Form höherer Einkommen darzustellen, ein Mehrverdienst, der laut der zitierten Schweizer Untersuchung zwischen 7% und 15% Gehaltszuwachs umfassen kann. Ich habe darauf hingewiesen, dass es für die Jugend viel wichtiger ist zu wissen, dass Mehrsprachigkeit sich bezahlt macht, als dass sie angehalten wird, den Blick ausschließlich in die Vergangenheit, auf die Pflege von überlieferten Sitten und Gebräuchen zu richten. Eine solche Sichtweise erscheint erst, eingebettet in einem Gesamtzusammenhang der Minderheitenförderung, sinnvoll. Zudem hat die Förderung von Mehrsprachigkeit in Minderheitsgebieten auch eindeutig sozioökonomische Aspekte, wie das Beispiel Ostfrankreichs zeigt. Das jüngste Mercedes-Werk für den Kleinstwagen Smart wurde nicht beim deutschen Stammhaus in Stuttgart gebaut und auch nicht - unter eventueller Ausnutzung der Vorteile des Globalisierungseffektes - in einem entlegenen Schwellenland. Globalisierung bedeutete vielmehr für Daimler-Chrysler der Grenzübertritt nach Lothringen, wo die deutsche Sprache in den meisten Alltagsdomänen, zumindest bei der Jugend, auf dem Rückzug ist. Das Prestige des Deutschen als Minderheitssprache könnte, und dies scheint mir eine gerechtfertigte Erwartung, unter dem Investierungsaspekt zunehmen; das wäre erstaunlich im Nachbarland des früheren „Erzfeindes", in dem nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg Deutsch nur noch als Dialekt vegetieren durfte. Ist so eine Revitalisierung des Deutschen über den Arbeitsmarkt zu erwarten? Dieses ökonomische Argument der Neuen Mehrsprachigkeit gilt, das muss einschränkend hier hinzugefugt werden, allerdings in ganz besonderem Maße für die großen Sprachen und sehr viel weniger für isolierte Minderheiten, für die weltökonomische Aspekte eine eingeschränktere Bedeutung haben. Eine ökonolinguistische Argumentation hat bei einer unserer Untersuchungen in Ungarn, bei der die hier aufgeführten Forschungsergebnisse berücksichtigt wurden, gezeigt, dass in einem Kontext, in dem die Minderheiten mithilfe der Medien intensiv angesprochen werden und zwar ganz im Sinne einer positiven Diskriminierung, bei der die spezifischen Stärken der Minderheit mit Unterstützung der Mehrheit trotz zahlenmäßiger Unterlegenheit ausgebaut und gefördert werden, unter den Minderheitsangehörigen die „besseren" Staatsbürger zu finden sind, nämlich diejenigen, die sich aktiv um Staatsämter bewerben, politisch aktiv am Staatsgeschehen partizipieren, damit im Sinne des Staates die „besseren" Ungarn sind, weil konstruktiv eingestellte Bürger das soziokulturelle Gemeinschaftsleben

Indianer und andere Minderheiten 49

bereichern, statt defaitistischer Passivität oder gar subversiven Tätigkeiten anheim zu fallen, nicht mit staatlichen Verbotsmaßnahmen belästigt oder ο als Bürger zweiter Klasse behandelt zu werden. Wenden wir uns den Sorben zu und versuchen auch hier, ein paar nicht übermäßig ernst gemeinte Anregungen aus dem Gesagten abzuleiten. Du und ich, wir wissen, dass es auf der Welt keine besseren Gurken gibt als die Spreewaldgurken der Niedersorben, aber erhebt sich hier nicht die verkaufsanregende Frage: Darf es denn nicht ein bisschen mehr sein? Welche Produkte verdienen es, mit einem sorbischen Image den Markt zu erobern? Gibt es keinen Rahmen, in dem der Vertrieb kulinarischer Erzeugnisse sozusagen „gesamtsorbisch" organisiert werden kann? Die Bekämpfung der Umweltverschmutzung und die mit dem Abbau der Braunkohle verbundenen Migrationsbewegungen, die hieraus resultierende Arbeitslosigkeit und der damit wiederum korrespondierende Sprach- und Kulturverlust bis hin zur Vermarktung, Werbung und zum Vertrieb bodenständiger exzellenter Produkte bedürfen einer Gesamtkonzeption, die - nach dem Vorbild von Katalanen und Wallisern - eine sorbische Initiative gesamtgesellschaftlich sinnvoll und sprach- und kulturpolitisch wirksam erscheinen lassen, das heißt, dass meiner Überzeugung nach das Sorbische über noch ungenutzte Reserven in den verschiedensten Domänen verfügt. So könnten beispielsweise im wirtschaftlichen Bereich noch Nischen zu entdecken sein, die es verdienen, erfolgreich vermarktet zu werden. Weiterhin: Ob es sich um Gerichtsprozesse oder irgendwelche kriminellen Delikte handelt, ob es um Werbekampagnen für Produkte oder Veranstaltungen geht, die mit der Verteilung von Autoaufklebern und Handzetteln einhergehen, ob man Preisspiele oder Lotterien mit originellen Gewinnen organisiert, ob es sich um Live-Berichte aus modernen Unternehmen, Kursdokumentationen aus dem Bildungssystem oder gar Berichte über den sogenannten sorbischen Heiratsmarkt - falls es den je gegeben hat - handelt oder aber um jugendorientierte Sendungen, in denen neben Sorbisch wahrscheinlich auch Deutsch gebraucht werden muss - in allen diesen Fällen würde die Neugierde der Hörerinnen und Hörer vermutlich geweckt und ihre potenzielle Bereitschaft, als Gruppenmitglied der sorbischen Minderheit interaktiv sich zu beteiligen, erhöht. Berichte aus anderen Ländern werden bereits intensiv in den wenigen sorbischen Sendestunden von MDR und ORB (dem für die Obersorben „zuständigen" Mitteldeutschen Rundfunk, Studio Bautzen, und dem fur die Niedersorben „zuständigen" Rundfunk BerlinBrandenburg, Studio Cottbus; letzteres seit 2003 unter dem Kürzel RBB) gesendet, das Kulturspektrum anderer Minderheiten dagegen bedarf noch

50 Peter Η. Neide

der besonderen Aufmerksamkeit der Hörfunkverantwortlichen - also Sprachpolitik auf dem Hintergrund eines Vollprogramms mit täglichen Sendungen rund um die Uhr: das entspräche einer erfolgversprechenden Öffnung in Richtung „Neue Mehrsprachigkeit". So würde auch unserer Beobachtung Rechnung getragen, dass mehrsprachige Gemeinschaften, die sich im Informationsbereich frei ausleben können, zusätzliche Vorteile haben und den Minderheiten das Gefühl vermittelt wird, mit ihren Konflikten und Problemen nicht allein gelassen zu werden. Von den 375 Millionen Einwohnern der Europäischen Union gehören heute schätzungsweise zwischen 40 und 60 Millionen Europäer vergleichbaren autochthonen Minderheitensprachgemeinschaften an. Ihre Zahl ist erstaunlich groß, denn diese quantitative Aussage bedeutet, dass jeder vierte oder fünfte Europäer innerhalb der Union Mitglied einer der kleinen Sprachgemeinschaften ist. Mit diesem Argument verlieren einige ethnolinguistische Gruppen viel von ihrer bisherigen Marginalisierung und ordnen sich einer Gesamtgruppe zu, die zahlenmäßig und bedeutungsmäßig in Zukunft nicht mehr von der Politik übersehen werden kann, jedoch bislang wenig Kooperationsbereitschaft in den hier angesprochenen Domänen zeigte. Um unsere Anregungen fortzusetzen: Sollte man das gesamte Minderheitsgebiet nicht konsequent zweisprachig beschriften, in Werbesendungen verdeutlichen, in welchen Geschäften man zweisprachig bedient wird? Und weiterhin: Wo gibt es Amter und lokale Dienste, die sich mit Vergnügen des Sorbischen befleißigen, welche Ärzte, Anwälte und Firmen freuen sich auf sorbische Patienten und Kunden? Anregungen gäbe es noch viele. Einem derartigen Revitalisierungs- und Dynamisierungsprozess, in dem dem Hörfunk innerhalb des Gesamtmedienbereiches eine gesamtgesellschaftlich konzipierte Schlüsselrolle zukommt, müsste sicherlich ein gruppenpsychologischer Wandel vorausgehen, um ein neues gemeinschaftspolitisches Bewusstsein im Sinne einer zeitgemäßen Sprach- und Kulturpolitik zu erzeugen. Ich habe versucht, zu verdeutlichen, dass eine Anpassung an die Bedingungen einer Neuen Mehrsprachigkeit Voraussetzung für ein medienpolitisches - und damit zugleich gemeinschaftspolitisches - Überleben einer kleinen Sprachgemeinschaft im kommenden Jahrhundert ist. Eine solche sprachplanerisch unterbaute Medienminderheitskultur eröffnet neue Wege in die Zukunft einer Sprachgemeinschaft, deren Minderheitssprecher die psychologische Schutzhülle, gespickt mit defensiven Strategien und begleitet von Frustrationen und unterschiedlichsten Komplexen, bereit sind, zu verlassen. Zahlreiche Minderheiten haben die-

Indianer und andere Minderheiten 51 sen Schritt bereits getan und damit ihre Überlebenschancen erhöht. So fällt bei den immer wieder zitierten Katalanen, Ladinern und schwedischsprachigen Finnen das ausgeprägte Selbstbewusstsein ins Auge, auf Grund dessen diese Minderheiten ihre sprach- und kulturpolitisch gewollte Teilnahme an der Neuen Mehrsprachigkeit und deren Ausgestaltung als Vorteil, j a und häufig sogar als Überlegenheit gegenüber den einsprachigen Staatsmehrheiten empfinden. Für eine Neue Mehrsprachigkeit und damit für ein neues Kulturbewusstsein einzutreten, deren Protagonisten ihr zunehmendes Selbstbewusstsein aus der Fähigkeit schöpfen, friedliche, grenzüberschreitende und kulturverbindende Brücken zu Umgebungssprachen wie zu ähnlich gelagerten Minderheitssprachen zu bauen, trägt zu einem stärkeren Zusammengehörigkeitsgefühl der zahlreichen ethnolinguistischen Gruppen Europas bei. Eine zukünftige Sprachpolitik von und für Minderheiten sollte die von uns abgelehnte, rückwärtsgewandte, defensive, psychologisch häufig als nachteilige Flüsterkultur beschriebene Einstellung ersetzen durch ein gewandeltes Selbstverständnis, das vom sozioökonomischen Eigenwert und der interkulturell bestimmten Mehrsprachigkeit der eigenen Gruppe in enger Kooperation mit der Mehrheit geprägt wird, wie es bereits bei anderen Minderheiten in Europa zu beobachten ist. Ich bin überzeugt, dass die Medien in einem solchen holistischen Konzept eine Schlüsselrolle für die zukünftige Sprach- und Kulturpolitik Europas spielen werden. Ich fürchte allerdings, dass sich auch den Sorben, wie so vielen Minderheiten, in der Perspektive eines auf Erweiterung bedachten Europas wohl nicht mehr allzu oft ausreichende Gelegenheiten bieten werden, sich neben der stets Assimilation erheischenden Mehrheit mit eigenen Initiativen und Gemeinschaftsprojekten zu behaupten. Deshalb sollte jede Möglichkeit, mit Anregungen von innen und von außen die Überlebenschancen zu erhöhen, genutzt werden. Du, Karsten, gehörst zu den Kontaktlinguisten, denen - hier nur am Einzelfall dargestellter Konfliktsituation - die Notwendigkeit minoritologische Konzepte nicht allein in Europa, sondern weltweit vor Augen stehen. Für kleine Sprachgemeinschaften könnten sich Revitalisierungs- und Konfliktvermeidungsbemühungen als unverzichtbare Bestandteile eines universellen Denkansatzes zum Friedenserhalt erweisen.

52 Peter Η. Neide

Anmerkungen 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Neide, P. 1999: 33. Ebd. Euromosaic I 1995, II 2000, III 2004. Neide (2003a: 21). Neide (2003b: 22). Ebd., 26. Goebl (1999: 42). Vgl. Neide, P., S. Vandermeeren und W. Wölck (1991).

Bibliographie Bourdieu, Pierre 1982 Ce que parier veut dire: l 'economie des echanges linguistiques. Paris: Fayard. Goebl, Hans, Peter Hans Neide, Zdenek Stary und Wolfgang Wölck 1995/96 Kontaktlinguistik. 2 Bde., Berlin und New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Goebl, Hans 1999 II n'y a rien de nouveau sous le soleil. In: Weber, P. (Hrsg.), Contact + Confli(c)t. Plurilingua XXI, 2 9 ^ 5 . Grin, Francois und F r a n c i s Vaillancourt Im Druck The Economics of Multilingualism. Neide, Peter Hans 2003a Les minorites et le nouveau plurilinguisme. In: Bochmann, Κ.., P. Neide und W. Wölck (Hrsg.), Methodologie de la linguistique de conflit. Plurilingua XXIV, St. Augustin, 13-28. 2003b Mehrsprachigkeit in Europa - Überlegungen zu einer neuen Sprachpolitik. In: Begegnungen, Crossroads, 21-38. Budapest. Neide, Peter Hans, Sonja Vandermeeren und Wolfgang Wölck 1991 Interkulturelle Mehrsprachigkeit. Plurilingua XI, St. Augustin. Neide, Peter Hans, Miquel Strubell und Glyn Williams 1995 Euromosaic I - Die Produktion und Reproduktion von Minderheiten-Sprachgemeinschaften in der Europäischen Union. Luxemburg. 2000 Euromosaic II (unveröffentlichtes Manuskript).

Setswana: An under-exploited national resource? Herman M. Batibo

1.

Introduction

Botswana, like most other countries in Africa, is both multilingual and multicultural in that it has more than 25 languages spoken within its borders. However, like several other African countries, it has a language which has developed into an incontestable lingua franca and national medium, namely Setswana. Setswana, which is now spoken by about 1.1 million people 1 , or 78.6% of the country's population, as an ethnic mother tongue and by, at least, another 10% as a second language (making up about 90% of the entire population), has dominated the area since the arrival of the Setswana speaking people in what is now Botswana, more than 500 years ago (Andersson and Janson 1997: 22). The Batswana , as the original speakers of Setswana are known, have dominated the other groups in the area, both linguistically and socio-economically, since their spread in these parts of southern Africa, forcing them to be absorbed into Setswana language and culture or to be bilingual (Gadibolae 1993; Janson 2000) 3 .

2.

The rise of Setswana as a national language

When Botswana obtained its independence in 1966, Setswana became the incontestable candidate to assume the role of the national language and the symbol of nationhood. The contributing factors included its long standing lingua franca role serving as an inter-ethnic medium, its history of superiority over the other languages, the demographic and socio-economic predominance of its speakers, and its long association with semi-official functions, particularly in the traditional administration and customary settings as well as during the British indirect rule system. It was therefore designated the country's national language, while English, which had served as

54 Herman Μ

Batibo

the official language during the colonial era, was re-allocated that official role (Department of Information 1985). However, unlike the well-established languages such as Kiswahili or Amharic, Setswana was not a standardised language. Although it had an official orthography based on Setlhaping (a Southern dialect), the orthography had not been widely popularised at the time of independence as it was used mainly by missionaries. Moreover, there was no any standard oral mode given the semi-autonomous nature of the various Batswana groups (Janson and Tsonope 1991: 81). There were three main dialectal clusters: The southern dialect (comprising Sengwaketse, Serolong, Setlhare and Setlhaping), the northern dialect (comprising Sengwato, Setawana and part of Sekwena) and the eastern dialect cluster (comprising Sekgatla, Setlokwa, Selete and the eastern part of Sekwena) (Batibo 1998b). There was a remarkable variation in the way Setswana was used in the Radio or the other public places. The spelling and word division styles also differed with individuals. Moreover, there were no standard reference grammar books or dictionaries to which the public could refer to for a unified use of the language. 4 It is rather surprising that Setswana had not come up with a standard form, given that it was one of the first indigenous languages, south of the Sahara, to have an orthography and other descriptive material. The first Setswana orthography by Robert Moffat was already published in 1826.5 Nevertheless, a standard form of Setswana has evolved relatively recently, based in Gaborone, the capital city's variety. This variety is popularly known as 'proper Setswana' (Janson and Tsonope 1991: 100). This form is based on the written mode and includes modern terms, mainly from borrowing and popular derivations. The newly created standard variety is regularly used on the radio, in newspapers and the major towns, particularly by the younger generations. This popular variety is gradually forming a linguistic norm. Unfortunately the unfolding linguistic developments in the country are not closely followed by any systematic norm and capacity planning. The only official body which has been designated to plan for the development of Setswana is the National Setswana Language Council, formed in 1986. However, this body, composed of mainly civil servants and professionals, only meets occasionally and tends to deal with policy matters rather than technical tasks. Botswana does not have an institute of language research, as Tanzania, or a practical language centre like Malawi or Zimbabwe. As a result, the Council depends exclusively on commissioning the various

Setswana: An under-exploited

national resource?

55

norm and capacity planning tasks to individuals with the obvious outcome that there are frequent delays in implementing or cases of inconsistency in the output. Moreover, there is lack of constant planning, co-ordination and follow-up of the language standardisation and elaboration activities. As rightly observed by a number of scholars (Janson and Tsonope 1991; Batibo 1997; Smieja 2003) the process of norm and capacity planning is still at an initial stage. Apart from the standardisation of the orthography in 1981, not much work has been done on the standardisation of grammar, lexicon or sound system. Moreover, there is not any official institution which is concerned with capacity planning like the creation of new terms and idioms, the elaboration of new stylistic uses or the evaluation of communicative efficiency. The language seems to have been left to take its own course, at least from a formal perspective. Thus Janson and Tsonope (1991: 75) describe this official attitude to Setswana as that of 'benign neglect.'

3.

The over-shadowing of Setswana by English

English was adopted as the official language of Botswana following the country's independence in 1966. It became a prestigious language as it was associated with education, white-collar jobs and social promotion (Janson and Tsonope 1991: 110). However, from the early 1970s, when the country started experiencing an economic boom and rapid development in both infrastructure and public services, there was a remarkable economic growth. This growth resulted in rapid urbanisation, expansion of education and change in the people's life-style (Batibo 1997: 198). The people's ways of life were transformed in terms of dress, make-up, food and even behaviour. Most of all the attitude and approach to life were changed, as they saw themselves as part of a modern (Westernised) world. The position of English as a second language was enhanced, as it was associated with economic development (ditlhabololo). The status and esteem of a person were associated with his or her proficiency in English, particularly in the major urban areas. English, as the Η (High) code, has dominated in all the major formal and technical domains such as international communication, diplomacy, higher education, science and technology, High Court, Government, business, trade, and commerce - and it still does.

56 Herman Μ. Batibo

4. The under-exploitation of Setswana Setswana, which was associated with traditional life, customary administration and cultural expression, has been largely kept in the background in all areas relating to development and technical advancement. This would explain the weak commitment, both emotionally and in terms of resources, to the promotion and development of the language since the time of independence. Not only little has been done in the area of norm and capacity planning, in comparison with other major African national languages like Kiswahili, Amharic, Somali, Luganda, Chichewa or Lingala, but also not much technical or specialised literature has been produced in Setswana. The most common literature is only to be found in school books, fiction and religious documents. This has made Setswana to be considered as an under-developed national resource. The process of norm planning is more advanced in South Africa where many books, including reference grammars, dictionaries and other important documents have been published. However, the process of capacity planning is only starting now in the new dispensation where Setswana is among the eleven official languages. Some institutions have specifically been set for terminology development, so that the language is capable of handling technical discourse. On the other hand, the three countries, namely Botswana, South Africa and Namibia, where Setswana is spoken, have not co-ordinated much in the development of the language. This is partly because of the political distances, up till the 1990s and partly because of the apparent distances in the standard forms which are emerging. At the same time, there is an apparent state of confusion in South Africa where, although eleven African languages have been declared as official languages, only English has continued to enjoy active official use and high status. As a result, many South African young people have become more interested in learning English than the indigenous languages. One of the most recent developments in Botswana is the increasing awareness among speakers of the minority languages towards more ethnic identity and self-determination, particularly among the larger or more conservative groups. Hence, there has been a proliferation of minority language-based associations, such as SPIL (Society for the Promotion of Ikalanga Language) by the Ikalanga speakers, KAMANAKAO (Association of the survivors) by the Wayeyi speakers, HENDEA (Herero and Ndenderu Association) by the Ovaherero speakers, 'Qonyathe' (The Indigenous) by the !Χόδ speakers, 'Mbungu wa ka Thimana' (The Voice of the Commu-

Setswana: An under-exploited

national resource?

57

nity) by the Thimbukushu speakers, 'Chelwa ya Shekgalagari' (The Seed of Shekgalagari) by the Bakgalagari speakers, 'Teemacace' (Stand Up) by the Khwedam speakers and 'Lentswe la Batswapong' (The Voice of the Tswapong People) by the Setswapong speakers. However, the real challenge to Setswana has come from Ikalanga, which is spoken by not only a sizeable proportion of the population (11-15%), but also a dynamic and socio-economically vibrant people. The government, in its move towards the recognition of the minority languages, has decided to include the study of a minority language among the options that students may take in their Junior Secondary School Certificate courses (Botswana Government 1994: 32).

5. The future of Setswana within the process of globalisation Although Setswana has been, to a great extent, overshadowed by English, both in terms of prestige and official use, and therefore under-exploited in its development and use, it has not been completely neglected, as a number of norm and capacity planning activities have been taking place, albeit on a small scale. These developments include the following: a. In a recent authoritative Government document, namely The Revised National Policy on Education (1994), Setswana has been placed in Category I, together with Mathematics and other science subjects, in terms of priority in student Bursary allocation and salary entry points for teachers. This has enabled the language to gain prestige among the young people, as they see it as an attractive professional field in terms of salaries and employment prospects. b. The National Setswana Language Council has prepared a proposal, which has been submitted to Government. One of the key items in the proposal is the establishment of a language research centre which will be responsible for both norm and capacity planning of Setswana, among other tasks. If such a proposal is approved by Cabinet, the country will see a more vigorous language planning process. c. The Department of African Languages and Literature at the University of Botswana has been very active in producing important documents on Setswana. The most important of these documents are: The Sound System of Setswana (1999) and An Introduction to the Structure of Setswana Sentences (2000). These documents will inevitably influence

58 Herman Μ. Batibo

the standard form of Setswana, as they are used by the college and school teachers as well as by the public as references. Moreover, the Metalanguage Project which has been going on in the Department of African Languages and Literature for more than seven years, has managed to standardise technical terms in a number of domains, particularly in linguistics and literature. d. The increased national sentiments towards Setswana by the Batswana speakers, since the early 1980s (Mogapi 1984; Batibo 1997), has enhanced the use of Setswana in the country. The language is now regarded, in many official circles, as not only the national language, but also the second official language (Botswana Government 1985). e. The process of Tswanalisation to the grassroots, among the minority languages, has been vigorous in more recent years, as more and more people seek jobs and education for their children. More and more children of minority language speakers are encouraged by their parents to learn Setswana, often at the detriment of their mother-tongues. This is because Setswana is not only the inter-ethnic lingua franca but also the medium of instruction in primary education. Table 1 (see next page), adapted from Batibo (Forthcoming) shows how the Khoesan people in Manxotae and Nata villages in North-eastern Botswana prefer the Setswana cultural identity to their own and would therefore like to shift both linguistically and culturally to the prestigious majority language. All these factors, therefore, combine to enhance the future of Setswana in the country. On the other hand, there are other factors which tend to promote English at the expense of Setswana. These include: a. The continued association of many Batswana with Western modernisation, hence the extensive use of English. This is especially true of the young generation, which not only prefers to speak English but also would speak Setswana with many English loanwords and massive codeswitching and code-mixing (Janson and Tsonope 1991: 86; Smieja 2000: 153,2003:245). b. The fast expansion of education is resulting in an educated nation, with English as the symbol of elitism and social promotion, especially among the young people.

Setswana: An under-exploited national resource?

59

c. The expansion of information technology, the internet and wider readership of professional literature has resulted in a more extensive use of English in these domains. d. The significant presence of expatriates in the mining, construction, banking, trade and professional activities as well as tourism and other foreign interactions has created an international environment which has necessitated the use of English in many public places. Hence, in order to cater for foreigners English is frequently used in meetings, church services, festivals and other gatherings. e. As rightly pointed out by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt when opening the 10th Summit of the Group of 15 in Cairo in June 2000, 6 the international economic integration had greatly affected not just investment and trade in developing countries, but also all levels of human activity. One important level of human activity which is being affected adversely by the process of globalisation in linguistic diversity. While the national languages are suffocating the minority languages, the super-global languages, particularly English, are suffocating the rest of the languages in what appears to be a global village. As Batswana become active members of this village and therefore become prey to the dictates of the key players, they will progressively lose their linguistic and cultural identity. Table 1. Preferred language(s) for interaction, cultural expression and self identity among the Khoesan speakers of Manxotae and Nata, in north-eastern Botswana (Batibo 1998a: 271)

1. Preferred language to be used in settlement for daily interaction 2. Language that parents would prefer children to speak at home 3. Preferred language(s) for cultural activities 4. Origin of the two names of informants 5. Preferred name(s) to be given to your children 6. Preferred cultural identity

Khoesan & Setswana Setswana English Khoesan Setswana & English 16.7% 26.7% 56.7% 0% 0%

6.9%

0.0%

79.3%

13.8%

3.2%

9.7%

25.8%

64.5%

0%

0%

0%

12.9%

71.0%

16.1%

0%

6.5%

22.6%

64.5%

3.2%

3.2%

20.7%

20.7%

55.2%

3.4%

0%

60 Herman Μ. Batibo

Hence the awakened nationalistic sentiments towards Setswana, on the one hand, and the quest for Western modernisation and part of the global environment, on the other, have put Botswana in a dilemma. This dilemma is manifested by the many policy inconsistencies, difficulties in implementing decisions and double allegiance and loyalty between Setswana and English (Batibo 1997). From the above, it would be difficult to predict the future of Setswana in the country, since all will depend on the level of commitment of the decision-makers. As observed by Batibo (1997: 204), proper development and promotion of indigenous languages to active national use depends, to a large extent, on the degree of commitment of the decision-makers. Hence, Setswana will remain an under-exploited resource until the decisionmakers make a firm commitment and establish a systematic way of dealing with the norm and capacity planning processes, on the one hand, and a well-articulated schedule of use of Setswana in the various official and technical domains.

6.

Conclusion

As observed by Mukama (1992) and Batibo (1997), there are three main categories of countries in Africa with regard to the levels of commitment to the development and effective use of their national media. The first category comprises those countries which have continued to use the ex-colonial languages as national media, either because of the multilingual nature of those countries, such as Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zambia, or because they have not sufficiently addressed the issue of indigenisation of their national media, as it is the case with most former French colonies. The second category is that of countries which have made serious attempts to localise their national media, but have not gone far enough. Such countries have major languages which they use regularly as lingua franca and symbols of nationhood. However, the ex-colonial languages continue to dominate as the official languages, in most of the formal and technical domains. This category includes Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Malawi. The third category consists of countries which have not only promoted a lingua franca to a national medium but also developed it and made it to take on most of the official roles. The only such countries are Tanzania,

Setswana: An under-exploited national resource? 61 Ethiopia and Somalia, which promoted Kiswahili, Amharic and Somali respectively as both national and official languages. But this only happened at a time when all three countries were pursuing a socialist orientation, which focuses on the masses, rather than the elitists. With the change of political ideologies in these countries, there is a growing tendency toward the revival of the ex-colonial languages. To conclude, therefore, the future role of Setswana in Botswana, just like the other major languages in Africa, will greatly depend on whether the decision-makers want the country to be identified with the masses and the nation's culture and traditions or they want the country to be identified with the Western modernity and the globalisation process. One should note that modernisation can take place in any medium and also that it is possible to preserve one's linguistic and cultural identity while subscribing to the global environment. All that is needed is genuine commitment and systematic planning.

Notes 1.

2. 3. 4.

5.

6.

Setswana is also spoken in South Africa and Namibia. According to the 1990 census, there were over 3.6 million Setswana speakers in South Africa and about 20,000 in Namibia. All together there were over 4.7 million speakers of Setswana in Southern Africa in 1990/1991. There are now probably over 6 million Setswana speakers in the region. In fact, the term 'Batswana' is ambiguous as it may signify either the original ethnic speakers of Setswana or all the citizens of Botswana, as a country. The other groups of languages spoken in Botswana include around 15 Khoesan languages, 8 Bantu languages and Afrikaans (Batibo and Smieja 2000). The only authoritative grammar by Cole (1955) was not only old but also based mainly on South African Setswana. The dictionaries by Kgasa (1976) and Matumo (1965) were not so widely used. This was followed by other descriptive works on Setswana grammar and lexicon by scholars such as Archbell (1837/38), Brown (1895), and Wookey (1905). President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was opening the 10th summit of the group of 15 in Cairo on 20th June 2000 (Zimbabwean Herald Tribune, p. 3).

62 Herman Μ Batibo

References Andersson, Lars Gunnar and Tore Janson 1997 Languages in Botswana. Gaborone: Longman Botswana. Archbell, John 1837/38 A Grammar of the Bechuana Language. Grahamstown: Meurant and Godlonton. Batibo, Herman M. 1997 Double allegiance between nationalism and Western modernization in language choice: The case of Botswana and Tanzania. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), Language Choices? Conditions, Constraints and Consequences, 195-205. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 1998a The fate of the Khoesan languages of Botswana. In: Brenzinger, Μ. (ed), Endangered Languages in Africa. Cologne: Rüdiger Koppe. 1998b A lexicostatistical survey of the dialects of Botswana. South African Journal of African Languages 11 (1): 3-15. Batibo, Herman M. and Birgit Smieja (eds.) 2000 Botswana: The Future of Minority Languages. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Brown, John 1895 Secwana Dictionary: English-Secwana/Secwana-English. Frome and London: Butler & Tanner for the London Missionary Society. Cole, Desmond T. 1955 Tswana Grammar. Johannesburg: Longman. Department of African Languages and Literature, University of Botswana 1999 The Sound System ofSetswana. Gaborone: Lentswe la Lesedi. 2000 The Structure ofSetswana Sentences. Gaborone: Lentswe la Lesedi. Department of Information 1985 Botswana up to Date. Gaborone: Government Printer. Gadibolae, Mabunga Nlashwa 1993 Serfdom (Bolata) in the Nata Area (1929-1960). M.A. Thesis. Haacke, Wilfrid H. and Edward D. Elderkin (eds.) 199 Namibian Languages Reports and Papers. Cologne: Rüdiger Koppe. Janson, Tore 2000 The history of the minority language speakers in Botswana. In: Batibo, Η. M. and B. Smieja (eds.), 3-12. Janson, Tore and Joseph Tsonope 1991 Birth of a National Language. Gaborone: Heinemann Botswana. Kgasa, Morulaganyi N. 1976 Thanodiya Setswana ya Dikole. Cape Town: Longman. Kgasa, Morulaganyi N. and Joseph Tsonope 1995 Thanodiya Setswana. Gaborone: Heinemann.

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Lestrade, Gerard Paul 1937 A practical orthography of Tswana. Bantu Studies 11: 137-148. Mestrie, Rajend (ed.) 1995 Language and Social History: Studies in South African Sociolinguistics. Cape Town: David Philip Publishers Mogapi, Kgomotso 1984 Education and cultural identity. In: Crowder, M. (ed), Education for Development: Proceedings of a Symposium held by the Botswana Society, 187-190. Gaborone: Macmillan. Mukama, Ruth 1992 Why the African national languages can never break through. Journal of Asian and African Studies 43: 45-62. Republic of Botswana 1985 National Development Plan from 1985 to 1991. Gaborone: Government Printer. 1994 The Revised National Policy on Education. Gaborone: Government Printer. Smieja, Birgit 2000 Code-switching in Botswana: Exception or rule? In: Batibo, Η. M. and B. Smieja (eds.), 153-176. 2003 Language Pluralism in Botswana - Hope or Hurdle? Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Wookey, Alfred J. 1905 Secwana Grammar. London: London Missionary Society.

Can a 'foreign' language be a national medium of education? Linguistic ecology and equality in Namibia1 Martin Pütz

1. Language imperialism and linguistic ecology In many sub-Saharan African countries, the post-colonial situation is to a large extent characterised by political and economic turmoil. This situation of almost permanent crisis is accompanied by a rigid stratification of society which can typically be described as follows: a large and impoverished peasantry, a small industrial working class, an expanding urban sub-proletariat, and a tiny privileged group of largely statedependent businessmen, bureaucrats, politicians, professionals and landowners. (Harlech-Jones 1995: 224) The undemocratic socio-economic situation in these African countries is paralleled by 'linguistic inequality' (Wolfson and Manes 1985) or 'discrimination through language' (Pütz 1995), in that there are ' h i g h ' or 'dominant' and ' l o w ' or 'dominated' languages, which function in complementary distribution. In such (a) diglossic or sometimes 'triglossic' situation(s), languages are commonly assigned different social tasks/functions in the multilingual community. In particular, highly valued languages and language varieties are reserved for situations perceived as more formal; less highly valued languages and language varieties are reserved for situations perceived as more informal and intimate. Accordingly, the local or indigenous languages are used mainly as languages of "ethnocultural identification and solidarity" (Abdulaziz Mkilifi 1978: 135), while the superimposed medium of communication, i.e. English or any other European language, fulfils the higher functions in formal domains such as government and administration, education, the media, science and technology, etc. In regard to the situation in Botswana, Nyati-Ramahobo (2000: 291) speaks of the discourse of hegemonic power within government circles and of their respective THEM and US mentality.

66 Martin Pütz

The current linguistic situation in most of these African states not only correlates with an undemocratic stratification of society, it also reflects the ravages of colonialism (Matsela 1995: 47), when two sets of languages were at play: one the submissive African language of the colonised, the other the dominant language of the coloniser. Although in some countries such as Tanzania, African lingua francos have been accepted as token symbols of some degree of African authenticity, in Namibia and elsewhere, English, other European languages, and lingua francas have served to uphold the domination of a small elite. This has led to the subjugation of African societies and to their socio-cultural, economic, educational, and linguistic disempowerment.2 What we are witnessing in most sub-Saharan states, then, is the implementation of the language of the former colonial power as the dominant medium of power both internally (as 'language of unity') and in foreign affairs (as an international language). Generally, as regards the language situation in South Africa, Kamwangamalu (2000: 1) refers to language as serving as a catalyst in the apartheid division of black South Africans into various ethnic groups and even "ethnic homelands". This policy can probably most aptly be described as an example of 'linguistic imperialism', a concept that has become (more) widely known in the last decade, especially in the works by the non-African scholars Robert Phillipson and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas.3 According to Phillipson (1992: 15), linguistic imperialism relates "to a particular theory for analyzing relations between dominant and dominated cultures", and, more specifically, it focuses on the way English language learning has been promoted throughout the world. Phillipson's working definition of English linguistic imperialism is that "the dominance of English is asserted and maintained by the establishment and continuous reconstitution of structural and cultural inequalities between English and other languages" (1992: 47). Furthermore, the author points out, English linguistic imperialism can be seen as a subtype of linguicism, which he describes as "ideologies, structures, and practices which are used to legitimate, effectuate, and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources between groups which are defined on the basis of language" (1992: 47).4 In the (post-)colonial African states, linguicism (and linguistic imperialism) manifests itself as a eurocentric approach to language and culture, in that languages such as English, French, Portuguese, and the privileged African lingua francas are assigned an official role as dominant superordinate languages in a multicultural society. They are spoken almost exclusively by the members of the social elite, who successfully employ official

Can a 'foreign' language be a national medium of education? 67 language policies to limit access of non-elite communities (the masses of the people) to political influence and socio-economic success. 5 As such, proficiency in a European language is essential for upward social mobility and a privileged status in society, which, in turn, leads to African languages becoming increasingly marginalised. By choosing a European language as sole official language, and thus giving advantage to its speakers (native speakers as well as the small social elite), these African states are furthermore bound to perpetuate inequality and promote conflict. Therefore, the existence of endangered or minority languages calls upon language revitalisation in Africa as a major concern to language planners and educational experts (see Lopes [2001 ] in regard to the language situation in Mozambique). The destructive language policies that African states have put into effect have inevitably led to the creation of linguistic and cultural alienation as well as to language shift, language loss, and ultimately language death (Brenzinger 1992). As a way to counter this, researchers such as Bokamba (1995) have emphasised the importance of a multilingual and multicultural policy which in the African context should be geared towards "taking into account local conditions and needs, rather than internally perceived or externally determined needs" (Bokamba 1995: 23). These suggestions are consonant with Mühlhäusler's (1997) view of language as an ecological system. 6 Just like an aquarium - the prototypical ecology - needs a number of inhabitants and meaningful interconnections between them in order to function properly, so the ecology of language requires the cultivation and preservation of (various) languages and interconnections between them. 7 An ecological approach to language, then, favours multilingual networks, 8 the maintenance of (indigenous) languages and cultures, and the promotion of foreign language education (for more information see the ecolinguistics reader edited by Fill and Mühlhäusler 2001). With his discussions of the ecologies of Melanesia and Australia, Mühlhäusler (1997) furthermore demonstrates that heterogeneity and language contact, which are possible features of ecological systems of language, do not commonly result in political turmoil and intergroup conflict. In this respect, Mühlhäusler suggests that social conflict and language contact are independent parameters, "not part of the same package and that unity and co-operation are compatible with both a high degree of linguistic diversity and contact as well as quasi-monolingualism and isolation" (1997: 6). In the same vein, Skutnabb-Kangas (1995: 70) holds that if the rights of minorities are respected, there is less likelihood of conflict:

68 Martin Pütz Linguistic diversity is in no way causally related to conflict, though of course language is a major mobilizing factor in contexts where an ethnic group feels itself threatened, and/or where ethnic and linguistic borders coincide with other borders along which access to power and resources is (unequally) distributed. T h e two conflicting policies - monolingual policies on the one hand and linguistic and cultural pluralism on the other - represent two paradigms that are positioned at opposite ends of a continuum. These two alternatives are: (i) The Domination of English Paradigm, 9 and (ii) The Ecology of Language Paradigm. These two paradigms are also related to Geeraerts' (2003) distinction between a rationalist and a romantic model of linguistic standardisation; the former stresses the emancipatory function of a common language as an instrument of political and educational participation (i.e. the Domination of English paradigm); the romantic model, on the other hand, stresses how the imposition of a standard language may discriminate specific cultural identities (i.e. the Ecology of Language paradigm). In Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas (1995a), the various factors of the ' E c o l o g y of Language' paradigm are identified: human rights, equality in communication, multilingualism, the maintenance of languages and cultures, the promotion of foreign language education, etc. In contrast, the (single) characterising feature of the 'Domination of English' paradigm is monolingualism. A language policy is basically monolingual when there is a linguicist allocation of resources primarily to one language and a corresponding idolization and glorification of this dominant language and demonization, stigmatization and invisibilization of other languages, along with a rationalization of the relationship between dominant and dominated, always to the advantage of the dominant. (Phillipson and SkutnabbKangas 1995a: 42). According to Matsela (1995), w h o bases his views on Lesotho with some f o r m of bilingual education in English and Sesotho, some of the major causes of the disempowerment of speakers o f ' d o m i n a t e d ' languages are to be found in the sociocultural, economic, educational, and linguistic circumstances they find themselves in. Matsela (1995: 54) suggests the following ways in which ' d o m i n a t e d ' indigenous languages could be used as instruments of empowerment for the masses of African populations: (1) Encouraging and supporting research into the people's cultural and linguistic heritage, as a basis for their endogenous development; and into

Can a 'foreign' language be a national medium of education?

69

ways of improving re-acceptance and use of indigenous African languages and cultural values by the African peoples. (2) Encouraging and promoting a policy of (positively-skewed) language development (LP) favouring the long-neglected African languages, to raise them out of the doldrums of self-doubt and over-dependency on foreign languages (which are known to and used by only a small minority of Africans), to a reasonable level of self-confidence and selfreliance, by among other things, promoting and enhancing their use as 'high-function' languages. (3) Encouraging and promoting the use of African mother-tongues in all basic education programmes as a start, especially in literacy, pre-primary, primary and adult and non-formal education programmes intended to raise the living standards and to empower the masses with relevant and basic skills, knowledge, attitudes and values. (9) Encouraging progress in lexical modernization to facilitate the raising of African languages into effective media of instruction in education and into high-function languages. Obviously, Matsela favours a holistic and endogenous approach directed at the concepts of cultural identity, the promotion of mother-tongue use, and language development, in short, fundamental principles in the struggle for linguistic human rights (Skutnabb-Kangas and Phillipson 1994). In Section 3, I will examine some of the principles more closely and show how they can be applied to the linguistic and educational context of the Namibian situation.

2.

A sociolinguistic profile of Namibia

A year after Namibia's independence, The Population and Housing Census o f 1991 provided the following details (cf. Table 1) on the number of ethnic mother tongue speakers (ethnic groups) within the Republic o f Namibia (percentages added by myself):

70 Martin Pütz Table 1. Number of ethnic mother-tongue speakers in Namibia Languages Ovambo Nama/Damara Kavango Afrikaans Herero Caprivi Bushmen German English Other African languages Tswana Other European languages Other languages 1 Not stated All languages

Number of speakers

Percentage

713,919 175,554 136,649 133,324 112,916 66,008 27,229 12,827 10,941 8,291 6,050 5,298 647 267

50.6 12.4 9.6 9.5 8.0 4.7 1.9 0.9 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.1 0.1

1,409,920

100.0

The Namibian population falls into three main clearly identifiable language groups: (i) (ii) (iii)

the Bantu languages Oshiwambo (Wambo), Kavango, Otjiherero (Herero), Caprivi, and Tswana; the Khoesan languages Nama/Damara and Khoisan (Bushmen); and the European languages English, Afrikaans, and German.

The number of speakers of 'European' languages (Afrikaans, English, German) is estimated to account for only 11.2%, which means that a high number of Namibians, i.e. 87.8% of the population, speak Bantu or Khoesan languages/dialects. The former co-official language and lingua franca Afrikaans is spoken by the great majority of the 'European' language users as a first language, totalling 9.5% (133,324 people). On the other hand, English, the sole official language in Namibia, is spoken as a mother tongue by slightly more than 10,000 people, which accounts for only 0.8%. In what follows, I will discuss the status and role of English, Afrikaans, and of the indigenous languages in general.

Can a 'foreign' language be a national medium of education?

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2.1. English: 'The language of liberation' Since its independence in March 1990, the sole official language in Namibia has been English, while Afrikaans, German, and the African indigenous (local) languages have been considered national languages with equivalent status. English has now become the prestigious high variety, and it is considered the only guarantee for Namibia's future international status. During the last fifteen years, the implementation of 'a foreign language' such as English as the official language in independent Namibia had always been strongly advocated by the liberation movement SWAPO {South Western African Peoples Organization), mainly on political and economic grounds. English has thus become a marker of a new anticolonial identity which serves as an instrument of liberation and a symbol of ideological neutrality and nation building. The criteria that Namibia employed in choosing English as an official language - which are in line with those of most other nations in Africa - integrate SWAPO's concerns and are mainly politico-functional: fostering unity and nation building, improving international relations (science and technology), and enhancing communication throughout Africa and the United Nations (UNIN Report 1981). In view of all this, it should not be surprising that English as the dominant language is being glorified and African languages are being devalued (cf. Phillipson 1992). It is worth keeping in mind that English was selected as the sole official medium of communication, even though the percentage of English mothertongue speakers made up a very small proportion of the total population of the country, i.e. 0.8% (cf. the 1991 Census in Table 1). An attitude study carried out in Namibia (Pütz 1995a) showed that English is highly valued especially by Ovambo speakers; 99% of the Ovambo respondents 'strongly agreed' with English as sole official language in the country. Not surprisingly, almost one fifth of the Afrikaans-speaking respondents claimed to 'disagree' (14.4%) or even 'strongly disagree' (3.6%). The introduction of English as sole official medium of communication confronts Namibia with the necessity of creating and promoting an English infrastructure, which is presently unavailable, as well as of reorganising and upgrading the educational system. It is now the task of language planners and educators to work out practical solutions for putting English into use effectively and democratically. A major constraint to be considered at all stages of the national language planning and implementation process is the risk that the selection of

72 Martin Pütz

English might lead to a eurocentric and socially undemocratic orientation. The same concern is raised by Beck (1995), who argues that "instead of a re-classing of society, the effect of the introduction of the extraglossic language English will merely be a restratification of society" (1995: 217), and who furthermore emphasises, that "the stratification process will create a new power elite which defines itself according to its knowledge of English" (1995: 217); cf. also Sandbrook (1993: 98) in Section 2. The dangers of an 'English-Only' mono-model are certainly also recognised in the UNIN Report (1981: 41), viz. eurocentric language planning and the concomitant risk of diglossia with English for the educated and local languages for the masses. At any rate, it is certainly prudent to be aware of the danger that lies in devising English language teaching and training programs that are patterned too much along Western lines and that involve by non-Namibians, who may be motivated by values that are relevant to highly industrialised societies but which are of questionable relevance to those desired for Namibia. In order, then, to avoid a restratification of Namibian society, the major challenge in implementing an English infrastructure in Namibia lies in appropriately allocating functional domains to a given language or languages (status planning). At the same time, a successful infrastructure will need to take account of a newly-emerging set of attitudinal and purely linguistic factors. In this respect, Fourie (1995: 319) refers to the increase of stereotypical beliefs towards English expressed by skilled and unskilled workers and political leaders alike, such as: (i) Namibian English is often referred to as 'Namlish'; (ii) Black people are too stupid to master the new official language; (iii) We have to speak English because our leaders are English-speaking. With regard to linguistic factors, Harlech-Jones (1995: 236) cites published comments and complaints about perceived 'enunciation', 'accent', and 'pronunciation' features of the English of Black speakers on the N B C (Namibia Broadcasting Corporation) radio. He even observes that the conflict over English in Namibia has taken on a new dimension, because, in addition to status problems, it is also geared towards issues of norms of interpretation and language codification. Before examining the role of English in the Namibian classroom and education in general, I will briefly review the status and development of the former co-official language Afrikaans.

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2.2.

73

Afrikaans: The 'unwanted' lingua franca

Until Namibia's independence in 1990, the fully developed standard language Afrikaans had been firmly established as a co-official language alongside English. It was the language used by the administration and the medium of practically all secondary and most primary education. Today, Afrikaans is spoken as a native language by 9.5% of the Namibian population and more than 85% of the population are said to have some knowledge of it. Because of its role during the Apartheid regime, Afrikaans is now being stigmatised as an 'unwanted lingua franca' (Fourie 1995) in modern Namibia, in close association with the rise of Afrikaner nationalism (see discussion in Webb and Kriel [2000: 27]). A number of functional and ideological arguments for the rejection of Afrikaans have been put forward. According to the UNIN Report (1981: 7), Afrikaans has no value outside Southern Africa and therefore serves as an "instrument of isolation and insularity". Moreover, Afrikaans was explicitly linked with the Apartheid regime and is therefore seen as the 'language of the oppressor' or, in ideological terms as the 'villain' (Pütz 2000) who is usually seen as an outsider of a particular social order. One should not forget, however, that Afrikaans may as well be labelled 'language of the oppressed', for Afrikaans is also the mother tongue of the Coloureds, the so called 'Baster', and various other families from mixed cultures. Still, among some researchers the language is seen as the only national language which efficiently promotes multicultural communication. Based on an attitude study, Fourie, for example, observes that although the government, the mass media, and political groups within the country all try to suppress Afrikaans, "it still remains a popular social and informal medium of communication" (1995: 323). The Stigmatisation of Afrikaans as the symbol of Afrikaner Nationalism is certainly an indication of the beginning of a process of language decline. However, in an empirical attitude study of 1993 reported in Pütz (1995), it was shown that its speakers reveal strong attitudes towards maintaining and promoting Afrikaans. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether the declining language Afrikaans - just like Nama, Herero, or the San-varieties - will once again 'survive' the new language struggle and thus not undergo extermination or language death.

74 Martin Pütz 2.3.

Do the local languages create division and anti-nationalism?

In focusing on the 'English-Afrikaans' debate, Namibia has for a long time neglected the status and use of the indigenous national languages, which, for instance, resulted in the decline of the Herero language system (Ohly 1987). Indeed, there is hardly any literature on language policy and language planning which entertains the implementation of local languages, alongside English and/or Afrikaans, as a serious proposition. One reason for the present neglect of indigenous languages is that during the colonial era, they were treated as dialects/varieties or vernaculars which are insufficiently developed and therefore not equipped to serve as administrative, educational, socio-economic and cultural media of communication. Furthermore, as has been pointed out above, local languages have been considered a hindrance to fostering national unity and nation-building, which has always been placed at the top of the political, cultural, and economic agendas of most sub-Saharan African states (Alexander 1995). This often-quoted 'national unity' argument holds that the use of an African language as an official language in a multilingual nation will lead to ethnic conflicts "which could destroy the delicate national unity created since the liberation struggles" (Bokamba 1995: 17). SWAPO (UNIN Report 1981), for example, has argued that with so many ethnic groups and languages/dialects in Namibia, there are tendencies towards tribalism, divisiveness, and rivalry. An important reason, then, why the main local language Ovambo, or any of the other indigenous languages in Namibia, was not chosen as the official language is that it "could arouse unnecessary intra-linguistic competition and strife" (UNIN Report 1981: 39). It has therefore been maintained that it is more appropriate to use a neutral, foreign, and 'atribal' language such as English to prevent any one ethnic community from becoming dominant, and to eliminate unnecessary competition. Interestingly, an attitude study carried out in several regions throughout Namibia (cf. Pütz 1995a) revealed that speakers of the indigenous language Ovambo, (spoken by the Wambo population groups who make up more than half of the Namibian population) rate their languages very low on a scale of acceptability: Ovambo is not seen by these informants as an appropriate official means of communication in Namibia. This negative attitude seems to be a result of the 'colonial syndrome' (Fourie 1990), i.e. when speaking their local language, speakers are afraid of being suspected

Can a 'foreign' language be a national medium of education? 75 of 'tribalism' and of favouring the former Apartheid system. It remains to be seen whether the stigmatised view of African languages will prove a major obstacle in the maintenance and development of local languages in Namibia.

3. The status and use of English as a 'foreign language' in the Namibian classroom After Independence in Namibia, quite a number of studies have been dealt with educational issues in Namibian schools (e.g. Harlech-Jones 1995; Legere 1996). According to the Draft Proposal for Education Reform and Renewal in Namibia as set out by the Secretary for Education and Culture (Nahas Angula, SWAPO), the schools can now opt at the Lower Primary Level (Grades 1-3) between the Home Language or English as a medium of instruction. Furthermore, the Draft Proposal stipulates that in case a school chooses Home Language instruction, English should be taught as a subject as well. Schools opting for English as a medium of instruction may have to teach 'another language'. The lip service paid to initial LI instruction is also manifest in the words of the Minister of Education and Culture, Nahas Angula (Interview carried out in 1990): In lower primary school, children should be taught in their own mother languages, home languages, the mother tongue, so to say. But in the case that the parents of the community in a particular area say that they want to have the English language as a medium in school - fine, it's up to them, also. So, the freedom is there for children to learn in their own home languages, in the junior primary school. And the freedom is there for them to continue with their mother-tongue up to whatever. "To continue with their mother tongue", however, does not imply that the native language will continue to be used as a medium of instruction. From Grade 4 (at age 10) upwards, English is gradually introduced as a medium of instruction, i.e. English is phased in throughout the Upper Primary Grades (Grades 4-7) and the secondary cycle (Grades 8-12). Central to the issues raised by educational language planners, therefore, is the choice of the medium of instruction in the Namibian classroom. During the pre-independence period, SWAPO clearly envisaged a new policy towards language teaching in education, with English as the medium of instruction at the higher primary school, secondary school, and higher

76 Martin Pütz education level. Indeed, it was S W A P O ' s aim to introduce in Namibia's schools a clear policy of 'non-racialism' and 'democratic procedures', whereby English should have a major status as the medium of instruction in education for political and economic reasons (cf. also Section 2.1.). At the lower primary school level, though, it was argued that, from a cognitive and communicative perspective, the mother tongue should be used as the medium of instruction. This should not be done for reasons of group identity or ethnic consciousness and exclusivity, as had been practised during the Apartheid colonial regime, but rather in order to establish and maintain a socio-cultural link between formal schooling and everyday languages spoken at home; as the UNIN Report points out, "it is through the mother languages that infants first acquire social habits, manners, feelings, tastes, skills and other cultural norms" (1981: 6). The UNIN Report (1981: 57) further acknowledges the relevance of early education in formative terms and stresses the importance of the mother tongue in early schooling on the following grounds: -

-

The child will already have internalized the basics of the mother tongue in pre-school years. Concept formation in the child's early years is better facilitated by a language which he speaks and uses in his daily life than a foreign language whose values and symbols he does not know. The mother tongue helps to safeguard the child's cultural identity. Use of the mother tongue will promote better adjustment between home and school. Since many students do not go beyond primary school, there would be little need for them to know and fewer opportunities to use English, hence knowledge of the mother tongue would be more useful. In using the mother tongue, all adults could be teachers and language learning could take place both in and out of school.

It seems, then that the official educational policy does not neglect the cultural value of the home language and therefore, on paper, favours a multilingual approach to language teaching. However, the approach does not aim at maintaining bilingual education, i.e. the fostering of the 'dominated' language in the child, but rather is geared towards transitional bilingual education which is assimilationist in nature and which aims to shift the child from the home language to the dominant, official language (Baker 1993). Students are temporarily allowed to use their home language (Grades 1 - 3 ) and are taught through that medium until they are considered proficient enough in the official language as their new teaching medium.

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The chances of Black Namibians being allowed to use their native, ethnic, or home language in the school as a medium of instruction, which would enable them to attain full and 'real' bilingualism, are therefore rather slim and need to be improved by re-organising and upgrading the educational system. Harlech-Jones, an insider in the Namibian political situation, draws a rather pessimistic picture of the predominant use of English as a medium of instruction, in particular in regard to students' academic failure (1995: 201): It is almost certain that the use of English as medium of instruction, particularly in primary and junior secondary schools, will be deleterious to the scholastic success of many learners, particularly those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. A monolingual approach to learning may not only lead to academic failure but also to linguistic and cultural genocide, i.e. the extermination of linguistic and cultural patterns. In fostering a monolingual approach to learning, Namibian schools reinforce the status relations that exist within the broader society. Indeed, the dominating societal group i.e. those who have easiest access to learning a European language and who have the best opportunities for using it, have also selected English as the medium of instruction for most grades in the Namibian classroom. The school's underlying aim is to strengthen elite groups and preserve their position in society. We may therefore assume that schools will continue to reproduce the power relations that characterise the wider society. At the same time, schools have little impact on the power relations in current teacher/student interactions. While teacher/student interaction needs to be further explored in continued research, Namibian researchers who have direct access to the classroom setting via participant observation, reports/comments, and the media draw a rather pessimistic picture of the current state of affairs. Even the Ministry of Education and Culture complains about unprofessional behaviour of teachers and negative attitudes and behaviours of learners in Namibian schools: "In many communities complaints have been received about persistent absenteeism, late coming to school and poor preparation and teaching on the part of some principals and teachers" (Harlech-Jones 1995: 196-197). It is certainly advisable that educators/teachers and students alike should redefine their roles within the classroom, the community, and the broader society "so that these role definitions result in interactions that empower rather than disable students" (Cummins 1996: 33). These sug-

78 Martin Pütz

gestions also certainly presuppose that non-English speaking parents (e.g. Wambo, Herero, Nama/Damara, etc.) are encouraged to become involved in their children's education and, most importantly, that school staff are committed to the empowerment of non-English speaking students through education, in other words 'empowering' the masses of the Namibian people and socialising people for full participation in the community.

4.

Conclusion

In Namibia, as in most other sub-Saharan African states, a European language has become the official (foreign) medium of communication. The ideology of the isomorphism of one state, one nation, one language is also prevalent here. Still, numerous examples throughout Africa have shown that the adoption of a language whose mother tongue speakers belong to economically successful communities has not facilitated the goals of national unity, equality of opportunity, and economic welfare (see especially Heine 1992). If, in a multilingual country such as Namibia, educational language planning wants to be successful, (i) it needs to be geared towards high levels of bi- or multilingualism, and (ii) it can no longer treat monolingualism as something normal, desirable, and unavoidable (cf. Skutnabb-Kangas 1995). Of course, this would require language planners to rethink and reformulate their policy for educational purposes. First of all, in order to obtain high levels of bi- or multilingualism through education, children should be able to study both their mother tongue and the second language (e.g. English) as compulsory subjects through Grades 1-12. More importantly still, in post-colonial societies such as Namibia, teaching through the medium of the mother tongue should be seen as one of the basic human rights of people belonging to minority groups. A fortiori, it should be the medium of instruction for ethnic majorities in an officially monolingual state, such as is the case with the Wambo communities in Namibia. Skutnabb-Kangas (1995) suggests that the status and use of the second language L2 as the medium of instruction should differentiate between (i) the teaching of 'cognitively and linguistically less demanding and contextembedded subjects' (e.g. physical education, music, arts, etc.) and (ii) 'cognitively demanding decontextualized subjects' (e.g. history, philosophy, mathematics, etc.). The former subjects would require the use of L2 already in Grade 3, whereas the latter would only start "when the children

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79

have been taught that language [L2] as a subject for 7 years (grades 1-7) and have been taught through the medium of that language in cognitively less demanding context-embedded subjects for 5 years (grades 3 - 7 ) " (Skutnabb-Kangas 1995: 76). These suggestions certainly make sense as a 'general principle' in immigrant minority communities, but they will also have to be examined and tested empirically in educational settings of postcolonial societies such as Namibia. To be sure, a multilingual approach should not be directed against the use and the teaching of English as a foreign language. However, according to Cluver (1992: 269), the further spread of English is likely to be hampered by a shortage of competent English teachers/educators and the scarcity of suitable teaching material. There is no English-speaking infrastructure outside the city, i.e. in rural areas. The language in the courts is English, but due to a shortage of qualified interpreters in the Namibian courts serious communication problems in certain cases may occur. What is needed is a vigorous effort to spread the new official language and at the same time to develop the indigenous languages in order to be able to achieve high levels of multilingualism and, most important, linguistic ecology and language equalisation. Lastly, an important goal for language policy in independent Namibia needs to be the fostering of a knowledge of sociolinguistic diversity amongst all people and to promote effective intercultural communication. But, as Skutnabb-Kangas puts it "nice phrases about the worth of everybody's mother tongue, the value of interculturalism, etc. do not help, unless they are followed up in how the schools are organized" (1995: 75). This would require consulting language experts and language planners so as to be able to upgrade and reorganise the educational system in Namibia for the benefit of all Namibian citizens.

Notes 1.

2.

I am grateful to Hubert Cuyckens for a very helpful and constructive critique of an earlier version of this paper. Needless to say, I alone am responsible for the arguments presented here. It is the large and impoverished peasantry, i.e. the masses of the African people, who are still at the same level as in pre-independence times, and consequently still as disempowered in their socio-cultural, economic, educational, and linguistic conditions as before independence.

80 Martin Pütz 3.

4. 5. 6.

7.

See especially Phillipson (1992) and the working papers by Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas (1995b), which were written in the framework of the EUROLING project aiming at an attempt "to stake out some of the dimensions and contours of language policy in contemporary Europe, and to consider what Europe can learn from experience in other parts of the world" (Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas 1995b: 2). See Skutnabb-Kangas and Phillipson (1995) for a thorough discussion of the terms 'linguicide' and Minguicism'. In this regard, Myers-Scotton (1993) uses the term 'elite closure'. Haugen (in Dil 1972) was the first to put forward the concept of 'ecology' as a means of evaluating the complex relationships that exist between languages/dialects, their speakers, and their respective environments. Mühlhäusler (1997: 4) uses the aquarium, the prototypical ecology, as a metaphor for the ecology of language: An aquarium is both a "man" made environment, and at the same time, an environment whose proper functioning is constrained by a large number of natural parameters. Whilst an indefinitely large number of functioning and sustainable aquariums are conceivable, there is an equally large set of aquariums that will not function successfully: One wrong species of fish, the wrong temperature, the wrong degree of salinity, one wrong plant, the wrong size, the wrong amount of light, insufficient variety of species, and so on, suffices to turn your domestic aquarium into a disaster area. Fish species A + Β may not survive together, but will if fish species C is also present.

8.

9.

Mühlhäusler (1997) argues that the amount of conflict between languages is inversely related to the number of functional links between languages and between their speakers and other speakers. Furthermore, conflicts can be reduced in highly structured multilingual networks as opposed to plurilingual societies that have been established by colonisation, industrialisation, and internationalisation. Tsuda (1992) refers to English as a case in point although English, for our purposes, could be replaced by any European language which has some form of colonial linguistic inheritance in Africa. Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas (1995a) provide a detailed discussion of the various characteristics of the 'Dominance of English Paradigm' (e.g. capitalism, science and technology, modernisation, monolingualism, intemationalisation, Americanisation, and linguistic imperialism), and they refer to the dubious role that TESOL has adopted in advocating internationalism and economic advancement throughout the world.

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References Abdulaziz Mkilifi, Μ. H. 1978 Triglossia and Swahili-English bilingualism in Tanzania. In: Fishman, J. A. (ed.), Advances in the Study of Societal Multilingualism, 129-152. The Hague: Mouton. Alexander, Neville 1995 Nation building and language in the New South Africa. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), 29-43. Baker, Colin 1993 Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Beck, Anke 1995 Language and nation in Namibia: The fallacies of modernization theory. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), 207-220. Bokamba, Eyamba G. 1995 The politics of language planning in Africa: Critical choices for the 21st century. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), 11-27. Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.) 1992 Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations, with Special Reference to East Africa. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Cluver, August de 1993 Namibians: Linguistic foreigners in their own country. In: Prinsloo, Κ., Y. Peeters, J. Turi and C. van Rensburg (eds.), Language, Law and Equality, 129-152. Pretoria: University of South Africa. Cummins, Jim 1986 Empowering minority students: A framework for intervention. Harvard Educational Review 56: 18-36. Dil, Anwar (ed.) 1972 The Ecology of Language. Essays by Einar Haugen. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Fill, Alwin and Peter Mühlhäusler (eds.) 2001 The Ecolinguistics Reader. Language, Ecology and Environment. London and New York: Continuum. Fourie, David 1990 Comments on the future of Oshiwambo. Facets/Facetten 9 (2): 9-14. 1995 Afrikaans - The unwanted lingua franca. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), 315324.

82 Martin Pütz Geeraerts, Dirk In press Cultural models of linguistic standardization. In: Dirven, R., R. Frank and M. Pütz (eds.), Cultural Models in Language and Thought: Ideologies, Metaphors and Meanings. Cognitive Linguistics Research. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Harlech-Jones, Brian 1995 The role of English in Namibia. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), 223-243. Heine, Bernd 1992 Language politics in Africa. In: Herbert, R. (ed.), Language and Society in Africa: The Theory and Practice of Sociolinguistics. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Press. Kamwangamalu, Nkonko M. 2000 Apartheid and ethnicity: Introductory remarks. In: Kamwangamalu, N. (ed.), Language and Ethnicity in the New South Africa. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 144: 1-6. Legere, Karsten 1996 Languages in Namibian education - achievements and problems (Focus on African languages). In: Legere, Κ. (ed.), African Languages in Basic Education, 41-79. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. Lopes, Armando Jorge 2001 Language revitalization and reversal in Mozambique: The Case of Xironga in Maputo. Current Issues in Language Planning 2 (2/3): 259-267. Matsela, Zach A. 1995 Empowerment of the masses through the use of African languages. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), 45-56. Mühlhäusler, Peter 1997 Language ecology - contact without conflict. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), Language Choices. Conditions, Constraints, and Consequences, 3 15. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Myers-Scotton, Carol 1993 Elite closure as a powerful strategy: The African case. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 103: 149-163. Nyati-Ramahobo, Lydia 2000 The language situation in Botswana. Current Issues in Language Planning 1 (2): 243-300. Ohly, Rajmund 1987 The Destabilization of the Herero Language. (= African Studies of the Academy, 2). Windhoek: Academy.

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Phillipson, Robert and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas 1995a English Only worldwide, or language ecology. In: Phillipson, R. and T. Skutnabb-Kangas (eds.), 38-54. Phillipson, Robert and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (eds.) 1995b Papers in European Language Policy. Roskilde: Universitets-center. Phillipson, Robert 1992 Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Central Statistics Office 1991 Population and Housing Census 1991. CSO: Windhoek. Pütz, Martin 1995a Attitudes and language: An empirical investigation into the status and use of English in Namibia. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), 245-284. 2000 Language, ideology and cognitive structures: The linguistic heritage of Namibia. In: Manczak-Wohlfeld, Ε. (ed.), Tradition and Postmodernity. English and American Studies and the Challenge of the Future, 69-76. Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press. Pütz, Martin (ed.) 1995b Discrimination through Language in Africa? Perspectives on the Namibian Experience. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove and Robert Phillipson (eds.) 1994 Linguistic Human Rights: Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove and Robert Phillipson 1995 Linguicide and linguicism. In: Phillipson, R. and T. SkutnabbKangas (eds.), 38-54. Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove 1995 Educational language choice - multilingual diversity or monolingual reductionism? In: Phillipson, R. and T. Skutnabb-Kangas (eds.), 6 6 82.

Tsuda, Yukio 1992 The dominance of English and linguistic discrimination. Media Development 1: 32-34. Trappes-Lomax, Hugh 1990 Can a foreign language be a national medium? In: Rubagumya, C. (ed.), Language in Education in Africa: A Tanzanian Perspective, 94-104. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. UNIN 1981 UNIN Report 1981. Toward a Language Policy for Namibia, English as the Official Language: Perspectives and Strategies. Lusaka: UNIN.

84 Martin Pütz Webb, Vic and Mariana Kriel 2000 Afrikaans and Afrikaner nationalism. In: Kamwangamalu, N. (ed.), Language and Ethnicity in the New South Africa. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 144: 19^49. Wolfson, Nessa and Joan Manes (eds.) 1985 Language of Inequality. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Revisiting reversing language shift: African languages in high modernity Christopher Stroud

1.

Introduction

At the turn of this century, African languages should, to all intents and purposes, be experiencing a renaissance. Through long-time concerted efforts of international bodies, governments, local speakers and concerned linguists, there is a growing awareness of the importance of African languages for peaceful democratic development, economic and social advancement, and for a reconfigured cultural and historical consciousness of local communities (Djite 1993; Liphola 1996; Robinson 1996). This has led to a situation where maintenance is now a topical concern of international legislations and convents, manifested in practical language maintenance efforts in a range of contexts. Regardless, however, of all the good and honest investment in maintenance and revival, many African languages seem inevitably to be losing ground to metropolitan languages of wider communication, rather than gaining in strength. In this paper, I suggest that one major reason for this is that the processes underlying shift and maintenance are not clearly understood or sufficiently theorised. According to Joshua Fishman (1991, 2001) the problems of language shift, and ultimately death, that minority language communities are confronting are the result of "hitherto uncontrolled (largely because misunderstood [italics mine]) changes in the number and kinds of social function for which particular languages are utilized at particular historical junctures" (Fishman 2001: 1). Fishman goes on to explain that "[s]uch functional changes come about as a result of contacts with neighbouring languages" (ibid.: 1), and argues persuasively for the necessity of a principled theoretical approach to reversing language shift (RLS). In place of the many non-operational, easy 'fixes' that characterise much revitalisation work 1 , Fishman's approach posits priorities, establishes sequences or linkages between events and provides differential weight to shift factors (ibid.: 13). The core of Fishman's approach revolves around the theoretically important linkage

86

Christopher Stroud

between intergenerational language development and everyday language use. He goes on to develop, what he calls, a value based general theory of RLS, which among other things, recognises that language revitalisation must be built on the basis of staged, sequential and linked sets of functions, within a more general approach to grassroots advocacy and self reliance. Fishman's theory is subtle and complex, and recognises many nuances in specific situations of language shift as well as the need for a considered flexibility in the remedies needed to reverse language shift in concrete cases. Despite its strengths, I will make the point in this paper that Fishman's theory pertains in principle only to a particular type of contact situation in a particular historical conjuncture, and that his discourse on minority language reversal, including concepts, theoretical assumptions and principles of social action in matters of language, do not lend themselves easily to application in current, postmodern, situations of language contact. I suggest that a practice of maintenance and revitalisation for African languages needs to be developed within a framework theoretically more attentive to the effects of globalisation on the sociolinguistics of multilingualism in marginal, or peripheral, communities, such as the African. Following a short overview of Fishman's framework, I will attempt to provide a short characterisation of such marginal communities of sociolinguistic relevance, and then proceed to detail three challenges that such communities pose for Fishman's RLS framework. The three challenges will be illustrated with examples from Mozambique.

2. The RLS framework Fishman's value-based theory of RLS is the most theoretically sophisticated theory of language revitalisation/reversal currently available. It is based on a model of the 'functional diversification of language' (2001: 2), and the core of the theory is a diagnosis of language shift as a loss of functions in the threatened language (the minority language) to the more powerful language. Remedies for RLS should be sought, according to Fishman, on the basis of "an analysis of languages in competition in terms of the social functions that are invoked, contested, lost..." (2001: 2). This means being able to identify the functions that are endangered, so as to rectify the 'sociolinguistic loss of functionality in weaker languages'. Fishman's underlying conception of what is entailed by a 'harmonious social coexistence' of languages is formulated in terms of functional compartmen-

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talisation of languages. In principle, power languages (P) tend not to be as rigidly compartmentalised with respect to the functions they are put to serve in a community, and therefore encroach more and more upon the functional niche of the threatened language (TH), including non-power functions, such as intimacy, community, neighbourhood, etc. (2001: 1 1). In my reading of Fishman, the concrete steps needed to regain functions at any particular time are to first establish a priority of functions and secondly to bolster particular target functions by attending to the provision of the logical, functional and natural links the target function has to other antecedent or subsequent functions. For example, if the target function is schooling, then home-community-neighbourhood functions are necessary precursors or antecedents to these schooling functions, whereas adult functions of literacy in a language are necessary follow-up or subsequent functions for making the use of minority languages in school meaningful. Fishman is careful to note that "RLS does not postulate any evolutionary, inescapable or obligatory sequence of functional stages; it merely postulates that there must be strategic support or linkage stages - both anticipatory and subsequent" (2001: 16), claiming that the most important use of functional staging is diagnosis (where to start and what to aim at when). Fishman also criticises those who aim too high in their attempts to reverse language shift by focusing on strengthening a minority language's power functions when "intimacy functions have not yet been attained" (ibid.: 17). In this context, he argues that a narrow focus on bolstering the economy and power functions of TH languages ignores "the important ethnosemantic, ethnoreligious and ethnocultural constellation of beliefs" that may give minority speakers an alternative, true and complementary rationale for preserving their language - a welcome alternative to complete globalisation - supplying the means to compartmentalise "certain basic human processes from globalization" (2001: 459). Here, Fishman is underscoring the advantage of creating 'boundaries' between languages in the lion's den (ibid.: 212); in practical terms, RLS movements seek "linkages to histories, cultures and identities that predate globalization - that are outside the orbit of globalization" (2001: 459). From an overall theoretical perspective, Fishman claims that RLS is anchored in a theory that relates intergenerational transmission to a theory of normal speech community functioning (2001: 465). Further, RLS "seeks to be directive with respect to social action" (2001: 464). It is based in an approach that emphasises advocacy and self-reliance.

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In summary, Fishman pivots his theory around notions of compartmentalisation and functional separation of languages, the idea of sequencing or staging of functions, the primacy of functions of intergenerational transmission, and a view of grassroots engagements in language politics. I will argue here that Fishman's model is well suited to a context where there is a clear relation of dominance between languages and their speakers, where there is social movement and 'crossing' from the minority (TH language) to the majority (P language) community (albeit limited), and where there exist formal-informal linguistic markets side by side. Such a situation typically encourages language separation and little mixing between languages, and hosts a dynamics where social movement often leads to loss of TH-functions. However, this particular view of societal multilingualism is no longer an adequate reflection of every reality. With the advent of intensive globalisation and high modernity, the context for language shift and maintenance today are radically different from that which Fishman's framework is premised upon. In marginal, peripheral, communities such as those found in Africa, contact situations are characterised by more diffuse, complex and less clear-cut relations of power, social mobility from minority to majority speech community is barely nonexistent, and the reach and importance of informal linguistic markets far outweigh those of the formal market. These situations offer a very different linguistic profile with metropolitan languages incorporated into local everyday language use in ways that give rise to multilingual practices of codeswitching and syncretism between languages. In this postmodern type of contact situation, communities of speakers recognise, and are recognised as, holding multiple and shifting alliances within and between language groups, employing languages for a range of individual and social identity constructions that cross-cut and undermine traditional community borders and political frontiers. Languages in these contexts are no longer associated with a fixed set of cultural and/or political meanings; in concrete practices and everyday interactions, languages are used in ways that deconstruct traditionally given identities, and create multiple levels of, at times contradictory, but invariable always ambiguous meanings. In other words, "the transition from modernity to high modernity... provokes a reworking of ideas over the value of multilingualism, the nature of whatever multilingualism might be valued, and over what counts as legitimate forms of language varieties and language practices" (Heller 1999: 340). Mozambique is a case in point of a peripheral African community with such characteristics. Mozambique is a highly multilingual community

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hosting an estimated 20 Bantu languages and numerous Indian languages among a population of 14 million speakers. Like many countries in the region, Mozambique opted for the language of the departing colonial power, Portuguese, as its official language on independence. Susan Gal has noted how "viewing ways of speaking as part of speakers' responses to macrohistorical processes provides new avenues for understanding linguistic differentiation and language contact" (1989: 357; cf. Stroud 2002). The marginal position that Mozambique occupies in the global economy manifests itself in terms of a weak state organisation, a growth in informal markets and divisive social conflicts embodied in a variety of heteroglossic speech practices (cf. Chabal and Daloz 1991; De Boeck 1996). The complex social, historical, ideological and political situation of postcolonial Mozambique generates multiple forms of linguistic value and legitimacy, comprising a re-evaluation and repositioning of local African languages, and contradictory and competing perceptions of different types of local, and potentially transgressive, varieties of Mozambican Portuguese (cf. Stroud 2002). What, then, is the nature of the problems confronting Fishman's theory, in part or whole, with respect to linguistic ecologies such as the Mozambican? How useful are the notions of functional compartmentalisation, and of sequencing and staging of functions in contexts where the very systemic integrity of languages in contact is in question? To what extent is the model of social action presupposed by RLS applicable to marginal contact communities of the Mozambican type?

3. The development of syncretic functions in situations of language contact As noted above, Fishman's point of departure is founded on the premise that minority languages need to reclaim lost functions from imposing majority languages in order to reverse shift. One issue that is raised by this account is what to do about functions of language that depend on the contextualisation of minority language utterances in a majority language matrix or vice versa. This is not quite the situation recognised by Fishman himself where a Ρ language invades non-P domains (e.g. of intimacy) usually reserved for TH languages - a situation typically brought about when local topics and role relationships are formulated in metropolitan languages, and metropolitan languages are used for culturally situated func-

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tions in local contexts. Rather, the alternative scenario is more a creative or novel generation of functions, such as identity and social role necessitated by language and culture contact, where the possibility of manifesting the function depends on the speaker mining the semiotic resources of both languages simultaneously. Typically, these new functions emerge when indigenous languages are inserted into discourses dominated by metropolitan languages, and where indigenous languages co-exist with metropolitan languages in complex configurations of multiplex speech practices. An example from women street-traders, comerciantes, in Maputo, Mozambique illustrates the way in which multilingual practices may develop or extend already existing functions in new and creative ways. Women street traders eke out a hard and meagre life in Maputo, and much of their talk revolves around the heavy burden of poverty and under-privilege that pervades their lives. In this talk, different types of language alternation (e.g. second language acquisition, crossing, lingua francas, codeswitching) operate across lines of social differentiation and conflict, as a way for these women to co-opt the linguistic resources of the powerful. The following example that illustrates some aspects of this pertains to the comerciantes talk about the governing FRELIMO parties election campaign at the time of the first general election in 1994. Throughout the campaign, there was a noticeable tension between the meanings ascribed to the slogan "for a better future" on behalf of FRELIMO, and the meanings associated with it in popular parlance. Whereas FRELIMO was doing its utmost to firm up the linkage between the slogan and the Party, - through street processions chanting the slogan, T-shirts with the words written underneath the smiling face of President Chissano, TV advertisements, and the like - many were sceptical as to for whom the 'better future' was meant. This is the context for the following short snippet of codeswitched dialogue: Extract 1: 1. Amelia: 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Ada: Amelia: Ada: Amelia: Esperanfa: Amelia:

mas como nos prometeram "o futoro melhor" vamos lä ver nada so que eu näo vejo nada futoro pior futuro pior sim έ que kuzindzela nakoni ka kazata muito mesmo

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8. Esperan^a: 9. Amelia: 10. Esperan9a: 11. Amelia: 12. Ada: 13. Amelia: 14. Ada:

na vatama vaku nyimani hikusa a hlomulu wa bindza tens razäo tens razäo e verdade hm ninguem aguenta com ο sofrimento futuro pior e verdade so que se a gente tivesse votado Dhlkama era muito bom

15. Amelia:

tambem digo pe! Tambem digo pä! Tambem digo juro

Translation: 1. Amelia:

But as they've promised us "a better future" let's wait and see 2. Ada: No way 3. Amelia: I don't see nothing/no way 4. Ada: worse future 5. Amelia Yes, worse future 6. Esperan9a; To hope for anything is difficult 7. Amelia: very much so 8. Esperan^a: They will say you will just have to cope because life is difficult/suffering is hard 9. Amelia: You're right, you're so right 10. Esperan9a: hmm 11. Amelia: Nobody can cope with suffering 12. Ada: Worse future 13. Amelia: it's true 14. Ada: So if people were to vote for Dlkama it would be very good 15. Amelia: I say the same. Say just the same Stroud (Forthcoming) recounts how Portuguese and the Bantu language Ronga are used here in ways that resignify both the semiotic values of these languages, as well as the identities tied to them. The rationale for code-switching is the creation of a multivocal potential through a process akin to Bahktinian double-voicing, where reported speech may be incorporated into the speech of the Self, and sometimes may even be subverted; one speaker's voice (Ronga) is oriented towards the words of another voice (Portuguese) without subjugating these words under any ideologically controlling monologic voice. Framed in the expression of disillusionment

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of the powers that be in Mozambique, the Portuguese utterances of these women are recontextualised and disengaged from associations to authority and power; the significance of speaking Portuguese is reconstituted in their mouths to carry meanings and construct identities in direct opposition to the values and identities of elitism conventionally accorded to speaking standard Portuguese. The framing of Ronga utterances in Portuguese permits speakers to relate the concerns of the intimate, private, sphere to national policies. In this case, metropolitan languages are used so as to clearly address local sociopolitical issues in culturally appropriate ways, and relocate these issues in transparent discourses of power. Fishman would see this sort of thing as problematic because it weakens minority languages by dissipating functions away from the language, and is typical of a language shift situation. However, in specific social, cultural and economic contexts, these types of language practices, far from undermining the community, are important capital resources for marginalised populations, particularly women and the urban poor, and provide speakers with expressive possibilities not otherwise available to them in each language. The problem for Fishman's theory is that the functions carried by multilingual practices such as these can simply not be articulated in the same way in a local or metropolitan language alone, as their very existence depends upon being contextualised and framed multilingually in syncretic entextualisations. These meanings are shifting and transient, as they depend upon a specific occasion of interpretation.

4.

The complexity of multilingualism and linguistic functions

A central tenet of Fishman's RLS theory concerns the notion of separate functions or functional stages, and the proposal that reversal should be via a principled selection and staged sequential ordering of functions. In many cases, however, linguistic practices are multifunctional, and in practice there is no straightforward way to determine a clear sequential progression of functions. Furthermore, although specific multilingual practices may be essential for the articulation of new notions of personal identity, utterances may also simultaneously carry more instrumental functions. A particularly interesting case of this is when intimate and personal functions of language are intimately entwined with functions of power and economics, that is "education, work sphere, mass media and governmental operations at higher and nation-wide levels" (Fishman 2001: 466). The following exam-

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pie from Mozambique illustrates such a situation. It is also a case in point on how practices of intergenerational transmission are dependent on a language being tightly relevant to the sphere of power and economics. In the city of Nampula in Northern Mozambique and in the small town of Vilanculos in the district of Inhambane province in southern Mozambique, speakers are multilingual in an average of 2.8 languages (as opposed to 2.4 in rural areas). The distribution of languages are such that young females aged between eleven and twenty five in both communities are more multilingual than males, and more often count Portuguese as one of the languages in their repertoire than do males (Stroud, In prep.). Women also subjectively estimate their proficiency in Portuguese to be good to excellent, and they use both Portuguese and local languages in the socialisation of their children. Multilingualism and more than adequate mastery of Portuguese would appear to comprise important capital assets for young women in these communities. One of the rationales behind this state of affairs is the way in which developments on the formal local labour market are providing the opportunity for many women to find non-traditional sources of income. Employment such as teaching and nursing are two areas where women are in demand, but these occupational roles demand the exercise of social roles involving a play of identities different to the culturally specific gender identities traditionally performed in indigenous languages, namely a female identity and social role as a modern, urban and service-oriented, care-giver. Laying claims to the acquisition and use of the valued linguistic resources of Portuguese is one prime way for these women to reconfigure their culturally specific gendered roles. In other words, there is a strong link between personal identity and the presentation of Self and language used for work, media etc. It is difficult to say that there is any dependency here; rather the two types of function are exchangeable and mutually reinforcing. Because the symbolic and social capital invested in Portuguese is exchanged for a slot on the labour market, the functional requirements of language on formal markets determine the ways in which Portuguese is used for intimate presentations of Self. From an intergenerational perspective, the importance of the strategy of acquiring Portuguese is even explicitly recognised by parents of young girls, who claim that Portuguese is associated with schooled, disciplined and polite persons. This makes Portuguese an especially desirable attribute of females, who are expected to host these attributes in any case. Here, we are seeing traditional gendered identities restructured through another lan-

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guage. Children are socialised in a particular language in order to acquire the linguistic capital and present a sense of self that caretakers perceive to be legitimated by the market. The symbolic capital that women and young girls gain in this way will be fed back into the family for future generations; when socialising children in Portuguese, women perform an important 'house-keeping function' that is recognised as valuable by their husbands. Not surprisingly, the appreciation shown by men substantially increases the value of Portuguese speaking women on the marriage market. The choice to perform aspects of Self in Portuguese and to pass it on to children is a more specific case of more general responses on behalf of local populations to global processes. The strategy serves to linguistically mediate the impact of global transnational economies on their local communities, and provides one of the means whereby "individuals experience the consequences and effects of economic and political policies" (Rocco 2000: 235). The example illustrates a common situation noted by Fishman, where both intimacy functions and power functions are layered into the (encroaching) Ρ language. Most importantly, the example can be read as a pointer that it may be difficult to uphold a division of functions within and between languages in all cases, and that intimacy functions are not necessarily prior to other functional uses of language. There is a tight linkage between the language functions of identity and power, and the intergenerational transmission of language; women gain access to power functions of language through the employment of intimate and identity functions in which they construct new gendered identities that link them to materiality. This could be potentially problematic for Fishman as RLS sees the intimate functions of language related to intergenerational transmission as prior to the more formal use of language in education, work sphere, mass media etc., and the family sphere as separate from the material sphere. In fact, when discussing young people's propensity to sport advertising slogans on caps and T-shirts to express individuality, Hill (1999: 546-47) has noted that it "may be difficult today to separate a genuinely vernacular sphere or quotidian and intimate sphere from the market". For some while it has been known that the economic, political or material importance of a language is an important factor in its intergenerational transmission. This has at least been the case for metropolitan languages. In both examples of Portuguese-Ronga codeswitching and Portuguese proficiency among the women of Mozambique, local community persistence and transformation is through the restructuration of local life in response to

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global developments carried by metropolitan languages. However much policy discourse on local, minority, languages, attempt to position them outside the baseness of the material sphere and within the province of the 'noble native'. Fishman himself refers to the important ethnosemantic, ethnoreligious, and ethnocultural constellation of beliefs "that may assist in saving certain basic human processes from globalisation" (2001: 459). However, to the extent that language is primarily a capital resource for communities, it must also be conceded that local values in local languages are glocal values in today's world; it makes no sense to talk of the local apart from the global. This implies that even local languages gain vitality through an association of the intimate with the power functions (cf. Stroud and Heugh, Forthcoming).

5. Conditions for the creation of new resources in language One of the more important points in Fishman's theory is his stand on how communities generate new functional linguistic resources, namely in terms of the notion of linkage of functions. This means that specific target functions in need of strengthening, such as intergenerational transmission, should be preceded and/or followed by certain other functions. Just as importantly, however, as any particular, implicational relationship between functions, is the nature of the sociopolitical and material arenas on which languages are being used. Again, this emphasises the link between economy and identity. One example that may illustrate the nature of this claim is on the uptake of technologies or practices of literacy. Once again, the example is a gender-based example from Mozambique. In the mid-nineties, the National Institute for Education Development (INDE) introduced programs promoting vernacular literacy in women's agricultural co-operatives in some northern provinces, ostensibly at that time to provide a technology for women to more effectively manage their agriculture. However, rather than seizing upon literacy as a technical aid in agricultural production, the women took up literacy with a very special use in mind, namely to create a private, female gendered and domestic space where they could control their own written communications with their husbands. The husbands of these women were migrant labourers in the mines of South Africa. Prior to their acquisition of literacy skills, the women were obliged to use literacy brokers (often male) in order to be able to communicate with their husbands or

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other relatives. Now, they are free to write what they wish outside of the purview of public surveillance and control (cf. Veloso 2002). This example suggests that new linguistic resources and functions are constituted by very concrete and identifiable social circumstances that foster a personal investment in the acquisition of a linguistic skill or technology on behalf of individual speakers. In this case, women are laying 'gendered' claims of ownership to a particular type of literacy as part of their claims to gendered civil spaces; literacy in an indigenous language from a grassroots perspective is about extending women's rights to their bodies, marriages and privacy - in competition with males. The salient local sociopolitical issues that goaded the community into adopting literacy functions of language was a concern with gender, age and their interaction that engaged with contentious issues of the gendered ownership of linguistic practices. Rocco (2000: 235) notes that Individuals and groups establish a wide variety of relatively stable networks of activities that not only sustain their survival, identity and sense of worth, but which also serve as the basis for the development of practices and activities that are concerned with the direction of community and collective life, with the constitution of a 'public sphere'. In some cases, the articulation of new and more inclusive, grassroots discourses of citizenship depend upon an extensive developing multilingualism in local languages, and processes of appropriation (and adaptation) of metropolitan languages by local communities. The example suggests that new (functional) resources are created in language when speakers go about their everyday business; to be sustainable, varieties, variants and technologies of language need to be part of socioeconomic transformation that simultaneously involves creation of participatory discourses of citizenship.

6.

The overarching strategy for RLS: The role of institutions in RLS

All of these three points lead to a fourth, namely the question of how to conceive of the concrete roles of actors and institutions in reversing language shift. Fishman's theory of RLS "seeks to be directive or implicational vis-a-vis social action" (ibid.: 464), and he remarks on the importance of "an enterprising and committed ... community" (ibid.: 465). In the three cases mentioned above, multilingualism in metropolitan and African languages provides the opportunities for many marginal individuals to

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(re)negotiate historically developed oppressive social realities, such as gender and sexuality (see Eckert 2000). The concerns that underlie the language functions that have been in focus are consistently non-linguistic in origin, related to more general sociopolitical issues. The examples cited here show how language and multilingualism may be tied into on-going sociopolitical struggles, which serve to extend the boundaries and meanings of civil society in response to developments in late modernity. What these examples show is that we must consider language in developing contexts from both a material/economic and sociosymbolic perspective simultaneously. Language in the service of'development' - as traditionally conceived - cannot be treated (educationally or otherwise) in isolation from language and democracy/citizenship. We have already noted in the preceding section how innovations of language come about in social and economic arenas where social change is taking place. Part of this process is about using metropolitan languages for local community functions, delimiting and reconstituting local identities, and creating new sociopolitical contexts in the process. Marginal groups such as women, those outside the formal economy, the rural dispossessed and poor, for example, play out their demands to rights, identities and social equity in syncretic, multilingual, mixes of local and metropolitan languages. Multilingual practices allow the production of manifold, partial identities, provide a means to articulate differentiated sets of rights, and contest power relations in novel ways, thereby comprising important class and gender based strategies of capital investment in the creation of new linguistic resources. These allow speakers to position themselves more favourably on both formal and informal markets. This means that linguistic resources are created in real world functional contexts of positioning and struggle, where notions of identity and power are central organising concepts. This argument suggests that strategies for reversal need to target a range of different functions simultaneously. Fettes (1997) has proposed something similar with his multi-braided or interwoven approach, comprising remedies of critical literacy, local knowledges and living relationships. The joint management of social, cultural and symbolic capital for successful material and economic progress to come about is also confirmed through experiences from development contexts (e.g. Robinson 1996; Bourdieu 1991). This point reinforces Fishman's own point that resources may be deployed across several fields at the same time (2001). It also reinforces the point made earlier that purely local, grassroots oriented reversal strate-

98 Christopher Stroud gies are unlikely to succeed unless they also address more encompassing sociopolitical concerns.

7. Discussion and conclusion Fishman's approach to language reversal is based on notions of discreteness of languages and emphasises the construction and maintenance of systemic linguistic boundaries and functional compartmentalisation. Concurrent with this, he emphasises the sequential and graded nature of language functions, and the important use of local languages in helping to compartmentalise speakers from globalisation. He also argues for the importance of social movements for successful language reversal. The main argument of this paper has been that this viewpoint grants only marginal recognition to the complex sociolinguistic and sociopolitical multilingual ecologies in which minority language speakers are situated. In today's postmodern world, new important functions of language are being encoded in multilingual, and syncretic or code-mixed repertoires. This provides a challenge to Fishman's assumption of a functional division of labour between languages. Furthermore, some of the most powerful and empowering uses of language can be found when intimate and personal language functions are juxtaposed and intertwined with power and status functions, and where it therefore makes little sense to describe linguistic functions in terms of separate stages. This raises two types of problem for Fishman's theory. On the one hand, it calls into question the strong claim of the primacy of intergenerational transmission as it stands. And secondly, it suggests that Fishman's notion of reversal in terms of a series of, more or less, distinct functional stages, might be in need of modification. A third issue raised for RLS by postmodern language contact scenarios is the conditions for the creation of new resources in language. In Fishman's theory, new functional resources are thought to depend on establishing functional linkages in a language - anticipatory or subsequent - that need to be in place for any particular (related) target function to be picked up. However, not only does such an account rely on the problematic assumption of functional stages, it - inadvertently - downplays the important range of extra-linguistic, sociopolitical, economic and other factors that impact on individual and group investment in specific uses of language, and that power language development. In other words, languages change when their social circumstances change in ways that affect language.

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The fourth and final issue arising from Fishman's theory is the nature of the overarching strategy for language reversal. In Fishman's conception, the role of social movements is strongly emphasised, but exactly how these movements dovetail with institutions and institutionalised politics in scarce economies with weak a state apparatus is not clear. Particularly problematic is the fact that the survival value of any language seems to be dependent on how well it manages to accommodate the link between intimacy and power functions, between community and institutional arenas. In conclusion, the clarity, accessibility and importance of Fishman's theory, coupled with the range of concerns to which it lends itself, makes it a rich source for reflection and debate. This is the spirit in which I have wanted to approach a discussion of some core issues it raises. My point has been that the sociolinguistics of multilingualism in postmodern contact scenarios may suggest a rethinking, and perhaps even a re-theorising, of some aspects of Fishman's theoretical approach.

Note 1.

These involve things such as changing peoples' attitudes towards their languages, conferring official recognition on a language, etc.

References Bourdieu, Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press. Chabal, Patrick and Daloz, Jean-Pascal 1991 Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument. Oxford: James Currey Press. De Boeck, Filip 1996 Postcolonialism, power and identity: local and global perspectives from Zaire. In: Werbner, R. and T. Ranger (eds.), Postcolonial Identities in Africa, 75-106. London and New Jersey: Zed Press. Djite, Paulin G. 1993 Language and development in Africa. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 100/101: 149-166. Eckert, Penelope 2000. Linguistic Variation as Social Practice. The Linguistic Construction of Identity in Belten High. Oxford: Blackwell.

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Fettes, Mark 1998 Life on the edge: Canada's Aboriginal languages under official bilingualism. In: Bumaby, B. and T. Ricento (eds.), Language and Politics in the United States and Canada. Myths and Realities, 117-149. Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Fishman, Joshua A. 1985 Language maintenance and ethnicity. In: Fishman, J. Α., Μ. Gertner, Ε. G. Lowry and W. G. Milan (eds.), The Rise and Fall of Ethnic Revival. Berlin: Mouton. 1991 Reversing Language Shift. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Fishman, Joshua A. (ed.) 2001 Can threatened languages be saved? Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Gal, Susan 1989 Language and political economy. Annual Review of Anthropology 18: 345-67. Heller, Monica 1999 Alternative ideologies of la francophonie. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3 (3): 336-359. Hill, Jane 1999 Styling locally, styling globally. What does it mean? Journal of Sociolinguistics 3: 542-556. Liphola, Marcelino 1996 The use of Mozambican languages in the elections. In: Mazula, B. (ed.), Mozambique: Elections, democracy and development. Maputo: Inter-Africa Group. Pennycook, Alistair 1994 The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. London: Longman. Rasool, Naz 2001 Contested and contesting identities: Conceptualising linguistic minority rights within the global cultural economy. Journal of Multicultural and Multilingual Development 21 (5): 386-398. Robinson, Clinton D. W. 1996 Language Öse in Rural Development: An African Perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter Rocco, Raymond 2000 Associational rights-claims, civil society and place. In: Isin, E. F. (ed.), Democracy, Citizenship and the Global City, 218-240. London: Routledge. Stroud, Christopher 1998 Perspectives on cultural variability of discourse and some implications for code-switching. In: Auer, P. (ed.), Code-switching in Con-

Revisiting reversing language shift 101 versation. Language, Interaction and Identity, 321-348. London and New York: Routledge. 2001 African mother tongues and the politics of language: linguistic citizenship versus linguistic human rights. Journal of Multicultural and Multilingual Development 22 (4): 339-353. 2003 Language and democracy: The notion of linguistic citizenship and mother tongue programmes. In: Legere, Κ. and S. Fitchat (eds.), Talking Freedom. Language and Democratisation in the SADC Region, 77-94. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. Forthc. The performativity of codeswitching: Women street vendors in Mozambique. International Journal of Bilingualism. In prep. A sociolinguistic survey of Mozambican languages. Stroud, Christopher and Kathleen Heugh Forthc. Language rights and linguistic citizenship. In: Freedman, J. and D. Patricks (eds.), Language Rights and Language Survival: Sociolinguistic and Sociocultural Perspectives. Manchester UK: St Jerome Publishing. Veloso, Teresa 2002 Becoming literate in Mozambique: the early stages in Sena (cisena) and Shangaan (XiChangana). Perspectives in Education 20 (1): 7 9 96.

Triglossia: African privilege or necessity? Rajmund Ohly "f

The multilingual environment, typical of the African continent, demanded the emergence of sophisticated, sociolinguistically motivated, systems of communication. In general, systems developed either as a result of formal, i.e. authoritative initiatives (cow/ra/-oppression), or informal proceedings (/wtfe-repression) arising from different social strata. In 1979, Bernd Heine presented a typology still valid today, classifying African states according to the language policy conducted by the given government. In general, nations 1 have been divided into endoglossic and exoglossic units. Endoglossic states, employing a native language as a medium of nationwide communication, are further arranged into (a) (b)

states conducting an active endoglossic policy such as Egypt with Arabic, Somalia with Somali or Tanzania with Kiswahili, and states without an active endoglossic policy such as Botswana with Setswana, Lesotho with Sesotho or Rwanda with Kinyarwanda.

In all the cases in the (a) category, African languages fulfil official administrative functions and are spoken by most of the population. For example, in Tanzania (see later herein), English still occupies a complementary position in the communication system. States in the (b) category, on the other hand, utilise the former colonial languages in administration, education and the mass media although the bulk of their population communicates through the dominant African languages, called national languages. Their survival depends on their ethoglossia. States conducting an exoglossic policy employ no African languages in official functions. Heine (1979) recognises four types in this regard: (a)

states in which a national language is spoken by the majority and serves as the ordinary means of communication (e.g. Bambara in Mali and Wolof in Senegal), but where a language not spoken by the majority as a mother tongue is the sole official language (e.g.

104 Rajmund Ohly

(b)

(c)

(d)

French in those two countries), or Siswati in Swaziland and Kiswahili in Kenya, while English is the official language in those two countries; states with one dominant national language, where the domination is numerical in character. In Angola, for example, 31% of the population speak Umbundu, and 48% speak Hausa in Niger. However, the official languages, respectively, are Portuguese and French in those two countries; states with several dominant languages. In this situation, the African languages are in a dominant position as a result of the numerical force of their speakers or their official regional function. For example, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba serve as regional official languages and lingua francas in Nigeria, but nationwide, English is the only official language of the state. In Zimbabwe, Chishona and Isindebele serve as official regional languages, while English is the sole official language of the state; and states without dominant languages, such as Cameroon, where 286 languages/dialects are in use while only some speech-forms have been recognised as languages par excellence, cf. Bamileke (12% speakers countrywide) and Duala (7%). French and English are in official use.

The presentation of Heine's typology has been necessary to show the emergence of an apparent diglossia conditioned by the language policy of a state authority. Furthermore, the presence of an imported language seems to be vital - even imperative. Consequently, according to the social allocation of functions in most cases, the given imported language represents a H(igh) variety confronted by an African language that constitutes the L(ow) variety. However, such an observation would be wrong. With Cobarrubias (1983), quoting Fishman, Η might be a different language with or without a corresponding nexus with L, which in turn may be another language used by a linguistically different community. L would stand in a non-competitive complementary relationship to the Η language (Cobarrubias: 57), cf. below. Heine's (1979) typology suggests that verbal efficiency in communication demands bilingualism from an African, i.e. to have mastered an imported language and to be able to apply the given African language with competence. Therefore, it does not mean that the African language in question is linguistically on an L level.

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African language surveys 2 visualise the multitude of languages spreading across the continent. This raises the questionof what is happening to tens or even hundreds of languages used daily in an African country, confronted by a bilingual system. Alexandre (in Heine 1979: 27), taking into consideration linguistically heterogeneous states, proposed their division into countries (a) with langues immediatement utilisables (languages with directly usable applications) and (b) those without. He also assigned to the given state mostly one African language, e.g. Bemba in Zambia fell into the (a) category, while Wolof in Senegal was categorised as (b). The affiliation ofthe states in question to the anglophone and francophone zones was taken for granted. Meanwhile, indigenous African languages in their majority are either involved in a rationalisation process or are following natural courses of sociolinguistic events. Rationalisation is realised through language planning. This means that every state is empowered to control some language functions according to promotion-oriented rights on the use of a language by public authorities at national, provincial or municipal level (Cobarrubias 1983: 76). At national level, almost all African countries have clung to the ideology of internationalisation, i.e. the establishment of the former colonial language (LWC) as official language. As a result, African languages have been excluded from achieving such a prominent status. Even in the rare case of vernacularisation, i.e. the adoption of an indigenous language as the official language, e.g. Setswana in Botswana (but cf. below) or Kiswahili in Tanzania, an imported language still functions as co-official language. As a form of rationalisation, exclusion manifests itself especially in educational planning. The linguistic pluralism applied is only partial in character. For instance, a project under the acronym PROPELCA has been implemented in Cameroon, which is - as already mentioned - one of those highly multilingual countries with over 200 languages in a total population of about 12 million people. In 1981, the project set out to conduct initial literacy in the mother tongue, followed by partial use of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction at school. Of the seven languages selected for the project, four (Duala, Ewondo, Fe'efee, and Nso) are already being used. The time allocation in respect of these African languages is 70% in the first year, gradually decreasing to 30% by the third year. At present the generalisation phase makes use of 12 languages in education at the primary and, in some cases, secondary school level (Bamgbose 2000: 5If.). How-

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ever, most Cameroonian languages have either been marginalised or ignored. Although the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) often called for the implementation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) resolution on the value of mother tongue education, most African countries still justify the exclusion of smaller languages by using economic arguments. The lifeboat theory serves as a paraphrase: the available places are limited. African states generally constitute a conglomeration of ethnic groups τ

which form either minorities or non-minorities ; all of them have at least toleration-oriented language rights. Most endangered are the minoritised languages of minorities 4 , i.e. those that are simply ignored by state authorities and totally exposed to their sociolinguistic environment and its rules. For example, there are approximately 400 distinct minority languages spoken in Nigeria's Middle Belt. Of these, at least 180 have less than 400 speakers, and the majority of these languages remain completely undescribed. The speakers of the remaining languages range between 200 and ca. 1 million. There is no government policy towards these languages at all (Brenzinger 1998a: 203). A specific role plays the push factor - which aims at enforcing language shift from outside, and the pull factor - which tries to incite assimilation wishes among an ethnic group (Tosco 1998: 129). For instance, Setswana is threatening most of the Khoesan languages spoken in Botswana. At the same time, the Khoesan minorities expose a negative attitude towards their own languages and express the wish that their children should be integrated into the Tswana 'state culture' of Botswana (Batibo 1998: 10). Language shift may occur as a mixture of radical and gradual death in an obsolescent speech community: a unilingual situation with a dominant Li may, under the influence of an L 2 , turn into bilingualism and later towards a unilingual situation for L 2 or dominance in L2 (Dimmendaal 1998: 71). Language shift has been observed especially among members of the younger generation of Nigeria, where Owon Afra-speakers enter the Yoruba option, for example, while Holma become part of the Fulfulde speech community (1998: 82). Minorities whose languages are minoritised undergo external administrative pressure. Suppression of such languages by a state authority is the result of national language planning. In Tanzania, in Kiswahili's process of vernacularisation, it was declared the sole national medium. By implication, other indigenous languages were considered non-existent (Batibo

Triglossia: African privilege or necessity?

] 07

1995: 72). In this way, the other 120 ethnic languages become endangered. Language shift towards Kiswahili has involved coastal languages, e.g. Bondei and Zaramo, while Nyamwezi, Shambaa, and Sukuma have successfully resisted assimilation attempts. Nevertheless, the education authorities suggest that parents use Kiswahili in the home.In effect, this will accelerate the death of local languages (Brenzinger 1998b: 79). The languages of promotion-oriented minorities can also be minoritised. A good example is provided by Namibia. As in most African countries, the use and non-use of African languages as media of instruction depended largely on historical antecedents. In Namibia, in compliance with the ruling party's language policy, English was established as the sole official language while Afrikaans was deprived of its former official position and reduced to the status of a local language. However, the Namibian government preserved the use of ten African languages as media of instruction in functional literacy and inGrades 1-3 in lower primaryeducation. After that, most of the African languages are offered as subjects in the higher Grades of formal education. Oshindonga, Oshikwanyama, Otjiherero, Rukwangali and Silozi are taught up to Grade 12. Some Namibian languages in education were taken over from the former South African administration after Namibia's independence in 1990. However, the Namibian Languages Bill of 1995, which stipulated that all Namibian languages should be official and that the language spoken by the majority in a particular region should accompany English in schools, business and government - was rejected by the Ministries of Higher Education 5 and Basic Education 6 , respectively. At the same time, the implementation of corpus planning activities in order to modernise the African languages in use was not systematically initiated. In this way the latter are losing ground lexically compared with English, in the domains of professional skills, know-how and expertise (Legere 1996b: 55f.; Ohly 1987). A non-minority whose language has been minoritised can be found in Senegal, for instance. The Wolof ethnic group constitutes 44% of the population, while 72% speak Wolof countrywide. Wolof is spreading at the expense of both French (the only official language) and other indigenous languages, e.g. Bambara, Diola or Peul, which are increasingly confined to the periphery of the country and then to rural areas as Wolof takes over towns. At present, 20 small ethnic groups are linguistically endangered. Nevertheless, 40 years after independence, French is still the sole educational language of instruction - without any didactic connections with Af-

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rican languages, i.e. the mother tongueof 9 0 % of thelearners (Bichler 2000: 62). T o summarise, most African languages belong to the category of deprived languages, i.e. not being used for important social functions, while hundreds of them arebeing threatened by extinction. According to Ali and Alamin Mazrui (1998), Africans are already well known for their strong tendency towards multilingualism. Throughout history, they have been talented linguists in the pragmatic sense of the word. Unlike much of Europe, monolingualism has never been the norm. The forces of functional complementarity definitely encourage multilingualism (1998: 81). For example, many members of the black community in South A f r i c a are already multilingual in up to five languages (Bamgbose 2000: 40). According to Mazrui and Mazrui (1998: 78f.), most sociolinguistic studies in A f r i c a recognise a three-way distinction between (a) (b) (c)

vernacular languages that serve as media of intra-ethnic communication and solidarity, vehicular languages of inter-ethnic communication and integration, and official languages of administration and nationalcommunication.

Trilingualism forms a part of A f r i c a ' s triple linguistic heritage. That is, generally speaking, an effective social order of communication in the past consisted first of the mother tongue, being the very carrier of ethnic culture and identity (e.g. Nyamwezi); then a contact language, which was needed to establish relations with neighbours and the local market (e.g. Sukuma in the case of the Nyamwezi population); and finally, a lingua franca (e.g. Kiswahili) to enable regional communication. Early African states such as 13th-century Mali proved that an African language - in this case Manding - was able to fulfil all the administrative tasks of an empire. Manding became the language of power and influence: during the height of M a l i ' s power all official exchanges were carried out in Manding. Even in its diplomatic relations with the King of Morocco and the Sultan of Egypt, it seems that Manding was used on a regular basis (Mansour 1993: 37). Indispensable in the African communication system today are the mother tongue, the vehicular language and the imported language. The functions of the imported language - either English, French, Portuguese or

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Spanish - have become entrenched in almost all out-group social domains. Moreover, English, for example, has stultified and weakened indigenous languages by marginalising most of them in the education system in particular and in the life of the nation in general (Mazrui and Mazrui 1998: 79). It has been observed (e.g. Legere 1996b: 66) that attitudes towards someone who knows only African languages are to regard him/her as a useless and foolish person in society. On the other hand, imported languages have also undergone 'nationalisation' with the creation of Cameroon Pidgin English, Crioulu in Guinea Bissau, Krio in the Gambia and in Sierra Leone, Liberian English, Morisyen on Mauritius, Nigerian Pidgin English, South African English, and West African Pidgin French (Maho 2000: 30). The modern elite in any African nation, i.e. politicians and those that assumed former colonial offices in the civil service, maintains the imported languages. They staff institutions of higher education and create the mass media, and they comprise the middle management in the still mainly foreign-owned business corporations. This elite cuts across traditional ethnic boundaries and has little or no formal organisation - thus creating elite closure. Nevertheless, the elite typically knows indigenous languages that are also spoken by the masses (Myers-Scotton 1990: 29). Consequently, African vehicular languages become significant. English, French or Portuguese play a less pervasive role in the daily lives of people than elsewhere, thereby leaving room for patterns of stable multilingualism rather than resulting in diglossia (Brenzinger 1998a). Hence, there has been a tendency for some dominant African languages to gain in popularity and spread countrywide at the cost of numerous minority languages. In this respect Kiswahili and Hausa are often called 'killer' or 'oppressing' languages that purposely threaten other languages. However, most members of speech communities in fact abandon their own language voluntarily, recognising another language as being superior and more useful (Brenzinger 1998a: 15). In the Namibian context, for example, speakers of minority languages are normally competent in regional lingua francas such as Silozi or Rukwangali as well (Legere 1996b: 51). In Zambia, 2.7 million people speak a second African language besides an imported. African languages that facilitate the process whereby the elite successfully penetrates the masses and whereby the masses have adequate access to the elite are a definite advantage in the quest for vertical integration. As regards fostering horizontal integration at lower levels, lingua francas like

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Hausa and Mandingo in West Africa, Kiswahili in East Africa and Lingala in Central Africa are especially important. Horizontal integration concerns the degree to which the masses are in contact with each other and are able to establish a linguistic basis for sustained interaction. African lingua francas can, therefore, also be said to be involved in the process of socioeconomic consolidation (Mazrui and Mazrui 1998: 103). The mother tongue is treated as an inborn trait. Consequently, parents often assume that there is no need to teach home languages at school since children speak them anyway. Meanwhile, an indigenous language assembles cultural specificities, the Little and Great Tradition, comprising the treasury of the given ethnic group, the cultural wealth which is bequeathed to posterity. G. Aisha Bichler (2000) indicated in her work quoted above the connection between the acquisition of the Wolof language and knowledge of the Wolofs' cultural background - which is indispensable in proper communication. Only the decoding process, which uses cultural keywords, makes it possible to avoid an isomorph ism. Sedar L. Senghor proposed embedding Serere code-terms into French expressions in order to highlight and spread their unique sophistication and folk philosophy through a world language. Taking into consideration the social advantages of functional multilingualism, Nigerian educational planners recognised five categories of languages that are gradually introduced into the school curriculum (Bamgbose 2000: 69f.): (a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

the mother tongue the language of the immediate community a major Nigerian language (Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba) English, and a foreign language (i.e. Arabic or French).

Revised language planning in Botswana now provides for a third language in addition to English and Setswana to be taken as an optional subject, i.e. dominant local language favourably (Legere 1996b: 112). The South African Constitution anchors nine indigenous languages, as well as English and Afrikaans, as official languages, according to a pluralistic linguistic ideology. Additive multilingualism is to be introduced in schools, leading to a situation where one's home language is retained throughout one's schooling and is supported by other languages. The selected languages should find implementation in the public service as eco-

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nomic resource and community languages. A trifocal policy is promoted in terms of which each South African should be encouraged (by means of incentives where necessary) to know their mother tongue or home language besides English and another regionally important language (LANTAG 1996:42). The hitherto consideration have lead to the assumption that a trilingual communication scheme is easy to access in African conditions, although the components of such a scheme may have several serious shortcomings. For instance, by following the modernisation theory, governments propagated the belief that there would be a homogenisation and harmonisation of society by introducing English as a 'neutral' language. However, instead of a re-classing of society, the effect of introducing this extraglossic language was merely to restratify society. Thus, a new elite has been formed, whose knowledge of English determines their position of economic and political power (Beck 1995: 257). In Namibia, for example, 25% of the total number of children have a rudimentary exposure to English at best; therefore, they are automatically disqualified from any activity requiring a knowledge of the official language (Legere 1996b: 62) Laitin (1992: 54) argues, as do Mazrui and Mazrui (1998), that data based on socio-economic indicators from 40 African countries demonstrate no obvious statistical relationship between language diversity and economic growth. Even African literature in English constitutes a major contribution to contemporary literature in English only. Lingua francas are criticised chiefly on the grounds of their underdeveloped terminology. In several science subjects at secondary school level, they are still unable to replace English, for example. Even more important is the slow technicalisation of vehicular languages since they have to play a central role in the development of the whole community and should be viewed as an integrated part of the community's intellectual life (Webb 1995: 87). They also contribute to the decay of smaller language groups. For instance, some critics even insisted that Kiswahili had become a scapegoat for the declining standards of education: from the language of hope it turned to a language of empty promises (Ngonyani 2001: 256). The position of minority languages depends on their ethoglossia - the communicative character of a language or variety. It is the expressive power of the language, i.e. its communicative strength, determined by the number of functions it performs and the quality of such functions relative to the social structure of the speech community. The speakers may choose to use the language for reasons of ethnic identity, economic power or the

112 Rajmund Ohly

social organisation of the speech community. It is assumed that the environment does not endanger ethnic groups that are numerically strong. In Botswana, for example, Setswana is spoken by about 80% of the population of 1.3 million. It is also Botswana's national language. In South Africa a further 3.6 million people speak it. However, learners' attitudes towards Setswana are negative because it does not contribute to their career advancement (Legere 1996a: 120f.). At the same time, there is no interest in the development of Setswana literature and literary activity is low. On the other hand, in Nigeria for example, literature in Yoruba (10-12 million speakers) is well established. It reflects a creative strategy that makes art amenable to popular dissemination media like television, radio and newspapers, which now accommodate poems and short stories (Bodunde 2001: 10). Yoruba is also taught as a subject from the beginning of primary education while the other subjects (e.g. mathematics, science) are taught in Yoruba in the experimental classes for a six-year duration. Nevertheless, in South Africa for example, Zulu and all the other African languages spoken there - which have more speakers than either English or Afrikaans - fall into the category of dominated languages. It may be assumed that, in African societies, trilingual, quadrilingual and even multilingual communication is common. However, regardless of the circumstances, bilingualism creates a problematic situation. The acquisition of a second language might lead from incipient stage of bilingualism to a progressive stage, an integral stage,a regressive stage and a residual bilingualism in relation to L] (Sommer 1995: 24). Thus, as Legere (1996a: 68) observes, a two-language policy which does not implement additive bilingualism is geared towards subtractive bilingualism, i.e. the given African language would become a second-class language, inferior to English, good only for informal communication. At present since the official (LWC) language, the lingua franca and local language cannot compete with each other, they should form a complementary environment in a functional multilingual situation. Therefore, a triglossic occurrence has to be recognised. The lingua franca plays the most important role because downward accommodation,i.e. vertical integration, seems to be the rule in much of Africa. In East Africa and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the elite learns enough Kiswahili to communicate with the masses. Along the West African coast, a pidginised or creolised form is used to communicate across groups; and in other countries, an indigenous vehicular language such as Dyula in the Ivory Coast is used for this purpose (Myers-Scotton 1990: 39). As already men-

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tioned, African languages which facilitate the process by which the elite successfully penetrates the masses and the masses have adequate access to the elite are a definite advantage in the quest for vertical integration. In performing horizontally integrative functions at the lower level, African vehicular languages serve as the main languages of trade unionism and organised labour (Mazrui and Mazrui 1998: 103). Minority languages are often exposed to the ethnicisation of politics in a pluralistic society. That is, different political parties often tend to derive popular support from specific ethnic groups. SWAPO of Namibia, the ruling party in that country, provides a good example of popular support deriving chiefly from an ethnic group - in this case the Ovambo. On the other hand, governments often try to activate defensive minorities, for instance, through folklorisation that enhances the cultural performance of such minorities. Meanwhile, self-contained strong minorities employ cultural and linguistic islandisation, thus avoiding language shift orany predominant influence from the outside. A triglossic situation may emerge by sociolinguistic necessity. For example, according to official sources, English in the Caprivi Region in Namibia functions as the official language, Silozi functions asa semi-official language and accepted lingua franca, while Sifwe and Cisubiyaserve as local or national languages, although only in colloquial use. Therefore, in the Official Language Model, English forms the upper layer, Silozi the middle layer and Sifwe/Cisubiya the lower layer. In language practice the position of the given language is variable. For instance, in the Cisubiya Discourse Model, in almost all speech situations (with one exception 'amongst good friends') Silozi occupies the lowest place of preference, with Cisubiya reigning supreme in all speech situations and Englishserving in second place (Ohly 1994). Thus, arguments such as those quoted by Batibo (1995: 73) to the effect that a triglossia model (English-Kiswahililocal languages) is not realistic in the case of Tanzania - because the vehicular function of Kiswahili is not stable and, at the same time, English and the local languages would be deemed to be progressively redundant and not complementary as an ideal triglossia situation would demand seem to reflect a misunderstanding. Triglossia, taking into consideration the African's inborn gift for language acquisition, is therefore a privilege within each African's reach. On the other hand, the sociolinguistic request for nationwide communication under existing conditions makes the implementation of triglossia a neces-

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sary step t o w a r d s communication at the nationallevel in order to achieve national integration and national development.

Notes 1. 2.

3.

4. 5. 6.

The term 'nation' denotes all of the citizens or people of the given country. See e.g. Jouni Maho (2000). African Languages Country by Country. A Reference Guide. Gothenburg University. Also J. F. Maho and B. Sands (2002). The Languages of Tanzania. A Bibliography. Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensia. Classification according to J. Cobarrubias (1987). Models of language planning for minority languages, Bulletin of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics, 47-70. A language is described as 'minoritised' if it lacks certain fundamental language functions or if some of its functions are restricted. In full, the Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Employment Creation. In full, the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture.

References Bamgbose, Ayo 2000 Language and Exclusion: The Consequences of Language Policies in Africa. Hamburg: LIT. Batibo, Herman M. 1995 The growth of Kiswahili as language of education and administration in Tanzania. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), 57-82. 1998 The fate of the Khoesan languages of Botswana. In: Brenzinger, Μ. (ed.), 267-281. Beck, Anke 1995 Language and nation in Namibia: the fallacies of modernization theory. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), 207-222. Bichler, Aisha G. 2000 Bejo, Curay and Bin-Bimm. Eine soziolinguistische Studie. PhD Thesis, University of Vienna. Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.) 1998a Endangered Languages in Africa. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.) 1998b Sprachwechsel afrikanischer Minoritäten aus soziolinguistischer Sicht. Cologne: Institut für Afrikanistik, University of Cologne.

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Bodunde, Charles 2001 Aestetics, media and political currents in Yoruba literature. In: Bodunde, C. (ed.), African Languages Literature in the Political Context of the 1990s, 9-12. Bayreuth: Bayreuth University. Cobarrubias, Juan 1983 Ethical issues in status planning. In: Cobarrubias, J. and J. A. Fishman (eds.), Progress in Language Planning, 41-85. The Hague: Mouton. Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. 1998 Languages contraction versus other types of contact-induced change. In: Brenzinger, Μ. (ed.), 71-118. Laitin, David 1992 Language Repertoire and State Construction in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. LANTAG 1996 Towards a National Language Plan for South Africa. Final Report of LANTAG. Pretoria: Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. Legere, Karsten (ed.) 1996a African Languages in Basic Education. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. 1996b Cross-border Languages. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. Maho, Jouni F. 2000 African Languages Country by Country. Gothenburg: Gothenburg University. Mansour, Gerda 1993 Multilingualism and Nation Building. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Mazrui, Ali A. and Alamin M. Mazrui 1998 The Tower of Babel: Languages and Governance in the African Experience. Oxford: James Currey. Myers-Scotton, Carol 1990 Elite closure as a boundary maintenance: The case of Africa. In: Weinstein, Β. (ed.), Language Policy and Political Development, 25—42. Norwood, N.Y.: Ablex. Ngonyani, Deo 2001 The changing fortunes of Kiswahili in Tanzania. South African Journal of African Languages 21 (3): 244-258. Ohly, Rajmund 1987 The Destabilization of the Herero Language. Windhoek: The Academy.

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The position of the Subiya language in Capri vi. Afrika und Übersee 77: 105-127. 2001. Smierc j?zyka w Afryce. Afryka 13, PTAfr.: 17-33. Pütz, Martin (ed.) 1995 Discrimination Through Language in Africa? Perspectives on the Namibian Experience. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Sommer, Gabriele 1995 Ethnographie des Sprachwechsels. Cologne: Rüdiger Koppe. Tosco, Mauro 1998 People who aren't the language they speak; on language shift without language decay in East Africa. In: Brenzinger, Μ. (ed.), 119-143. Webb, Victor 1995 The technilization of the autochtonous languages of South Africa: constraints from a present day perspective. In: Pütz, Μ. (ed.), 83100.

Section II

Language policy and education

Using Northern Sotho as medium of instruction in vocational training1 Vic Webb, Biki Lepota and Refilwe Ramagoshi

1.

Introduction

The main aim of the research project Language, educational effectiveness and economic outcomes (Le3o) (see Addendum A for a brief exposition) is to demonstrate empirically that the use of Northern Sotho as medium of instruction (Mol) in the teaching of Industrial Electronics in Grades 10 to 12 at two Colleges for Further Education and Training (CFET) will lead to improved knowledge and better developed skills in the selected subject area. Currently, the official Mol in all CFET is English: learners are taught in English, they have to learn in English (that is, master complex concepts and principles, understand how complicated systems function, read text books in English), and they have to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills in their selected fields of study in English (i.e. write tests and exams in English). However, learners' are generally not proficient enough in English to perform these tasks effectively, and their educational performance is therefore not satisfactory (see the opening paper of the Le3o conference (Webb 2002b). The use of English as Mol, in fact, operates as an obstacle to effective educational development at the colleges. Le3o therefore wants to construct the case for using Northern Sotho as Mol, arguing on theoretical as well as empirical grounds that such a decision will contribute towards improving educational development in the CFET and, subsequently, lead to more competitive performance in the workplace. The main questions Le3o has to ask regarding the use of Northern Sotho as Mol are (a) whether Northern Sotho has the linguistic capacity to function effectively as Mol, and (b) if it is found that Northern Sotho does not have the linguistic capacity to function effectively as Mol, how this

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capacity should be developed? Both of these questions will be dealt with in this paper.

2. The linguistic capacity required for a language to function as Mol in an effective way It goes without saying that, in principle, Northern Sotho possesses the linguistic capacity to function effectively as Mol at any level of instruction: it has the necessary general vocabulary and the morphological and syntactic capacity to express whatever meanings its speakers wish to express. What it does not have, as yet, are the vocabulary of technical terms (examples from Industrial Electronics - obtained from college exam papers and textbooks - include: circuit diagrams, volt drop, kilowatt, conductors, nominal cross-section area, three-phase transformer, diode, short-shunt compound)·, and the necessary technical styles and registers. An important point in this regard is, of course, that learners' knowledge of the academic and technical vocabulary items and the grammatical devices as well as their linguistic skills in using the vocabulary and the grammatical devices must be developed.4 Considering the fact that highlevel educational contexts are often context reduced and cognitively demanding, as Cummins (2001: 66-67) points out, it is essential that learners' academic language proficiency be maximally developed. This must obviously occur in both the language class and in content subjects. A more revealing approach to determining whether Northern Sotho has the capacity to function effectively as Mol at high levels of educational usage is to evaluate it from the perspective of the concept standard language, the variety typically used in formal education. Modern language communities (including the Northern Sotho language community) are typically constituted by a variety of groups with differing socio-culturai identities speaking a diversity of social and geographical dialects in contexts that differ in terms of formality (using different styles) and domains of activity (using different registers). Formal education, however, being centrally controlled, requires the use of a "unified, non-local, relatively stable and multifunctional medium of communication" (Deumert, Forthcoming a: 9) for all its tasks: teaching and learning, the production of text-books, learner assessment and certification, and teacher training. This (unified) language must necessarily be a standardised language. This applies equally to Northern Sotho: to function effectively as Mol in

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formal education, Northern Sotho has to have been standardised. 5 The question, thus, is: Is Northern Sotho a standard language? To determine whether Northern Sotho has been effectively standardised (and is thus an adequate medium of learning and teaching in a modern society), it is necessary to be explicit about the distinctive features of standard languages. 6 Fully-fledged standard languages are varieties which "cut across regional differences, providing a unified means of communication . . . " (Kembo-Sure and Webb 2000: 65) and which: (a)

(b) (c) (d) (e)

(f)

have clearly defined norms, which were prescribed by authoritative bodies and have been fully codified, i.e. described in grammars and dictionaries are structurally relatively uniform, exhibiting minimal formal variation are known by all educated members of the language community are accepted by the language community as the appropriate varieties for high-function formal contexts, thus having prestige are functionally fully elaborated, in the sense of having the capacity to be used to perform any high level public function any member of their speech communities may wish to perform, and are transmitted through instruction in formal education.

Deumert (Forthcoming a and b) makes the following additional remarks: (a)

Standardisation is facilitated through individuals modifying "their linguistic behaviour ... to achieve communicative efficiency (and) to position themselves socially. (S)peakers/writers (unconsciously) adjust their speech to reduce or to emphasize differences between themselves and their interlocutors" (Forthcoming a: 4-5): speakers are thus aware of the standard norms and utilise them for social purposes. (b) The production, propagation, institutionalisation and assimilation of standard languages within a speech community are linked to a language ideology: "(T)he structural properties and social prestige of standard languages in modern societies are legitimized by a specific type of language ideology which includes not only references to beauty, eloquence and the authority of the "best usage", but which centrally reflects on the invariance or "fixity" condition of standard languages" (Forthcoming a: 10-11).

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(c)

Since standard languages "incorporate speakers of different dialects into a single speech community whose linguistic boundaries to the surrounding speech communities are unambiguously defined", they "serve as symbols of national solidarity as well as national distinctiveness", and thus have symbolic meanings (Forthcoming a: 9). Since standard languages are "used strategically to demonstrate linguistic and social cohesion, that is, 'to depict a group of people as a coherent and ordered community based on shared values and goals'" (quoting C. Bell, 1997 on ritual theory) (Forthcoming b: 4), language standardisation functions as part of ethno-linguistic awareness (identity construction through language), and is often accompanied by language festivals (and sometimes even by language monuments, as in the case of Afrikaans).

(d)

Ramagoshi

Given these features of standard languages and the standardisation process, the question is to what degree Northern Sotho has a standard language? Generally, Northern Sotho is said to be a standard language. 7 It is based on the dialect of the Pedi, historically the strongest ethnic group in the Northern Sotho area. Standard Northern Sotho is used for teaching and learning purposes in some primary schools and in primary school textbooks, learners are expected to use it in writing tests and examinations at these levels, and it is taught as a subject. Northern Sotho linguists point out, though, that standard Northern Sotho exists only in a written form, and is not known very well by learners and possibly even by teachers. In fact, in classroom situations learners are usually allowed to use their vernaculars (their regional dialects or the urban vernacular, Pretoria Sotho), but in formal school tasks (assignments, tests, exams) they are required to use (written) Northern Sotho. (This arrangement obviously does not apply in the study of Northern Sotho as a subject.) If one uses the features of a fully-fledged Mol and a fully-fledged standard language, listed above, as criteria for determining whether standard Northern Sotho is a meaningful reality, the status of standard Northern Sotho, however, seems to be slightly marginal. It is true that Northern Sotho has been codified (it has an orthography and rules of spelling, several grammars and 12 dictionaries - see the addenda), that it is taught in school, that many educated persons are proficient in it, that it was used in state administration in the former Northern Sotho self-governing region and that it is also occasionally used today by political leaders. However, it is also the case that:

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-

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all educated members of the community do not seem to know and use standard Northern Sotho effectively, for instance teachers are reported to be unsure about the norms of standard Northern Sotho; many members of the Northern Sotho community do not accept the standardised variety of Northern Sotho (which is based on the dialect of the Pedi) and there is evidence of language-internal conflict in the community (see later); and though is has been (and is being) used (in some degree) in high-level public functions, it is not generally used in these functions, and has also not been functionally fully elaborated in the sense of having the capacity to be used to perform all the functions members of the speech communities may wish to perform (for instance in science and technology).

In addition, the standardisation of Northern Sotho is not linked to a standard language ideology according to which there is a drive towards developing a fully-fledged standard language with prescribed norms being regarded as "beautiful", "correct" and "proper" (and with vernacular forms regarded as "deviant" and "incorrect") 8 . Similarly, Northern Sotho has not served to unite its speakers "into a single speech community whose linguistic boundaries to the surrounding speech communities are unambiguously defined", thus serving as a symbol of national solidarity and national distinctiveness. The unstable position of Northern Sotho is reflected in the uncertainty about the notion "standard Northern Sotho" in the language community in general (see footnote 7, and further down). If Northern Sotho is to serve as an effective instrument of educational development, it will be necessary to take its standardisation further. This will not be an easy task, however, since there are at least two obstacles to such a process. The first problem with the further standardisation of Northern Sotho lies in the delineation of the Sotho languages. Since their arrival in southern Africa in the course of the later Iron Age (sometime after the 11th century), the three "Sotho-speaking" communities of southern Africa (the modern day Northern Sotho community, the Tswana - or "Western Sotho" - and the Southern Sotho), constituted a single cultural and linguistic unit. However, as a result of factors such as internal rivalry and conflict, this unified group split into geographically dispersed ethnic communities, each with its own leaders, and gradually developing its own dialect. Further internal differentiation occurred through political manoeuvres (e.g. planned marriages) and conquests, so

124 Vic Webb, Biki Lepota and Refilwe Ramagoshi that the different groups attained different degrees of power within the larger community (Bergh 1998: 107-8; Davenport 1991: 9, 52-53). Today, the dialects of the Sotho languages total about 50. The differentiation of the Sotho community into three groups (Northern Sotho, Tswana and Southern Sotho) probably began as a result of early missionary work. Missionaries from different societies began working among the most powerful chiefdoms, translating the Bible into the languages of these communities, in the process producing three Bibles (one of which was in the dialect of the Northern Sotho Pedi people). Later, these divisions were formalised by the implementation of the policy of apartheid. The Africanist R. K. Herbert (1992) argues in this regard that, besides missionary politics, language boundaries were based on the implementation of Apartheid. Northern Sotho (which he calls Pedi), he points out, is internally diverse enough to "raise some doubts about its essential unity", and is so similar to Tswana that it is difficult to draw "any real boundary between Pedi and Tswana". Despite this, "Pedi" and Tswana were claimed to reflect distinct ethnic identities. The Apartheid government, he says, created ethnic groups and standard languages to justify their policy. The homeland Lebowa, for example, the "self-governing" region of the Northern Sotho/Pedi people, was designated as a 'homeland' for people who "themselves came into existence only through the legislative action of apartheid policy. Linguistic autonomy here and elsewhere has more to do with sociopolitical criteria than linguistic ones" (1992: 2-3). The apparent irrelevance of linguistic considerations is also illustrated by Bogopa (In prep.), who points out that Northern Sotho dialects such as Kutswe, Pai, Lobedu and Pulana, are mutually not wholly intelligible. Further evidence in support of the contention that the division between Northern Sotho and Tswana was contrived in the 1960s is that the graphisisation of the Sotho languages was initially handled as if they were one language. It was only after 1960 that the government appointed three different language boards to deal with the orthographical representation of each. The relative confusion about the language boundaries is reflected by the differences in opinion in the Northern Sotho community about the names which should be used to refer to Northern Sotho. Firstly, the name "Northern Sotho" is said to be an "umbrella term" for the collection of dialects recognised as constituting the language. No one, however, is said to "speak Northern Sotho". Secondly, the decision (by government agencies) to name Northern Sotho "Sepedi" (used in the 1996 constitution), has been rejected, as pointed out below. (The current official language name is once again

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"Northern Sotho'VSesotho sa Leboa, announced in a recent Government Gazette.) Thirdly, the term standard Northern Sotho is not used (or generally known); instead, the term "pure" Northern Sotho is used, presumably to refer to what would be called standard Northern Sotho. Today, Northern Sotho, Tswana and Southern Sotho are regarded as three distinct languages.9 The second problem relates to the social relationships between the different dialects of Northern Sotho. Northern Sotho is said to comprise 27 regional dialects. However, there does not seem to be agreement among linguists regarding their identification and designation (in some cases not even the spelling of their names), their classification into subgroups and, indeed, the criteria used to identify these dialects. (See Addendum Β for a list and geographical classification of the Northern Sotho dialects, following Van Wyk [1966].) In addition to the regional dialects there are also urban vernaculars 10 - Pretoria-Sotho and Tsotsitaal, which differ phonetically, grammatically and lexically from standard Northern Sotho (see later for Pretoria Sotho). The dialect issue that is most relevant to the development of Northern Sotho into a fully-fledged high-function language is the question of the social meaning of the Northern Sotho varieties. Four aspects of this issue can be mentioned: -

-

There is some resistance against the name Sepedi. Standard Northern Sotho is based on Sepedi, the vernacular of the Pedi people from Sekhukhuneland in the central territory, who are historically the strongest ethnic group in the broader community, previously being governed in a federation of chiefdoms. Given this fact, the standard language of the broader linguistic community was named Sepedi. However, there was strong resistance to this name, based on the argument by speakers of non-Pedi dialects that Sepedi is the name of a dialect and that they did not want their varieties/dialects to be classified as "dialects of a dialect". The name of the language was recently changed by government decree to Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa). Northern Sotho's regional dialects have a negative social meaning in urban areas. Speakers of these dialects are regarded as inferior, of low class, and uneducated. Since "pure Northern Sotho'Vstandard Northern Sotho is based on a rural dialect, it, too, is stigmatised, and city dwellers are said to prefer Pretoria Sotho and Tsotsitaal.

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There are dialect communities grouped within Northern Sotho who reject their inclusion into Northern Sotho. Speakers of Lobedu, for example, insist that they do not speak Northern Sotho, but a different language. (In fact, in the late 1990s a delegation of this community requested the Pan South African Language Board to work towards getting Lobedu recognised as a national official language.) Within the broader linguistic community, particularly in the case of the (rural) dialect communities and from people who have an attachment to these dialects, there is a strong commitment to the notion of linguistic "purity" and "correctness" despite the fact that these notions have no sociolinguistic validity. Pretoria Sotho and Tsotsitaal are regarded as corrupt forms of the Sotho languages. 11

From these observations it is clear that "pure Northern Sotho'Vstandard Northern Sotho is not regarded as the "legitimate language of the community", that there is, in fact, an absence of societal unity linked to a common I0 identity and that there is a degree of language-internal conflict (or at least tension) within the Northern Sotho community. If Northern Sotho is to become a fully-fledged standard language, an "ideology of standardisation" (as Deumert calls it, that is: a need for "uniformity and correctness" within the linguistic community) needs to become operative and the legitimacy of the ensuing standard needs to be accepted. For this to happen some degree of linguistic awareness, i.e. a link between standard Northern Sotho and a common identity, is presumably necessary.

3.

The present state of standard Northern Sotho

Given that there are problems with the general acceptance, knowledge and use of standard Northern Sotho, the important question for Le3o is: If standard Northern Sotho is to be used as Mol in teaching Industrial Electronics at the two colleges for FET, what adaptation does Northern Sotho need to undergo to produce standard Northern Sotho? In order to discuss this question, it is necessary to consider the current state of corpus development, status development and acquisition development in Northern Sotho.

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3.1. Corpus development Orthographic development: The initial graphisisation of Northern Sotho was begun in 1861 by the Berlin Missionary Society who translated the Bible into the vernacular of the community in which they first settled in the nineteenth century, the Pedi. Being non-linguists, they followed the orthographic conventions of German. From 1928, however, more systematic attempts were made to produce a writing system. Initially, the three Sotho languages were treated as one as far as orthographic matters were concerned, but from 1961 (the high point in the Apartheid era) the three languages were being treated as three distinct languages (Bogopa, In prep.) by government-designated language bodies, viz. the former Northern Sotho 11 Language Board . The basic document on Northern Sotho orthography produced by the former Northern Sotho Language Board is the Northern Sotho Terminology and Orthography No. 4, last revised in 1988. It contains a list of terms and an explanation of the spelling rules/orthography of Northern Sotho. According to Taljard (2002: 2), however, this document is "outdated and in need of serious updating and revision"; and its guidelines, are "to a large extent inadequate and the terminologist is largely left to his/her own device as regards for example the adaptation of syllable structure and resultant spelling of especially transliterations". The spelling rules, she adds, are "not clear, consistent or phonologically sound". Furthermore, she points out, the document "is not readily available, since it is not commercially marketed". One of the first tasks of the (recently established) Northern Sotho National Language Body, which is currently legally responsible for the standardisation of Northern Sotho, should thus be to finalise the orthographic conventions of Northern Sotho. Lexicographic work: A number of Northern Sotho dictionaries have been produced, as listed in Addendum C. Gouws (1990: 55), however, sees lexicographic work in the African languages in general (and thus also in Northern Sotho) as the "result of limited efforts, not reflecting a high lexicographical standard". Lexicographic work is currently managed by the Pan South African Language Board (PANSALB) who has established national dictionary units for each of the official South African languages. The eventual aim of these units is to compile comprehensive monolingual explanatory diction-

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aries. The Northern Sotho Dictionary Unit was established in 2001, with two full-time first-language lexicographers. This unit makes use of the Pretoria Sepedi Corpus, which was assembled over the past decade by the University of Pretoria's Department of African Languages. The corpus samples were drawn from "several hundred ... written sources by several hundred mother-tongue speakers, and roughly corresponds with the equivalent of three hundred books ..." (approximately 6 million words) (de Schrijver and Lepota 2001: 3). Terminographic work: The terms contained in the Northern Sotho Terminology and Orthography No.4, mentioned above, are not of great significance in the standardisation process since they were "intended in the first place for use in the primary school and were mainly taken from the syllabuses for the various subjects of the primary school" (Terminology and orthography No 4, 1988: 1) (Taljard 2002: 2). The body currently officially responsible for term creation in South Africa is the terminography section of the National Language Services of the Department of Arts and Culture. In addition to them, there are non-governmental projects which are also developing terms for specific fields. An example is the project at the University of Pretoria which is directed at creating and standardising linguistic and literary terms. (See also the dictionary of grammatical terms compiled by Louwrens, listed in Addendum C.) Grammatical descriptions: Several grammars of Northern Sotho have been produced, giving a full-scale description of the grammar of Northern Sotho. There are also school grammars, written in Northern Sotho (see Addendum D).

3.2. The social status of Northern Sotho Very little systematic and verifiable work has been done on the social status of Northern Sotho, and the information available is either inferred from secondary sources (such as book publications and the Mol policies and practices in formal education), based on incidental and subjective observations or obtained in restricted research projects. The following information can be provided:

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Book production: According to a survey undertaken by Rail and Warricker (2000: 22) 505 books were published in Northern Sotho from 1990 to 1998, distributed as follows: 1992 1994 1990 1991 1993 62 48 31 56 48 Source: Quoted in Webb (2002: 253)

1995 81

1996 64

1997 59

1998 56

TOTAL 505

These figures compare well with the other African languages in South Africa (Tswana: 494, Southern Sotho: 502, and Zulu: 1,052), but not well compared with Afrikaans (9,537) or English (21,060). Selection of Northern Sotho as MoL The degree in which Northern Sotho is selected as Mol also reflects negatively on the status of the language. This is apparent from a comparison of the selection of Northern Sotho as Mol in specific provinces with the numbers of first language speakers in those provinces. In 1997, these figures, in percentages, were as follows: Gauteng Limpopo % Northern % who se% Northern Sotho 1st lected Sotho 1st language Northern language speakers in Sotho as speakers in province Mol province 8.3% 2.0% 56.7% Source: Quoted in Webb (2002: 185)

% who selected Northern Sotho as Mol 32.8%

Mpumalanga % Northern Sotho 1st language speakers in province 10.8%

% who selected Northern Sotho as Mol 3.0%

The selection of Northern Sotho as Mol is furthermore largely restricted to the first four grades of the formal school. The main reason for this situation is, of course, the belief among parents that their children need to acquire English if they are to have access to employment opportunities in adult life. (See the comments on this argument in the opening paper of the Le3o conference, Webb [2002b].) Northern Sotho as subject of study The low status of Northern Sotho is also reflected in the attitude of school authorities and learners towards its study. Learners argue that there is no need to study Northern Sotho since they "already know the language", and school managements are said to use their less effective teachers to teach Northern Sotho as a subject. Teachers, especially those who teach history, science and English, are also said to ridi-

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cule their colleagues who teach or have majored in African languages. Furthermore, learners are discouraged from further study of Northern Sotho at tertiary level, because, they are told, such study will not give them access to any employment prospects (Malimabe 1990). The study of Northern Sotho and the African languages in general at universities is in an equally poor shape. Although there are Departments of African Languages at all the South African universities, enrolment numbers have reduced radically over the past 10 years. As regards postgraduate study in African languages (which, in South Africa, refers to study following the primary degree, generally a BA), there was a decline from 511 candidates at the University of South Africa, the largest university in the country, in 1997, to 53 in 2001 (Webb 2002: 250), whilst at the University of Pretoria the decline was from 177 in 1995 to 87 in 2003. Domains of use: Like all the African languages in South Africa, Northern Sotho is generally speaking used only for low-functions and in low-status contexts, namely for social interaction with family and friends, for cultural practice and for religion. 14 Northern Sotho is not valued in the community as a language of science and technology. Language attitudes: As indicated above, the systematic, verifiable study of attitudes to Northern Sotho has not yet been undertaken in a significant way. There are, however, some small scale surveys relating to the African languages in general. An example of such a survey is the work of Strydom (2002), who compiled a sociolinguistic profile of Atteridgeville and Mamelodi from fieldwork. 15 Some of her findings are presented in Tables 1 to 4 (based on Strydom [2002]): Table 1. Language the President should use in addressing the nation as %, in Att(eridgeville) and Mam(elodi) Eng

North. Tswa Sso Zulu Xhos Ndeb Afr. Sotho Att 86.7; 3.3; 0.67; 0.67; 1-3; 1.3; 1.3; 0.0; Mam 66.7 4.7 2.0 0.0 4.7 0.67 0.0 0.7

Swaz Tson All 0.0; 0.0

0.0; 0.0

0.6; 4.7

Abbreviations, in order of columns: English, Northern Sotho, Tswana, Southern Sotho, Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele, Afrikaans, Swazi, and Tsonga.

Northern Sotho as medium of instruction 131 Table 2. Preferred language if all magazines, books and newspapers could be printed in ONE language as % Eng Att Mam

79.7; 67.3

Northern Sotho 5.4; 4.7

6

Zulu

Tsw

Afr

Ndeb

Swaz

Tson

1.4; 8.0

1.4; 2.7

1.35; 0.7

1.4; 1.3

0.7; 0.0

1.0; 0.0

Multilingual 5.7; 14.6

Table 3. Mean scores for value of languages for getting a job (1 = valuable, 3 = not valuable)

Atteridgeville Mamelodi

English 1.02 1.15

Afrikaans 1.29 1.6

Northern Sotho 1.65 1.85

Tswana 1.76 2.13

Zulu 1.76 2.02

Table 4. Mean scores for value of languages for obtaining respect (1 = valuable, 3 = not valuable,)

Atteridgeville Mamelodi

English 1.07 1.34

Northern Sotho 1.17 1.57

Tswana 1.22 1.9

Zulu 1.42 1.85

Afrikaans 1.58 2.0

If one considers the fact that 65% of the inhabitants of Atteridgeville and 80% of the inhabitants of Mamelodi were first language speakers of Northern Sotho according to the 1996 census statistics, Tables 1 to 4 need very little comment: it is clear that, although Northern Sotho is generally the language with the most support among the African languages (with the exception of Zulu in one case), it is overwhelmed by English (as are all the other languages).

3.3. Acquisition development As indicated above, standard Northern Sotho is taught and studied as a subject at all three levels of formal learning, also at the doctoral level. However, it is reasonably clear that there are serious problems in this field. Very little research has been undertaken on the problems of teaching Northern Sotho in primary and secondary schools, but it is likely that the following observations may have some validity:

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the curricula of standard Northern Sotho are said to be experienced as irrelevant to the needs of learners, and non-stimulating; the learning materials used (including prescribed works) may be experienced as uninteresting and non-challenging; the didactic methods used may be inappropriate; teachers of Northern Sotho are reported to be unenthusiastic about their subject.

A further complicating factor may be that Northern Sotho teachers are not confident in their proficiency in standard Northern Sotho, as Nfila (2002: 71) puts it: (It may) "be assumed that teachers are unsure of the norms; thus, they might not be sure of what is to be regarded as standard and what is not".

3.4. Summary Given the above sociolinguistic profile, one can say that Northern Sotho has been partly standardised, but that, judged in terms of the concept standard language described above, current standard Northern Sotho does not qualify to be regarded as a fully-fledged standard language, possessing the capacity to perform the function of Mol in Grades 10 to 12 effectively. This is particularly apparent from the fact that standard Northern Sotho does not possess the status usually associated with a standard language, that there is no strongly developed 'ideology of standardisation', and that, though it has been argued that the division of communities on linguistic lines in the time of Apartheid, has engendered some sort of ethnolinguistic self-awareness, there is currently very little evidence of any 'linguistic loyalty' driving the standardisation of standard Northern Sotho, nor has standard Northern Sotho played a significant role in promoting 'societal unification and a common identity'. On the contrary, there are signs of language-internal conflict, particularly between some dialects and Northern Sotho. Given these facts, Northern Sotho clearly has some way to go before one can think in terms of a fully developed standard variety of the language, and thus an effective Mol.

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4. The relationship between standard Northern Sotho and Pretoria Sotho Since most of the learners in the two colleges for FET in the Le3o project come from the Tshwane area, it is important to take note of the linguistic and sociolinguistic relationship between standard Northern Sotho and Pretoria Sotho, and to determine whether Pretoria Sotho is a barrier in the educational context. 17 Malimabe (1990: 10) points out that Pretoria Sotho is based on the Kgatla dialect of Tswana, but includes many words from Northern Sotho 1 ft as well as from Afrikaans and English. According to Calteaux (1996: 6 5 68), it is spoken by most black citizens (all generations, all genders, professionals as well as less-educated persons) residing in and around Pretoria/Tshwane, 19 and is mostly used in informal domains (between people using public transport, in taverns and shebeens) but it is also used in formal domains such as political rallies and school classrooms. It serves as an urban lingua franca, has a unifying function and has become the vernacular norm in the Tshwane area, symbolising modernity and progressiveness (being 'city-wise'). For the purpose of Le3o it is necessary to note that Pretoria Sotho is commonly used in schools as a medium of communication. There are at least two reasons for this, as Calteaux (1996: 148) points out: firstly, many families are linguistically mixed (e.g. a Zulu-speaking father and a Northern Sotho-speaking mother), so that the language of the home (as well as the language of social interaction) is often either code-mixed or is the local urban vernacular (in Tshwane Pretoria Sotho). Secondly, urban schools are also generally linguistically mixed, which leads to teachers using a variety all the learners are reasonably comfortable with. This means that Pretoria Sotho becomes the common medium of discourse in the schools as well. The only time that standard Northern Sotho is used, it seems, is in the Northern Sotho class, that is, when it is being taught and studied as a subject. The linguistic character of Pretoria Sotho and its linguistic relationship to standard Northern Sotho has been studied and described to some extent by Malimabe (1990). She points out that the two varieties differ in all the ways usually found in contact situations: extensive borrowings, phonological adaptations, morphological and syntactic interference and semantic shifts. However, despite these differences, Pretoria Sotho and standard Northern Sotho are mutually comprehensible. The problem regarding the

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effect of Pretoria Sotho in the educational context seems not to be linguistic, but rather sociolinguistic. For urban dwellers, Pretoria Sotho symbolises modernity and progressiveness (being 'city-wise'), as pointed out above. However, for purists in the African language communities the urban vernaculars are "corrupt, adulterated, bastardised, and impure linguistic behaviour" (Zungu 1995, quoted in Calteaux 1996: 5), and the speech of these speakers is regarded as having defects and their speakers are seen as having need of remedial education (Calteaux 1996: 6). In contrast to this, the social meaning of standard Northern Sotho for urbanites is: 'being uncivilised', traditional, old-fashioned and backward, and its speakers are looked down upon. There are many examples (and comprehensive research findings about them) of the role of negative language attitudes in educational success and failure, for example Black English Vernacular (Afro-American English/Ebonics) and Cape Afrikaans. Negative attitudes among teachers towards Pretoria Sotho could also lead to educational failure, and negative attitudes among learners (and teachers) towards standard Northern Sotho could likewise lead to educational problems, and a failure to acquire standard Northern Sotho effectively. It therefore seems to us that the major focus in any programme designed to address the issue of the use of standard Northern Sotho as medium of instruction should be focused on the issue of language attitudes.

5.

What must be done in order to establish a fully standardised Northern Sotho?

The second of the two questions Le3o has to deal with regarding the use of Northern Sotho as Mol (see the beginning of this paper) is how its linguistic capacity to function effectively as Mol should be developed. The standard response to a question like this is that corpus, status and acquisition planning should be undertaken: The norms of standard Northern Sotho should be unambiguously determined 22 and codified and its vocabulary elaborated to provide the means for high-function usage (corpus development); the functional capacity of standard Northern Sotho must be comprehensibly expanded and it must at least be used as Mol at all levels of teaching (status development); and the teaching (and learning) of standard Northern Sotho should be radically addressed (through upgrading its curriculum, establishing effective didactic

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approaches and developing meaningful and stimulating educational materials) (acquisition development). To this (standard) response one needs to add "prestige planning": negative attitudes need to be addressed in a serious way, language-internal conflict must be dealt with, and language policies need to be developed which will eventually provide standard Northern Sotho with clear economic value (policy decisions could include, for example, that proficiency in Northern Sotho/an African language is a prerequisite for appointment to government positions). We know, however, that language planning efforts alone may not lead to meaningful results. They need to be accompanied by some sort of political will, a socio-cultural commitment, an ethno-linguistic awareness, and a dedication from the intellectual leadership to promote a particular language, something akin to what Deumert calls the "ideology of the standard language", that is, a movement which emphasises "the need for uniformity and correctness", the need for a standardised language to facilitate becoming successful, and which contributes to some sense of identity, unity and community loyalty. It is, however, not possible to predict whether such a movement will develop in the case of Northern Sotho. Le3o is, clearly, designed to contribute towards the promotion and development of Northern Sotho. Acknowledging that effective language promotion and the development of a fully-fledged standard language typically occurs over a very long time, it does not presume to be able to make a significant difference. However, the following tasks it wishes to undertake, should contribute in some degree to Northern Sotho's promotion and development: (a)

(b) (d)

(e) (f)

demonstrating on theoretical and empirical grounds that standard Northern Sotho can be used effectively as Mol in technical vocational training; developing (codifying and standardising) academic and technical terms in Northern Sotho ; translating the handbook for Industrial Electronics into Northern Sotho and designing it according to document design principles and the principles of effective didactics; training teachers of Industrial Electronics to teach through the medium of Northern Sotho; making content teachers aware of the fact that they also have a responsibility to develop learners' standard Northern Sotho proficiency ("language-across-the curriculum") 24 ;

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(g)

contributing to the development of the proficiency of both teachers and learners in standard Northern Sotho; addressing negative attitudes towards standard Northern Sotho among learners, teachers and parents.

(h)

The success of the Le3o project and also the success of using Northern Sotho (and the African languages in general) as Mol in South Africa depends to a large degree on changing negative attitudes towards standard Northern Sotho. To effect such change, it is essential that a sociolinguistically sound programme for attitude change be constructed and implemented. The approach to be followed in Le3o is based on the following argument: to change language attitudes, peoples' thinking about the attitude object should first be changed; changed opinions and beliefs can then lead to changes in their affective responses; which, finally, should lead to changes in their linguistic behaviour. Le3o will therefore attempt to restructure the thinking of learners and teachers involved in the project by, firstly, confronting them with their attitudes towards their home language (obtained by using a sociolinguistic questionnaire, see Netshitomboni 2002), then demonstrating to them what the reasons are for their negative attitudes towards Northern Sotho (and standard Northern Sotho), followed by a demonstration through argument and examples that there is no linguistically valid reason to regard Northern Sotho as inferior. If Le3o is successful, the changed opinions, convictions and beliefs of the learners and teachers need to be reinforced with positive experiences, for example the realisation that these languages have economic value (that income can be generated through a high-level proficiency in them) 25 and by the example of high-profile persons (political and business leaders) using the African languages in dignified and cultivated ways in urban contexts.

6.

Conclusion

Language promotion programs often seem to be motivated by what is considered to be the interests of the languages as such. This is not the view within Le3o. It is true that the promotion of the African languages in South Africa is a constitutional imperative (e.g. the requirement that linguistic equity and parity of esteem among the 11 official languages of the country be established), and that their promotion is crucial for the maintenance and promotion of the country's cultural and linguistic diversity as a positive

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national resource, but the main consideration underlying Le3o is that the promotion of the African languages is an essential condition for individual and societal development, for increasing the country's workplace productivity and its international competitiveness, and for narrowing the gap between poor and rich.

ADDENDUM A: The main features of Le3o 26 The immediate problem Le3o wants to address is the obstructive (nonfacilitative) role of language in the training programmes of the Colleges for Further Education and Training (CFET), in particular the use of English as Mol and the non-use of the African languages. (For supporting arguments and data see Webb 2002a, and Webb 2002b.) Le3o is directed at demonstrating on theoretical as well as empirical grounds that the use of an African language as Mol (including being able to write exams in the African language) will lead to more effective education, that is, improved vocational knowledge, understanding and skills. Le3o argues that improved vocational knowledge, understanding and skills will lead to more effective workplace performance and, eventually, to positive economic outcomes. If this happens, the gap between workers who are presently without power and those presently empowered, will diminish. Given that Le3o achieves its empirical goals, it will formulate proposals for the adaptation of existing language-in-education policies, providing, also, associated cost-estimates.

Project organisation Work in the project is divided into 4 sub-projects: determining language proficiency in learners' home language and in English, and determining their language attitudes; studying the use of an African language as Mol; developing and presenting a course in English for Specific Purposes (ESP); and developing alternative language-in-education policy options. The African language on which the research project will focus as a Mol is Northern Sotho, and the subject for which it will be used as such is Industrial Electronics, which is taught in the FET Band 4 (Grades 10 - 12 also known as N l , N2 and N3). The research target group (of CFET learners) will be divided into two sub-groups: a control group and an experi-

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mental group at each of the t w o colleges. T h e experimental groups will be taught Industrial Electronics in Northern Sotho and will receive a specially designed course in ESP. T h e control groups will be taught through the m e d i u m of English, and will not receive any additional course in ESP. L e 3 o expects to be able to show that the experimental g r o u p s ' a c a d e m i c and vocational skills will be significantly higher than those of the control groups, whilst their English language proficiency will not be lower than that of their cohorts. T h e w o r k in the project will be undertaken in four phases: an auditing phase (2002), a preparatory phase ( 2 0 0 2 - 2 0 0 3 ) , an empirical phase (2004) and a reporting phase (2005).

ADDENDUM B: The dialects of Northern Sotho T h e dialects of Northern Sotho were classified into 5 groups by Van W y k (1966): Central; East-central; Northern; Eastern; and North-eastern: North-eastern

Central

Lobedu Phalaborwa Letswalo Hlabeng Kgaga Mahlo Kone Roka

Pedi Kopa Tau Mphahlele Masemola Kone Kwena Molepo Mmamabolo

East-central Kutswe Pulana

Northern Tlokwa Gananwa Kone Kwena Matlala Hlaloga Birwa

Eastern Pai

ADDENDUM C: Northern Sotho dictionaries and reference sources De Schrijver, Gilles-Maurice (ed.) 2001 Pukuntsutlhalosi ya Sesotho sa Leboa 1.0 (PANSalb's First Parallel Dictionary). Pretoria: (SF) 2 Press. Gerber, Hendri H. 2000 Woordeboek Afrikaans - Noord-Sotho/Pukuntsu Seburu - Sesotho sa Leboa. Eldoraigne: Arbeidsprestasie BK.

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Hartshorne, Kenneth B., J. H. A. Swart and Edgar Posselt 1984 Dictionary of Basic English - N. Sotho Across the Curriculum. Johannesburg: Educum Publishers. Kriel, Theunis J. 19764 The New English - Northern Sotho Dictionary, English - Northern Sotho, Northern Sotho - English. Johannesburg: Educum Publishers. 3 1983 Pukuntsu woordeboek, Noord-Sotho - Afrikaans, Afrikaans Noord-Sotho. Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik. Kriel, Theunis J., Egidius B. van Wyk and S. A. Makopo 19894 Pukuntsu woordeboek, Noord-Sotho - Afrikaans, Afrikaans Noord-Sotho. Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik. Kriel, Theunis J., D. J. Prinsloo and Bethuel P. Sathekge 19974 Popular Northern Sotho Dictionary, Northern Sotho - English, English - Northern Sotho. Cape Town: Pharos. Louwrens, L. J. 1994 Dictionary of Northern Sotho Grammatical Terms. Pretoria: Via Afrika. Prinsloo, D. J. and Bethuel P. Sathekge 1996 New Sepedi Dictionary, English - Sepedi (Northern Sotho), Sepedi (Northern Sotho) - English. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter. Prinsloo, D. J., Bethuel P. Sathekge and Lizeth Kapp 1997 Nuwe Sepedi Woordeboek, Afrikaans - Sepedi (Noord-Sotho), Sepedi (Noord-Sotho) - Afrikaans. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter. Ziervogel, Dirk and Pothinus C. M. Mokgokong 1975 Pukuntsu ye kgolo ya Sesotho sa Leboa, Sesotho sa Leboa - Seburu/Seisimane / Groot Noord-Sotho-woordeboek, Noord-Sotho Afrikaans/Engels / Comprehensive Northern Sotho Dictionary, Northern Sotho - Afrikaans/English. Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik. 19884 Klein Noord-Sotho woordeboek, N.-Sotho - Afrikaans - English, Afrikaans - N. Sotho, English - N. Sotho. Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik.

ADDENDUM D: Northern Sotho grammars Lombard, D. P., Egidius B. van Wyk and Pothinus C. Mokgokong 1985 Introduction to the Grammar of Northern Sotho. Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik. Louwrens, L. J. 1991 Aspects of Northern Sotho Grammar. Pretoria: Via Afrika. Poulos, G. and L. J. Louwrens 1994 A Linguistic Analysis of Northern Sotho. Pretoria: Via Afrika.

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Ramagoshi

Van Wyk, Egidius B., P. S. Groenewald, D. J. Prinsloo, J. Η. M. Kock and E. Taljard 1992 Northern Sotho for First Years. Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik.

Notes 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Appreciation is due to Dr. Elsabe Taljard and Ms Rose Bogopa, Department of African Languages, University of Pretoria, for comments on an earlier version of this paper. However, they obviously carry no responsibility for any part of it. This was also the case with Zulu-speaking Chemistry students at the University of Durban-Westvilie in KwaZulu/Natal, for whom English is also the Mol. In a report on a research project on the use of Zulu in teaching Chemistry at that university, Shembe (2002: 6) points out that "the hierarchical nature of chemistry is such that the understanding of certain key concepts is fundamental to the proper acquisition of subsequent knowledge" and that if this understanding does not occur effectively (because of an inadequate proficiency in English), students then "memorise certain points from the text-book (just) long enough to regurgitate them during tests and exam time." Such "learning" is not effective, of course, and inevitably "leads to a high percentage of African students who either drop out in the first year or fail." For example to express relations such as additive, temporal, causal, adversarial and resultative in complex sentences and complex texts through relational words such as thus, therefore, however, consequently and to construct derivations and compounds, conditional clauses, passive sentences and direct and indirect speech, and so forth. It also has, or can easily develop, the learning words (or academic vocabulary) required in educational contexts (such as classify, define, state, give, explain, calculate, determine, make a labelled sketch, show, refer to, illustrate, differentiate, discuss, compare, contrast, demonstrate, motivate, and nouns such as symbol, term, concept, type, method, characteristic, feature, component, (dis) advantage, purpose, principle, value, formula). A Northern Sotho proficiency assessment instrument for assessing learners' academic language proficiency is being developed within Le3o. Given such assessment results, it will be possible to determine what Northern Sotho knowledge and skills need to be developed to enable learners to function effectively in both the learning and the future workplace contexts. The prominence given in this paper to the standard language must not be taken to imply that the vernacular varieties in a linguistic community are in any way less important than the standard language. The views expressed by the Indian sociolinguist, Khubchandani (1984), are explicitly supported in Le3o: that

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6.

7.

8. 9.

10.

11.

12.

13. 14.

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vernacular varieties have important functions to fulfil, and that their meaningfulness and integrity should not be compromised by a one-sided emphasis on standard languages. Technically, the term should be "standard variety", since a standard language is only one of the many varieties which collectively constitute a language, the others being the different styles, dialects and registers of the language. The term standard Northern Sotho is not used in the Northern Sotho community, nor does it seem to be known. Generally, the term people use to refer to the standardised version of Northern Sotho is Northern Sotho. In this contribution a distinction between the two terms will be made for the sake of clarity: the term Northern Sotho will be used as the name for the collectivity of Northern Sotho dialects, and the term standard Northern Sotho will be used to refer to a distinct variety displaying the features listed above. There is, though, a strong sense of 'purity' among rural dialect speakers, who regard the Northern Sotho of urban speakers as 'corrupt'. The speaker numbers of these three groups in 1996 were: Northern Sotho: 3,695,846, Tswana: 3,301,774, and Southern Sotho: 3,104,197. South Africa's total population is 43 million. It is common practice in language planning circles to distinguish between standard language and non-standard language, with the latter term referring to the social and regional dialects of the language. In this paper this terminological distinction will not be used. To avoid the negative implication of nonstandard, the terms standard language and vernaculars (or dialects) will be used. Sociolinguistically seen, of course, a 'standard language' should NOT be linked in any way to considerations of 'purity' or 'correctness'. 'Pure languages' and 'correct languages' do not exist. What does exist is the notion 'appropriateness': all language varieties are 'normalised', either through external regulation (by a language body) or spontaneously, in the speech community, and the use of a particular variety may be appropriate or inappropriate to the context within which it is used. The degree to which standard Northern Sotho and the Northern Sotho dialects function as identity markers still has to be investigated, and it has to be established whether dialect speakers consider themselves primarily as 'Northern Sothos' or primarily as speakers of a particular dialect. Do Lobedu speakers, for example, regard themselves as primarily having a Lobedu identity and secondarily a Northern Sotho identity, or the other way round? The Northern Sotho Language Board was disbanded soon after 1994 and has now been replaced by the Northern Sotho National Language Body. As indicated above, the Lebua government in the time of Apartheid and contemporary politicians sometimes did/do use Northern Sotho in high-function contexts, but such occurrences are/were rare.

142 Vic Webb, Biki Lepota and Refilwe Ramagoshi 15. Strydom's research was conducted with 300 respondents in Mamelodi and Atteridgeville using a questionnaire method (Strydom 2002). 16. Data on the preferred language for listening to the radio and TV viewing also shows a strong preference for English (with 59% in Atteridgeville, for instance, in favour of its use as the only language, as opposed to 9%, for example, in favour of Northern Sotho). 17. The STANON Research programme ("STANON" refers to "standard and nonstandard African languages", see Calteaux 1996) argues that "there are indications that the colloquial languages are impacting on the use of the standard language in various spheres, inter alia, in the classroom. [...] There is ample evidence that these varieties are causing problems in the classroom situation" (p. 9). As a result, ways of addressing these problems have to be found. To begin with, "a detailed description of the grammatical, lexical and functional differences between the non-standard varieties and the standard language, is required. This will be of value to mother tongue speakers as well as L2 and L3 learners" (p. 10). 18. Bogopa, personal communication, asserts that Pretoria Sotho is primarily a form of Tswana which developed when speakers of Northern Sotho who migrated to urban Pretoria decided to speak Tswana in an attempt to disguise their Northern Sotho identity. 19. Since 1994, (larger) metropolitan regions have been established in South Africa at local government levels and neighbouring municipalities have been grouped together. Pretoria has been incorporated into a region called Tshwane, and is administered by the Tshwane Metropolitan Council. 20. Pretoria Sotho (or any other urban vernacular) is obviously not allowed in writing tasks, such as tests, assignments and exams. 21. The use of Cape Afrikaans, considered to be non-standard, impacted (impacts?) negatively on learners who used it: teachers tended to think its speakers were somehow retarded, and cognitively and culturally deprived. Such learners inevitably lose faith in their ability to be successful, and then begin dropping out. 22. Perhaps the Northern Sotho national language body should consider broadening the base of standard Northern Sotho, recognising vocabulary items, pronunciations and morphological and syntactic structures from other dialects of Northern Sotho. It is, after all, commonly accepted that language standardisation is generally the result of dialect levelling, and is not based on one dialect alone. 23. This will involve transforming the relevant handbook into an electronic text (by scanning), excerpting the learning words as well as the technical terms in the text, developing Northern Sotho equivalents for these terms, standardising their spelling as well as their meanings (with the aid of the National Language

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Service of the Department of Arts and Culture) and producing a first version of a technical dictionary for Industrial Electronics. 24. This will require that these teachers be provided with information about learners' existing proficiency in standard Northern Sotho (or the underdevelopedness of such proficiency), what proficiency they need to develop, and how they should go about developing the latter proficiency. In order to provide teachers with this information it is obviously necessary to determine learners capacity in standard Northern Sotho at the outset of the project. This will be done with the Northern Sotho proficiency assessment instrument mentioned in footnote 4. 25. It is true that marginalised languages (such as Northern Sotho) cannot attain economic value in the short term, but a start can be made in this direction by, for example, the government deciding that appointments in the state administration can only be acquired if applicants demonstrate such proficiency in an African language. 26. The research proposal for Le3o was designed by Vic Webb (University of Pretoria) and Francis Grin (Department of Economics, University of Geneva, Switzerland, see Webb and Grin [2000]). The Le3o Opening Conference, held in October, 2002, at the University of Pretoria, dealt with the frameworks to be used in the project. More information is available on the Centre for Research in the Politics of Language (CentRePoL) webpage: http://www.up.ac. za/academic/libarts/crpl/ cphome.html

References Bergh, Johan S. (ed.) 1998 Geskiedenisatlas van Suid-Afrika: Die vier Noordelike Provinsies. Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik. Bogopa, Rose In prep. Inter-dialectal conflict in Northern Sotho. Mini-dissertation, University of Pretoria. Calteaux, Karen 1996 Standard and non-standard language varieties in the urban areas of South Africa. Main report of the STANON research programme. Pretoria: HSRC. Cooper, Robert 1989 Language Planning and Social Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

144 Vic Webb, Biki Lepota and Refilwe Ramagoshi Cummins, Jim 20012 Negotiating Identities: Education for Empowerment in a Diverse Society. Los Angeles: California Association for Bilingual Education. Davenport, T. R. H. 19914 South Africa. A Modern History. London: Macmillan. De Schrijver, Gilles-Maurice and Biki Lepota 2001 The lexicographic treatment of days in Sepedi, or when mothertongue intuition fails. Lexikos 11: 1-37. Deumert, Ana Forthc. a Describing language standardisation - models and methods. To appear in: Arneson, K. (ed.), Standardisering og variation I vestnordisk. Reykjavik: Reykjavik University Press. Forthc. b Standard languages as civic rituals - theory and examples. To appear in: Ammon, U. and K. Mattheier (eds.), Sprachstandards. Tübingen: Niemeyer (Sociolinguistica 17). Dyers, Charlene 2002 Intervention and language attitudes: short- or long-term change? Paper presented at the PanSALB conference on Utilising Research and Development Project Results, CS1R, 16 October. Gouws, Rufus 2000 Toward the formulation of a metalexicographic founded model for national lexicography units in South Africa. In: Wiegand, Η. E. (ed.), Wörterbücher in der Diskussion IV. Vorträge aus dem Heidelberger Lexikographischen Kolloquium (Lexicographica Series Maior 100) , 109-33. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. Haugen, Einar 1966 Linguistics and language planning. In: Bright, W. (ed.), Sociolinguistics: Proceedings of the UCLA Sociolinguistics conference, 1964, 50-71. The Hague: Mouton. Herbert, Robert K. (ed.) 1992 Language and Society in Africa. The Theory and Practice of Sociolinguistics. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Press. Joseph, J. E. 1981 The standard language: Theory, dogma, and sociocultural reality. Ph.D. thesis. University of Michigan. Kaplan, Robert B. and Richard B. Baldauf 1997 Language Planning. From Practice to Theory. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Kembo-Sure and Vic Webb 2000 Linguistics: An overview. In: Webb, V. and Kembo-Sure, 55-87.

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Khubchandani, Laxman Μ. 1984 Language modernisation in the developing world. International Social Science Journal 36 (1): 169-188. Lepota, Biki 2002 Exploring practical ways of promoting African languages: a case in Sepedi. Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on Language and Renaissance, University of Pretoria, 3 - 5 July. Malimabe, Refilwe M. 1990 The influence of non-standard varieties on the standard Setswana of high school pupils. Unpublished M.A. thesis. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University. Mdee, James M. 1999 Dictionaries and the standardization of spelling in Swahili. Lexikos 9: 119-134. Netshitomboni, Lufuno 2002 Constructing a sociolinguistic profile: The Le3o sociolingustic questionnaire. Le3o Conference presentation, University of Pretoria, October. Nfila, Bokang I. 2002 Standard in Setswana in Botswana. Unpublished MA thesis. Pretoria: University of Pretoria. Ngubane, Ben S. 1997 Opening address. National Terminology Services, 7-9. Nkabinde, A. C. 2002 Cultural implications on dictionaries. Keynote address delivered at the 7th International conference of the African Association of African languages, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Northern Sotho Language Board 19884 Northern Sotho Terminology and Orthography No. 4. Pretoria: Government Printer. Rail, P. and Henry Warricker 2000 Trends in Book Publishing in South Africa for the Period 1990 to 1999. Unpublished project report of the Department of Information Science (Publishing) at the University of Pretoria. Schuring, Garard K. 1985 Salient Features of Koines: Pretoria Sotho, Spoken Koine Greek and Town Bemba. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council. Shembe, Sihle 2002 isiZulu as a teaching, learning and assessment tool in Chemistry in Higher Education. Paper presented at the PanSALB conference on Utilising Research and Development Project Results, CSIR, 16 October.

146 Vic Webb, Biki Lepota and Refilwe Ramagoshi Strydom, Louise 2002 A sociolinguistic profile of Mamelodi and Atteridgeville: its role in language policy development at local government level. PhD dissertation, University of Pretoria. Taljard, Elsabe 2002 Developing and technologising Northern Sotho for use in vocational training. Paper presented at the Opening Le3o conference, 29-30 October. University of Pretoria. Tshinki, Abby 2002 Code-switching in the Setswana of Botswana. Unpublished masters thesis, University of Pretoria. Van Wyk, Egidius B. 1966 Die indeling van die Sotho-groep. In: Ethnological and Linguistic Studies in Honour of N. J. van Warmelo, 169-180. Pretoria: Government Printer. Webb, Vic and Francois Grin 2000 Research proposal: Language, effective education and economic outcomes (Le3o). Unpublished manuscript, CentRePoL, University of Pretoria. Webb, Vic and Kembo-Sure 2000 African Voices. An Introduction to the Languages and Linguistics of Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa. Webb, Vic 2002a Language in South Africa. The Role of Language in National Transformation, Reconstruction and Development. Amsterdam and New York: John Benjamins. 2002b Introductory paper: Le3o Opening Conference. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, October.

Developing a language policy in an African country: The case of Malawi Al Mtenje

1.

Introduction

In many African countries the process of developing a language policy for education has been met by a number of political, social, attitudinal and professional problems. This paper presents a situation analysis of attempts to develop and implement a viable language in education policy in Malawi. It points out that efforts to achieve meaningful progress in this direction have been considerably hindered by the following factors: inadequate political will, insufficient institutional structures, an unfavourable approach to the process of developing a language policy, negative attitudes by the elites and inadequate public sensitisation among others. The paper is organised as follows: Section 2 presents a general framework within which issues of language in education policy in Africa are considered. This is followed in Section 3 by a brief background to the language policy in Malawi. Section 4 presents a discussion of the factors which have affected progress in the task of formulating a language in education policy for Malawi. The last section presents concluding remarks.

2.

Language policy for education in Africa

Language planning theories have provided a general framework within which the process of developing a language policy ought to be considered. Dating back to the 60s and 70s scholars like Haugen (1966, 1972), Rubin (1971), Fishman (1968), Bamgbose (1976) and others have articulated various language planning paradigms. Although the theories and models vary in detail, practicality, focus and emphasis, the common thread running through them is that language planning is a deliberate and systematic attempt by a country to make an explicit

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choice out of several alternatives on what language(s) to elevate to official and/or national status, the domains in which the language(s) will be used and a meticulous elaboration of the process and means through which such a choice will be implemented to achieve the intended national goals. According to Gorman (1973: 73) language policy and language planning may be viewed as a program of action on the role and the status of a language in a given community. Such a program may involve the maintenance, extension or restriction on the range of uses of the language(s) for particular functions. A language plan has often been viewed as a vehicle through which a language policy is achieved (cf. Kaplan 1991). It is also generally acknowledged by almost all theoretical models that language planning applies to a wide range of processes which essentially involve a planned change to the structure (Corpus) and status of a language. The former, usually referred to as Corpus planning, involves reviewing the shape of a language particularly in areas like standardising its orthography, pronunciation and terminology, and compiling its grammar and dictionaries. The latter is often called status planning and generally involves shaping and changing speakers attitudes towards a language. The process of language planning according to Haugen (1972) and Rubin (1971) involves the following: fact finding (accumulation of background data before decision-making), the selection of a norm (the selection or creation of a language or dialect), codification (standardising the language or dialect), elaboration of function (expanding the language to cope with use in different domains), dissemination by the community (acceptance by the users and the government), implementation and feedback or evaluation. It can therefore be noted from the presentation above that although different authors vary in their conceptualisation of specific issues under language planning, the process itself can unequivocally be described as involving a conscious and deliberate and explicit decision making regarding language choice, policy formulation, means and strategies for achieving the goals including the actual implementation and evaluation (cf. Kayambazinthu 1999). It has also been generally recognised by scholars that in majority of countries language planning is related to and motivated by political and socio-economic factors which embody, among other things, issues of nationism and nationalism. It is also usually acknowledged that politicians and governments are the main players in the planning process. They are

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assisted to varying degrees by such planning agents as national nongovernmental organisations, academics, linguists, language specialists, non-national non-governmental agencies, media houses and interested individuals (cf. Jernudd 1973; Kaplan 1991; Kayambazinthu 1999; Fishman 1968, 1994; Noss 1971 among others). The need for having a language plan for education purposes has been recognised by many African countries largely due to their multilingual and multicultural nature. The issue of which language(s) to use for instruction, literacy and as a subject of study, by whom and under what conditions in the linguistically and culturally complex settings of many African countries has featured very prominently in their language policy formulation activities. In the majority of cases, the benefits of employing the mother tongue or a familiar language for instruction, the acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills and for cognitive development in the early years of primary education have been fully appreciated as supported by research. Many educationists and language planners have acknowledged the cultural and pedagogical advantages of using the mother tongue or a familiar indigenous language as a medium of instruction (cf. UNESCO 1953 Report; Bamgbose 1976, 1984; Fishman 1989). Efforts to formulate and implement language in education policies in African countries have met varying degrees of success and for a variety of reasons the majority of which are common to the majority of these countries. In the following sections, we present a critical analysis of the process of formulating a language in education policy in the multilingual country of Malawi in Central Africa.

3.

The language situation in Malawi

Malawi, an inland country situated at the edge of East Africa sharing boarders with Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania with an estimated population of 10 million people (1998 Population Census), has the following as its main indigenous languages: Chichewa, ciYao, ciTumbuka, ciLomwe, ciSena, and ciTonga. There are other minority languages which are spoken in the northern districts of Karonga and Chitipa, namely ciNkhonde in the former and a cluster of typologically related dialects usually referred to as separate languages (ciLambya, ciNdali, ciNyakyusa) in the latter district.

150 Al Mtenje At independence in 1964, Malawi inherited a language policy which had English as the language used in official domains (e.g. the judiciary, the legislature, government functions, trade, etc.) and ciNyanja and ciTumbuka as languages of instruction in lower primary education while English was taught as a subject in those classes and also served as a medium of instruction in upper levels of primary schools. In 1968, the ruling political party (the Malawi Congress Party) under the leadership and direction of the country's first president, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda decreed at its annual convention that English and Chichewa were going to be Malawi's official languages and Chichewa was also to serve as the national language. This decision outlawed the use of ciTumbuka in the schools (and of-course, in domains like the media where it had previously been used together with other local languages). The negative impact which this policy had on the development of other indigenous Malawian languages and the socio-political feelings of resentment it cultivated among speakers of these languages has been well documented by Kishindo (1994), Vail and White (1989), Short (1974), Kamwendo (1997) and others and will therefore not be repeated here. The onset in 1994 of multiparty politics and a constitutional democracy which emphasised respect for human rights resulted in a significant shift in the language policy for education. For the first time in post-independence Malawi, the government encouraged linguistic liberalisation and all the major indigenous languages were permitted to be used in the media. Furthermore, in pursuit of a constitutional provision under human rights which allowed a person to use a language of his/her choice in any domain, the government, through the Ministry of Education, in 1996 authorised teachers to use as media of instruction in grades 1—4 indigenous languages which pupils were most familiar with. There were mixed reactions to this language in education policy shift. While some people appreciated the pedagogical advantages of this new declaration, others condemned it very strongly on the following grounds: 1. (a) that most of the teachers in service lacked the relevant training and competence in multilingual education; (b)that it would be too expensive for a poor country like Malawi to embark on this type of education policy; (c)that the introduction and encouragement of indigenous languages would negatively impact on the standard of English in schools;

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(d)that there were no instructional materials in local languages to sustain the policy; (e)that no comprehensive research had been carried out in Malawi to justify the purported advantages of mother tongue education; (f) that the indigenous languages were too underdeveloped for use in science and technology. From 1996 to the present, the Ministry responsible for education has directed and co-ordinated a number of activities as a response to the criticisms noted in (1) above the most notable of which are discussed below. Immediately after the public reaction to the policy shift, the Ministry of Education gave mandate to the Centre for Language Studies of the University of Malawi to conduct sociolinguistic surveys in the country to determine the attitudes of teachers, pupils, parents, guardians and other stakeholders towards the use of local languages as media of instruction in primary schools in the country. The Centre was also asked to standardise orthographies and compile dictionaries of the major local languages as part of the preparation for the eventual introduction of the new policy. The sociolinguistics surveys showed that there was a favourable and positive attitude among the majority of the respondents contacted with regard to the use of Malawian languages in the first four years of primary education provided the continued use of English could be guaranteed. As a follow up to the activities outlined above, the Ministry of Education has since 1999 organised four national language symposia where issues of multilingual education have featured highly and a draft language policy for education which emphasises the use of the major local languages in grades 1-4 has been produced. However, one might find it striking that despite the efforts highlighted above, the policy of multilingual education has neither been widely accepted by the public nor approved and implemented by the government of Malawi. We now turn to an analysis of the factors which have contributed to the slow pace and delay in the full acceptance and implementation of the policy.

152 Al Mtenje 4.

Factors in language planning

4.1. Facts for planning Theories of language planning as stated above ideally consider it as a rational and systematic decision-making process which is based on empirical data collected as part of the background information required before planning. Rubin's (1971) decision-making model indicates that planning involves decisions involving the establishment of clear goals, strategies and predictions for the future. Language planning for education purposes is not a haphazard process which is done without adequate preparation. It is supposed to be guided by sufficient research data on language and education in the country concerned (Kayambazinthu 1999). Problems ought to be identified in advance of and not after the planning process. In fact planning should ideally be done as a way of resolving problems observed in the system. The situation with regard to language planning and implementation in most African countries however, is that very often, decisions on language are made before the facts are collected. As a result, policies formulated are not based on or backed by empirically verifiable claims. Such policies are usually unclear in their objectives, unconvincing, devoid of depth and often lack the support of the public. As Bamgbose (1985: 5) argues, the trend in most developing countries is that "no preparatory steps are taken to identify problems. Rather the decision often precedes the fact finding". The trend which the process of developing a language policy for education in Malawi has taken clearly reflects the weakness observed above by Bamgbose in that the decision preceded the fact-finding. As shown earlier, the process started by an arbitrary decision communicated to teachers and education officials through a government circular authorising teachers to use local languages whenever they wanted to. The government, prior to this, had not done any research to collect and document appropriate data on the linguistic situation, pedagogical problems, teacher training needs, the status and the availability of teaching and learning materials in the relevant languages and the cost implications of the new policy. A large portion of the criticisms from the public against the proposed policy dwelt on the fact that the government had not done any research to

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show that the country needed mother tongue education. This is reflected in several newspaper articles on the topic. Consider the following comments: One does not embark on changing a policy basing on one's thinking on just one research paper. What if another paper appears tomorrow contradicting the first one? (A. Muula in The Nation, 28th August 1996). ... that decision [i.e. to teach in English only - emphasis mine] is being overturned on the pretext of the results of a research not undertaken in Malawi educational institutions ... We would like to have those results made available to the elite of this country (R. Chisala, in The Nation, 24th June 1996). ... where did the research come from? Is it relevant to our customs? (E. Kakhome in The Nation, 24th May 1996). As pointed out above, the Ministry responsible for education in Malawi only saw the importance of research and fact finding on the language situation in Malawi after the policy announcement had been severely criticised. It was at that stage when the language research institution based at the University of Malawi was requested to fill in the research gap. It is thus obvious that the language policy development process was done in reverse order by gathering supporting data after the decision had already been made. The lukewarm reception which the proposed policy has received can be significantly attributed to this poor planning. There is also another aspect of poor planning which can be noted in the approach and the manner in which the Ministry of Education announced the policy. It has been widely claimed that policies which are dictated from above are rarely supported by the very people for whom they are intended. This top to bottom approach to decision making alienates the agents who implement the decision because their exclusion is construed as synonymous with not being considered as part of the system. Consequently, they fail to identify with and claim ownership of the policy and its goals. A good policy formulation strategy is therefore one which encourages the stakeholders to be the initiators of the policy. The scenario presented above for Malawi typically mirrors a top - bottom approach to language planning and all its dangers. By not making prior consultations with the relevant stakeholders the government, through its education ministry, sidelined a crucial section of the population whose cooperation the government would require in order to accelerate the process of winning public support for the policy. There is clearly a lack of enthusi-

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asm for the policy on the part of these stakeholders which stems from a deep-seated feeling of resentment about the apparent non-democratic nature of the planning process followed.

4.2. Political will It has been widely recognised that a policy on language in education (like in many other areas) can succeed more easily when there is sufficient political will by appropriate authorities in key decision-making positions to have the policy supported. Otherwise, regardless of how sound the planning process and strategies for its implementation may be, it is bound to wither if it lacks political support from the influential figures of the government machinery. The situation in Malawi appears to show a case of a policy which has been tactfully left to academics, language scholars and language research institutions for its justification and fight for approval. Although the Ministry of Education has theoretically been responsible for organising some of the activities related to the policy, in practice, it has scarcely shown true ownership and full acceptance of the policy and the proposed strategies for its implementation. For instance, some of the senior managers in the ministry itself appear to be ignorant of the contents of the proposed policy. There is also a general display of lack of enthusiasm and urgency by the ministry to get the policy draft submitted to the country's cabinet for approval. Furthermore, its officials fail to attend meetings convened by the Centre for Language Studies which is the secretariat of a language task force created in 1999 by the first national language symposium and which is chaired by the ministry itself. There is also no office, department or section in the structure and set up of the ministry of education assigned to specifically manage the process of developing and ensuring the approval of the language policy. As a result, the ministry is unable to offer a rapid response to the complex issues of language planning. All this has led to considerable delays and lack of attention to matters pertaining to the policy.

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4.3. Public sensitisation The next major problem which accounts for the lack of progress in the finalisation of the language policy process is the lack of public sensitisation. It is generally accepted that decisions about language are not only political in nature but they are ethnically sensitive as well. In multilingual and multicultural communities like those of many African countries, one of the main obstacles to language planning for education is which language(s) to choose as a medium of instruction, as a subject and for literacy (cf. Bamgbose 1984). In such environments indigenous languages almost always coincide with ethnicity and naturally provoke sentiments of language ownership and ethnic protection among speakers (cf. Kamwendo 2002). The identification and elevation of one language or a few languages for use in education to the exclusion of others is often viewed as attempts to marginalise speakers of these languages and their (usually minority) ethnic groups. This leads to resentment to and dislike for the chosen languages. In the extreme case, this may result into ethnic conflict and violence (cf. Vail and White 1989; Kishindo 1994; Prah 2002, and others). In order to guarantee a good level of public acceptance of a language in education policy in a multilingual African environment like Malawi, it is important that communities be adequately sensitised about the pedagogical benefits of multilingual education. The sensitisation campaign, which should precede the policy itself should involve all sectors of the communities and must create and promote a sense of partnership among all the stakeholders. In the case of Malawi, the approach taken by the Ministry of Education reflects the opposite of the ideal strategy. As pointed out above, the announcement of the policy came before the public had been sensitised and prepared for the new policy. The "shock" and "fears" which it created in the minds of the nation as reflected in the criticisms which were expressed against it were clearly because of the lack of community sensitisation. This also explains the low level of public enthusiasm and support for the policy.

156 Al Mtenje

4.4. Elitist attitudes In many African countries, the process of formulating a multilingual education policy has been seriously affected by the negative attitudes of elites towards their own indigenous languages. These attitudes have been largely shaped by two related factors viz. the influence of colonialism and the powerful position of English in ex-colonial African states. We immediately turn a discussion of this issue. The relationship between the educated African or the "African elite" and the use of foreign languages like English, French, and Portuguese etc has been commented on by several authors (cf. Prah 2002; 1996, Ngugi wa Thiongo 2000, 1981; Kayambazinthu 1995, 1998; Moto 2002, 2003; Kishindo 1996; Myers-Scotton 1990 among others). The major observation has been that since the attainment of political independence in the mid 60's, the African elite have alienated themselves from their culture and they have adopted a reality which has been appropriated, redefined and redesigned in favour of images and nostalgia of western colonialists, bent on reproducing Europe in Africa. They have used every available opportunity, resource and strategy to maintain this image of cultural alienation as their ex-colonial masters had hoped and they have even fought vicious battles to protect it. Myers-Scotton (1990: 25) refers to this as elite closure, a strategy by which those persons in power maintain their powers and privileges via language choices that prevent change and stratify society by supporting official language policies that favour languages known by the elite. One of the areas where this neo-colonial syndrome has been jealously guarded is in the area of language. As Prah (2002) has observed, most educated Africans have remained neo-colonially trapped in the usage of colonially or imperially received languages which are treated as inherently superior to indigenous African languages. One of the worst side effects of colonial education on the African elite has thus been the denial and dislike of their culture and languages. As a result of this, many of today's African elites are enemies of their own policies for cultural development. For instance, they pay lip service to the use of African languages but refuse to speak them in public. The situation about the use of foreign languages clearly reflects a colonial hangover which pays homage to English while looking down upon local languages as inferior, undeveloped and incapable of conveying technological and scientific concepts.

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In Malawi, like in most other African countries, English has an overwhelming influence on educated speakers who associate it with elitism and socio-economic privileges. As noted by Kayambazinthu (1995) Malawian elites use a lot of English in their everyday life in both informal and formal settings and they have developed a negative attitude about local languages which they perceive as unsuitable for formal aspects of education. It is this perception which has spilled over to the elites' perception of the multilingual education policy. The majority of the criticisms which have been raised against the proposed policy have come from these elites (including those from the Ministry of Education itself) most of whom are in influential and decision-making positions. They have vehemently challenged the appropriateness of the policy through the mass media and other fora. Their arguments often echo the stereotypic prejudices against indigenous languages as noted in other African countries which portray them as being incapable of expressing scientific concepts and negatively affecting the standarcjs of English, a language often quoted as extremely important for international communication. These elites have also campaigned against the policy on the grounds that it is too costly for a poor country like Malawi and that it encourages ethnicity. Malawian language scholars have laboured to expose to the public the fallacies embedded in the above arguments against the policy of multilingualism. Counter-arguments have been given showing that no country has developed while using a foreign language, that African languages are equally capable of expressing scientific concepts if they are properly developed (cf. Prah 2002; Legere 2002 for examples from Tanzania, Senegal and other countries), that educational outcomes are better when instruction is in a familiar language, that the overall advantages of multilingual education outweigh the costs required for that type of education and that the position of English in schools will not be adversely affected by the new policy (cf. Mtenje 2002). It is clear from the facts presented above that the Malawian elites are prepared to go all the way to fight against the policy of multilingual education. What is even more significant is the fact that these elites form the very group which is required to approve the policy. In this kind of context and attitudinal environment it is not surprising that the policy has remained a mere draft for nearly seven years. Its likelihood of being approved and implemented is, undoubtedly, remote as has been the case in a number of African countries.

158 Al Mtenje

5.

Conclusion

The paper has presented an analysis of the process of language planning in Malawi. It has shown that efforts to develop and implement a policy of multilingual education for primary schools has been negatively affected by factors like improper planning, a wrong approach to policy formulation, lack of sufficient political will, inadequate public sensitisation and negative attitudes by elites towards indigenous languages.

References Bamgbose, Ayo (ed.) 1976 Mother Tongue Education: The West African Experience. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1984 Mother tongue medium and scholastic attainment in Nigeria. Prospects 14 (1): 87-93. 1985 The role of linguistic research in moulding language policy. Paper read at International Seminar Concerning Current Problems of Linguistic Research in Africa and Caribbean Countries. Paris: UNESCO, 24-27 September 1985. Fishman, Joshua A. 1968 Nationality - nationalism and nation - nationism. In: Fishman, J., C. A. Ferguson and J. Das Gupta (eds.), Language Problems of Developing Countries, 39-52. New York: Wiley. 1994 Critiques of language planning: A minority languages perspective. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Developments 15 (2/3): 91-99. Gorman, Thomas 1973 Language allocation and language planning. In: Rubin, J. and R. Shuy (eds.), Language Planning: Current Issues and Research, 7282. Washington: Georgetown University Press. Haugen, Einar 1966 Linguistics and language planning. In: Bright, W. (ed.), Sociolinguistics, 50-71. The Hague: Mouton. 1972 Language planning, theory and practice. In: Dil, Anwar (ed.), The Ecology of Language, 287-295. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

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Jemudd, Bjoern H. 1973 Language as a type of treatment. In: Rubin, J. and R. Shuy. (eds.), Language Planning: Current Issues and Research, 11-23. Washington: Georgetown University Press. Kamwendo, Gregory 1997 English in the Malawi education system: The present and the future. In: Kamwendo, G. (ed.), Proceedings of the English Teachers Connect Conference, 75-84. Johannesburg. 2002 Myth of language ownership. Unpublished Manuscript. University of Malawi. Kaplan, Robert B. 1991 Applied linguistics and language policy and planning. In: Grabe, W. and R. B. Kaplan (eds.), Introduction to Applied Linguistics, 143164. Reading: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Kayambazinthu, Edrinnie 1995 Patterns of language use in Malawi. A socio-linguistic investigation in selected areas. PhD Dissertation. La Trobe University, Australia. 1998 The role of English in Malawi: Achievements and prospects. In: Proceedings of the English Academy of Southern Africa. Johannesburg, South Africa. 1999 Formulating a language policy: Theory and practice. In: Towards a National Policy for Education. Proceedings of the 1st National Language Symposium, 8-27. Mangochi, Malawi, 7-11 March 1999. Kishindo, Pascal J. 1994 The impact of a national language on minority languages: The Case of Malawi. Journal of Contemporary African Studies 12 (2): 127150. 1996 Dr H. Kamuzu Banda's language policy: A study in contradictions. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 48: 55-79. Legere, Karsten 2002 Technologising African languages. Paper presented at the 2nd Conference of African Languages in Education, Science and Technology. University of Pretoria, 3-5 July, 2002. Moto, Francis 2002 Empowering and disempowering an African language: The case of Malawi and Tanzania. Paper presented at the 2nd Conference of African Languages in Education, Science and Technology. University of Pretoria, 3-5 July, 2002.

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Elitists and the perpetuation of linguistic and cultural imperialism. Paper presented at the 4th National Language Symposium, Mangochi, Malawi, 7-11 April, 2003.

Mtenje, Al D. 2002 The role of language in national development: A case for local languages. Inaugural lecture. University of Malawi, Zomba 26th July, 2002. Myers-Scotton, Carol 1990 Elite closure as a boundary maintenance: The African case. In: Weinstein, Β. (ed.), Language Policy and Political Development, 25-42. Norwood; NJ: Ablex. Ngugi, wa Thiongo 1981 Decolonizing the Mind. The Politics of Language in African Literature. Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House. 2000 Europhonism, universities and the magic fountain: The future of African literature and scholarship. Research in African Literature 31, 1: 1-10. Noss, Richard 1971 Language policy and higher education. Higher Education and Development in South East Asia 3 (2). Paris: UNESCO. Prah, Kwesi 1996 The political, socio-economic, and cultural dimensions of the use of African languages in education and development in Africa: Problems and prospects. Paper read at the Interministerial Council Meeting on the Use of National Languages in the African Educational System. Accra, Ghana, 26-30 August, 1996. 2002 Facing the future: Towards the use of African languages in scientific and technological education and development. Keynote address presented at the 2nd Conference of African Languages in Education, Science and Technology. University of Pretoria, 3 - 5 July, 2002. Rubin, Joan 1971 Evaluation and language planning. In: Rubin, J. and Β. H. Jernudd (eds.), Can Language be Planned?, 217-252. Honolulu: The Honolulu Press. Short, Phillip 1974 Banda. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. UNESCO 1953 The Use of Vernacular Languages in Education. Monographs on Fundamental Education. Paris: UNESCO.

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Vail, Le Roy and White, Landeg 1989 Tribalism in the political history of Malawi. In: Vail, L. (ed.), The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa, 151-192. London: James Currey.

Writing and reading in English and LI: Attitudes among pupils in Lira and Mpigi, Uganda1 Mechthild Reh

1.

Introduction

Individual multilingualism has been a widespread phenomenon in Africa since ancient times. It has included languages of immediate geographical neighbours, regional African lingua francos as well as cross-continental languages of the respective time, in particular among the elite. While early global languages such as Phoenician, Berber, Aramaic, Latin or Greek lost their global relevance or even died out, Arabic has continuously strengthened its position as a multi-continental language up to the coming of the Europeans and thereafter. Since then, however, English, French and Portuguese have challenged Arabic in their impact on the African continent, in particular regarding their written uses, a challenge that has been intensified Λ

since the political independence of the modern African states . Due to the exoglossic language policies of most African states, the number and - at least initially - also the percentage of African citizens conversant in one or more of these global languages has constantly grown. School education was seen as a major means to ensure the access to this language. Hence, several African countries shortly after independence reduced the school periods allotted to the teaching of African languages or excluded them from the school curriculum altogether, in particular on the higher primary and the secondary level. The official language policies, relevant for upward social mobility, thus had a clear monolingual slant particularly in the field of writing. The widespread individual oral multilingualism has thus largely been left undeveloped regarding its written potential. Since the 1960s, sociolinguists have paid considerable attention to the study of individual multilingualism in Africa in its oral aspect. However, they have largely ignored the written dimension. One major exception to this is Scribner and Cole's (1981) investigation of the multilingual and multiscriptual literacy practices among the Vai. It fits the picture, however,

164 Mechthild Reh that this study owes its existence to a psychological, not a sociolinguistic, research question. Despite the results of this investigation, which show a flexible use and combination of languages, scripts, and text varieties, multilingual literacy practices have hardly been studied; a beginning was made in Wagner's (1993) study Literacy, Culture and Development: Becoming literate in Morocco. The lack of studies devoted to multilingual literacy practices in Africa may have contributed to the widespread view of Africa as a continent with a clearly profiled diglossia regarding written language use. Educated people are typically thought of as writing the European-based official language only, while less educated people are viewed as writing the local language only, if at all. While this observation may be true for the topmost segment of the society and for citizens with little or no schooling, it is definitely not so for the lower middle class (see, for example, Reh [2002] regarding selected areas of Uganda). The recent reconsideration of African languages in basic education and beyond and their growing use in the mass media have led to a new awareness of the existence of a great many people who are willing and able to use more than one language in reading and writing in their daily lives. Karsten Legere, to whom this volume is dedicated, is one of the linguists who has contributed to this development by editing attractive reading material in African languages (e.g. Legere and Amakali 1998; Legere 2001) and by organising workshops on the promotion of African languages (e.g. Legere 1996, 1998), among other activities. Such activities have helped to create and promote multilingual writing and reading cultures in Africa in accordance with people's requirements.

1.1. Background to the study The present paper presents the first results of a case study carried out within the research project "Multilingual literacy practices in cross-cultural Λ

perspective' . This project investigates multilingual literacy practices of adults in different societies and continents. Despite the project's focus on people beyond school-going age, a small case study was carried out with schoolchildren in four schools in Uganda, two in the Luganda-speaking Mpigi-District in southern Uganda and two in the Lango-speaking LiraDistrict north of Lake Kyoga. The aim of this case study was to explore the

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associations that pupils have with the written use of different types of language. The languages in question are specifically: (a)

(b)

the first language (LI) - the Bantu language Luganda in the case of the schools in the Mpigi-District and Lango, a member of the Nilotic dialect cluster Lwo, in the case of the schools in Lira-District, and English, the sole official language of Uganda and dominant medium of instruction in the schools.

These two geographical areas were selected because they differ regarding their educational language policies. In Mpigi-District - as in all other districts of Buganda 4 - Luganda can be selected as an examinable school subject on both the primary and the secondary school level. None of the other autochthonous languages of Uganda have this privilege thus far. Their use in the schools is restricted to the lower primary classes. The exploratory research question was whether pupils who are at least partly exposed to bilingual literacy practices (English and Luganda) during their entire school career differ in their views regarding written language use as compared to pupils exposed to an English-only language policy after an initial stage of bilingual literacy.

2. The data 2.1. Data collecting procedure The case study was carried out in two steps. Schools and pupils in LiraDistrict were contacted and interviewed on February 25, 2000, while the Luganda data were collected two years later, on February 26, 2002. In both cases it was the beginning of a new school year and the pupils had spent only a few days in their new classes. The class levels selected were the same for both areas, namely the final class 7 of primary school (P7), and class 2 (S2) of secondary school. This makes a difference of only two years between the two groups. These two years, however, include a major break, since the P7 pupils were facing the Primary School Leaving Exam (PLE) at the end of their school year, while the others had just finished the first year of their stay in secondary school after a successfully passed PLE. The schools were selected on the suggestion of local assistants. 5

166 Mechthild Reh It was intended that the pupils should be influenced as little as possible regarding their ideas on the written use of different languages; at the same time I wanted to obtain data on their actual writing preferences. Hence they were asked to write an essay. They were explicitly told that they could use any language they pleased. In the case of Lira, the question to be answered was written on the blackboard as follows: Why do you like reading and writing in Lango and in English? Please indicate for each language separately. The pupils were given one sheet of paper each and could take as much time as they needed. In the case of Lira S2, the papers were collected after the pupils had finished and the class captain was given a certain amount of money for the class. In P7, however, the essays were collected on the following day, since the class had been contacted late in the afternoon, and though they started their essays in class they finished them outside school hours. The elicitation procedure in Lira led to some unintended results (see 3.2. below). Hence, the data collecting procedure in Mpigi two years later was slightly modified 6 . The questions regarding the two languages Luganda and English were given one after the other this time and not combined as in the case of Lira (see 3.2. below).

2.2. The sample Most though not all of the pupils in class returned their essay to the researcher. As it turned out, a small number of pupils did not have Lango (in Lira) or Luganda (in Mpigi) as a first language (LI), but other local languages. These essays were ignored for the present study and also in Table 1 (next page), which details the composition of the sample and also shows the average age of the pupils. As the table shows, the composition of classes belonging to the same level was nearly identical regarding the average age, with the boys slightly older than the girls in P7 and more than one year older in S2. The table also shows that the girls considerably outnumbered the boys in Mpigi, in both school types. In the case of Lira, the number of girls and boys was nearly the same in the case of P7, while the number of boys was 2.5 times greater than the number of girls in the case of the private Royal Academy.

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Table 1. Composition of sample

No.

Girls Age ( 0 )

No.

Boys Age ( 0 )

Lira P7 of P7 Primary School S2 of Royal Academy (Secondary)

24

13,5

22

13,6

7

14,6

17

16

34

13,4

19

14,1

38

14,5

20

15,7

Mpigi P7 of Kibuuka Memorial Primary S2 of Kibuuka Memorial Secondary

3. Results 3.1. Language use in the written answers As mentioned, the pupils were free to choose the language in which they wanted to answer the questions. This was done in order to allow them to use the language in which they felt they could formulate their ideas most easily. In Lira, pupils selected dominantly English. In P7, only 2 out of the 46 pupils who returned their answers used Lango, while none of the 24 pupils in S2 did so and just one used Kiswahili. In Mpigi, one fourth of the P7 pupils (14 out of the 53 P7 pupils, i.e. 26%) used both languages in answering the questions, with 12 of them using Luganda for the part relating to Luganda and English for the part relating to English. 5 pupils (i.e. 9%) answered exclusively in Luganda, while the rest, i.e. 64%, used exclusively English. Among the 58 S2 pupils in Mpigi the amount of bilingualism in the written answers decreased but was still clearly visible: 6 pupils (10%) used both languages, 4 pupils (7%) Luganda only, and the rest, i.e. 48 (83%), English only. The bias towards English can be interpreted in different ways. The foreign origin of the researchers can surely be assumed to have had an impact. This view finds support in the fact that a number of pupils explicitly referred to this contact situation when pointing out why they liked reading and writing in English. Nevertheless, the pattern of language use can also

168 Mechthild Reh

be seen as a reflex of the educational language policy within Uganda. Luganda is given some relevance in the schools of Buganda and nearby districts by qualifying as a subject in both primary and secondary school, thus leading to a certain confidence in bilingual literacy. Outside this geographical area, however, pupils beyond lower primary are trained into monolingual literacy in English, and behave accordingly.

3.2. Conceptualising multilingual literacy The aim of the case study discussed was to obtain, in as undirected a way as possible, pupils' attitudes towards literacy in the regional language, i.e. Lango and Luganda respectively, as well as in English, which is both the official language of the country and a global language. This approach was more successful than anticipated, in that it led to some unexpected results. In the case of Lira it turned out that the pupils had understood the question in a selective way: which of the two language do you prefer in reading and writing? This result may be a consequence of the way language use in literacy activities is talked about in large parts of the world, including Africa. In contrast to the actual multilingual literacy practice of a growing number of people (well outside the specialised professions of interpreter and translator), literacy is still conceptualised as a basically monolingual enterprise. Hence, the mention of a choice of languages as in the present case invites the interpretation of a 'selection task'. Due to this result in Lira, the approach to the essay writing task was modified for Mpigi, in that the questions regarding the two languages were given in stages. First, the question pertaining to Luganda was asked; only after it had been answered was the parallel one concerning English given. However, this approach led to another unintended result. The analysis of the answers revealed that a large fraction of the pupils understood the first question as relating to their liking of literacy and being literate in general. The contrastive aspect, namely writing and reading in Luganda (or a different L I ) versus writing and reading in English, only came to the fore after the first question had already been answered and the second question was given. The analysis of the answers shows that only 54% of all pupils in the two classes in Mpigi (60 out of 111) understood the first question as relating to literacy specifically in Luganda, while 46% understood it as relating to

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literacy in general, irrespective of language. The analysis regarding class and gender leads to the following results: -

in P7, 70% of the pupils (37 out of 53) answered the first question language-specifically, in S2, 40% of the pupils (23 out of 58) did so.

This result could be interpreted as the outcome of a non-equivalent presentation and explanation of the task by the research collaborators - who were the same in both cases - and/or the respective classroom teachers. It may also have had an impact that the S2 pupils wrote their answers during an English lesson, thus distancing the pupils conceptually from the use of Luganda. However, though these factors may have had an influence and possibly contributed to the results, they do not explain them in full. This is because they cannot explain one observation, i.e. the fact that the boys in both classes answered the first question language-specifically considerably more often than the girls did: -

in P7, 84% of the boys (16 out of 19) answered the first question language-specifically and 62% of the girls (21 out of 34); in S2, 55% of the boys (11 out of 20) and 32% of the girls (12 out of 38). 7

It is not clear how to interpret this result. Did the boys read and/or listen more carefully and thus grasp the comparative implication better? Or do the girls, in particular those of S2, link the concept of literacy more intimately to English, thus treating 'literacy' and 'English' as quasift Q synonyms , which made them ignore the mention of Luganda? It definitely opens up a new research question, addressing the possibility of gender-specific concepts of literacy among schoolchildren in a multilingual environment. The result provided some problems for the quantitative analysis of the answers received. It was finally decided to split the essays of the pupils in Mpigi into two groups, a 'contrastive' group, i.e. those who answered the first question specifically for Luganda, and a 'non-contrastive' group, i.e. those who answered the first question language-unspecifically. The answers of this latter group will not be considered in the results presented in the remainder of this article.

170 Mechthild Reh 3.3. Benefits associated with literacy in English and in L I 1 0 3.3.1.

English

One fifth of the answers given by the P7 pupils link their preference for English over Lango (Lira) or Luganda (Mpigi) to the requirements of the school environment, in particular to the fact that the exams are set either completely (Lira) or nearly completely (Mpigi) in English. This percentage drops to one tenth of all answers in the case of the S2 pupils (see Table 2). S2 pupils perceive other benefits from literacy in English. The S2 pupils of the Lira sample link literacy in English primarily to the opportunities it opens for going abroad (23%). Answers such as "It takes me to (Europe, America...)" dominate. If one takes into account that 10% of the answers of these pupils judge English as an "important language in the world", the outward-looking perception of English among these pupils becomes even more marked. Table 2. Benefits of literacy in English (top 5 only; N=total no. of answers; the figure in parentheses gives the rank-order of the answer) P7 Lira (N=138)

S2 Mpigi Lira (N= 141) (N=156)

Mpigi (N=147)

Answers relate to: School (exam, lg. of instruction, etc.) Self (acquire skills/knowledge) Communication in/with people of other countries Communication within Uganda Language 'is easy/simple' Important in the world Own future (job requirement)

22%(1)

19% (1)

8% (5)

11% (5)

21% (2)

14% (3) 18% (2/3)

18% (1/2)

23% (1)

13% (3)

16% (3)

11% (4/5) 18% (2/3)

18% (1/2)

12% (4)

11% (4/5)

9% (5)

17% (2)

10% (4) 13% (4)

In the case of the S2 pupils in the Mpigi sample, answers relating to the world beyond the boundaries of Uganda rank only third and cover just 13%

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of all answers given. They rank the function of English as a means of communication within the boundaries of Uganda clearly higher (18%) than the global aspect addressed before. However, the interpretation of this marked difference between the two S2 samples - dominance of the global aspect of English in the case of the Lira sample and dominance of Uganda-internal aspects in the case of the Mpigi sample - requires additional research. Is it - at least partly - a consequence of the different language policies in these two areas, whereby the concentration on English leads to an international bias and the backgrounding of local and national concerns? Or is the result an artefact of the composition of the two samples - of the fact that boys dominate in the Lira S2 sample and girls in the Mpigi S2 sample? In this case the different perception of benefits from literacy in English would then relate to gender differences and not to regional ones. A similar contrast between the preference for global aspects of literacy in English versus Uganda-related aspects is found in the P7 section. This time, however, the pupils of the Mpigi sample give higher priority to the global aspect of English (17% against 9% in the Lira sample and against 11% Uganda-oriented answers), while the pupils of the Lira sample give higher priority to the Uganda-oriented aspects of English (16%) than its global aspects (9%). Is this difference a consequence of the different language policies? Or does the relative closeness of Mpigi to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, with its vast number of international organisations and other international representatives, have an influence in the case of these primary school pupils? Again, the result requires additional research. A third domain frequently mentioned regarding the benefits of literacy in English relates to literacy skills and to the acquisition of knowledge about and through English. Here, again, a clear difference between the two regional samples surfaces in the case of the P7 pupils: Pupils of the Mpigi sample mention this benefit much less often (14%) than pupils of the Lira sample (21%) or even those of the S2 samples (18% for each subsample). This result is most likely a consequence of the different language policies in the two regions. Pupils of the P7 sample of Mpigi are accustomed to deriving benefits from improvement of their writing skills in LI and from access to knowledge in and through their LI (cf. Table 3). In the case of the P7 pupils of the Lira sample, however, comparable benefits are nearly always linked instead to English, thus arguably foregrounding this type of benefit in their answers.

172 Mechthild Reh

There are two more observations which should be mentioned here briefly. One is that literacy in English as a requirement for job opportunities fails to be mentioned among the top five benefits, with the exception of the pupils from the Mpigi S2 sample. Does this result relate to the perceived difficulty of obtaining a salaried job outside the vicinity of Kampala in the case of the Lira S2 sample? In the case of the P7 pupils it could be that they were all aiming to continue their education, so that job requirements were less salient for them at that moment than, for example, school requirements. The second observation relates to the frequent mention, among P7 pupils, of English as an "easy" or "simple" language. It would be interesting to learn more about the concept underlying this statement. A clear correlation between this answer and the competence of the respective pupil in English does not seem to exist. Judging from statements in the essays on Luganda such as "it [Luganda] is my/our easy language", one wonders whether 'easy' and 'simple' are used - at least sometimes - in the meaning of'frequently used', and not necessarily in the sense 'easy to be used correctly'.

3.3.2. Luganda (Mpigi sample) As mentioned in 3.2. above, only some of the pupils answered the first question relating to literacy in Luganda in the way anticipated, namely with a focus on the benefits of Luganda. Only the answers of pupils who perceived the question in this way are presented here, while the answers of pupils who stated the benefits of literacy in general are excluded. The pupils gave 270 answers why they liked Luganda as a medium of reading and writing. Of these, 19 were excluded due to high repetitiveness and 16 others due to unclear responses. Hence, Table 3 (next page) is based on the remaining 235 reasons, which are grouped into 10 categories. Category types as well as percentages in Table 3 differ considerably from those in Table 2. Reasons such as "I like reading and writing in Luganda, because I am a Muganda / because it's our language" and the like figure topmost among the answers of the P7 pupils and are not found for English. For the P7 pupils 'ease' of the language comes second, more or less on the same level as reference to communicative need with the family, the village, the home area, the older generation, friends, or Luganda speakers

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173

in general, also outside Buganda. The improvement of literacy skills in Luganda takes fourth place among the reasons for liking reading and writing in Luganda. Table 3. Benefits from literacy in Luganda (Mpigi sample; N=no. of answers) P7

S2

Girls

Boys

Girls

Boys

(N=83)

(N=50)

(N=45)

(N=57)

22% (2)

12% (5)

20% (2) 20% (2/3)

9%

2%

Communication requirement

19% (3) 20% (2/3)

8%

21% (1)

Literacy skills in LUG

11% (4) 12% (4)

9%

18% (3)

11% (3/4)

14% (4)

27% (1)

19% (2)

Identity

35% (1) 24% (1)

Easy language

2%

Job requirement

5%

Access to knowledge

4%

Affection

4%

2%

School requirement

1%

4%

Teaching literacy (LUG) to others Others

- -

10% (5)

—

1%

—

11% (3/4) —

6%

2%

—

3% 5% 7%

The priorities of the S2 pupils regarding their reasons for reading and writing in Luganda look quite different. Thus, access to knowledge, mainly relating to cultural and historical issues including the language itself, ranks high among the answers of these pupils in contrast to the answers of the P7 pupils. Regarding other frequently mentioned reasons, such as identity, communication requirements, literacy skills, and school requirement, differences in priority appear not only vis-ä-vis the answers of the P7 pupils, but also among the S2 pupils themselves on the basis of gender. Most surprisingly, the boys of S2 mention communicative requirements with family, home area, friends, and the like much more frequently (21%) than girls (4%). The same is true for the category 'Literacy skills', which ranks third among the boys (18%) and only fifth (9%) among the girls. Does this indi-

174 Mechthild Reh

cate that the girls are more fluent in the written use of this language so that these aspects escape their conscious attention or is it an indication that they are less interested in Luganda-based literacy than the boys? Only a broader and more detailed investigation can clarify this point. Finally, it should be pointed out that the S2 pupils also perceive benefits in literacy in Luganda concerning access to jobs. 11% of the S2 girls' answers (third/fourth rank) and 14% of the S2 boys' answers (fourth rank) state this reason as a benefit. The answers of both the P7 and the S2 group clearly indicate that they see literacy in LI as an asset and not as a burden. By comparing these answers to those regarding English, it also turns out that they conceptualise literacy in the two languages as complementing each other, although the answers tend to show a bias towards literacy in Luganda.

3.3.3. Lango (Lira sample) Despite the concentration on English in most cases, eleven P7 pupils and eight S2 pupils of the Lira sample also made reference to Lwo, mainly in its Lango variant. Only two of them, both in P7 and both male, made positive statements regarding the use of Lango in literacy: they associate it with happiness and ease when it comes, for example, to reading the newspaper Rupiny. Three more pupils stated a positive attitude towards Lango regarding oral communication with parents, in the home, and with the younger generation. However, as regards written Lango almost all the pupils restricted themselves to indicating why they were not interested in literacy in Lango. They particularly referred to the following points: not used in school, not even as a subject; no books; not an official language; restricted to northern Uganda and part of Kenya; not understood in Kampala, in big offices, and outside Uganda - "it doesn't take you abroad". Nevertheless, some of the answers sound as if the attitudes could change quickly as soon as conditions change, namely the introduction of Lango (Lwo) as a school subject and the publication of text books for this language.

Writing and reading in English and LI in Uganda

175

3.3.4. Kiswahili (Lira S2 sample) Knowledge of Kiswahili is not particular widespread among Lango speakers (in contrast to the situation among the linguistically related Acholi further north). One of the reasons given is that none of the historical traderoutes to central Africa crossed through the area of the Lango. Until recently, Kiswahili was taught in Lira only in the army school. This changed in 1999, when the private secondary school "Royal Academy" introduced Kiswahili as a subject. The S2 pupils contacted for this case study had just finished their first year of Kiswahili. Hence, 10 out of the 24 pupils from whom essays were obtained also commented on Kiswahili, most of them in passing. One of them used this language in his essay (cf. 3.1. above). The notions associated with knowledge of and literacy in Kiswahili prove to be rather contradictory among these pupils. While some praise its potential as a world language "when you know it you can talk to any body in the world", others claim that it is not widespread abroad. While some think it is widespread in Uganda ("Kwa sasa watu wengi wanajua hii luga kwa kila wilaya ya Uganda" 11 ), others question its usefulness within Uganda ("very rare in Africa Here, the majority of the people did not know, [sic]") Quite revealing is the statement by several pupils that they like Kiswahili because it is offered as a school subject. This strengthens the idea that pupils derive their notion of what is relevant and should be liked to a considerable degree from the inclusion in or exclusion from the school curriculum and school leaving certificates. Lack of printed material, in particular of text books, may, however, be an obstacle. Thus, one S2 pupil points out: "I like Kiswahili but not very because we don't have enough material for Kiswahili like books [sic]".

4.

Summary

The case study presented here was designed to explore whether different educational language policies have an impact on pupils' perceptions of benefits from literacy in one or more than one language. The datacollecting procedure, namely essay writing, which was meant to influence the pupils as little as possible regarding their views, fulfilled its goal, though in partly unexpected ways. Thus in the Lira case, it turned out that pupils cultivated a predominantly monolingual approach to literacy, which led them to select just one language in the essay writing task instead of

176 Mechthild Reh

making statements about both LI and English. This can be interpreted as a consequence of the educational language policy in that area of Uganda which denies the local languages a place in the school curriculum after 10 lower primary and thus supports a monolingual approach in writing. Pupils of the Mpigi sample, however, seem to be well acquainted with bilingual literacy in practice. Thus, a considerable number of them not only made use of both languages in answering the questions given, but also listed nearly equal numbers of reasons regarding the advantages of literacy in the two languages Luganda and English. In a number of cases the results obtained require additional research to interpret them correctly. This holds in particular for the result that S2 pupils of the Lira sample mentioned the potential for international communication and the potential of English to "take them abroad" considerably more often than S2 pupils of the Mpigi sample, whose answers were generally more Uganda-bound. However, as was pointed out, this result could also have been triggered by gender differences, in that boys dominate the Lira S2 sample, but girls the Mpigi S2 sample. Gender differences also showed up in other answer categories. This is particularly so regarding literacy in Luganda (Mpigi sample). Here, it was the factor of identity in particular that was mentioned by girls much more frequently than by boys in both school types (35% in P7 and 22% in S2 by girls, against 24% in P7 and 12% in S2 by boys; see Table 3). This raises the question whether a bi- or multilingual approach in school education would promote the success of girls in particular beyond primary education. Or - to phrase it differently - whether the comparatively low number of girls attending secondary schools in Lira District, as against the larger number of girls in the Kibuuka Memorial Secondary, might also be conditioned by the largely monolingual approach to education outside Buganda, which may be a greater problem for girls than for boys. If this should be so, the upcoming new primary school curricula, which make both LI and Kiswahili obligatory subjects through primary school, should ultimately help to reach a greater degree of gender equality - an explicit political aim of the present government of Uganda.

Writing and reading in English and LI in Uganda

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Notes 1.

This contribution was finalised in the stimulating atmosphere of the MaxPlanck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Thanks go to them and also to Orin Gensler, who helped to put this article in a more readable shape. 2. These four international languages, which subdivide Africa into four linguistic areas, have also been selected as working languages of the African Union - alongside "if possible, African languages" (Art. 25, http://www.au2002.gov.za/docs/ key_oau/au_act.htm) 3. Between July 1999 and June 2002, this project was part of the Collaborative Research Project (SFB) 530 on "Multilingualism" at Hamburg University and financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Society), to whom I want to extend my thanks. The data presented in this article were collected during that time. My gratitude goes to all colleagues, institutions and individuals in Uganda who made this research possible. These are in particular the colleagues at the Makerere Institute of Languages, the Ugandan National Council for Science and Technology (research clearance SS 1219/54), the headmasters and teachers of the schools mentioned in Section 2.2., the local research assistants, and, of course, the pupils of the respective classes. 4. Buganda is the historical centre of Uganda, located in the south-central part the country. 5. In the case of Lira, my local assistant, Milton Odongo, was acquainted with the headmaster of P7 Primary school and was a former pupil of the private Royal Academy. 6. Christine Glanz, my research collaborator in this project between 1999 and 2002, collected these data for me. 7. For the two classes together the figure is 69% of the boys (27 out of 39) and 46% of the girls (33 out of 72). 8. There are indications that girls who make it to secondary school are more willing than boys to concentrate on English exclusively and ignore their LI. However, whether this observation correlates in fact primarily with gender and not more so with social group has still to be investigated. 9. The fact that "or any other local language" was added not only orally, as intended by the principal researcher, but also in writing may have contributed to the view that the reference to a specific language was irrelevant. 10. The data were entered into a database by the participants in a seminar of mine held in Summer 2003 at Hamburg University, in which possible approaches to the classification of these data were also discussed. I am grateful to all participants, in particular to Shirin Agha-Mohamed-Beigui and Martha Ryborz, for fruitful discussion. Due to time constraints I ultimately had to do the analysis

178 Mechthild Reh myself. Hence, the responsibility for the results and any shortcoming in this respect lies with me. 11. "Nowadays many people know this language in every district of Uganda." 12. There are now plans to change this. Both LI and Kiswahili will then become school subjects in all stages of primary education.

References Legere, Karsten (ed.) 1996 African Languages in Basic Education. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. 1998 Cross-Border Languages. Reports and Studies. Regional Workshop on Cross-Border Languages, Okahandja, 23-27 September 1996. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. 2001 Nare-nare pwa kere ... Vakwangali Heritage. Upingwa woVakwangali. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. Legere, Karsten and Petrus Amakali (eds.) 1998. Nalenale okwa li... Omahokololo gaandonga yonalenale [Ndonga], Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. Reh, Mechthild 2002 Multilingual reading and writing practices in Uganda among Lango/Ateso speakers and Luganda speakers. In: Glanz, C. and O. Benge (eds), Exploring Multilingual Community Literacies. (Working Papers in Multilingualism, Series B, 41), 33-48. Hamburg: Sonderforschungsbereich 538, University of Hamburg. Scribner, Sylvia and Michael Cole 1981 The Psychology of Literacy. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press. Wagner, Daniel 1993 Literacy, Culture and Development: Becoming Literate in Morocco. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Section III

Language description and classification

The impact of Kiswahili on Kiluguru Daniel J. Mkude

1. Introduction Kiswahili and Kiluguru are both eastern Bantu languages. Due to wellknown controversies surrounding the origins and development of Kiswahili, many scholars have often hesitated to classify Kiswahili among the Bantu languages. Yet, all the major morpho-syntactic features that characterise Bantu languages (such as noun classification, noun-based concordance, verbal conjugation and verbal extensions) are abundantly present in Kiswahili. What distinguishes Kiswahili from other Bantu languages is its rich vocabulary, borrowed and adapted mainly from Arabic and English. In sub-Saharan Africa, Kiswahili is undoubtedly the most highly developed and widely spoken indigenous language. In Tanzania it is not just a de facto lingua franca, but also the national language and one of the two official languages. Because of its dominance both as a national language and an official language, Kiswahili tends to exert great influence on other indigenous languages that do not enjoy official status. The purpose of this article is to show how Kiswahili pervades and perverts Kiluguru. Kiluguru is a language spoken in the south-eastern part of the Morogoro district in eastern Tanzania. It is spoken by approximately 500,000 people. While its speakers are known as Waluguru, the land they inhabit is called Uluguru. The heartland of Uluguru consists of a range of uneven mountains stretching from north to south. The highest and most extensive mountain is locally known as Lukwangule. Many Kiluguru stories and songs make reference to this conspicuous mountain, whose top constitutes a vast plateau. Because of the cold and the poor vegetation, however, the plateau is largely uninhabited. Most of the Kiluguru-speaking people live on the slopes of the mountains. Some of them, however, live on the plains at the foot of these mountains. Their main preoccupation is agriculture.

182 Daniel J. Mkude

As regards when and how this land came to be populated, no certainty exists. According to Cornelius Vermount (n.d.: 18), a missionary who has researched and written much about the Waluguru might not be homogeneous in origin, as he suggests in the following observation: When we say 'the Waluguru' it means all the people living in and around the Uluguru mountains and not because they constitute a tribe. They did not occupy the country at the same time, nor did they all come from the same direction. The exact time and direction are unknown.

2.

Early Kiswahili-Kiluguru contacts

The Kiluguru-speaking people are surrounded by communities of other Bantu-language-speakers such as the Vidunda and the Sagala to the far west; the Kaguru, the Nguu and the Kwere to the north; the Zaramo, the Kutu and the Kami to the east; and the Pogoro and the Bena to the south. The historical relations among these communities are difficult to characterise. People who have lived and worked among these communities have noticed a high degree of mutual intelligibility between their languages and a good deal of shared customs and traditions. It might be worth pointing out here that Johnson, one of the early pioneers in the classification of Bantu languages, regards Kiluguru not as a separate language but as a dialect of Zaramo, along with Kami and Kutu. Malcolm Guthrie, however, recognises Kiluguru as a separate language and classifies it in Zone G, Group 30, No. 35. Guthrie's Group 30 includes such other languages as Kami, Ngulu, Nhwele, Sagala, Vidunda, Zaramo, and Zigula. For the purposes of this article it is important to stress that what counts most is not the structural similarities between these languages, but the fact that they are all spoken by communities that live in close proximity to the central slave and ivory caravan route that ran from Bagamoyo to Ujiji. This trade route provided a highway for later explorers and missionaries. The communities that lived along or close to the route were, therefore, deeply affected by whatever transpired along it. These communities were the first to be affected by such novelties as Islam, Christianity and Kiswahili. There is also some evidence that rulers of these communities were competing for the attention of caravan-route traders as well as missionaries. According to Frits Versteijnen (1968: 9) for example, the first missionary expedition up-country was undertaken around 1870 by Fathers Baur and Horner in response to a request by Chief Kingaru of Kinole in Ukami. The proximity of these

The impact of Kiswahili on Kiluguru

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communities to the central trade route was, therefore, both an asset and a liability in that they were exposed to positive as well as negative influences.

3. Progressive weakening of other indigenous languages Kiswahili and English are the two official languages in Tanzania. All other languages are excluded from public use. For this reason they are all progressively getting weaker, even though some of them have more than a million native speakers. For a long time the former national language policy was deliberately silent about the fate of these languages. The purpose of this policy was, it is often said, to nurture and promote national unity and cohesion. The total number of such indigenous languages is estimated to be 120. In the new cultural policy, published in 1997, the only role accorded to these languages is to serve as a reservoir of cultural values and sources of vocabulary for the enrichment of Kiswahili. However, the new policy is silent on how this resource should systematically be preserved and exploited. Critics of Tanzania's language policy have repeatedly pointed out it is bound to slowly weaken and eventually kill all local languages other than Kiswahili. Indeed, as Batibo (2002: 280) rightly points out, the ex-colonial languages do not pose a threat to the survival of the local languages: the indigenous languages that have been elevated to national status do: The minority languages in Africa are threatened not so much by the excolonial languages, which have now become the official media in most states, but rather by the dominant indigenous languages, especially the ones which have assumed lingua franca or national importance.

African countries that have strongly embraced ex-colonial languages as their official as well as national languages appear to have provided a better environment for the survival of their local languages. The continued use of ex-colonial languages, therefore, has the good unintended effect of prolonging the survival of the multiplicity of local languages within fragile African nation states. This, as Dimmendaal (2002: 71) also notes, is a fascinating paradox: Interestingly, language shift and the associated process of language death is less dramatic on the African continent than in most other parts of the world. One reason for this is probably the fact that the official or national languages

184 Daniel J. Mkude of many modern African states, such as English, French or Portuguese, play a less pervasive role in the daily lives of people than elsewhere, thereby leaving room for patterns of stable multi-lingualism rather than resulting in diglossia.

4. Assimilation of vocabulary and structure Because of its dominance and pervasiveness through such factors as schooling and labour interactions, Kiswahili tends to induce the other languages to assimilate to it in vocabulary as well as in structure. The impact is much more pronounced and more readily noticeable in the vocabulary, as is shown below: Old Kiluguru

Modern Kiluguru

Kiswahili

ulili gumunyu lifinga zua bunga lubungo nongo chifugumu chigudi lusona

linanda ichumvi liyai isiku zenga lidalaja nyungu chifundo chuno ngoma

kitanda chumvi yai siku jenga daraja chungu kifundo kiuno ngoma

English Gloss 'bed' 'salt' 'egg' 'day' 'build' 'bridge' 'pot' 'knot' 'waist' 'entertainment'

Whereas the lexical influence is readily visible, the structural influence is less so. A s a result less attention is paid to it in scholarly work. T h e scope and depth of Kiswahili penetration invariably depend on such factors as geographical location, linguistic affinity and intensity of the use of Kiswahili outside formal settings. Kiluguru is spoken in an area that is both geographically close to the coast and lies along the former central caravan trade route; it also has a strong affinity to Kizaramo, which is believed to have had a strong influence on Kiswahili; furthermore, the Waluguru are known to have had intense trade and marriage interactions with the Wazaramo. This combination of factors seems to have exposed Kiluguru to a pervasive influence by Kiswahili. The following subsections will illustrate how this influence is manifested in four areas of morpho-syntax.

The impact of Kiswahili on Kiluguru 185 4.1. Noun specification The normal structure of a Kiluguru noun consists of three segments: (SPECIFIER +) PREFIX + STEM. The specifier refers to the initial segment, which may or may not be present. Its presence is determined by the syntactic environment and discourse structure. This segment takes the following shapes: a. i- occurs before nouns of classes 1/2, 4, 7/8, 9, 13, and 16, e.g. i-munu/i-wa-nu; i-mi-biki; i-chi-dole/i-vi-dole; i-N-nenge\ i-la-gulu\ i-ha-nu b. qu- occurs before nouns of classes 11, 14, and 15, e.g. u-lu-gala; udebwa; u-ku-soma c. (g)u- occurs before nouns of class 3, e.g. (g)u-mu-gulu d. //- occurs before class 6 nouns, e.g. li-#-bwe e. (g)a- occurs before class 6 nouns, e.g. (g)a-ma-bwe, and f. zi- occurs before class 10 nouns, e.g. zi-N-nenge. (N = nasal; # = zero morph) In Bantu literature, this segment, which I prefer to call specifier, is referred to by such different names as preprefix, initial vowel, reduplicated prefix, double prefix, disyllabic prefix or augment.

4.1.1.

Non-occurrence

In Kiluguru, the specifier does not occur in the following environments: a.

Before locativised nouns, e.g. i-chi-ya 'pot'; hence, mu-chi-ya 'in the pot' and not mu-i-chi-ya* b. Before recategorised nouns that retain the original prefix, e.g. i-chidege 'bird'; hence, wa-vi-dege 'birds' and not i-wa-vi-dege* c. Before nouns preceded by the invariable element cila 'each, every', hence, cila cidege 'every bird' and not cila i-ci-dege*, and d. Before nouns to which the interrogative clitic -ci is attached, hence, cidege-ci? 'What/Which bird?' and not i-ci-dege-ci*.

186 Daniel J. Mkude

4.1.2. Contrastive

occurrence

In the following environments the occurrence of the specifier has a significant contrastive value: a. before predicative nominals (i.e. after the copula) e.g. I-chi-mulu chidege vs. I-chi-mulu i-chi-dege/ye chi-dege: 'An owl is a bird' vs. 'It is the owl which is a bird' b. before nominals meaning 'any' that are the object of or complement to a negated verb - meaning 'any', e.g. Imwana ng'atulile ciya baye vs. Imwana ng'atulile iciya baye 'The child did not break the POT' [the latter suggests that the child broke something other than the pot] c. before nominals meaning 'any' that are the object of or complement to a predicator of a Yes/No question, e.g. Imwana ka-towa munu? 'Has the child beaten anybody?' d. before numerically quantified nominals, e.g. Katuma wanu weli 'He sent two people' vs. Katuma iwanu weli 'He sent the two people' [and specifically not some others], and e. before objects of result, e.g. Kazenga ng'anda 'He built a house' vs. Kazenga i-ng'anda 'It is the house that he built' [and not, say, the bridge].

4.1.3. Normal occurrence In the following environments it is normal for the specifier to occur: a. before the subject nominals of an independent clause (except those that are numerically quantified), e.g. I-mu-ana ka-gua 'The child has fallen'; Mu-ana ka-gua* 'Child has fallen' but Wa-ana wadatu wa-gua 'Three children have fallen', and b. before topicalised nominals (except those that are numerically quantified), e.g. I-mu-ana, ni-m-leka u-kaye 'As for the child, I have left her at home'; Mu-ana ni-m-leka u-kaye* 'As for the child, I have left it at home' but Wa-ana wa-datu niwaleka u-kaye 'As for the three children, I have left them at home'. It is clear from the foregoing that the occurrence of the specifier is discourse-governed. In modern Kiluguru, however, there is a tendency to

The impact of Kiswahili on Kiluguru

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neutralise the above-mentioned distinctions. The tendency is to drop the specifier altogether. Thus, it is not unusual to hear a son or daughter saying the following to their mother: (1) (2) (3) (4)

Mai, mwana kolila instead of Mai, imwana kolila 'Mother, the child is crying.' Mai, wageni wakuka instead of Mai, iwageni wakuka 'Mother, the visitors are leaving.' Vikombe, niyika mkabati instead of Ivikombe, nyika mkabati 'As for the cups, I put them in the cupboard.' Mawani gangu gaga instead of Ga-mawani gangu gaga 'My eyeglasses are lost.'

It is the contention here that the influence of Kiswahili is responsible for the acceleration of this simplification or blurring process. Kiswahili can operate satisfactorily without making this kind of subtle distinction. Therefore, in the eyes of the younger generation at least, the specifier is superfluous. It can be argued that perhaps the semantic value of this distinction is not crucial for effective communication in Kiluguru. It may be predicted that the distinction will eventually fall out of use. Since the specifier also occurs in Kizaramo, it would be interesting to find out whether a similar trend is also noticeable in Kizaramo. According to Johnston (1922: 141), Kizaramo also 'retains the use of the preprefix'.

4.2. First person singular subject, and object concord In Kiluguru, the marker for first person singular subject and for concord between the object and the verb is nasality. It is, however, important to distinguish between syllabic and non-syllabic nasals. A syllabic nasal is a nasal consonant capable of bearing stress. A non-syllabic nasal is a nasal consonant that is not capable of bearing stress and must, therefore, be assimilated to the following sound in order to form a nasal compound in the case of consonants, or a nasal syllable in the case of vowels. With regard to the marker for the first person singular subject and for verb-object concord, it is a non-syllabic nasal. Because of the assimilation process that is obliged to occur under these conditions, the form the marker takes varies considerably. Some of the guiding rules for the realisation of

188 Daniel J. Mkude

the first person subject marker are as follows (identical rules apply to realise the object concord marker): a. Nasal Nasal Nasal Nasal

> 0 before nasals and before /s/ and /f/, e.g. + noola > 0 noola 'sharpen' = Ί sharpened' + sola > 0 sola 'take' = Ί took' + fuma > 0 fuma 'knit' = Ί knitted'

b. Nasal eg· Nasal Nasal Nasal

> corresponding homorganic nasal sound before voiceless stops, + piima + tula + kala

> miima 'weigh' > nula 'break' > η 'ala 'sit'

= Ί weighed' = Ί broke' = Ί sat'

c. Nasal > /m/ before /h/, e.g. Nasal + handa 'plant' > manda Nasal + haala 'scoop'> maala

= Ί planted' = Ί scooped'

d. Nasal Nasal Nasal Nasal

before voiced stops, e.g. = Ί folded' = Ί tore' = Ί carried'

> homorganic + beta 'fold' + deega 'tear' + gala 'carry'

nasal compound > mbeta > ndeega > ngala

e. Nasal > /nd/ before /1/ Nasal Nasal Nasal Nasal

e.g. lima 'cultivate' Ί cultivated' > /mb/ before /w/ e.g. wasa 'sleep' > /mv/ before /pf/ e.g. pfaala 'wear' > /nz/ before /ts/ e.g. tsuuma 'run' >/ng/before/gh/ e.g. ghela 'throw'

> ndima

=

> mbasa > mvaala > nzuuma > ngela

=Ί =Ί =Ί ='I

slept' wore' ran' threw'

It might be worth pointing out here that Meinhofs Law, which is sometimes called 'Ganda Law', also operates in Kiluguru. The law states the following: "When two successive syllables both begin with a nasal followed by a plosive, the plosive of the first syllable is lost" (Meinhof 1932: 183). Examples in Kiluguru are as follows: longa 'say': bumba 'adjoin': gunda 'stick': winga 'chase':

Nasal Nasal Nasal Nasal

+ longa + bumba + gunda + winga

> ndonga > mbumba > ngunda > mbinga

> nonga > mumba > η 'unda > minga

=Ί =Ί =Ί =Ί

said' adjoined' stuck' chased'

The impact of Kiswahili

on Kiluguru

189

These processes occur at subject as well as object position. In modern Kiluguru, the tendency now is to replace the nasal with one constant syllable, namely /ni/, just like in Kiswahili. So all the above examples would instead read as follows: ni-noola ni-sola ni-fuma ni-piima ni-tula ni-kala ni-handa ni-haala ni-beta ni-deega ni-gala η i- lima ni-wasa ni-pfaala ni-ghela

Ί Ί Ί Ί Ί Ί Ί Ί Ί Ί Ί Ί Ί Ί Ί

sharpened' took' knitted' weighed' broke' sat' planted' scooped' folded' tore' carried' cultivated' slept' wore' threw', etc.

What all this adds up to is that even Kiluguru terms that would normally not have been marked by a nasal, e.g. noola, now have modern variants like ninoola. Predictably, it is largely the younger generation that uses such variants.

4.3. Negation system Kiluguru has two sets of verb forms, namely the absolutive and the relative. The absolutive is used for making independent statements, while the relative is used for dependent structures. It is plausible to regard the two as being strong vs. weak versions of the verb. This is suggested in particular by the form of the subject markers for second and third person singular, which are /ku/ and /ka/ for the absolutive, and /u/ and /a/ for the relative, as shown in the following examples:

190 Daniel J. Mkude

Absolutive 'strong' form ku-lima ka-lima tu-lima mu-lima wa-lima

Relative ('weak') form u-lim-ile a-lim-ile tu-lim-ile mu-lim-ile wa-lim-ile

'you cultivated' 'he cultivated' 'we cultivated' 'you cultivated' 'they cultivated'

Negation in Kiluguru is pegged to the relative form of the verb. The marker for negation is ha- or η 'a- for all persons except first person singular. The negation marker is attached to the relative form of the verb before the subject marker. This gives the following: ha-u-lim-ile ha-a-lim-ile ha-tu-lim-ile ha-mu-lim-ile ha-wa-lim-ile

'you did not cultivate' 'he did not cultivate' 'we did not cultivate' 'you did not cultivate' 'they did not cultivate'

Because the negative marker is attached to the weak form of the verb, and since the relative structure cannot be used to make an independent statement, there is a special mechanism for making an independent negative statement. This involves the use of invariable negative particles like baye, mbe, and ka in addition to the negative marker on the absolutive verb. These particles are equivalent to 'no'. They normally occur at the end of the sentence, as the following examples portray:

(5) a. I-mu-ana ka-tula i-ci-ya. 'The child broke the pot.'

Negation b. I-mu-ana ha-a-tul-ile ciya baye. 'The child did not break any pot.'

(6) a. Mai ka-pata balua mbili. b. Mai η 'a-pat-ile balua yoyose mbe. 'Mother received two letters.' 'Mother did not receive any letter.' Thus, in negative independent statements in Kiluguru, negation is doubly marked: by a marker on the verb and by an invariable negative particle at the end of the sentence. In modern Kiluguru, however, the tendency is to omit the latter particle in independent statements because it is deemed superfluous. This again is the outcome of the influence of Kiswahili, which

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marks negation only once. Sentences like the following are common among younger people: (7)

Mayai η 'a-tugulile. Ga-mala instead of Ga-mayai η 'a-tugulile baye. Ga-mala. 'Eggs we did not buy. They are finished.'

As can be noticed in the example, both the specifier and the negative particle are omitted in modern Kiluguru.

4.4. De-linking the reciprocal from the reflexive In Kiluguru the reciprocal and the reflexive are interlinked, because the reciprocal always presupposes the reflexive. Whereas the reflexive can be used without the reciprocal marker, the reciprocal marker cannot be used without the reflexive marker. Many concepts that are expressed by the reciprocal suffix in Kiswahili are expressed by a simple plural reflexive form in Kiluguru. In the latter language, the marker for the reflexive is -/for all persons, singular and plural. The marker occurs in object position within the verbal structure, as follows:

(8)

(9)

Kiswahili a. Wa-na-pig-ana 'they are fighting'

Kiluguru b. Wa-i-towa 'they are fighting' (lit. 'they are hitting themselves')

a. Wa-na-gomb-ana b. Wa-i-songa 'they are quarrelling' 'they are quarrelling with each other'

Towa is a normal transitive verb, which may or may not take a reflexive marker. Strictly speaking the reflexive form of verbs like towa is ambiguous because it could mean that they are hitting themselves or they are hitting each other. I- songa, on the other hand, is a verb which always occurs in a reflexive form and has reciprocal connotation. This verb cannot occur without the reflexive marker. Thus, it must always appear as u-ku-i-songa (reflexive) 'to quarrel' and not u-ku-songa*. According to Vermount (1978: 12), Kiluguru has many verbs that must always occur in the reflexive. While this may be true, in the 42 examples

192 Daniel J. Mkude

he gives, only 25 appear to be genuinely reflexive verbs. Others are either ordinary transitive verbs that frequently occur with the reflexive marker in their ordinary use, or are ordinary verbs that happen to begin with the vowel /i/. The verbs that are clearly marked as reciprocals in Kiluguru are very few. The marker for the reciprocal is -ana and, as in Kiswahili, it is attached to the end of the verb. However, in Kiluguru a verb so marked must also carry a reflexive marker, as follows: (10)

a. u-ku-i-ting-ana 'to meet (each other)'

b.

u-ku-i-lag-ana 'to promise (each other), to agree with each other'

(11)

Iluvi, tu-i-ting-ane hakaye yako. (exhortative mood) 'Tomorrow, let us meet at your house.'

(12)

Tu-i-lag-ana tu-i-ti-ng-ane hakaye yako iluvi. (subjunctive mood) 'We agreed that we should meet at your house tomorrow.'

The rule is that the reciprocal marker must co-occur with the reflexive marker. In modern Kiluguru, however, the tendency is to drop the reflexive marker -/'-. The last two examples above would, therefore, read as follows: Iluvi tu-ting-ane hakaye yako Tu-lag-ana tu-ting-ane hakaye yako iluvi A mother was heard asking her daughter the following questions: (13)

a. Sale yako, u-ting-ana naye kuhi? 'Where are you meeting your friend?', instead of b. I-sale yako, u-i-ting-ana naye kuhi?

(14)

a. Sale yako, u-lag-ana naye nihi? 'What are you promising your friend?', instead of b. I-sale yako, u-i-lag-ana naye nihi?

Dropping the reflexive marker does not seem to impair communication in either of the two cases, but it does mark a departure from an established structure in Kiluguru, namely one that requires the reflexive marker to

The impact of Kiswahili on Kiluguru

193

precede the reciprocal one. It is again the contention here that this delinking the reciprocal from the reflexive is the result of the influence of Kiswahili.

5.

The value of other indigenous languages

Given the extensive impact of Kiswahili on such languages as Kiluguru, as illustrated above, some people have argued that there is no value in doing research into such languages since they are bound to be swallowed up sooner or later by more powerful languages, whether local or international. Indeed, at many universities in Africa it is difficult to generate, let alone sustain, an interest in research into local languages, even those that enjoy national or international status. A lack of funds is sometimes cited as a reason for this lack of interest. However, one could agree with Blench (2002: 201) that in the context of Africa the problem is much deeper than simply the lack of funds: Although Nigeria has a large and varied university infrastructure and a number of departments of linguistics, there is little tradition of field linguistics and low value is attached to descriptive or lexicographic work. Studies of syntax from various modern theoretical perspectives are the common output of these departments, usually in relation to larger and more well-known languages. The usual reason given is that there are no funds for field work, but since even languages a few kilometres from large cities (or universities) remain unresearched, cultural attitudes clearly play an important role. [Italics mine]

Professor Karsten Legere has been one of the most ardent advocates of research into local languages. He has conducted research into such languages in Tanzania and Namibia. He has also shown an interest in research into Kiluguru and other languages related to it, since they are all being swallowed up by Kiswahili. In my view, research into minority languages such as Kiluguru has value for at least four distinct reasons, as outlined below.

5.1. Identification and preservation of rare linguistic features There is a world-wide concern today for the protection and preservation of rare plants and animals. Although the purpose of this concern is multifac-

194 Daniel J. Mkude

eted, it includes a respect for balance in the ecosystem and promoting our understanding of the ecological system's evolution. I believe the same reasoning can be extended to rare languages. Each language is a unique product of the ingenuity of the human brain. It has a uniqueness that cannot be found in or replicated by any other language. As such, it deserves to be accorded a unique artistic value, worthy of preservation for future reference.

5.2. Contribution to scientific classification and analysis If minority languages are left to disappear unrecorded, there is a real danger that unsound linguistic generalisations could be made that might fail to be falsified for lack of existing counter-evidence. There is no doubt that there are linguistic properties and features in these languages that can pose formidable challenges to linguists and typologists in their attempts to make rational generalisations about linguistic data, as Hayward (2002: 34) rightly observes in relation to Ethiopian languages: The languages of Ethiopia contain many features of interest and concern for the theoretical linguist as well as for general typology. Some of these features may indeed be so rare as to be capable of contributing significantly to the collective enterprise of world-wide linguistic research. The Kiluguru features discussed earlier clearly show that, through assimilation, a language tends to lose some of the uniqueness that could be of particular interest to linguistic analysis. The behaviour of non-syllabic nasals in Kiluguru and other Bantu languages is a good example of a case for linguistic analysis and discussion. However, if the present trend of assimilation continues and settles in for good, then there will be no data to work on since the language will have changed significantly. Therefore, the sooner these unique features can be captured and preserved the better.

5.3. Aid for historical reconstruction and interpretation Written documents are a relatively recent phenomenon in Africa south of the Sahara. Writing the history of Africa for the period before written records were introduced to the continent is, therefore, always a nightmare. Historians have to rely heavily on archaeological excavations and oral traditions. Nonetheless, both sources are subject to misinterpretation unless

The impact of Kiswahili on Kiluguru

195

the information thus gathered can be corroborated from other sources. In this respect, language has always been regarded as a major source of corroborative data for historical reconstruction and interpretation. A careful analysis of the so-called minority languages might provide valuable information about occupation and population movement of the pre-writing years. As Sommer (2002: 59) rightly observes, [t]he more languages are recorded and taken into consideration, the more likely we are to find out something about the history of these languages and of course the lives and history of their speakers. With the disappearance of the so called endangered languages, valuable sources - if not important missing links - for linguistic reconstruction and historical interpretation are lost. According to Vermount (1978?), the Uluguru mountains were populated at different periods and from different directions. A careful study of linguistic features might help to determine the migration patterns that characterised the early arrivals to this area.

5.4. A laboratory for linguistic training As stated earlier, many departments of linguistics at African universities are surrounded by many local languages that constitute a rich linguistic resource. Yet, they rarely make use of this rich resource. They prefer to cull their teaching material from books written on languages spoken far from their doorsteps as though the linguistic processes involved are not found in the languages spoken in their vicinity. Although this is symptomatic of a cultural problem, as mentioned earlier, another factor militates against the use of local languages material: little has been done so far to make this material academically usable. That is, no systematic description of the languages is available, thus making it difficult to prescribe it as a possible study resource for students. Research into minority languages should, therefore, fill this gap. Such concepts as vowel assimilation and vowel coalescence, for example, often appear to be difficult for students to grasp, especially when the examples used to illustrate the processes are taken from Western languages. By using materials from local languages, students will most likely grasp the concepts faster because the processes are linked to something they experience daily.

196 Daniel J. Mkude

6.

Conclusion

A study of other languages will no doubt reveal similar processes of c h a n g e triggered by the p o w e r f u l presence of Kiswahili. Although the pervasive influence of Kiswahili on languages like Kiluguru cannot be stopped since the process is driven by p o w e r f u l socioe c o n o m i c forces that generally benefit the people concerned, such minority languages should not be allowed to disappear unrecorded since they will continue to have an artistic, scientific, historiographic and pedagogic role to play.

References Batibo, Herman M. 2002 The fate of the Khoesan languages of Botswana. In: Brenzinger, Μ. (ed.), Endangered Languages in Africa, 267-284. Cologne: Rüdiger Koppe. Blench, Roger 2002 The status of languages of central Nigeria. In: Brenzinger, Μ. (ed.), Endangered Languages in Africa, 187-205. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Brenzinger, Mathias 2002 Endangered Languages in Africa. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Dimmendaal, Gerrit 2002 Language contraction versus other types of contact induced change. In: Brenzinger, Μ. (ed.), Endangered Languages in Africa, 71-117. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Hayward Richard 2002 The endangered languages of Ethiopia: What's at stake for the linguist? In: Brenzinger, Μ. (ed.) Endangered Languages in Africa, 17-38. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Johnston Harry 1922 A Comparative Study of Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages. Oxford: Oxford: Clarendon Press. Meinhof, Carl 1932 Introduction to the Phonology of Bantu Languages. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.

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Sommer, Gabriele 2002 Reconstructing the past: Historical linguistics, contact induced changes, language shift and relexification. In: Brenzinger, Μ. (ed.), Endangered Languages in Africa, 39-70. Cologne: Rüdiger Koppe. Vermount, Cornelius n.d. Migrations and arrival in the mountains. (Special collection) 1978 A sketch of Kiluguru Grammar. (Handwritten notes dated 1978). Versteijnen, Frits 1968 The Catholic Mission of Bagamoyo. Bagamoyo: Holy Ghost Fathers.

Loan words in Swahili Arvi Hurskainen

1.

Introduction

The aim of this study is to examine how loanwords from different languages are used in various Standard Swahili texts. The comparison is done on the basis of nine types of text extracted from the Helsinki Corpus of Swahili. Because no representative corpus of Swahili exists, and because the value of such a corpus for the current task would be limited, no attempt has been made to create one on the basis of the material currently available. Perhaps the most neutral and 'representative' material is the extensive corpus of news texts extracted from a period of 15 years. Other sub-corpora used in the study were selected so that they would contain such texts as are sufficiently different from each other to warrant comparison. The Biblia and Quran, supplemented with educational Islamic material (Uislamu), constitute such a pair of texts. The writings of Shaaban Robert (Shaaban) represent early prose text written in Swahili by a writer with an Islamic background. The novels of E. Kezilahabi (Kezilahabi), a writer from mainland Tanzania, form a comparable pair with Shaaban Robert's writings. There are also two sub-corpora that represent scientifically oriented writing. Fasihi contains articles on literature studies, and Healthcare represents a less scientific but nevertheless strongly domainspecific language. The research was carried out using SALAMA (Swahili Language Manager), a language management environment , which utilises a detailed analysis of text for identifying the data required for carrying out the research. Such fully automatic processing makes it possible to handle large masses of text reliably. Various phases of processing as well as the evaluation of the results are described in more detail below. I

Λ

Ο

200 Arvi Hurskainen 2.

Corpus texts

In this study the following text materials were used: News: Texts from several Swahili newspapers and from Swahili news broadcast by Deutsche Welle. The newspapers include: Uhuru, Mzalendo, Majira, Nipashe, Mtanzania, Kiongozi, Lengo, An-Nuur, Alasiri, Rai, Kasheshe, and Komesha, from the years 1988-1994 and 1997-2003. The materials from 1997 onwards have been acquired mainly from the Internet: Biblia:

Swahili Union Version, produced by the United Bible Society 4 Quran: 'Qur'ani Tukufu', a Swahili translation of the Quran, translated by Sheikh Ali Muhsin Al-Barwani (acquired from the Internet). Uislamu: Introduction to Islamic Doctrine (acquired from the Internet). Shaaban: Six books written by Shaaban Robert, viz. 'Insha na Mashairi' (1959), 'Kielezo cha Insha' (1966), 'Kufikirika' (repr. 1991), 'Kusadikika' (1951), 'Pambo la Lugha' (1966), and 'Wasifu wa Siti binti Saad' (repr. 1991). Kezilahabi: Four books written by Ε. N. Kezilahabi, viz. 'Rosa Mistika' (1971), 'Kichwamaji' (1974), 'Nagona' (1990), and 'Mzingile' (1991). Fasihi: Proceedings of the Swahili writers' international seminar, Vol. I, 'Fasihi' (1983). Healthcare: Introductory texts on teaching primary healthcare, i.e. 'Ukunga na Utunzaji wa watoto Vijijini', by M. Kaisi (1976), 'Huduma za Afya na Utunzaji wa Watoto', by V. P. 'Kimati' (1982), 'Tuzungumzie mambo ya afya', in 'Maisha' (1989), and 'Huduma ya afya ya msingi'. 5 Bunge\ Speeches and discussions in the Tanzanian Parliament during the period 30.1.-8.2.1996. 6 As Table 1 shows (see next page), these corpora are not equal in size because each of them forms a natural entity. It is better to have natural entities with different sizes than try to artificially make corpora of equal size. Because the study is made on the basis of percentages and not absolute numbers, the size differences do not have significant adverse effects on results.

Loan words in Swahili

201

Table I. Sizes of corpus materials used in the study Swahili words

News Bible Quran Uislamu Shaaban Kezilahabi Fasihi Healthcare Bunge

3.

Nouns

Verbs

Tokens

Unique

Tokens Unique

Tokens Unique

5,028,638

19,935

1,557,921

6,633

1,119,772

2,025

462,385

4,987

133,360

2,928

117,712

1,255

81,128

3,674

20,716

2,068

22,896

986

127,671

5,440

39,700

3,410

29,959

1,204

81,603

4,751

28,122

2,913

17,560

1,133

82,902

3,866

23,483

2,131

26,859

1,029

56,883

3,622

18,361

1,985

11,860

890

97,018

3,738

35,262

2,359

21,193

755

172,508

6,106

47,968

4,311

42,358

994

Modification of texts

In order to make the corpus texts mutually comparable and suitable for this research, a number of modifications were made to the texts. Because the aim was to make comparisons of Swahili words with regard to their origin, only true Swahili words were taken into account. Non-Swahili strings include most proper names, words of foreign languages found in the text for various reasons (e.g., names of books or organisations), punctuation marks, diacritics, and numbers (as digits). Such tokens, as well as all encoding tags, were removed from the text before a breakdown of each category was calculated. After the analysis and disambiguation, the unwanted strings were removed so that only genuine Swahili words with analysis were left. These Swahili words belong to one of the following categories of origin: Arabic, English, Persian, Indian, Portuguese, and Bantu.

202 Arvi Hurskainen There are, of course, a few words in Swahili, that are loans from languages not listed above. For example, 'Kamusi ya Kiswahili-Kiingereza' (Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili, 2001) lists 10 Latin, 5 Turkish, 6 French, 3 German, 3 Hebrew, 2 Japanese, and 1 Chinese loans. Because of the small numbers, and sometimes uncertainty concerning the origin (e.g. Latin directly, or Latin through another language), these loans were not taken into account. In any case, except for such words as shule (German), bahasha and baruti (Turkish), and divai (French), loanwords from those languages would hardly occur in selected texts.

4. Units of comparison There are three basic word-level units in the text that can be taken for comparative analysis, (a) A word-form token, or token for short, is an occurrence of any word-form in the text. The total number of tokens in the text is the sum of all word-forms in the text, regardless of how many times each word-form occurs, (b) When we count each word-form only once, we talk about word-form types, (c) Because words in Swahili, especially verbs, may have several forms, it is useful to distinguish also a third category, the stem. In fact the last category is necessary for making reliable comparisons on the proportion of various loan types in the text. In this study, categories (a) and (c) were used. It would have been easy to include also category (b), but because of limitations of space it was excluded. A few clarifications are needed. In the category token were included all strings, except those described above in (3). Care was taken that all nonSwahili words and non-word strings were excluded. Among the excluded strings were also such Swahili words as contained typos. Some common non-standard spellings, used systematically by some writers, were accepted, because it was obviously a conscious choice to use such a spelling. Therefore, such words as khitimu 'to graduate', khofu 'fear', tafakhari 'to think thoroughly', etc. were accepted, as well as the future marker to instead of ta in negative verb forms (e.g. sitofanya pro sitafanya). With the term stem we mean here approximately the unit that we normally find as a dictionary entry. A plural form of a noun, if it has a singular, was reduced to the singular, and both a singular and plural form were treated as the same stem. Therefore, kitu 'thing' and vitu 'things' have the same stem or base-form, kitu. Inflecting adjectives and pronouns were reduced to the stem form without a class prefix. More problematic are verbs,

Loan words in Swahili

203

because the status of verbal extensions is not clear. Two positions can be taken: (a) all extended verb stems are treated as separate stems, or (b) only the base stem is accepted as a stem, and all extended stems are reduced to the simple form. For the purpose of this study the latter solution was taken because it gives a more true picture of the number of lexical loans. In the borrowing phase only the stem was borrowed, and the extended forms are a result of the application of derivation rules of the target language. However, in cases where the meaning of the extended stem is not directly derivable on the basis of rules, the extended stems were also treated as separate stems. An example is the stem enda 'to go', which has such extensions as endelea 'to continue', endesha 'to drive', etc., each of which was treated as a stem of its own.

5.

Results

The results of the research are summarised in the tables and charts below. In order to make the results more readable and transparent, only the percentages of each type of loanword are given. The actual numbers of occurrences of each item are given in Table 1 above. Discussion of results is given in appropriate places. Table 2. News, all occurrences (%) Ar Eng Total 16.24 2.35 Nouns 27.36 7.20 Verbs 20.63 0.34

Pers Ind Por 0.54 0.210.04 1.71 0.67 0.14 0.25 0 0

Ar Eng Pers Ind Por •Total • Nouns • Verbs

In Table 2 we see that in normal contemporary news texts the proportion of Arabic loans is 16.24%, if we take into account all occurrences of each Swahili word in the text. If we count only nouns, the percentage is 27.36% of all nouns, and the proportion of Arabic verbs is 20.63%. English loans are represented only by 2.35%. Yet the proportion of nouns is 7.20%, and

204 Arvi

Hurskainen

only 0.34% of verbs are of English origin. Persian, Indian and Portuguese loans form only a fraction of the words, and most of them are nouns.

The proportion of unique occurrences of each word stem is described in Table 3. If we compare Tables 2 and 3, we see that the percentage of total Arabic loans is almost the same in both tables (16.24 and 17.38). The percentage of nouns in Table 2 is 27.36 and in Table 3 it is 20.5. The proportion of verbs is the other way round, i.e. 20.63 in Table 2 and as high as 37.58 in Table 3. These figures can be interpreted so that when considering all words of text the frequency of Arabic words is about the same as the frequency of non-Arabic words in the text. In other terms, in the average any Arabic word stem appears in text as many times as any non-Arabic word stem. In nouns there is a difference so that although Arabic nouns are fewer (20.50) they appear more frequently (27.36) than nouns in general. With verbs the imbalance is even more drastic, but in this case so that there are more Arabic verbs (37.58), but they are used less frequently (20.63). The use of English loans is interesting in that although the proportion of unique items is fairly high (5.97, 11.4, and 1.62) the frequency of use is smaller than of other Swahili words in all those three categories. The same is the case with Persian loans, but Indian and Portuguese stems are less frequent than stems in general.

Loan words in Swahili

205

Table 4. Quran, all occurrences (%) Ar Eng Pers Ind Por Total 16.20 0.14 0.12 0.02 0.01 Nouns 30.99 0.54 0.49 0.07 0.05 Verbs 21.19 0 0 0 0 Ar

Eng

• Total

Pers

Β Nouns

Ind

Por

• Verbs

The results of Quran show that the overall proportion of Arabic loans is not particularly high in the category of all tokens (Table 4, 16.20). In the category of nouns it is almost double (30.99), while the proportion of Arabic loans in verbs is smaller (21.19). In Table 5 we can see that in stems the proportion of Arabic loans is fairly high (21.67). The proportion of nouns is 19.97 and of verbs as high as 31.14. Table 5. Quran, unique occurrences (%) Ar Eng Pers Ind Por Total 21.67 0.38 0.410.16 0.11 Nouns 19.97 0.68 0.73 0.29 0.19 Verbs 31.14 0 0 0 0

35 30 25

Ar

Eng

Pers

Ind

Por

• Total m Nouns • Verbs

Here we can draw the conclusion that on the average any Arabic noun is used much more frequently than any other noun is. On the other hand, any Arabic verb is used much less frequently than any other verb. It is worth noting that English loans are almost absent in Quran. In stems the percentage is even smaller than Persian loans, although in total occurrences it is a bit higher. Indian and Portuguese loans are just marginal. Loan verbs are found only from Arabic, and as Table 5 shows, almost one third of verb stems are from Arabic.

206 Arvi Hurskainen In Uislamu, which is another sub-corpus of Islamic text, the proportions of Arabic loans are very similar to Quran, except that the percentages are somewhat higher when all occurrences are counted (Table 6). This involves total occurrences as well as nouns and verbs. When we look at unique occurrences, we see a similar trend but the difference is much smaller. In the category of nouns it is even slightly in favour of Quran. Table 6. Uislamu, all occurrences (%) Ar Total 19.30 Nouns 35.16 Verbs 23.64

Eng Pers Ind Por 0.34 0.25 0.44 0.02 1.04 0.81 0.67 0.08 0.03 0 0 0 15 -10

--

5 -ΙΟ Ar

Eng

Pers

Ind

Por

• Total Ü Nouns • Verbs

Table 7. Uislamu, unique occurrences (%) Ar Total 22.67 Nouns 19.38 Verbs 33.55

Eng Pers Ind Por 1.67 0.46 0.44 0.15 2.40 0.70 0.67 0.23 0.17 0 0 0

The frequency of Arabic loans in Uislamu is higher than in Quran. This concerns particularly nouns. Differences are, however, rather moderate. The use of English loans in Uislamu is higher than in Quran, but the differences are small. Also a few verbs from English are found, but none from Persian, Indian or Portuguese. The proportion of Indian loans is bigger in Uislamu than in Quran.

Loan words in Swahili

207

As a whole, Quran and Uislamu differ only to a small extent in their proportion of foreign loans, and they can be considered to constitute a single genre of texts. Table 8. Biblia, all occurrences (%) Ar Eng Pers Ind Por Total 12.38 0.26 0.18 0.06 0.09 Nouns 22.57 0.89 0.61 0.22 0.32 Verbs 12.44 0 0 0 0

25 20 15 10

5

0 Ar

Eng

Pers

Ind

Por

EJ Total • Nouns • Verbs

Biblia also contains religious texts, but it shows a different picture in regard to loan words. Loans from Arabic are as low as 12.38% in all occurrences (Table 8), and similarly the proportion of loans in the categories of nouns and verbs is lower than in Quran or Uislamu. Especially the proportion of verbs is strikingly different in Quran and Biblia. In the former the frequency is almost double when all occurrences are counted. Table 9. Biblia, unique occurrences (%) Ar Eng Pers Ind Por Total 19.79 0.64 0.62 0.42 0.28 Nouns 19.33 0.96 1.06 0.72 0.48 Verbs 24.94 0 0 0 0

When we look at unique occurrences, we see that differences between Quran and Biblia are minimal. Only in the category of verbs is Quran (31.14) significantly higher than Biblia (24.94). The results can be inter-

208 Arvi Hurskainen preted to indicate that Biblia uses Arabic words to a large extent, but the average frequency of each stem is lower than in Quran. Loans from English in Biblia are remarkably few, as is the case in Quran. This can be explained by the language genre, which deals with very traditional issues and cultures. English loans are likely to be more frequent in texts that deal with modern issues. In regard to loans from Persian, Indian, and Portuguese, there is no significant difference between Biblia and Quran. In all, the proportion of those languages is very marginal. Table 10. Kezilahabi, all occurrences (%) Ar Eng Pers Ind Por Total 14.11 0.89 0.33 0.20 0.17 Nouns 20.87 3.10 1.16 0.69 0.59 Verbs 11.02 0 0 0 0

Ar

Eng

Pers

Ind

Por

• Total Η Nouns • Verbs

Table 11. Kezilahabi, unique occurrences (%) Ar Eng Pers Ind Por Total 18.20 3.88 0.65 0.65 0.23 Nouns 18.16 6.71 1.08 1.13 0.42 Verbs 21.38 0 0 0 0

Ar

Eng

Pers

Ind

Por

• Total • Nouns • Verbs

The novels of Kezilahabi represent modern prose writing in mainland Tanzania. It is assumed that this collection of one writer reflects prose writing in general in modern Tanzania. When compared with news text (Table 2), which I consider a relevant corpus for comparison, Kezilahabi's text (Table 10) contains far fewer

Loan words in Swahili

209

Arabic loans in the category of all occurrences. The difference concerns nouns (27.36 and 20.87) and especially verbs (20.63 and 11.02). In the category of unique occurrences the difference in verbs is also large (37.58 and 21.38). In both categories the frequency of Arabic verbs in news texts is almost double compared with Kezilahabi's text. This seems to indicate that Kezilahabi favours verbs of Bantu origin. The difference in subject matter alone cannot explain such a big difference. We get more illumination on this question below in analysing the texts of Shaaban Robert. In Kezilahabi's texts there are roughly half the proportion of loans from English compared with news texts. Verbs are totally absent in English loans as well as in loans from Persian, Indian, and Portuguese. The difference involves both all and unique occurrences. Shaaban Robert represents the early writers of Swahili prose fiction and essays 'insha'. Most of his writings are from colonial times, and his texts represent the oldest type of texts in this study. We can see from Table 12 that when all occurrences are considered the proportion of Arabic loans in Shaaban is much higher than in News. This concerns the total number of loans as well as nouns, but the proportion of verbs is almost the same (20.63 and 19.81) in both corpora. When unique occurrences in News and Shaaban are counted, the proportion of Arabic loans in all stems (17.38 and 26.23) as well as in noun stems (20.5 and 25.5) is clearly higher in Shaaban. A surprise is that the proportion of unique Arabic verbs is smaller in Shaaban (32.57) than in News (37.58). The proportion of English loans in Shaaban is very small, as is the proportion of loans from Persian, Indian, and Portuguese. Table 12. Shaaban, all occurrences (%) Ar Eng Pers Ind Por Total 21.27 0.39 0.59 0.13 0.03 Nouns 34.57 1.17 1.70 0.37 0.10 Verbs 19.81 0 0 0 0

• Total Β Nouns • Verbs

210 Arvi Hurskainen Table 13. Shaaban, unique occurrences (%) Ar Eng Pers Ind Por Total 26.23 1.30 0.63 0.72 0.15 Nouns 25.50 2.03 0.96 2.03 0.24 Verbs 32.57 0 0 0 0

The differences are even larger, if we compare Shaaban and Kezilahabi. In all six categories of Arabic loans the numbers in Shaaban are significantly higher than in Kezilahabi. This would suggest that the background of the writer does have an influence on the choice of words and expressions in Swahili. This is also reflected, although to a lesser extent, in English loans. Kezilahabi uses them, although not as frequently as News, but Shaaban almost completely avoids them. The proportion of Persian, Indian and Portuguese loans is marginal in Shaaban. Table 14. Fasihi, all occurrences (%) Ar Eng Pers Ind Por Total 20.20 0.95 0.40 0.14 0.02 Nouns 33.51 2.69 1.21 0.35 0.07 Verbs 23.74 0.07 0 0 0

Ar

Eng

Pers

Ind

Por

• Total Β Nouns • Verbs

It is a surprise that the proportion of Arabic loans in Fasihi, a collection of scientific writings, is almost as high as in Shaaban. There are only minor differences, the biggest one being in verbs when all occurrences are counted. In some categories Fasihi has higher numbers and in others Shaaban.

Loan words in Swahili

21 1

Table 15. Fasihi, unique occurrences (%) Ar Total 26.95 Nouns 27.36 Verbs 31.35

Eng Pers Ind Por 3.40 0.61 0.44 0.19 5.49 1.06 0.76 0.35 0.56 0 0 0

35

Ar

Eng

Pers

Ind

Por

• Total • Nouns • Verbs

The striking similarity can perhaps be explained by the fact that Shaaban Robert's writings also fairly much deal with issues of literature. Another explanation is that the scientific vocabulary in literature comes to a very large extent from Arabic. A more clear difference between Shaaban and Fasihi is discernible in English loans. They are fairly few in Fasihi, but not as few as in Shaaban. And here again, there are only a few loans from Persian, Indian and Portuguese. It might also come as a surprise that the proportion of Arabic loans in Fasihi is considerably higher than in News. Both represent modern text and Fasihi even scientific text. In this case it is not at all true that scientific texts would always favour loans from English. Table 16. Healthcare, all occurrences (%) Ar Eng Pers Ind Por Total 15.23 1.84 0.410.23 0.06 Nouns 21.09 5.02 1.11 0.61 0.16 Verbs 18.01 0 0 0 0

Ar

Eng

Pers

Ind

Por

• Total Κ Nouns • Verbs

Healthcare contains current language from the domain of primary health care. In terms of loan frequencies it should be neutral, and the statistics seem to confirm this assumption. The proportion of Arabic loans is lower

212 Arvi Hurskainen than in News in all categories. The same comparison is particularly true with Fasihi. The only category where the difference is rather small is the proportion of unique verb stems (29.8 in Healthcare and 31.25 in Fasihi). In all other categories the difference is significant. Table 17. Healthcare, unique occurrences (%) Ar Eng Pers Ind Por Total 18.97 4.65 0.59 0.72 0.27 Nouns 16.15 6.99 0.85 1.06 0.42 Verbs 29.80 0 0 0 0

In English loans the balance between Healthcare and Fasihi is the other way round. Healthcare contains more English loans when all occurrences are counted, and the proportion of nouns is almost double (2.69 in Fasihi and 5.02 in Healthcare). In unique occurrences the difference is not so great but yet significant. It is worth noting that there are no English loans in the category of verbs, even though the language is rather modern. The proportion of Persian, Indian, and Portuguese loans is within the same range as in Fasihi. Bunge contains parliament discussions and speeches from 1996. This corpus is in many respects different from the others, because it contains a large amount of spoken text, although it is far from free discussion. When compared with News, it contains fewer Arabic loans in all categories. Particularly significant is the difference in unique occurrences of nouns, where the proportion of Arabic loans in Bunge is only half (10.97) the proportion in News (20.5). On the other hand, Bunge uses those nouns frequently, so that the proportion of nouns in all occurrences (Table 18) is as high as 25.52, while in News (Table 2) it is 27.36.

Loan words in Swahili

213

Table 18. Bunge, all occurrences (%)

Ar Total 15.95 Nouns 25.52 Verbs 18.02

Eng Pers Ind Por 0.99 0.24 0.60 0.02 3.47 0.85 2.15 0.08 0.02 0 0 0

30 25 20 15

10 5

0

• Total « N o u n s • Verbs

Table 19. Bunge, unique occurrences (%) Ar Total 14.54 Nouns 10.97 Verbs 28.47

Eng Pers Ind Por 2.77 0.36 0.38 0.10 3.43 0.49 0.53 0.14 0.91 0 0 0

Ar

Eng

Pers

Ind

Por

• Total Β Nouns • Verbs

The proportion of English loans is problematic because, in addition to normal loans, Bunge has 142 unique verbs and 114 other words from English, used without adapting them to the morphotactic rules of Swahili. If these were counted, the proportion of unique English loans would multiply, especially in the category of verbs. However, the proportion of true English loans is quite low. In fact it is much lower than in News. Here again, the category of nouns in unique occurrences (3.43) shows particularly low percentages, while in News it is 11.4. Bunge seems to favour nouns of Bantu origin more than other corpora.

6.

Summary

Tables 20 and 2land corresponding charts give a summary description of all nine corpora used in this study. They give an opportunity to compare the proportion of Arabic loans in all nine sub-corpora of this study. In Ta-

214 Arvi Hurskainen ble 20 the highest percentages are in Uislamu and Shaaban, followed by Fasihi and Quran. The lowest percentages are in Biblia and Kezilahabi. Table 20. Arabic loans in corpora, all occurrences (%) News Qur Total 16.24 16.2 Nouns 27.36 30.99 Verbs 20.63 21.19

Uis 19.30 35.16 23.64

Bib 12.38 22.57 12.44

Kez 14.11 20.87 11.02

Sha 21.27 34.57 19.81

Fas 20.20 33.51 23.74

HC 15.23 21.09 18.01

Bun 15.95 25.52 18.02

40

News

Qur

Uis

Bib

Kez

Sha

Fas

HC

Bun

Table 21. Arabic loans in corpora, unique occurrences (%) News Total 17.38 Nouns 20.50 Verbs 37.58

Qur 21.67 19.97 31.14

Uis 22.67 19.38 33.55

Bib 19.79 19.33 24.94

Kez 18.20 18.16 21.38

Sha 26.23 25.50 32.57

Fas 26.95 27.36 31.35

HC 18.97 16.15 29.80

Fas

HC

Bun

Bun 14.54 10.97 28.47

40

News

Qur

Uis

Bib

Kez

Sha

In unique occurrences (Table 21) the highest percentages are in Shaaban and Fasihi, if we consider all three categories: all loans, nouns and verbs. The highest percentage of verbs is in News followed by Uislamu. The lowest percentages are in Bunge, excluding verbs, which have

Loan words in Swahili

215

high percentages. In all corpora the proportion of verbs is higher than the proportion of nouns. Because the proportion of English loans in Swahili is fairly small, the differences between various sub-corpora are likely to be big. The News corpus has the highest percentage of English loans (Table 22), and this is particularly true of nouns. It is also the only corpus with a noticeable number of verbs from English. Healthcare, Bunge and Kezilahabi have the highest percentages of English loans. As expected, traditional religious texts, such as Quran, Uislamu and Biblia have the smallest proportion of English loans. When unique occurrences are counted (Table 23), the picture is more or less the same as above. The general trend is, however, that the proportion of English loans is here significantly higher than in Table 22. It means that English loans are less frequently used than are lexical words in general. Particularly high is the proportion of English loans in News, where more than 10% of nouns are from English. Other corpora do not even come near to this. Verb loan percentages of Bunge, Fasihi and Uislamu are here higher than in Table 22. This is due to the fact that many verbs appear only once in the corpus. Table 22. English loans in corpora, all occurrences (%) News Qur Uis Bib Kez Sha Fas HC Total 2.35 0.14 0.34 0.26 0.89 0.39 0.95 1.84 Nouns 7.20 0.54 1.04 0.89 3.10 1.17 2.69 5.02 Verbs 0.34 0 0.03 0 0 0 0.07 0

News

Qur

Uis

Bib

Kez

Sha

Fas

HC

Bun 0.99 3.47 0.02

Bun

In all, this study shows that various types of corpora show significant differences in percentages of loanwords. Religious texts as a whole and Islamic texts in particular show high percentages of Arabic loans and low percentages of English loans. The proportion of Persian, Indian, and Portuguese loans is marginal in all corpora, and no significant differences in

216 Arvi Hurskainen their percentages occur. The conclusion by Bosha (1993: 32, 39) that 4 4 . 3 % of all words in Swahili are of Arabic origin, is not supported by this study. Table 23. English loans in corpora, unique occurrences (%) News Qur Uis Bib Kez Sha Fas HC Total 5.97 0.38 1.67 0.64 3.88 1.30 3.40 4.65 Nouns 11.40 0.68 2.40 0.96 6.71 2.03 5.49 6.99 Verbs 1.62 0 0.17 0 0 0 0.56 0

Bun 2.77 3.43 0.91

T h e conclusion of Houpe (1978: 130) that the percentage of Arabic stems is higher than the percentage of tokens is supported by this research, but not his conclusion that " . . . no clear trend is evident for English...". In fact this study shows that this trend is observable in all nine corpora and that it is even more pronounced in English than in Arabic.

Notes 1.

2.

3.

The Helsinki Corpus of Swahili currently contains various kinds of Swahili texts, including news, fiction, religious texts, transcriptions of speech, and parliament discussions. The total size of the corpus is about 10 million words, and it is increasing constantly. Discussions carried out in the Corpus List on the Internet every now and then show that the question of representativeness of a corpus is very complex and that the usefulness of a 'representative corpus' in research is rather limited. Each lexical entry in the SALAMA dictionary was marked for etymology (Hurskainen 1999). The Swahili-English Dictionary by Johnson and Madan (1939) as well as the Swahili-English Dictionary by TUK1 (2001) were used for identifying the loans. Uncertain entries were discussed with colleagues who are native speakers of Arabic. Persian and Indian loans were identified on

Loan words in Swahili

4. 5.

6.

217

the basis of the list by Abdulaziz Y. Lodhi (2000). Credits for going through Johnson and Madan's dictionary go to Johanna Kestilä. The electronic version of the Bible was prepared in 1992 and kindly provided by the United Bible Society, Nairobi, to the Helsinki Corpus of Swahili. The material on healthcare was prepared by Seleman Sewangi (2001) for his doctoral dissertation and with his kind permission it was then included into the Helsinki Corpus of Swahili. The transcriptions of these speeches and discussions were acquired and sent to the Helsinki Corpus of Swahili by Eugeniuz Rzewuski, who acted at that time as the Ambassador of Poland in Dar-es-Salaam.

References Bosha, Ibrahim 1993 Taathira za Kiarabu katika Kiswahili pamoja na kamusi thulathiya (Kiswahili-Kiarabu-Kiingereza). [The Influence of Arabic Language on Kiswahili With a Trilingual Dictionary (Swahili-ArabicEnglish)]. Dar-es-Salaam: Dar-es-Salaam University Press. Houpe, Donald W. 1978 Loanwords in Baraza: A study of lexical origins in a Swahililanguage newspaper. Doctoral Dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hurskainen, Arvi 1999 SALAMA: Swahili language manager. Nordic Journal of African Studies 8 (2): 139-157. Lodhi, Abdulaziz Y. 2000 Oriental Influences in Swahili: A Study in Language and Culture Contacts. Orientalia et Africana Gothoburgensia 15. Gothenburg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Sewangi, Selemen 2001 Computer-assisted Extraction of Terms in Specific Domains: The Case of Swahili. Helsinki: Institute for Asian and African Studies, University of Helsinki, Publications 1. Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili 2001 Kamusi ya Kiswahili - Kiingereza / Swahili - English Dictionary. Dar-es-Salaam: Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili.

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language1 Christina Thornell

1.

Introduction

Karsten Legere's interest in Tanzanian languages is by no means restricted to Kiswahili only, but also to many other languages that are partly endangered in the run of globalisation processes and language policy. The joint project of the University of Gothenburg and the University of Dar es Salaam on the languages of Tanzania gives ample evidence for the urgent need of collecting linguistic data and describing these languages. The present article is a result of this joint project. The article focuses on the TanzaΛ

nian Bantu language Kerebe (also Kerewe or Kikerewe), mainly on its noun phrase, which is presented in a descriptive framework. A formula for the morphological structure of the noun is given in (1). (1)

Noun class prefix (NCP) + Noun stem (NS)

As in other Bantu languages, the noun class system is fundamental to any relevant linguistic description that deals with the Kerebe language and is subsequently discussed below. In doing so, the underlying concord markers and their use in establishing grammatical agreement between nouns and determiners will be taken into consideration. In addition, the grammatical agreement between nouns and verbs in terms of subject and object concord markers will be summarised. The reason for including them in this study on the noun phrase is to give a more complete view of grammatical agreement in the Kerebe language. Later herein, adjectival, pronominal, adnominal and numeral forms as well as relative clauses will be described. The analysis is mainly based on a grammatical sketch of the Kerebe language written by the French Catholic priest Eugene Hurel (Hurel 1909). His grammatical description reflects not only his own experience in the language, but also the collective result of Catholic missionaries' work with and on the language over a long period. Two Internet-accessible word lists

220 Christina Thorneil (Odden and Hubbard 1994; Nurse and Philippson 1975/1999) have also been consulted. Each word list includes about 1,100 entries. Since Hurel (1909) describes Kerebe as being spoken in the beginning of 1900s, there w a s also a need to consult a mother-tongue speaker in order to verify the relevance of the data to present-day language items. T h e Kerebe language is mainly spoken on Ukerebe, which is an island in southern Lake Victoria, and in the Musoma district on the mainland. The Kerebe people might now number more than 100,000. The figure is based on the 1967 census when 54,922 persons claimed to belong to the Kerebe ethnic group, and takes into account an annual population growth rate of 2 . 6 % (CIA 2001). The region where the Kerebe language is spoken is densely populated, e.g. the Ukerebe district has a population of 262,000 people according to the 2002 census. This means that only a part of the population in the region is made up of the Kerebe people. The area is in fact dominated by the Jita people, w h o exert a strong influence on the Kerebe. This leads to language shift from Kerebe to the Jita language a m o n g many Kerebe speakers. With regard to language affiliation, Guthrie (1970) classifies the Kerebe language as a member of the language group Haya-Jita (E20), in which the K e r e b e language is assigned number E24. Nurse (1979), on the other hand, prefers to classify the language as belonging to the Interlacustrine language g r o u p of the Rutara languages. The present description reflects the dialect considered as standard Kerebe. T h e Kerebe phonological system consists of 22 consonants and 5 vowels that show a distinction in length. The consonants are presented in Table 1. Table 1. The consonant system Bilabial

Dental

Plosives Fricatives

β

Nasals

m

Prenasals

mb

Liquids

f

(v)

Alveolar t

(d)

s

ζ

Palatal c

j*

Velar

Glottal

k g h

η nt nd

nc

nk ng

1, ( r )

* Occurs in Odden and Hubbard (1994), but not in Hurel (1909) or Nurse (1979). ( ) Appears in loan words.

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language

221

The vowels are the front vowels /i/ and /e/, the back vowels /u/ and /o/ and the central vowel /a/. The vowels /e/ and /of are manifested as open vowels. The high vowels /i/ and /u/ surface as glides, i.e. the palatal [j] and the labial [w], respectively, before a non-high vowel. Syllable structure in Kerebe is as follows: (2)

(C) (V) V(:)

The (C) also represents the prenasalised obstruents, while (V) exclusively represents a glide. The language has two tones (Odden 1998, 1999, 2001), but the two tones will not be marked in the present paper. The convention of writing used in the description is mainly phonological. The morpheme boundaries are indicated by dots. Surface forms will additionally be given where it is relevant. The surface forms are given within square brackets as is general for phonetic transcriptions. Consequently, the convention of writing in this paper differs from most other publications on East African Bantu languages, which follow the Swahili orthography.

2.

The noun and the noun class system

2.1. The noun structure As outlined earlier, nouns in Kerebe are morphologically structured as follows: (3)

NCP + NS

The noun class prefix, in its turn, consists of the preprefix and the class prefix, as in (4a): (4)

a. Preprefix (PP) +Class prefix (CP)

The preprefix, in turn, is composed of an underlying a- and the initial vowel of the class prefix (for more detail, see Section 2.2.1.). This underlying a- will henceforth be termed the augment (A). The initial class-prefix vowel is only realised in combination with the a-. The preprefix is not always present, as indicated in the conventional use of round brackets in the following formula:

222 Christina Thorneil (4)

b. (A + V CP ) + CP

The class prefix takes the shape (V)CV. The two vowels are of the same quality. The initial vowel is in parenthesis since it exclusively appears in combination with the augment. Exceptions to this shape of the prefix is one of the prefixes of class 5, which is composed of the structure V, i.e. /-, and the prefix n- of classes 9 and 10, which consist of the (V)C structure, i.e. (i)n- before consonants. Before vowels, the structure is (V)CV, where V is an /, such as in ni.amc? [nja:ma] 'CL9.meat' and ni.oka [njo:ka] 'CL9.snake'. Support for the structures of the classes 9 and 10 are found in Meinhof and Van Warmelo (1932). An example of the complete underlying noun structure is a.umu.seeza [o:muse:za] 'man', where a- is the augment, umu- the class prefix, and seeza 'man' the noun stem. The augment a- and the class prefix umu- together form the noun class prefix [o:mu]. The augment a- plus the initial vowel of the class prefix, u, representing the preprefix, undergo coalescence and result in [o:].

2.2. The noun classes Following Guthrie's (1970) approach, the nouns are allocated to 17 classes according to their noun class prefixes and their morphosyntactic pattern. In Table 2 below, the individual classes are described with respect to number, prefix and semantic domain. Noun classes are exemplified as well. The preprefix is not included in the overview as it will be described in the next section. Classes 1-15 contain countable nouns, exclusively or partially. Class 6 includes mass nouns, and class 15 comprises mostly verbal nouns (also called infinitives). The noun class system in the Kerebe language includes classes 16 and 18, which are known as locative classes (see e.g. Guthrie 1970: 4, 230). Class 16 nouns take the class prefix ha-, while the nouns in class 18 take the class prefix mu-. Moreover, Tanzanian Bantu languages commonly have a class 17 as well. The class prefix of this class in general is ku- (Guthrie 1970: 4). However, there is no evidence that this class exists in Kerebe. The class prefix ku- appears exclusively before a verb, e.g. ku.taandika 'CL15.begin;

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language

223

before, first'. This prefix allocates verbs to class 15 and does not manifest a locative prefix. The formula of the locative nouns is as follows: (5)

( P P ) + 1 6 / 1 8 C P + CP + N S

An example is (a.u)mu.ki.susi ' A . C L l 8.CL7.calabash; inside the calabash', where the prefix of class 18, mu-, expresses 'the inside o f . The class prefix ki- is the class prefix of class 7 and -susi is the noun stem. The locative classes differ from classes 1 - 1 5 in that they play a secondary role in classification. They classify nouns in respect of space and time. This is evident from the fact that class 16 or 18 prefixes precede the class prefixes, as shown in the formula above. The term 'locative class' is misleading because ha- and mu-, the prefixes of class 16 and 18, respectively, do not exclusively indicate a spatial reference. They can also indicate a sense of time, such as (a.a)ha.lu. maambya 'A.CL16.CL1 l.dawn; at dawn'. Table 2. The noun classes in the Kerebe language Noun class*: Semantic domain No. and class prefix 1 muHuman beings in the singular

la

0

2

1st SG /. 2nd SG /. βα-

3

1st PL i. 2nd PL i. mu-

Examples

mu.ntu 'person', mu.seeza 'man', mu.kazi 'woman' mu.ana [mwa:na] 'child' Kinship terms in the 0.guku 'my grandfather' singular 0.mawe 'my mother' Speaker 1.n.e Τ Addressee i.u.e 'you' Nouns of classes 1 and ßa.ntu 'persons' la in the plural ßa.seeza 'men' ßa.kazi 'women' ßa.ana 'children' (a)ßa.guku 'my grandfathers' i.tu.e 'we' Speakers Addressees i.mu.e 'you' Inanimate nouns in the mu.eenda [mwe:nda] 'cloth' singular, e.g. physical mu.goongo 'back, hill' objects mu.holo 'hook-bladed knife for prunmg banana trees

224 Christina

Thorneil

Table 2. (continued) Noun class*: Semantic domain Examples No. and class prefix 4 miNouns of class 3 in the mi.eenda [mje:nda] 'cloths', plural mi.goongo 'backs, hills', mi.holo 'hook-bladed knives for pruning banana trees' 5 /-, //-** Miscellaneous nouns in i.ßaale 'big stone' the singular li.ino 'tooth' 6 maNouns of class 5, 14 andma.ßaale 'big stones' 15 in the plural; mass ma.aso 'flowers' nouns ma.gulu 'legs' ma.iinzi [me:nzi] 'water'

7

ki-

8

ßi-

9

n(i)-***

10

n(i)-***

11

lu-

12

ka-

13

tu-

ma.zuta 'oil' ma.ino [me:no] 'teeth' Miscellaneous nouns in kihiinzu1,apiece' the singular; names of ki.gaamßo 'word' languages ki.kereße 'the language of the Bakerewe' Nouns of class 7 ßi.hiinzu 'pieces' in the plural ßi.gaamßo 'words' Miscellaneous nouns in n.lala [ndala] 'leopard' the singular; animals; n.te 'cow' divinities Nouns of class 9 and 11 n.lala [ndala] 'leopards' in the plural n.te 'cows' n.naku 'days' ni.eemßo 'songs' Miscellaneous nouns in lu.naku1 day' the singular; artefacts lu.eemßo [lwe:mbo] 'song' Diminutive nouns in the ka.fuuni 'small hoe' singular ka.ana 'small child, newborn bird' Nouns of class 12 in the tu.fuuni 'small hoes' plural; partitives of tu.iinzi [twi:nzi] 'a little water' mass nouns tu.zuta 'a little oil'

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language

225

Table 2. (continued) Noun class*: Semantic domain No. and class prefix 14 ßuNouns of class 12 in the plural; nouns in the singular, e.g. abstract nouns and names of territories

15

ku-

Examples ßu.ana [bwa:na] 'small children, newborn birds' ßu.ßaale 'small stones' ßu.zima 'beauty, life' ßu as0 [bwa:so] 'flower'

ßu.kereße 'the territory of the Bakerewe' Verbal nouns, singular ku.saßa 'to ask for, to request' nouns, e.g. parts of the ku.eenda [kwe:nda] 'to want, to like' bod

16

ha-

18

mu-

y ku.gulu 'leg' Indications of place and ha.gati 'in the middle' time ha.lu.maambya 'CL16.CL11 .dawn; at dawn' Indications of place and mu.n.la [mu:nda] time 'CL18.CL9.stomach; inside' mu.n.koko 'CL18.CL9.hen; when the cock crows' mu.lu.gulu 'CL18.CL11 .early (near dawn)'

*

The preprefix, i.e. the augment and the initial vowel of the class prefix, is not included. ** //- is used in front of a noun stem that begins with a vowel. *** The prefix ni- is used in front of a noun stem that begins with a vowel. Otherwise the prefix is η-, which is homorganically enunciated with the following consonant.

2.2.1.

Preprefix

The nominal structure in Kerebe includes a preprefix. The only exception to this structure concerns nouns in class 5, which take the class prefix /-, e.g. i.ßaale 'stones'. The preprefix consists o f the augment a- plus the initial vowel o f the class prefix (see [4b]). A s a result of general morphophonological processes in Kerebe, the preprefix surfaces as [a:], [D:] and [ε:] 4 , depending on the quality of the initial vowel o f the class prefix. An overview o f preprefixes with class prefixes is given in Table 3. The underlying

226 Christina Thorneil form of the augment plus the class prefix is given in italics in column 2 of the table, while the surface form of the preprefix together with the class prefix are presented in square brackets in the third column. Table 3. The preprefix plus the class prefix Noun class No.

Underlying form

Surface form

1

a. umua.aßa-

[o:mu-]

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

a. umua. imi/-, a. ilία. amaa. ikia.ißi-

[a:ßa-] [o:mu-] [e:mi-] [U:li-] [a:ma-] [e:ki-]

a.in(i)-

[ε:ΡΜ [e:n(i)-]

10

a.in(i)-

[e:n(i)-]

11

a. ulu-

[o:lu-]

12

a. akaa. utu-

[a:ka-] [o:tu-]

a.ußua. uku-

[d:0U-]

16

a.aha-

[a:ha-]

18

a. umu-

[o:mu-]

13 14 15

[o:ku-]

Locative classes

The preprefix becomes [a:] when the initial vowel of the class prefix represents an [a], as in a.ama.gulu [a:magulu] 'A.CL6.legs'. This happens in the preprefixes of the nouns in classes 2, 6, 12 and 16. In other cases, the augment a- undergoes coalescence with the initial class-prefix vowel, which results in a lengthened vowel with its place of articulation between the place of articulation of the a- and that of the initial class-prefix vowel. When the initial class-prefix vowel is [u], the preprefix becomes the back vowel [o:]. This is illustrated in the nouns a.umu.holo 'A.CL3.hookbladed knives' and a.ulu.naku ' A . C L l l . d a y ; day' which surface as [o:muhob] and [o:lunaku], respectively.

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language

227

When the initial class-prefix vowel is the front vowel [i], the coalescence results in the front vowel [ε:], as in a.ili.ino 'A.CL5.tooth; tooth', which surfaces as [ε:Ιϋηο] and in a.in.te 'A.CL9.cow; cow', which surfaces as [e:nte]. The preprefix functions as a definite marker of the Ν Ρ in some contexts while in others, it functions as a focus marker of the NP (Odden 2003). These functions are not easy to determine from the data in Hurel (1909). However, the functions are supported by the fact that the preprefix has the function of a definite marker or as a demonstrative pronoun (that has the function of focusing the NP) in some neighbouring languages according to Batibo (pers. comm. 2002). This is e.g. the case in Sukuma, where it has the function of a definite article, while it used to have the function of a demonstrative pronoun. Moreover, it might be that in the preprefix, the augment is related to another grammatical category, e.g. the connective, which takes the same form (see examples [8-11]).

2.2.2. Genders The nouns are also classified in terms of gender (animate/inanimate objects, etc.). For countable nouns, this means they are paired into their singular and plural forms, i.e. belonging to a so-called two-class gender. The noun stem -seeza 'man', for instance, takes the class prefix 1 (u)mu- in the singular, whereas it takes the class 2 prefix in the plural, i.e. (α)βα- (see Table 2). The noun belongs to gender (1,2), therefore. In Bantu languages, in general, a noun in the singular is allocated to a class with an odd number, while plural nouns are allocated to classes with even numbers. In Kerebe, classes 12-14 are exceptions to this rule, since class 12 consists of singular nouns, class 13 comprises nouns in the plural, and class 14 contains both singular and plural nouns. In Kerebe, the commonest genders for countable nouns are (1,2), (3,4), (5,6), (7,8) (9,10) and (11,10), whereas the genders (1 a,2), (1 1,14), (12,14), (14,6) and (15,6) are less common (see Figure 1). Unlike countable nouns, the mass nouns and some other nouns such as names of territories are restricted to a single class. Thus, mass nouns are restricted to one class (6), and they form gender 6. Similarly, names of territories belong to class 14 and form gender 14. In parallel with mass nouns, the locative classes represent the genders 16 and 18, respectively.

228

Christina

Thorneil

Classes Singular nouns Class No. Class prefix 1 la

Classes Mixed singular+plural Class No. Class prefix

Classes Plural nouns Class No. Class prefix

(u)mu0 (u)mu-

2

(a)ßa-

4

(i)mi-

/-, m-

6

(a)ma-

m-

8

(i)ßi-

(i)n(i)-

10

(i)n(i)-

11 (u)lu-

13

(u)tu-

12 (a)ka-

(u)ßu-

15 (u)ku- ·-""" Locative classes 16 (a)ha18

(u)muThe respective gender includes a great number of noun pairings. The respective gender includes a small number of noun pairings.

Figure 1. Genders in the Kerebe language Table 4. Subclass (la,2) Subclass la

Class 2

&.taata 'my father'

(a)ba.taata

0 . iso 'your father'

(a)ßa.iso 'your fathers'

Q.ise 'his father'

(a)ßa.ise 'his fathers'

Q.mawe 'my mother'

(a)ßa.mawe

O.noko 'your mother'

(a)ßa.noko 'your mothers'

Q.nina 'his mother'

(a)ßa.nina 'his mothers'

Q.guku 'my grandfather'

(a)ßa.guku 'my grandfathers'

0.kaka

(a)ßa.kaka 'my grandmothers'

'my grandmother'

'my fathers'

'my mothers'

Gender ( 1 , 2 ) is restricted to human beings. N o n e t h e l e s s , s o m e kinship terms in the singular make up the subgender ( l a , 2 ) since they do not take the general class prefix mu- in the singular but a 0 prefix - as the e x a m p l e s

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language

229

in Table 4 show. In all other respects, they behave as if they belonged to gender (1,2). For the semantics of the other genders see Table 2, which gives the semantic domain of the individual class.

2.2.3. Augmentatives, diminutives and partitives Gender (5,6) in Kerebe includes augmentative nouns, i.e. nouns denoting large objects, such as i.ßaale - (a)ma.ßaale 'big stone - big stones'. This is rather common in Bantu languages. Gender (12,14) is for diminutives, which means that the two noun classes contain nouns denoting small things, or smaller than normal. An example is (a)ka.ana - (u)ßu.ana 'small child - small children'. The noun stem -ana expresses 'child'. The general sense of the noun means that it belongs to gender (1,2). That this gender contains diminutive nouns is common in other neighbouring Bantu languages such as Nyoro ( E l l ) and Dzindza (E23) (Maho 1999). Class 13 contains mass nouns expressing partitive meanings. This is illustrated in (u)tu.iinzi 'a little/some water' and (u)tu.zuta 'a little/some oil'. As regards their general meaning, these two nouns (a)ma.iinzi 'water' and (a)ma.zuta 'oil' are in class 6. Nouns referring to long things are allocated to gender (11,10), as in many other Bantu languages. Examples are (u)lu.si - (i)n.si 'rope - ropes' and (u)lu.guhe - (i)n.guhe 'thread - threads'.

2.3. Personal pronouns Personal pronouns are treated as a subgroup of classes 1 and 2. Their forms are shown in Table 5. Table 5. Personal pronouns Person

Class 1

Class 2

s

i. n. e

/. tu. e

nd

i. u. e

i.mu.e

a.gu.o

α.βα. ο

I' 2

3rd; classes 1 - 2

Pronouns of the first and second person consist of the prefix plus the appropriate subject concord and the suffix -e. The third person personal

230 Christina Thorneil

pronouns, by contrast, parallel the anaphoric demonstrative pronoun composed of the augment, the concord marker and the stem -o. As an alternative in third person class 1, the pronominal form u.e exists but this form is not in common use. These personal pronouns agree grammatically both with the subject and object as shown in Table 6. The personal pronouns appear only in one function, i.e. as subject. (6)

ni*.i.ne 'It is me' ni.i.tu.e 'It is us' ni.i.u.e/ni.a.gu.o 'It is him/her' (CL1) * Ni- serves as a stabiliser.

2.4. Adjectives There are a small number of adjectives in Kerebe. They include those considered as the most basic in the world's languages, such as pairs of opposites, i.e. -zima 'good' / -/ 'bad' -ke 'small' / -haango 'big' and some quantifying adjectives, e.g. -iingi 'many' and -nolo 'few'. Adjectival concepts from the perspective of European languages are generally expressed by verbs in Kerebe. As nominals, adjectives take the same class prefixes as the nouns (see Table 2 and 6).

3. Adnominals, pronominals and numerals 3.1. Grammatical agreement Similar to other Bantu languages, Kerebe signals grammatical agreement within the noun phrase by means of concord markers. Grammatical agreement on the subject and object within the verb phrase is also marked. Concord markers used for agreement marking in the noun classes are presented in Table 6.

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language

23 1

Table 6. Concord markers Class No. Prefix and person Underlying Underlying form form

Concord marker Surface form Adnominals DemonSubject stratives: concord and demonstratives Ostensive, marker -nu (near), Anaphoric, -liya (remote) Emphatic

1, l a 1st SG 2

nd

S

G

2

1st PL 2 nd PL

(u)mu i* i (a)ßa i i (u)mu (i)mi

3 4 (i)li** 5 6 (a)ma 7 (i)ki 8 (Oßi 9 (i)n(i) 10 O)n(i) 11 (u)lu 12 (a)ka 13 (u)tu 14 (u)ßu 15 (u)ku Locative classes 16 (a)ha (u)mu 18

u η u βα tu mu g" zi liga ki ßi e zi lu ka tu βu ku ha ?

Object Number concord marker

+

g"

a

+

+

9

7

+

+

7

?

7

+

ku

?

+

+

+

+

+

? ?

7

+

+

7

7

+

βα

7

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

i

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

a

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

gi

+

g'

+

+

+

+

+

i

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

7

7

7

7

7

+ ?

The form is the same as the underlying concord marker in question. No instances of concord markers have been found.

*

The prefix i- of first and second persons represents that of personal pronouns.

** The underlying li- surfaces as /- before consonants.

First and second person singular are treated as a subgroup of class 1, while their plurals are treated as a subgroup of class 2. Unfortunately, the overview is not complete since there are data lacking for the subgroups of 1 and 2 and the locative class 18. Nonetheless, the overview includes the concord markers of the adnominals, demonstratives and numbers within the noun phrase. The subject concord marker (SCM) and object concord marker (OCM) are also included though they appear within the verb phrase.

232 Christina Thorneil There is an underlying set of concord markers largely identical to the set of class prefixes. They are identical in classes 2, 5, 7, 8, and 11-17, whereas they differ in the other classes, and in first and second person singular and plural. The underlying concord markers surface in the same form in most cases. Thus, the concord markers of the adnominals and the demonstratives -nu and -liya are identical to the underlying markers in all their forms, whereas the surface concord markers of the other determiners and of the subject and object differ from their underlying forms in some cases. The surface concord markers of the ostensive, anaphoric and emphatic demonstratives differ from their underlying forms in classes 1 and 9, while the surface concord markers of the numbers differ in classes 4, 6, and 10. The concord markers of the subject differ from their underlying form in class 1 and those of the object in the second person singular and plural. From the perspective of the classes, there are one or two different surface forms from the underlying form in classes 1, 4, 6, 9, and 10.

3.2. Adnominals Adnominal constructions are expressed by nouns, as in the following structure, or nominal substitutes: (7)

NPi + CM (of NPi) + a + NP2

Syntactically, the adnominals follow their head (NP|) as is usual for determiners in Kerebe. The adnominal is linked to its head by the NPi concord marker and the connective a- (see Table 6). The construction is illustrated in examples (8-11). In examples (8-9), the adnominals consist of the nouns a.umu.kama [o:mukama]'A.CLl.king; king' and a.umu.ana [o:mw:ana] 'A.CLl.child; child', whereas in (10-11), they consist of the pronominal forms -nge 'POSS 1SG' and -itu 'POSS 1PL', respectively, which are generally called possessive pronouns. (8)

a. aßa. ntu βα. A. CL2 being CM CL2 'the King's men'

a. a. CONN A.

umu. kama [ßo:mukama] CL1 king

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language

(9)

a. aka. teße ka. a. A CL12 chair CM CL12 CONN 'the child's little chair'

a. A.

(10)

a. a.umu.ana u. A.CL1.child CMCL1. CONN 'my child'

nge POSS 1SG

(11)

a. a.iki.tebe ki. A.CL7.chair CM CL7. CONN 'our chair'

itu [kje:tu] POSS 1 PL

233

umu. ana [o:mwa:na] CL1 child

As for the possessive pronominal stem, those of first and second persons are all distinct, as is the stem of third person class 1 (see Table 7). The possessive pronominal stems of the remaining classes, on the other hand, are composed of the root -o, which parallels the root of the anaphoric demonstrative, plus a concord marker (see examples [12-13]). The concord marker takes the same shape as those of -nu and -liya. Table 7. Possessive pronominal stems Person

Singular

Plural

st

-nge

-itu

nd

-we

-nu

1 2

Classes 1-2

- /

-o

The remainder of the classes

-o

-o

(12)

a.ama.taßi ga. a. Hi. A.CL6.1eaf CM CL6 CONN CM CL5 'its leaves' (referring to i.ti 'CL5.tree')

ο [ga:ljo:] POSS CL5

(13)

a.umu.kama u. a. iki. ο [we:kjo:] A.CLl.king CMCL1 CONN CM CL7 POSS CL7 'its king' (referring to a.ki.alo 'CL7.country')

Some adnominal forms of kinship terms that belong to subclass la are lexicalised (see Table 4).

234 Christina Thorneil

3.3. Demonstratives The following demonstratives are distinguished in Kerebe: -

-

-

-

-nu: This denotes a referent located nearby. -liya: This denotes a referent located in a distance. A lengthened pronunciation of the first syllable // indicates a referent at a more remote distance. The more prolonged the pronunciation, the further away the referent is. Ostensive demonstrative: This designates a referent located at a proximate distance. The form consists of the concord marker preceded by the augment, e.g. mu.eenda a.gu 'CL3.cloth A.CM CL3; this cloth'. Anaphoric demonstrative -o: This mostly designates people and objects already referred to. In addition to the concord marker, it is preceded by the augment, e.g. mu.eenda a.gu.o 'CL3.cloth A.CM CL3.ANA; this cloth'. The anaphoric demonstrative is morphologically distinguished from the ostensive demonstrative by -o. Emphatic demonstrative: This has two forms. One consists of the reduplication of the concord marker preceded by a homorganic nasal stop. The second form contains the same formula as the first, but to this the anaphoric demonstrative root -o is added. The two forms are illustrated in Table 8 for classes 1 and 2.

Table 8. The forms of the emphatic demonstrative Class

Form 1: N*.CM.CM

Form 2: N.CM.CM.ANA

1 (u)mu2 (a)ba-

n.gu.gu n.ßa.ßa

n.gu.gu.o n.ßa.ßa. ο

* A homorganic nasal stop.

The marking of agreement in the demonstratives is divided into two sets (see Table 6). The markings of -nu, and -liya, on one hand, parallel each other, as do, on the other hand, the markings of the ostensive, anaphoric and emphatic demonstratives. The differences between the two sets of markers are small. They are restricted to classes 1 and 9 in that the concord markers of -nu, and -liya are identical to their underlying markers, i.e. uand e-, whereas the other demonstratives use gu- and gi-, respectively.

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language

3.4.

235

Relative pronouns

There is no distinct relative pronoun in Kerebe. Nonetheless, relative clauses exist in the language in accordance with Comrie's definition (1989: 143): "A relative clause then consists necessarily of a head and a restricting clause. The head in itself has a certain potential range of referents, but the restricting clause restricts this set by giving a proposition that must be true of the actual referents of the overall construction." In the restricted clause in Kerebe, the subject and the object refer to the head (see examples [15-17] for the subject and [18-20] for the object referring to the head).

3.4.1. Subject referring to the head When the subject in the restricted clause refers to the head the formula is as follows: (14)

HEAD + CONN + Restricted clause

The connective (CONN), which takes the same form as the augment, i.e. a, is inserted between the head and the restricted clause. The connective also behaves phonologically in the same way as the augment (see Section 2.2.1.), in that it coalesces with the initial vowel of the following subject concord in the restricted clause. The [a] is realised as the front vowel [ε:] when the subject concord of the restricted clause contains the initial front vowel [i] (see [15-16]), and is realised as the back vowel [o:] when the subject concord includes the back vowel [u]. Furthermore, the connective surfaces as [a:] when the subject concord contains an [a] (see [17]). The restricted clause is structured in the same way as other general clause constructions in the Kerebe language.

(15)

(16)

HEAD CONN a. ißi.ntu α. A. CL8.being CONN 'The things that smell'

Restricted clause ißi. ku.nuunc.a SCM CL8 CL15.smell.TAM (PROG)

i.ti a. CL5.tree CONN 'The tree that has fallen'

ili. 0 gu.ile SCM CL5 ΤΑΜ fall.PF (REC PST PF)

236 Christina Thorneil

(17)

α. aßa.ntu α. A. CL2.being CONN 'People who love'

aßa ku.eend.a SCM CL2 CL15.love.TAM (PROG)

3.4.2. Object referring to the head When the object in the restricted clause refers to the head, as in examples (18-20), the underlying formula is the same as when the subject refers to the head (see [14]). However, there are differences at the surface level. As demonstrated in (18), instead of the connective -a, the stabiliser ni- links the head with the restricted clause as a whole. The occurrence of a- is limited to class 3 as an alternative to ni- (see [19]). The restricted clause is fronted by the object, which is expressed by the independent pronoun. As (20) illustrates, the independent pronoun of class 1 differs from the usual independent pronoun, gu.o, by taking the form u.o since the g- has been deleted. HEAD

STAB/ RESTRICTED CLAUSE CONN Fronted object + general clause construction

(18)

i.n.e ni INDEP1SG STAB 'It is me you like'

(19)

i.ti CL5.tree

(20)

3.5.

i.n.e INDEP 1SG

u. ku. eend.a SCM2SG CL15. like.ΤΑΜ (PROG)

ni/a. li.o n. 0 gu.is.ile STAB/ INDEP SCM 1SG ΤΑΜ fall.CAUS.PF CONN. CL5 (REC PST PF) 'The tree that I have cut down' a.umu.ntu ni u.e n. ku. eend.a A.CL1. being STAB. INDEP CL1 SCM 1SG CL15. love.TAM 'The person I love' (PROG)

Numbers

The counting system belongs to the decimal counting system, with the first ten numerals being the following:

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language

(21)

-mo'one' -ßili 'two' -sotu 'three' -na 'four' -tanu 'five'

237

mu.kaga 'CL3.six' mu.saanzu 'CL3.seven' mu.nana 'CL3.eight' mu.eenda 'CL3.nine' i.kumi 'CL5.ten'

Numbers 1-5 are numerals, whereas numbers 6-10 are nouns (6-9 are in class 3, and 10 is in class 5). Numbers 1-5 agree with their head in the way shown in Table 6 and in examples (23-25). The agreement marking in classes 1, 4, 6 and 9-10 differs from the marking of other determiners. Numbers higher than 10 are formed by ten(s) + unit(s) joined by na 'and'. Thus, numbers 11 to 19 are as follows: (22)

i.kumi i.kumi i.kumi i.kumi i.kumi

na na na na na

-mu 'eleven' -ßili 'twelve' -satu 'thirteen' -ßina 'fourteen' -tano 'fifteen'

(23)

a.ißi.teße i.kumi A.CL8.chair CL5.ten 'fourteen chairs'

na and

ßi.na CM CL8.four

(24)

a.in.te i.kumi A.CLIO.cow CL5.ten 'thirteen cows'

na and

i.satu CMCL5.three

(25)

a.ma.ato i.kumi A.CL6.canoe CL5.ten 'fifteen canoes'

na and

a.tanu CM CL6.five

i.kumi i.kumi i.kumi i.kumi

na na na na

mu.kaga 'sixteen' mu.saanzu 'seventeen' mu.nana 'eighteen' mu.eenda 'nineteen'

Ten in the plural is ma.kumi in class 6. The number of tens is postnominal, following the general ordering of determiners within the NP. Numbers 1-5 are marked for agreement by the concord marker of class 6, namely a-, and the numbers 6 - 9 in terms of class 3 nouns are simply juxtaposed to ma.kumi, as the formula and the examples in (26) show:

238 Christina Thorneil

(26)

CL6.kumi.CM CL6.numbers 1-5 CL6.kumi.CL3.numbers 6-9 ma.kumi mu.kaga 'sixty' ma.kumi a.ßili 'twenty' ma.kumi mu.saanzu 'seventy' ma.kumi a.satu 'thirty' ma.kumi mu.nana 'eighty' ma.kumi a.ßina 'forty' ma.kumi mu.eenda 'ninety' ma.kumi a.tano 'fifty'

4. Grammatical agreement of subject and object The noun agrees with the verb, with respect to both the subject and the object. The agreement is marked by concords on the verb phrase. The concords appear even in cases when there is no overt noun phrase with a classcarrying noun. The surface forms of subject concord markers are identical to their underlying forms except for class 1, where the surface marker a- represents the underlying marker u-. Preceded by the connective, the subject concord markers take an initial vowel with the same quality as its other vowel. Coalescence or vowel lengthening takes place in the way described in Section 3.4. and illustrated in examples (15-17). The phonological processes parallel those that take place in the augment and initial vowel of the class prefix, and which result in the preprefix (see Section 2.2.1.). The surface forms of object concord markers, on the other hand, differ from their underlying forms in class 10 and in the second person singular and plural. The surface markers is gi- in class 10, ku- in the second person singular, and ßa- in the second person plural, whereas their underlying counterparts are e-, u- and mu-, respectively. The concord markers precede the verbal base (VB) in the way shown in the formula of the verb phrase (see [27] below). The subject concord marker appears in initial position in the verb phrase (28-31), while the object concord marker appears immediately before the verbal base (see [30-31] below). (27)

SCM

TAM/CL15

OCM

VB

ΤΑΜ

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language

4.1.

Subject concord marker positions

(28)

n. ku. SCM1SG CL15 Ί am coming'

iz.a come.TAM (PROG)

(29)

a.in.ßuzi e. A.CL9.goat SCMCL9 'The goat is eating'

ku. CL15

239

li.a eat.TAM (PROG)

4.2.

Subject and object concord marker positions

(30)

a. SCM 3SG

ka. n. gaamß.il.a ΤΑΜ OCM tell.APPL.TAM (DEF REM PST PF) 1SG

'He told me' (31) βα. SCM CL2

a. mu. tel. He ΤΑΜ OCM beat.PF (REC PST PF) 3SG 'They have beaten him'

5. Summary The noun phrase in the Tanzanian Bantu language Kerebe has been analysed from a descriptive perspective. More precisely, the noun phrase of the Standard dialect has been described. An important outcome of the analysis is that the underlying and surface morphological and phonological structures of the noun phrase have been highlighted. The description covers not only nominal structure and the noun class system, but also the system of grammatical agreement between the noun and its determiners, and that between the noun phrase and verb phrase in terms of subject and object concord markers. Another important outcome concerns the method of the study. The results of the analysis show that it is fruitful to base grammatical sketches on data from earlier descriptions.

240 Christina Thorneil The present study, which has attempted to sketch the structures of the Kerebe noun phrase, could be complemented by more research into certain aspects of it, e.g. the augment a-, the phonological processes it undergoes, its function, and its relation to the connective. Such additional research would preferably be based on data collected during fieldwork in the areas where the Kerebe language is spoken. It would also be interesting to widen the scope of study. A sociolinguistic focus, for example, would highlight the Jita influences on the Kerebe noun phrase and its agreement system, since Jita impacts on Kerebe. Further research should also take into consideration a comparison of the noun phrase in other languages in the Kerebe area and in surrounding areas. Such a comparison would show whether, from a grammatical perspective, the languages form part of a dialect cluster rather than being separate languages.

Abbreviations 1PL 1SG 2PL 2SG A ANA APPL CAUS CL CM CONN CP DEF INDEP NCP NS OCM PF POSS PP PROG PST REC

Personal pronoun, 1st person plural, subject, if not specified otherwise Personal pronoun, 1st person singular, subject, if not specified otherwise Personal pronoun, 2nd person plural, subject, if not specified otherwise Personal pronoun, 2nd person singular, subject, if not specified otherwise Augment Anaphoric pronoun Applicative Causative Class Concord marker Connective Class prefix Definite form Independent pronoun Noun class prefix Noun stem Object concord marker Perfective Possessive Preprefix Progressive Past Recent

The noun phrase in the Kerebe language REM SCM STAB ΤΑΜ VB

241

Remote Subject concord marker Stabiliser Tense, aspect and mood Verbal base

Notes 1.

2.

3. 4.

This study has been conducted within the scope of the "Languages in Tanzania" project funded by the Swedish Agency for Research in Developing Countries and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SAREC/SIDA). I am indebted to Euphrase Kezilahabi for information on the language. I am also indebted to Herman Batibo, Edward Elderkin and Karsten Legdre for valuable comments on earlier versions of the paper. The writing of Kerebe follows its traditional rendition with a b instead of β, which would be the adequate way of writing it, according to the conventions applied in the present paper. A dot (.) indicates a morpheme boundary. ':' Indicates vowel length.

References CIA (= Central Intelligence Agency) 2001 The World Factbook: Tanzania. Web document downloaded November 2001. Comrie, Bernard 1989 Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. Oxford: Blackwell. Guthrie, Malcolm 1970 Comparative Bantu: An Introduction to the Comparative Linguistics and Prehistory of the Bantu Languages, vols. 3-4. London: Gregg International. Hurel, Eugene 1909 La langue kikerewe: essai de grammaire. Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen 12: 1-113. Maho, Jouni F. 1999 A comparative Study of Bantu Noun Classes. Gothenburg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis 13.

242 Christina

Thorneil

Meinhof, Carl and Ν. J. van Warmelo 1932 Introduction to the Phonology of the Bantu Languages. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer/Ernst Vohsen. Nurse, Derek and Görard Philippson 1975 [1999] Tanzania Language Survey. Web document downloaded in 2001. Nurse, Derek 1979 Description of sample Bantu languages of Tanzania. African Languages/Langues Africaines 5(1): 11-50. Odden, David and Kathleen Hubbard 1994 Kerewe. Web document downloaded November 2001.

Odden, David 1998 Verbal tone melodies in Kikerewe. In: Maddieson, I. and T. J. Hinnebusch (eds.), Language History and Linguistic Description in Africa. Asmara: Africa World Press. 1999 Kikerewe minimality. In: Finlayson, R. (ed.), African Mosaic, a Festschrift for J. D. Louw. Pretoria: UNISA Press. 2001 Opacity and Ordering: Η-deletion in Kikerewe. Linguistic Review 17:323-335. 2003 The grammar of the initial vowel in Kikerewe. Paper presented at the 4th World Congress of African Linguistics, June 17-22, 2003, Rutgers University, Brunswick, USA.

The infinitive as a part of speech in Swahili Nelli V. Gromova

1.

Introduction

The noun class system in Swahili, like other Bantu languages, contains a class of nouns usually referred to as the infinitive class. These are categorised as CL 15 and are marked with the prefix ku-. However, in this particular case the term infinitive is not totally correct. In general linguistics it is usually identified as the indefinite or non-finite verbal form. In contrast to finite verbal forms, the infinitive does not represent such distinctive features as absolute time, mood, and, usually, person and number. Historically, the infinitive in Indo-European languages is a nominal form with the sense of action or a state of being that is converted into the verbal paradigm. Usually, it is regarded as a verbal form, and thus part of the verbal paradigm (Lingvisticheskiy entsiklopedicheskiy slovar 1990: 198). In comparison with the infinitive in Indo-European languages, CL 15 nouns in Swahili have a number of specific features. Firstly, they are part of a noun class system that inherently marks the noun with the definite noun prefix. According to H. P. Block (1956: 382^419), the Bantu nominal prefix ku- cannot structurally be separated from the verbal stem, although in some cases the infinitive can be constructed with the prefixes of other noun classes, e.g. i-boma 'to kill' in the Akwa language, or oko-ragera 'to eat' in Kuria. However, there is a rule in Bantu languages that is definitely followed: the infinitive always needs a noun class prefix that directly precedes the verbal stem. This morphological construction is evidence for the fact that infinitives are indeed nouns. In fact, many Bantuists consider words with the ku- prefix as forming a separate noun class, and consequently include them in the noun class system. In as early as 1956, K. Rüzicka cited several definitions of the grammatical semantics of CL 15 given by different authors such as A. Seidel (1941) and E. Ashton (1956). The latter authors consider the members of

244 Nelli V. Gromova

this class to be nouns. Furthermore, Ashton (1956: 123) differentiates between two ways of using the infinitive in Swahili: (a) as a verbal infinitive, and (b) as a verbal noun. In contrast, Block (1956) points out that the infinitive in Bantu is always a noun and should not be considered a verbal form. The authors of The Morphology of Swahili, Kihore, Massamba and Msanjila (2000: 124), agree: they consider members of CL 15 to be nouns derived by the nominalisation of verbs. On the other hand Bleek (1869), Meinhof (1906), and Doke (1921/1922), for instance, classify the infinitive as a verbal category, but agree that it can be used as a noun. In compliance with the point of view of Torrend (1936: 875), who considers CL 15 as including both verbs and nouns, this class includes 'real' verbs and 'real' nouns with the prefix ku- as a class marker. Such contradictory theories in about the grammatical substance of the so-called infinitive class are attributable to the language itself, because the members of CL 15 are characterised by certain combinations of nominal and verbal features.

2.

The infinitive: Verb or noun?

In a comparison of the morphemic structure of words with the ku- prefix, verbs and nouns alike, it is soon evident that the members of the 'infinitive' class do not have all the grammatical components that are typical of nouns and verbs. These, respectively, are as set out below: a. nouns (prefix +) prefix + stem (+ suffix), e.g. u-ma-taifa ' international ity' u-binafsisha-ji 'privatisation' b. verbs (preprefix +) prefix + (3) (postprefix +) infix + stem + (3) (derivative suffix) (+ categorical negative suffix or relative suffix), but not within the one-word form, e.g. ha-tu-ku-mw-on-ya-esha 'we did not show him' ha-tu-ji-funz-i 'we did not study'

The infinitive as a part of speech in Swahili

245

The morphemic structure of the infinitive, however, differs from the abovelisted formulas. The following example illustrates where these differences are: prefix + (2) infix + stem + (3) (derivative suffix), e.g. ku-to-mw-elez-e-a 'not to explain to him' (lit. *'not-to explain-him') In respect of comparing the grammatical features of nouns with those of CL 15 items, as the example shows, the prefix of this member of the 'infinitive' class does not show number. However, because other noun classes also contain nouns that can only occur in the singular (e.g. Urusi 'Russia', uzuri 'beauty') or the plural (maji 'water', maziwa 'milk'), one could say that the absence of number in CL 15 is not a substantial deviation from the paradigmatic scheme of the noun. The example shows another similarity with nouns. Like in certain noun classes (e.g. animate nouns related to CL 1), members of CL 15 cannot be supplemented by the locative suffix -ni. However, nouns that have no locative form usually have a number prefix, while nouns that have no number prefix can usually make use of the locative suffix -ni. In the case of these two features of nouns, CL 15 members differ distinctly: only CL 15 items lack both these features. In respect of grammatical features that members of CL 15 share with verbs, let us consider the prefix ku-. Ordinarily, this prefix can be attached to verbs with non-syntactic post-stem verbal extensions. As the following examples show, CL 15 items can take the same prefixes: kusom-wa 'to be read' (passive) kusom-ea 'to read to someone' (transitive) kusom-esha 'to cause somebody to read' (causative) kusom-eka 'to be reading' (stative) kusom-ana 'to read to each other' (reciprocal) The prefix ku- can also ordinarily precede a verb stem with several suffixes. In ku-ju-li-sh-wa 'to be introduced to someone', for example, the prefix ku- and the transitive (-//-), causative (-sh-) and passive (-wa) suffixes, respectively, attach to the verb stem -jua 'to know'. Again, this shows a similarity between 'infinitives' and verbs.?

246 Nelli V. Gromova

This mechanism of nominalisation also refers to other derived nominate. The noun class prefix can be added to the derivative verb as the following examples demonstrate: njia 'road' (< -ja) (CL 9/10) kiota 'nest' (< -οία) (CL 7/8) mwia 'creditor' and mwiwa 'debtor' (< -wia) (CL 1 12) However, deriving new nouns by adding a noun class prefix to a derivative verb stem is less productive than adding a subsidiary suffix such as -o, -/', ji, or -u is added. Thus, although CL 15 items - if treated as verbs - can take noun class prefixes, as in the previous example, they cannot form new nouns by adding the suffixes in question: m-kutan-o 'meeting' (CL 3/4), but kukutana 'to meet' (CL 15) ma-pigan-o 'fight' (CL 5/6), but kupigania 'to fight' (CL 15) In certain contexts CL 15 items contain a syntactic affix, e.g. the pronominal object marker. ku-vi-ona 'to see them' (lit. *'to see-them [books]') ku-tu-somea 'to read to us' (lit. *'to read-us') However, where the CL 15 item is a verbal derivative such as mvunja sheria 'transgressor' (lit. *'s/he-who-breaks the law'), the object marker cannot be used. Adding the pronominal object marker to a CL 15 verb stem gives the 'infinitive' certain traits of finite verbs, being marked for person, number and noun class. This makes the Swahili infinitive different from its IndoEuropean counterpart. Thus, the infinitive in Swahili could be described either by way of the usual noun class descriptions, or by way of the object marker. Overall, however, the morphology of CL 15 items with the kuprefix indicates that they share more features with verbs than with nouns, although they belong to the noun class system. There is yet another aspect to consider in regard to describing CL 15 items. The negative markers attached to this subgroup differ from those usually associated with either nouns or verbs. While nouns assume the negative form with the help of the copula si (e.g. huyu si mtu 'this is not a

The infinitive as a part of speech in Swahili

247

person'), verbs do so with the help of negative formants, namely confixes, as follows: a. ha-...-i [negative formant] ha-wa-som-i 'they don't read' b. ha-...-ku [negative formant] ha-tu-ku-andika 'we didn't write' c. -si- [copula] ni-si-end-e Ί do not have to go' (lit. *'I have not to go') Nouns of CL 15, however, mark the negative by using the formant to-. This formant directly follows the prefix ku-, e.g. ku-to-fahamiana 'common misunderstanding'. According to Riizicka (1956: 80) 'the negative infinitive' in Swahili is formed with the help of the verb, e.g. kuto(w)a 'to fail', 'to be lacking', and kutoa kufika 'not to come', but such full negative forms are rarely found. Instead, the verb kutoa has undergone definite changes into an element of grammar and turned into the formant -to-. In Luganda, another Bantu language, the negative form of nouns with the prefix ku- is rendered by means of the affix -ta-. In Swahili, the latter affix takes the same position as the negative marker -to-. By contrast, Luganda words that primarily use the prefix oku- change into another class with the marker obu-, e.g. oku-manya 'to know' > obu-ta-manya 'not to know' ok-uwulira 'to hear' > obu-ta-wulira 'not to hear' In Zulu, the negative of these types of words nouns with the prefix uku- is formed by using the infix -nga- and changing the final vowel to -/, e.g. ukuhamba 'to travel' > uku-nga-hamb-i 'not to travel' The above examples of constructing the negative in nouns with the prefix ku- in different Bantu languages illustrate different developmental stages CL 15 items have undergone in general. In Luganda, the negative forms for these words are made within the same system of classes - by using the noun prefix. In Zulu, although the class prefix is not changed, the negative construction is more like that of a verb because the final vowel in the structure is changed. In Swahili, the 'negative infinitive' structure takes the

248 Nelli V. Gromova intermediate position: no change occurs in the noun prefix (like in Luganda) or the stem (like in Zulu). Thus, in Swahili morphology, the verbal features of the 'infinitive' are verbal derivation and object agreement. Although Swahili 'infinitives' have no other verbal characteristics, in other Bantu languages words in the 'infinitive' class can be marked for tense and subject concord in several ways. In Chwana (Setswana), for example, Cole (1955: 97) points to the following temporal forms of 'the infinitive': go-tla-reka 'to buy in the future', ke tla a reka Ί will buy' [future tense] go-sa-kwala 'not to be written' [perfect tense negative form] According to Cole (1955), words with the prefix ku- can indicate mood, e.g. gokareka 'if able to buy' [lit. *'if to be able to buy'] expresses a conditional. Doke (1921/1922: 8-9) describes three combinations of the 'infinitive' and tense in Lamba namely the present, progressive and perfect tense forms: ukwikala 'to sit' [present tense] uku lu kwikala 'to sit for a long time' [progressive] uku lu kwikele 'to be sitting' [perfect tense] In Luganda, infinitive forms with the resultative perfect also exist, e.g. okulaba 'to see' > okulabye 'to have seen' With regard to tense in Swahili, however, as with all Swahili nouns, CL 15 items are not marked for tense. Nonetheless, several other Bantu languages construct nouns with temporal and other verbal features. In Zulu, for example, nouns with verbal markers add the verbal concord as well as tense, aspect and mood (ΤΑΜ) features, e.g. naningabantu 'we were people' (ni+a+ni+ngabantu, where ni- is the subject prefix, and -a- marks the verb for past tense).

The infinitive as a part of speech in Swahili

3.

249

Syntactic implications of the infinitive

In syntax, words prefixed by ku- have features that characterise the noun as the main part of the syntagma and fix the agreement with the dependent parts of the syntagma, as follows: a.

agreement with the verb, e.g. kuimba kuliendelea 'the singing was continued' b. agreement with the adjective, e.g. kuimba ni kuzuri 'the singing is beautiful' c. agreement with different types of pronouns, e.g. huku ni kuimba kwake 'this is his singing' d. compatibility with another noun in the possessive construction, e.g. kuimba kwa msichana 'the girl's singing' As a dependent part of the syntagma, words prefixed by ku- may be combined with a preposition, e.g. katika kujenga nyumba 'under the building of the house'. Thus, the 'infinitive' can function as the subject, object, adjunct and phrase part of the component predicate, e.g. kupiga maji ni kuharibu afya 'to drink - to be injurious to health'. In this case it is obvious that the 'infinitive' functions as a typical noun. The syntactic paradigm of words prefixed by ku-, including the object marker, does not differ from the syntactic paradigm of nouns. However, there is no agreement between adjectives and pronouns in Swahili. The words of CL 15 with the object marker may be followed by a noun, because they include the object marker of the noun, e.g. kuirudishia nywele rangi yake 'to give the hair its colour back' (lit. *'to-give-back-it the hair its colour') and kuwafahamisha wananchi 'to explain to the inhabitants' (lit. *'to explain-them inhabitants'). They can also be a dependent part of the possessive construction, as in mtu wa kumchukulia 'a porter' (lit. *'a person for to carry for him'). In the syntagma, Swahili negative forms with the prefix ku- behave like affirmative forms, e.g. siasa ya kutofungamana na upande wo wote 'the policy of the neutrality'. The words of CL 15 also have verbal features that can be found on a syntactic level. Thus, they result in conciseness of expression, replacing verb-predicates and duplicating the categories of mood, tense, person, number, etc., as the following examples show:

250 Nelli V. Gromova Baba aliingia na kusema 'Father entered and said' hatutaki kumwona wala kumsikiliza 'we won't see and hear him' aende na kuleta 'get him go and bring' The syntactic construction, consisting of a word with the prefix ku- + noun, correlates with the tense of the verb-predicate, the subordinate conditional clause or subordinate clause of time, e.g. kumwona mgonjwa wake mzima daktari alistaajabu 'seeing the invalid became healthy, the doctor was surprised / when he saw the patient had become healthy, the doctor was surprised'. On the other hand, the syntactic construction - temporal preposition tangu 'since' or baadaya 'after' + noun + infinitive - in which the noun plays the role of the subject and the infinitive-predicate that of the subordinate clause, the clause is more complex in its structure and meaning, as the following examples show: baada ya mama kupika chakula tutakwenda sinema 'after Mom has cooked dinner we will go to the cinema' tangu wakoloni kuingia katika nchi historia yetu ilianza kubadilika 'our history began to change after the colonisers had invaded the country'

4.

Conclusion

As this article shows, Swahili words with the prefix ku- cannot be classified as nouns. Even though these words have some characteristics such as class in common with nouns, members of this ku- class do not indicate number and locativity. Members of the ku- class also display certain verbal features such as infixing object markers, verbal derivation, and the substitution of finite verbal forms in a sentence with uniform predicates. However, the members of the ku- class have a particular way of marking the negative that differs from all other ways of verbal negation. This mosaic of nominal and verbal features permits the definition of words with the prefix ku- as belonging to a separate part of speech in Swahili.

The infinitive as a part of speech in Swahili

251

References Ashton, Ethel O. 1956 Swahili Grammar. London, New York, Toronto:Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd. Bleek, Wilhelm Heinrich I. 1869 A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages. London. Block, H. P. 1956 Localism and deixis in Bantu languages. Lingua 5: 382—419. Cole, Desmond T. 1955 An Introduction to Tswana Grammar. London: Longman. Doke, Clemens M. 1921/22 Some notes on infinitive in Bantu. Bantu Studies I: 1-3. Kihore, Υ. M., David P. B. Massamba, Y. P. Msanjila 2001 Sarufi maumbo ya Kiswahili Sanifu (SAMAKISA) Sekondari na vyuo. Dar es Salaam: Taasisi ya uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam. Lingvisticheskiy entsiklopedicheskiy slovar 1990 Ed. by V. N. Yartseva. Moscow: Sovetskaya entsiklopedia. Meinhof, Carl 1906 Grundzüge einer vergleichenden Grammatik der Β antusprachen. Berlin. Rüüiöka, Karel F. 1956 Infinitive in Swahili. Archiv Orientalni 27 (1/2): 57-116, 294-333. Seidel, August 1941 Suaheli - Konversationsgrammatik nebst einer Einführung in den Briefstil der Suaheli. Heidelberg: Groos. Torrend, Julius S. I. 1936 The classifications of common nouns in the Rhodesian Tonga. Antropos XXXI: 5-6.

On vowel systems in the Southern Bole-Tangale languages Rudolf Leger

When being asked by the editors to contribute an article to this volume dedicated to Karsten Legere I spontaneously agreed. At the same time I recalled the occasions when meeting Karsten and what was the form of bond between us. Two main things always turned out. First Karsten's passionate love for Africa and secondly his great affection for linguistics. This was of course an ideal base of many fruitful discussion we had in Germany or in Africa. But not only his scholarly capacity made him an excellent scientist, it was rather his humane attitude, which let him gain respect of many friends and colleagues. Thus, in honour of this fine man and gentle colleague the following article is written. This paper deals with vowel systems in the languages of the 'southern' Bole-Tangale group (cf. Hansford et al. 1976: 186), whose position within the Chadic family is shown in the following chart, adapted from Crozier and Blench (1992: 124-125): Afroasiatic Chadic West-Branch Sub-branch A Bole-Angas major group Bole group b. i. Kwami, Pero, Piya-Kwonci, (Widala-)Kholok, Nyam, Kushi, Kutto (=Kupto); Tangale An interesting distribution concerning the number of vowels among the various languages of this sub-group is found. The distribution more or less reflects the geographical location of these languages as there is a steady increase in the number of vowels from the 'northern' towards the 'south-

254 Rudolf Leger ern' located languages. The geographical 'northern' representatives Kwami and K u p t o in addition to Pero, which is the only exceptional case within the geographical 'southern' languages, display a very 'traditional' or 'classical' vowel system. They all have five short and long vowels a/aa, e/ee, i/ii, o/oo and u/uu (cf. Leger 1994: 48; Jungraithmayr and Leger 1993: 166; Frajzyngier 1989: 28), which can be observed in the following examples: Kwami tägäm mece fidi kdrdk purum

'shoe' 'journey' 'place' 'grass (gen.)' 'knee'

/aa/ /ee/ /ii/ /oo/ /uu/

däanä keeri wiishi shoogö küugüdü

'sp.tree' 'straw' 'sp.snake' 'border' 'tortoise'

/o/ /u/

Kupto mäglä tere fishi kodom tiilüm

'trad, god' 'moon' 'sun' 'crocodile' 'hyena'

/aa/ /ee/ /ii/ /oo/ /uu/

häabä yeeyey riishi footo buu-

'thin' 'to drink' 'to enter' 'to arrive' 'person, possessor'

/a/ /e/ /i/ /of /u/

Pero änkäkä teret cirip cokopok puccü

'lizard' 'broom' 'fish' 'beard' 'there'

/aa/ /ee/ /ii/ /oo/ /uu/

päarär yeebe piibi coomo luuy

'rib' 'cloud' 'flea' 'shade' 'crazy'

Id /e/ /i/ /of /u/

/a/ /e/

/•/

The remaining languages of this group, however, which in particular are the geographical 'southern' members (Widala-)Kholok, Kushi, Piya and Tangale, display a six or seven or even a nine vowel system. Here we find in addition to the five short and long cardinal vowels a rounded front vowel ii/üü - like in German über - in (Widala-)Kholok, and a central schwa-like vowel 9/93 in Kushi. Compare the following examples:

/a/ /e/ /i/

(Widala-)Kholok tällä 'centre' mele 'jorney' bllir 'flower'

/aa/ /ee/ /ii/

cwään yeele til

'eating' 'they' 'vein'

Vowel systems in Bole-Tangale languages

/o/ /u/ /Ü/

tomom gugul (Tiiyd

'sweet' 'elbow' 'bird (gen.)'

/oo/ /uu/ /ÜÜ/

/a/ /e/ /3/ /i/ /o/ /u/

Kushi dawdn Tele fdk girbi good pugut

'bundle' 'sound' 'jump' 'donkey' 'belly' 'early morning'

/aa/ gaakh /ee/ jeere /99/ shddd /ii/ flir /oo/ dooro /uu/ kituk

tookh duudu (fiiiiyo

255

'horse' 'sp. tree' '(a baby) de

'crow' 'friend' 'dawn' 'outside' 'pipe' 'fertile soil'

In Piya, the number of vowels depends on the dialect. Three dialects, namely Fulan-Kwonci, Garma-Pelang and Wallo have six vowels, and only the Kulu dialect has a seven vowel system. The vowel systems are as follows: Fulan-Kwonci,

i/ii

Garma-Pelang,

u/uu e/ee a/aa

a/as

Wallo

i/ii 2i2i o/oo

Kulu

u/uu e/ee 3/39 0/00 a/aa

We observe that Kulu has an additional vowel, which can be distinguished from the remaining vowels by the feature [lax] or [narrow], depending on the width of the pharynx (cf. Ladefoged 1975: 206). Before explaining this phenomenon, it is advisable to switch to Tangale, the best known language so far of this group, since only Nyam's classificatory position is established within the 'Bole group b.' of the Bole-Tangale languages (cf. Crozier and Blench 1992: 88). Tangale is a special case as it has a unique vowel system within the West-Chadic languages, comprising nine - according to Jungraithmayr (cf. 1992/93: 119f.) originally even ten - short and long oral vowels, which can be seen in the following chart:

256 Rudolf Leger

i/ii

u/uu 2i/22i2i e/ee 2e/2e2e a/aa

2u/2u2u o/oo 2o/2o2o

On the grounds of their distribution the nine vowels belong to two different sets, which mutually exclude each other within a word boundary (cf. Jungraithmayr 1991: 23). The two sets can be differentiated by the articulatory feature /+-ATR/, i.e. plus/minus advanced tongue root position or as it has been described by Kidda (1993: 13) as "tense" and "lax". This means that i/ii, u/uu, e/ee and o/oo have the feature +ATR or tense and 2i/2i2i, 2u/2u2u, 2e/2e2e, 2o/2o2o and a/aa are -ATR or lax. See the following examples which display these features of vowel harmony. They are taken from Jungraithmayr's Dictionary of the Tangale Language 1991 in its original form: /a/ damdamba /e/ kelle 12 e/ b2end2e

'far apart' 'knife sp.' 'loincloth'

/aa/ /ee/ /2e2e/

laara seele kw2e2ed2e

/i/ /2i/ /o/ l2ol /u/

dindi d2ikd2ik roro p2ogy2o pugum

'cooking pot' 'sweet, pleasant' 'near(ness)' 'new, young' 'blindness'

/ii/ /2i2i/ loot /2o2o/ /uu/

piimo d2i2ib2i koolo k2o2ol2o luuru

/2u/

mb2ud2u

'wild cat'

/2u2u/

t2u2un

'new' 'to hatch' 'to complete, to finish' 'they, them' 'dimple' 'fish sp. (flat)' 'pumpkin sp.' 'basin-shaped basket' 'baboon'

The situation here is in complete contrast to systems one meets within other Bole-Tangale languages and also to Chadic as a whole, where languages possessing systems of vowel harmony are very rarely found.1 But where does this unique nine vowel system in Tangale originate from? Is it borrowed from other languages or is it an internal innovation? Jungraithmayr (1990: 9) writes: "There can be no doubt that this unique innovative development in a Chadic language surrounded almost exclusively by Adamawa languages has been triggered off by an obviously intensive contact with one of them." And also Kidda (1993: 14) states: "... Tangale is surrounded by Niger-Congo languages such as Tula, Dadiya, Waja and so

Vowel systems in Bole-Tangale languages

257

on ..., from which the innovation [i.e. the vowel harmony] could have originated." And finally, Kleinewillinghöfer (1990: 94-95), who is of the same opinion, writes: "... there are in addition striking phonological resemblances, especially similarities in the vowel harmony systems, which indicate that the Tangale and the Waja ... must have had a certain degree of interrelation in their recent history" and "... that the vowel harmony of Tangale is likely to have been caused by contact with Waja and/or people speaking related languages." All of these hypotheses, which the author has also followed from the beginning (cf. Jungraithmayr and Leger 1993: 166), are based on the argument of a complete transfer of a vowel harmony system from language one (here Adamawa) to another, i.e. to a Chadic language. How this phonetically highly complicated system was passed on is explained by or thought to be caused by the coexistence of these languages in a Niger-Congo-Chadic 'Sprachbund' (cf. Dinslage and Leger 1996: 71). Their mutual existence over a long period of time might have caused a great number of cultural contacts and linguistic interference, which first led to the exchange and finally to the adoption of specific typological patterns like vowel harmony. As a further support serves the type of present-day's surrounding languages. If we take Kupto and Kwami, which are spoken a small distance apart from each other in the lowland of the Gongola basin, then we find them surrounded by or in contact with other Chadic languages, namely Bolanci and Tera. This is contrary to Kushi, Piya, (Widala)-Kholokh, Pero and especially Tangale, which - forming a language continuum - border to Adamawa and Jarawan Bantu languages like Awak, Tula, Waja, Bangwinji, Burak, Lo, Bambuka, Jen and Kulung. It has been taken for granted, therefore, that Tangale has inherited its 9 vowel (harmony) system from neighbouring Adamawa languages, which all possess this feature (Kleinewillinghöfer 1996: 82f.). New investigations show - at least in the author's opinion - that not linguistically 'external' reasons like borrowing, but rather linguistically internal processes lead to the genesis and development of such complex vowel systems. Here, the already mentioned language Piya, in which this process can be interlectally studied may be explicitly referred to. As one may observe from the chart given above, Kulu has one vowel more than the other three dialects Fulan-Kwonci, Garma-Pelang and Wallo. As this front vowel /2i2i/ with the feature /-ATR/ has no counterpart to the back vowels /2u/ and /2u2u/ respectively, the system is clearly oblique or asymmetric. Basically one can expect from any given language that - be it morphopho-

258 Rudolf Leger nological, i.e. of inherited constraints, or be it vowel euphonic, i.e. of innovative constraints - the missing link's existence is obligatory in its system (Leger and Storch 1999: 166). In Kulu the vowel /2i2i/ appears extremely rare as in the only example c2i2in-änni 'to deny, to argue'. In the same dialect we find another - nearly homophonous - verb ciin-änni 'to smell' with the articulatory distinctive feature [wide] in respect to the pharynx (and not the grade of openness). If, however, we look at this verb in the other dialects Fulan-Kwonci, Garma-Pelang and Wallo, we find cün-änm for 'to deny, to argue' and siin-änni for 'to smell'. Both lexemes are not differentiated by the vowels, but rather by the initial consonant Id and /s/ respectively. This phenomenon shows us, that the innovation or expansion of the vowel system in Kulu has to be sought in the loss of the phonemic opposition between the affricate /c/ and the fricative /s/. While Wallo and the other dialects preserve two consonant phonemes, Kulu has lost one of them, i.e. the fricative Is/. This loss, however, is compensated by innovations of the vowel system, which means, that Wallo can very well renounce or evade the shift to the vocalism for a sufficient semantic distinction of the two lexemes. Contrariwise, Kulu has no other possibility other than marking the semantic distinction in the domain of vocalism when homophony should be avoided. It can be further argued that the development of such distinctive features is a very recently induced process, which might be proved by the verbal noun ending in -o. According to the principles of vowel harmony, it is unavoidable that the affix vowels harmonise in their value with the root vowel(s) (cf. Casali 1995: 110). Consequently c2i2ino 'denying, arguing' would well be formed with -2o, i.e. *c2i2in-2o (with an -ATR vowel), which, however, is not the case in the language, since the verbal noun reads c2\2in-o. It may be concluded, therefore, that the borrowing of a new vowel class possessing -ATR or lax vowels as well as the integration of such a 'new class' in the complete vowel system is not very plausible. The consequences of it can be at least hypothetically transferred to other languages and in particular to Tangale, a language whose morphological reduction is highly concerning. Compare Jungraithmayr (1992/93: 123) who writes:

Vowel systems in Bole-Tangale languages

259

Another structural speciality of Tangale which is hardly found anywhere else in Chadic is the fact that morpheme final segments in this language are severely threatened by 'clipping' or apocopational processes..., e.g. Final form

Contextual form Weakened form Reduced form

m2iid2e 'to die'

m2ud-

m2u-

e-g· m2udg2o 'died'

e-g· m2us2i 'dead'

In Tangale we observe an apocopation, which affects stem-final radicals as well as word-building morphemes by reducing formerly complex lexemes to comparatively 'eroded' forms. Therefore, innovations within the vowel system compensate for the loss of morphemes and ensure that lexical and morphophonological units remain distinctive and intact. This 'speciality' of clipping and apocopation in Tangale is perfectly comparable to the process of reducing phonemic consonants in Kulu. It can be argued, therefore, that Tangale has gained its elaborate vowel harmony system by its own structural innovation and not by the doubtlessly close contact to surrounding Adamawa languages. To sum up, the following may be stated: Within the languages of the 'southern' Bole-Tangale group, there exists a dichotomy between the geographically 'northern' and 'southern' languages with respect to the number of vowels. The 'northern' languages Kwami and Kupto, but also Pero, a 'southern' member, possess the 'classical' five vowel system. (Widala-) Kholokh and Kushi display a six vowel system like the three Piya dialects Fulan-Kwonci, Germa-Pelang and Wallo. The fourth dialect Kulu has seven vowels and Tangale possesses nine vowels, which are organised in a vowel harmony system. These nine vowels can be classified in two different sets, i.e. +ATR (or tense) and -ATR (or lax). Contrary to general opinion, this unique vowel system may not be considered the result of direct borrowing from surrounding Adamawa languages. Rather, it is interpreted as a structural innovation compensating for the heavy and constant loss of morphemes by apocopational processes. Evidence of the development of such a complex vowel system is indirectly proven by the Kulu dialect of Piya, which balances the loss of a consonant by expanding the vowel system and enlarging it with an additional -ATR vowel. Therefore, it can be, generally assumed that parallel to a complex tonology - as it is particularly found in the Gur or Kwa languages - the steady reduction of morphology

260 Rudolf Leger has also become compensated in the domain of sound inventories and above all in highly complex vowel systems (Leger and Storch 1999: 167f.). A final question, however, remains: which stages are historically earlier, i.e. do the highly complex consonant inventories represent a first stage of compensation after the loss of grammatical morphemes or stem radicals or does the development of the vowel system precede this process? It may be argued that in Chadic, consonantal systems were 'enflated' at first and after a reduction of phonemic distinctive features in this domain, the languages' strategy switched over to the vowel system, a change which might have been encouraged by close contact to Adamawa and Jukunoid languages, which exhibit similarly complex vowel systems.

Note 1.

Only two other languages are known so far, both belonging to the East-Chadic family, e.g. Dangaleat and Ouldeme which display a vowel harmony system.

References Casali, Roderic 1995 On the reduction of vowel systems in Volta-Congo. African Languages and Cultures 8 (2): 109-121. Crozier, David and Roger Blench 1992 An Index of Nigerian Languages. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Dinslage, Sabine and Rudolf Leger 1996 Language and migration. The impact of the Jukun on Chadic speaking groups in the Benue-Gongola basin. Berichte des Sonderforschungsbereichs 268 (8): 67-75. Frajzyngier, Zygmunt 1989 A Grammar ofPero. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. Hansford, Keir, John Bendor-Samuel and Ron Stanford 1976 Studies in Nigerian Languages No. 5. An Index of Nigerian Languages. Accra & High Wycombe: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Jungraithmayr, Herrmann 1991 A Dictionary of the Tangale Language. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. 1992/93 On vowel systems in Chadic - A typological overview. Folia Orientalia 29: 119-129.

Vowel systems in Bole-Tangale languages

261

Jungraithmayr, Herrmann and Rudolf Leger 1993 The Benue-Gongola-Chad basin - Zone of ethnic and linguistic compression. Berichte des Sonderforschungsbereichs 268 (2): 161-172. Kidda, Mairo Ε. 1993 Tangale Phonology. A Descriptive Analysis. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. Kleinewillinghöfer, Ulrich 1990 Aspects of Waja vowel harmony and Tangale-Waja common vocabulary. Frankfurter Afrikanistische Blätter 2: 93-106. 1996 Die nordwestlichen Adamawa-Sprachen - Eine Übersicht. Frankfurter Afrikanistische Blätter 8: Afrikanische Sprachen zwischen Gestern und Morgen. (Ed. by U. Seibert), 80-103. Ladefoged, Peter 1975 A Course in Phonetics. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Leger, Rudolf 1994 Eine Grammatik der Kwami-Sprache (Nordostnigeria). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Leger, Rudolf and Anne Storch 1999 Zur Genese komplexer Vokalsysteme in einigen nordostnigerianischen Sprachen. Afrika und Übersee 82: 161-172.

!Xun as a type Β language1 Bernd Heine and Christa König

For roughly a decade, Karsten Legere's academic career has been devoted to the languages of Namibia, and while his main concern was with the Bantu languages of this country, he also did work on the Khoisan languages. The present contribution, devoted to him, deals with one of the Khoisan languages of Namibia.

1.

Introduction

The language concerned is !Xun, also known as !Kung, !Xü, Ju, Ju/'hoan, Jufhoansi, Ju-fhöa, or Zhu-|'höa-si, spoken by traditional hunter-gatherers in southern Angola, northern Namibia and north-western Botswana (see Miller-Ockhuizen and Sands 1999). It is a dialect cluster of what is usually called the Khoisan (or 'Click') phylum. Within this phylum, whose genetic unity has so far not been established beyond reasonable doubt, !Xun forms the northern branch of South African Khoisan. !Xun can be described as an L-complex, that is, as a cluster of speech forms, or 'lects' as we will say, that are linked by a chain of mutual intelligibility, but speakers at the extreme ends of the chain do not understand one another. Table 1 provides a genetic classification of all those varieties of the language for which some grammatical information is available. !Xun is a fairly analytic-isolating language, characterised among others by Λ

the presence of a noun class system and serial verb constructions . The basic word order is SVO (subject - verb - object), although there is a minor pattern exhibiting SOV word order. Like other Khoisan languages !Xun is phonologically complex; the number of segmental phonemes identified is between 110 and 120, and in addition there are four distinct tone levels and four register tonemes in all lects.

264 Bernd Heine und Christa König

Table 1. A tentative genetic classification of !Xun lects based on grammatical distinctions. Branch 1 North

Cluster 1.1 Northern

Lect Own name Ν !xuun N3

1.2 Western

W1 W2

2 Central

1.3 Κ Kavango 2 C Tsumeb

3 East

3.1 Ju|'hoan

El

3.2

E2

3.3

E3

Where spoken Southeastern Angola

!'o !ug ('for- Eastern half of central Angola est !Xun') !xuun Ovamboland, northern Namibia |akhoe !xoän Ovamboland, northern ('Kwanyama Namibia !Xun') !xuun Western part of Kavango Region, Namibia Unknown, presumably extinct, Namibia ju-|'hoan(-si), Around Tsumkwe in north-eastern Namibia ju and adjacent parts of Botswana !xun, Around Dikundu3, Okaju-|hoa(si) vango River, northeastern Namibia !xuun North of Gobabis, around Drimiopsis, eastern Namibia

Sources used Field notes, Heine 1998 Β leek 1929, 1956 Heikkinen 1986, 1987 König and Heine 2001 Field notes, Heine 1998 Vedder 1910-11 Snyman 1970, Dickens 1992, 1994 Köhler 1971, 1973, 1981 Field notes, König and Heine 2000

In the following sections we will deal with data from different lects of the language, and we will refer to these lects by using the abbreviations listed in Table 1. Examples provided without source reference are taken from field research data collected by Christa König and Bernd Heine.

2. The problem !Xun has a split word order: There is basic V O order, where the object follows the verb, and there is also a less basic OV order, which is restricted to certain environments. One such environment is characterised by the presence of what one may loosely call 'auxiliary verbs'. A skeleton structure of the two patterns is presented in (1), exemplified in (2).

IXun as a type Β language

(1)

(2)

Split word order in !Xun a. S V b. S 'auxiliary' Ο

265

Ο V

El (Snyman 1970: 126f.) 4 a. Peri

tci

g!u

goat drink water 'The goat drinks water.' b. /fXeri

f/'ae

g!u

tci

||Xeri want water drink '||Xeri wants to drink water.' There are considerable differences in the way the two constructions of (1 a) and ( l b ) are used. While the VO-construction of ( l a ) is fairly unconstrained, the use of OV-construction of ( l b ) is confined to specific contexts. Most of all, the object may not be relativised, nor can it take demonstrative modifiers. Thus, (3a) is not well formed, since the object ciile 'tobacco' has a demonstrative modifier on it, while (3b) is. (3c) illustrates the VO-pattern of (la). (3)

W2 a. *ba

ά

käle

ciile

hä

rjg

j/häi-

a

2:SG Q want tobacco N1 this pull- Τ (*'Do you want to smoke this tobacco?') b. bä

ά

käle

cule

jjhäi-

a

2:SG Q want tobacco pull- Τ 'Do you want to smoke this tobacco?' c. bä

ά

j/häi

2:SG Q pull 'Do you smoke?'

cule

tobacco

Note that there is the transitive suffix -a on the main verb in (3b), which is required in the W2 lect but is absent in E l . This suffix, marked ' T ' in the glosses, has a wide range of functions, perhaps the main one being to transitivise verbs; we will return to this suffix in Section 3. But the situation is slightly more complex. There is yet another construction involving OV-order where what we just said does not seem to apply. This construction is used when what Snyman (1969: 153) refers to as "adverbial stems" are involved: Whenever these stems are used post-

266 Bernd Heine und Christa König

verbally, the object follows the verb, as in (4a), but when they are used preverbally, the verb follows the object, as in (4b). Thus, (4a) and (4b) are presented by Snyman as being semantically equivalent: (4)

El a. di-kx 'ao drunkard

tchi nlo 'odrink fast-

a Ixeri. Τ liquor

or b. di-kx 'ao n!o ο Ixeri tchi. drunkard fast liquor drink 'The drunkard drinks the liquor fast.' Besides word order there is a second property distinguishing the structure illustrated in (2) from that in (4): The "adverbial stem" takes the transitive suffix (T) -a in (4a), but not in (4b). Thus, we seem to be faced with a situation that contradicts what we observed earlier, namely that VO-order presents the morphologically less marked structure, i.e. that it requires less morphological expenditure than OV-order. To conclude, there are a number of questions that the structures presented raise, such as the following: (a) (b)

Why are there two different word order arrangements? Why is there OV order when an "adverbial stem" precedes the verb but not when it follows the verb in El? (c) Why is it that the use of the transitive suffix correlates with OV order in (3b) but with VO order in (4a)? There is a way of accounting for the split order of !Xun. Basing his analysis on Givon (1975) and Haiman (1975), Honken (1976) argues that !Xun is undergoing a shift from a "consistent" SOV to a "consistent" SVO language. The shift has been largely concluded, but !Xun has an "inconsistent" word order since it has retained a few relics of its earlier structure. The most striking of these relics is the presence of OV-clause order, as illustrated in (2b) and (3b). The question that arises in particular is: Why should !Xun have given up its OV-order in favour of VO, that is, how was this change motivated? And how to account for the kind of questions just raised? There is no answer in Honken's account, and, we think, there could be no reasonable answer, since such a shift probably never took place. Rather, we argue,

IXun as a type Β language 267 there was a shift in the opposite direction, that is, from VO- to OV-order in specific contexts.

3. Solving the problem As we mentioned earlier, this OV-pattern is confined to specific contexts. First, it is only a small set of verbs that are associated with it (see also Snyman [1970: 127], Köhler [1973: 63], Heikkinen [1987: 49-50], König and Heine [2001], for E l , E2, W l , and W2, respectively). These verbs, acting as matrix verbs of complement clauses, are listed in (5a) for the El lect and in (5b) for W2 (the abbreviation '(VO)' means that it is also possible to use VO word order with the relevant verb): (5)

Verbs requiring OV-complements a. El (Snyman 1970) H'ae 'want' 'leave' Φ Φ'eng 'consider' zaih-an 'agree to, with' niwan 'tell' b. W2 bo (VO) 'be able to' ce obligation marker 'agree' djaqiyO) djoqe-a 'be happy about' g/x 'ύί-ά 'be tired o f gllän 'hold up' kale (VO) 'want' kubi 'start' näci 'need' nlhäin (VO) 'finish' nüehi 'catch' nßuTi 'try' /hmm 'dislike'

Such verbs may take nominal complements, or complements that can be understood to be either nouns or non-finite verbs. Thus, the item Is'a 'sleep' in (6) can be either a noun of noun class 4 'sleep', or a verb mean-

268

Bernd Heine und Christa

König

ing 'sleep'. Similarly, in (7), the verb er) 'drink' can function either as a verb or a noun. (6)

El (Snyman 1970: 127) jUkx'a

H'ae

ts'a

|Ukx'a want sleep (a) '|Ukx'a wants to sleep.', (b) '|Ukx'a wants sleep.' (7)

W2 (a) ha

(b) ma

cj).

hä

N1 TOP drink 'He drinks.'

ma

ge-

N1 TOP COP'He has a drink.'

a

eg.

Τ

drink

As such, verbs can be headed by prepositions, as in (8), where the complement verb is headed by the comitative preposition /'an 'with'. (8)

W2 ha

md

to'm

N1 TOP be:near 'He is about to die.'

fan

//άέ

with

die

But perhaps more important is the fact that verbs may take possessive modifiers which are simply placed before their head without any formal marking (see e.g. Dickens 1992: 52). Thus, in example (9) the item j/hm 'smoke' (lit. 'pull') may be interpreted alternatively as a verb (9a) or as a noun (9b). (9)

El (Dickens 1992: 52) a. ju-

s-

ä

ihm

j/häi

people- PL- REL many pull 'Many people smoke tobacco.' b. coro

//häi

kx ui-

ά

cord

tobacco

ju

tobacco pull destroy- Τ person 'Tobacco-smoking destroys one.' What this means is that the main verb in OV-constructions is not clearly a verb. Accordingly, what appears to be an object-verb construction can

!Xun as a type Β language

269

equally well be interpreted as a complement consisting of a verb in nominal use plus its possessive modifier. But there are two problems that the preceding analysis raises. One concerns the fact that the main verb in OV-constructions requires the transitive suffix -a in the W2 lect, as we saw in (3b), though not in E l , cf. (2b). The reason is that in possessive noun phrases of W2 where the possessee is not a semantically predictable part of the possessor, the transitive suffix is required, while elsewhere, in particular when part-whole relations are concerned, there is no transitive suffix. Thus, in (10a), trees do not necessarily have holes (10a), while cups can be expected to have rims, cf. (10b). Such a rule does not seem to apply to the OV-construction in E l . (10)

W2 a. I ah η tc ia tree mouth- Τ 'hole in a tree stem' b. //hoe tc 'i cup mouth 'rim of a cup'

The second problem concerns the fact that OV-order is not restricted to the verbs listed in (5a) but is also found when "adverbial stems" are involved in E l , as in (4a). A more detailed analysis suggests that the so-called "adverbial stems" are more appropriately analysed as verbs, typically occurring in serial construction and, in fact, what Snyman describes as "adverbial stems" are interpreted by Dickens (1994) as intransitive verbs, as can be seen in Table 2. Table 2. An alternative analysis of Snyman's "adverbial stems" in El Adverbial stems (Snyman 1970) *'eu

Verbs (Dickens 1994) 'slowly'

m

/wara

'finish'

joara

twan

'finish'

nlo 'o

'fast'

! hae

'fast'

U'oba

'weakly'

'be slow, go slowly'

'be complete, be finished' toan 'be finished, come to an end' ι "Λ nlo ο 'do quickly, do fast' !hae 'be quick, hurry' U'oba 'be weak, be lazy, be slow'

270 Bernd Heine und Christa König If we adopt the analysis proposed by Dickens, and there are good reasons to do so, the situation in (4) can be described as follows: The item nlo'o serves as an "auxiliary" verb but expresses an adverbial meaning. Thus, we seem to be confronted with an additional example where a [verb - complement] structure is reinterpreted as another structure [auxiliary - main verb], with the "auxiliary" expressing an adverbial notion. (4b) can therefore be translated literally somehow as 'the drunkard is fast at liquordrinking', where 'be fast' can be interpreted alternatively as an auxiliary or the main verb, and 'drinking' as the main verb or a complement of 'be fast'. This leaves us with the question of why there is a transitive suffix -a on the "adverbial stem" nlo'o in (4a). The answer is as follows: Since nlo'o is an intransitive verb, it requires the transitive suffix to take a complement, that is, Ixeri 'liquor'. 5 To conclude, there is consistent answer to the questions raised in Section 2: The OV-structure of (2b), (3b), and (4b) is the result of the same process of grammaticalisation whereby a structure [verb - complement] is reinterpreted as [auxiliary - main verb], and since the main verb is treated as a nominal unit and possessive modifiers precede their head in !Xun, the object is added as a pre-nominal possessive modifier.

4. On type Β languages But !Xun is not an exceptional case. There are a number of other African languages that can be said to exhibit the same typological properties as !Xun (see Heine and Claudi 2001). These properties cannot be reconciled with the orthodox Greenbergian distinction between verb-initial (VSO) vs. verb-medial (SVO) vs. verb-final languages (SOV). We have referred to languages showing these properties as type Β (Heine 1976). Characteristics of type Β languages of the kind looked at here are (see Heine 1976: 41—42 for more details) summarised in (11). (11)

Salient properties of type Β languages a. There are two contrasting word orders, VO (= verb-medial) and OV (= verb-final). b. Type Β languages place the possessor before the possessed noun phrase. This is either the major or a possible word order.

!Xun as a type Β language

271

c. Compounding is achieved typically by placing the modifier before the head. d. Auxiliaries precede the main verb. e. While possessive modifiers precede their head, most other modifiers like adjectives and numerals follow the head noun. f. There are a number of constraints associated with the use of OVorder, such as the following: (i) There are no tense markers that occur adjacent to the verb. (ii)There are only very few modifiers that can be used with objects. g. While OV-order means that the direct object precedes the main verb, the indirect object follows the main verb. h. Adverbial phrases also follow the main verb. (That is, OV-order is confined to direct objects.) In grammatical descriptions of type Β languages there are usually two alternative solutions, either in terms of (12a) or (12b). (12)

Two contrasting interpretations of OV-clauses in type Β languages a.

subject

verb

[modifier N P

complement]

b.

subject

'auxiliary'

object N P

main verb

It is in particular in the Moru-Madi languages of Eastern Sudanic where type Β languages have posed problems to grammatical analysis: While some grammarians, like Andersen (1984), opted for (12a), others preferred (12b) (see Heine and Claudi [2001] for discussion). One might suspect that the presence of so many typological similarities must be due to historical relationship. Yet there is no evidence to support such a hypothesis. That the presence of type Β in different African languages is neither a matter of common origin (= genetic relationship) nor of language contact (= areal relationship) is suggested by the following: Type Β languages can be found in three of the four African language phyla: in Niger-Congo languages, such as Ewe, in Nilo-Saharan languages, such as Moru, and in a Khoisan language, as we have tried to show here. Hence, genetic relationship is unlikely to be a contributing factor. Areal relationship is also not a plausible factor: The areas where the three languages are spoken are separated from one another by thousands of miles, and by hundreds of intermediate languages that do not exhibit comparable similarities.

272 Bernd Heine und Christa König

To conclude, there is no evidence to suggest that there is any historical connection between the languages concerned.

5. Explanation What appears to account for the word order and other characteristics of type Β languages is that there was a strategy at work whereby the verb, or the predicate, is encoded by means of a nominal structure, that is, where something like Ί want to eat meat' is encoded as Ί want meat eating', where the main verb is used in a nominalised form. This 'treat-the-verb-asa-noun'-strategy is nothing unusual cross-linguistically: In quite a number of languages, the auxiliary functions as the main verb and the main verb appears as a complement in some nominalised, non-finite, form. In VOlanguages which place the possessor after the possessee this strategy would not affect the existing word order arrangement. But in languages where the order, or one of the orders, is possessor - possessee, this may lead to the rise of a new word order, in that the object ('meat') appears as a possessive modifier before its syntactic head, that is, the nominalised verb ('eating') and the result is a verb-final (OV) word order (see Claudi 1988, 1993, 1994). This fact can be held responsible for all the main properties exhibited by type Β languages: The OV-order is restricted to verbs taking complements which may refer to either objects or events. In !Xun, these are verbs such as 'want', 'need', 'agree to', 'dislike', or 'think', as we saw earlier. Thus, (a) (b)

(c)

(d)

OV-order is highly constrained, occurring only when such verbs have verbal complements. Since the object is diachronically a genitival modifier of the (nominalised) main verb, it lacks some properties characteristic of full clausal participants, such as taking the full range of nominal modifiers. While the object is placed before the verb as a possessive/genitival modifier, other participants are not affected by this strategy: That is, indirect objects and adverbial modifiers retain their position after the main verb. This also means that African type Β languages lack all the other main properties that are typically associated with OV-languages, such as

IXun as a type Β language

273

placing nominal modifiers before the head noun or auxiliaries after the main verb. Discussion in this paper was confined to selected African languages. Note, however, that not all African type Β languages can be accounted for in the way we did for !Xun. For some of these languages, it would seem to be pragmatic, rather than morphosyntactic forces that can be held reasonable for the rise of type Β structures (Orin Gensler, Tom Güldemann, Larry Hyman; p.c.). Second, type Β languages are not confined to the African continent; for example, a number of what Blansitt (1986) calls SOVD languages also appear to belong to this type. 6 To conclude, we seem to be dealing with a process where languages having VO as their basic word order developed an alternative order - OV in specific contexts where nominal syntax was extended to mark relations between clausal participants. While the process involved may give the impression that there is a change from VO to OV, this is actually not the case. In Ulrike Claudi's wording, this suggests that this is an instance of word order change without word order change. Rather than being due to a re-arrangement of words within the clause, a new word order arises as a result category change (see Claudi [1994] for details).

Abbreviations COP = copula Nl, N3, N4 = noun class 1, 3, 4 PL = plural Ο = object Q = question marker REL = relative clause marker S = subject

SG = singular Τ = transitive suffix TOP = topic marker TR = transitive preposition V = verb 1,2,3 = first, second, third person

Notes 1.

The present paper is based on field research carried out between 1989 and 1992 (König and Heine 2001). This research was sponsored by the German Research Society (DFG), to which we wish to express our gratitude for this support. Most of all, we wish to thank the following !Xun people who assisted

274 Bernd Heine und Christa König

2.

us during our field research in northern Namibia: Jimmy Haushona, Timotheus Erastus, Selma Hampolo, and Simon Hampolo. When we visited the Dikundu area in 1998 we did not meet any speakers of E2.

3.

4. 5. 6.

The serial verb construction (SVC) of !Xun has so far not been described in any detail; it has the following properties: (a) Two verbs, Vi and V 2 , follow one another within the same clause, (b) There is no formal device linking the two. (c) Other than ΤΑΜ markers, nothing may be inserted between the two verbs, (d) There is only one subject constituent, which precedes the verbs, and one object, which follows the verbs, (e) The two verbs may not be separately negated, (f) The two verbs may not be separately marked for ΤΑΜ, nor may they take separate adverbial modifiers, (g) The two verbs may not be separately passivised, that is, there is only one passive marker, which is added to V 2 . (h) The two verbs can be understood to express one single, even if complex, event. While most of these properties appear to be characteristic of SVCs in general, some are not commonly encountered, in particular (c), (d). Note that in Snyman's data there is no tone marking. It remains unclear, however, why no transitive suffix is required in (4b); more research on the El lect is required. In Guaymi and Bokota, for example, we find the following properties which are characteristic of this type: (a) While the main verb follows the object, the auxiliary precedes the object; (b) while the direct object precedes the verb, indirect objects follow it; (c) postpositions, rather than prepositions are used; (d) descriptive adjectives and demonstratives follow the head noun; (e) while nominal direct objects precede, object complement clauses follow the verb; (f) relative clauses are postnominal (Blansitt 1986: 32, 35).

References Andersen, Torben 1984 Aspect and word order in Moru. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 6: 19-34. Blansitt, Edward L. Jr. 1986 SOVD languages. In: Elson, B. F. (ed.), 29-38. Bleek, Dorothea F. 1929 Comparative Vocabularies of Bushman Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1956 A Bushman Dictionary. (American Oriental Series, 41.) New Haven: American Oriental Society.

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Claudi, Ulrike 1988 The development of tense/aspect marking in Kru languages. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 10: 53-77. 1993 Die Stellung von Verb und Objekt in Niger-Kongo-Sprachen: Ein Beitrag zur Rekonstruktion historischer Syntax. (Afrikanistische Monographien, 1.) Cologne: Institut für Afrikanistik. 1994 Word order change as category change: The Mande case. In: Pagliuca, W. (ed.), 191-231. Dickens, Patrick 1992 Ju|'hoan grammar. Typescript. 1994 English - Jujhoan, Ju/hoan - English Dictionary. (Quellen zur Khoisan-Forschung 8.) Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Elson, Benjamin F. (ed.) 1986 Language in a Global Perspective: Papers in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1935-1985. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Givon, Talmy 1975 Serial verbs and syntactic change. In: Li, C. (ed.), 47-112. 1979 On Understanding Grammar. New York, San Francisco, London: Academic Press. Haacke, Wilfrid H. G. and Edward E. Elderkin (eds.) 1997 Namibian Languages: Reports and Papers. (Namibian African Studies 4.) Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Heikkinen, Terttu 1986 Phonology of the !Xu dialect spoken in Ovamboland and western Kavango. South African Journal of African Languages (Pretoria) 6

(1): 18-28. 1987

An outline of the grammar of the !Xu language spoken in Ovamboland and West Kavango. South African Journal of African Languages (Pretoria) 7, Supplement 1 (African Languages).

Heine, Bernd 1976 A Typology of African Languages Based on the Order of Meaningful Elements. (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik, 4.) Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. Heine, Bernd and Ulrike Claudi 2001 [1998] On split word order: Explaining syntactic variation. General Linguistics 38 (1): 41-74. Honken, Heniy 1976 Change of word order in Zufhoasi. In: Snyman, J. (ed.), 1-10. Hyman, Larry M. 1975 On the change from SOV to SVO: evidence from Niger-Congo. In: Li, C. (ed.), 113—47.

276 Bernd Heine und Christa König Joseph, Brian D. (guest editor) 1999 Social, cultural, and political perspectives on languages in conflict. (Special Issue). Language and Communication: An interdisciplinary Journal 19 (4): 401-413. Köhler, Oswin 1971 Noun classes and grammatical agreement in !Xü (3u|hoä dialect). In: Annales de l'Universite d'Abidjan, Serie Η (Linguistique), 489-522. 1973 Grundzüge der Grammatik der !Xü-Sprache. Unpublished manuscript. Cologne: University of Cologne. 1981 Les langues khoisan: la langue !xu. In: Manessy, G. (ed.), 559-615. König, Christa and Bernd Heine 2001 The !Xun of Ekoka: A demographic and linguistic report. Khoisan Forum 17, University of Cologne. Li, Charles N. (ed.) 1975 Word Order and Word Order Change. Austin and London: University of Texas Press. Manessy, Gabriel (ed.) 1981 Les langues de l'Afrique subsaharienne. (Les Langues dans le monde ancien et moderne, edited by Jean Perrot) Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Miller-Ockhuizen, Amanda and Bonny E. Sands 1999 !Kung as a linguistic construct. In: Joseph, B. (ed.), 401-413. Pagliuca, William (ed.) 1994 Perspectives on Grammaticalization. (Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science 109.) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Sands, Bonny E. 2002 Northern Khoesan reconstruction and subgrouping. Paper presented at the International Symposium on Khoisan Languages and Linguistics, 4-8 January, 2003, Riezlern, Kleinwalsertal. Schladt, Mathias (ed.) 1998 Language, Identity, and Conceptualization among the Khoisan. (Quellen zur Khoisan-Forschung 15.) Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Snyman, Jan W. 1970 An Introduction to the !Xu (!Kung) Language. (Communication 34 of the University of Cape Town, School of African Studies.) Cape Town: A. A. Balkema. 1997 A preliminary classification of the !Xüü and Zu|'höasi dialects. In: Haacke, W. H. G. and Ε. E. Elderkin (eds.), 21-106. Snyman, Jan W. (ed.) 1976 Bushman and Hottentot Linguistic Studies. Pretoria: University of South Africa.

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Traill, Anthony, Rainer Vossen and Megan Biesele (eds.) 1995 The Complete Linguist: Papers in Memory of Patrick J. Dickens. Cologne. Rüdiger Köppe. Vossen, Rainer and Klaus Keuthmann (eds.) 1986 Contemporary Studies on Khoisan, /. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. Vedder, Heinz 1910-11 Grundriß einer Grammatik der Buschmannsprache vom Stamm der !Kü-Buschmänner. Zeitschrift für Kolonialsprachen 1: 5-24, 106117.

How many languages are there in Africa, really? Jouni Filip Maho

1.

Introduction*

How many languages are there in Africa? This is a question asked fairly often. Alexander (1972: ix) refers to beliefs that there is only one single African language, while my own experience is that people tend to think of Africa in terms of excessive fragmentation, 'tribalisation' countless numbers of languages/dialects, peoples, whatever; much like the never-dying myth of an indefinite number of Eskimo words for 'snow'. When people have asked me that same question, I have either made non-committed references to the numbers found in the most recent edition of the Ethnologue (published by SIL in Dallas), a highly unique and valuable compilation of data, or I have given a range such as 1,000-2,000 languages. Both answers seem rather unsatisfactory to me. If we look at reference works aimed at the so-called general public, such which have been published during the past 30 years, estimates range (or are said to range) from 700 to 3.000 (see Table 1). Some sources give more or less precise figures, while others are less specific and provide only estimated ranges. Lately, SIL's figures have become more and more referred to and relied upon, largely due to the lack of any other source with a comparable coverage. However, it is no secret that SIL's recognition of languages in various African countries is generally perceived as being on the high side. Thus their current figure of 2.058 "living languages" in Africa might well be taken as a maximum.1 It is hardly possibly to overestimate the difficulties involved in finding an exact figure to the number of languages in Africa. We know too little of the language situation in many areas, not to mention the often-noted problem of distinguishing languages from dialects even in areas where we do have fairly good data. Nevertheless, by looking at estimates made by individual scholars/experts for specific areas and/or language groups, we

280 Jouni Filip Maho should be able to arrive at an amalgamated estimate that could be considered the current state-of-affairs. This is what I will do below. Table 1. Estimates drawn from a few general reference works 1974 1977 1978 1984 1986 1989 1989 1992 1992 1992 1992 1993 1994 1994 1995 1995 1996 1996 1997 1997 2000

Encyclopedia britannica, 15th ed. (J. Middleton) Language map of Africa and adjacent islands (D. Dalby) A&G store norske lexikon (G. H. Christensen) Ethnologue, 10th ed. Brockhaus Encyklopädie Encyclopedia americana (R. A. Lystad) Nationalencyklopedin (A. Ellegärd) Ethnologue, 12th ed. International encyclopedia of linguistics (B. Heine) Countries, people and their languages (E. Gunnemark) Enc. dictionary of language and linguistics (D. Crystal)2 Bonniers Lexikon Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (R. J. Sim) Den store danske encyklopaedin (R. T. Endresen) Encyclopedia of world cultures (J. Middleton) Les langages de l'humanite (M. Malherbe) Ethnologue, 13th ed. Bra Böckers lexikon Encyclopedia of precolonial Africa (C. Ehret) Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara (P. Newman) Ethnologue, 14th ed.

> 1,000 1,250-2,500 800-1,000 1,727 1,500-2,000 > 1,000 > 1,000 1,995 700-3,000 > 1,300 1,000-3,000 > 1,000 2,000 1,800 2,500 > 1,250 2,011 < 1,000 > 1,500 1,500 2,058

Doing this, I admit running the obvious risk of applying different criteria for different language groupings. The methods of scholar A are seldom identical to those of scholar B. However, there is really little I can do about that. We are still talking about estimates and/or guesses, sometimes very rough ones, and this has to be kept clearly in mind throughout the remainder of the paper. 3 I will specifically look for the number of spoken African mother tongues, in particular those unique to Africa, thereby excluding second languages with no mother tongue speakers such as Fanakalo, extinct languages such as Kwadi, and, with the exception of Afrikaans, also any European and Asian immigrant languages. (The addition of these would not alter the totals by much anyway.)

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281

The discussion below is chiefly structured according to the Greenbergian Four, that is, there are separate headings for Afroasiatic, Khoesan, Niger-Congo and Nilosaharan languages. This does not mean that I agree on this four-fold classification. It is merely a convenience-classification. I have, in any case, added a fifth group of'other languages' below. Also, since I will be making references to the figures in the 14th edition of the Ethnologue, I will simply refer to it as "SIL 14".

2.

Afroasiatic languages

SIL 14 gives a total of 372 Afroasiatic languages, 317 of which are found in Africa. Discounting those specifically listed as extinct (which includes five Chadic, two Cushitic, two Ethio-Semitic and four Berber languages), we arrive at a total of 305 African Afroasiatic languages.4 There are notable differences between SIL's counts and the various estimates provided by other sources. For instance, while SIL 14 lists almost two hundred Chadic languages, Jungraithmayr (2000: 90) estimates them to be ca. 150, a figure not far from what other Chadic experts often estimate (see Hayward 2000: 77). Sasse (1981: 187) estimates about 30 Cushitic languages and dialect clusters ("Sprachen und Dialektbündel"), while SIL 14 has a total of 45 Cushitic languages. Table 2. The number of Afroasiatic languages AFROASIATIC

SIL 14

Berber

22

Chadic

OTHER COUNTS & COMMENTS 6

Wolff (1981)

190

ca. 150

Jungraithmayr (2000)

Cushitic

45

ca. 30

Sasse (1981)

Omotic

28

22

Bender(2000)

Semitic (Africa only)

20

20

see text

In toto:

305

228

SIL's tendency to have higher counts than most (all?) other sources is clearly noticeable when looking at the Berber languages. SIL 14 has a listing of 22 non-extinct Berber languages. While mentioning the "overall similarities of extant Berber" but not wanting to go as far as lumping all varieties into a single language, as has been done in the past, Hayward

282 Jouni Filip Maho

(2000: 76) groups them into four larger "groups of languages and dialect clusters", while Wolff (1981: 172) specifically lists six Berber languages, namely, Siwi, Nefusi, Tuareg, Zenaga plus two large dialect groupings, Atlas Berber ("die Atlasberberischen") and the Zenata dialects, which together cover the large majority of Berber varieties. The Omotic languages pose a problem. Very little is known about these languages/dialects and how they relate to each other. However, following Bender's (2000) treatment of the various Omotic varieties, there seems to be some 22 Omotic languages, maybe more. SIL 14 gives ten distinct language varieties of spoken Arabic in Africa, while Hayward (2000: 79) mentions (only) seven. Other African Semitic languages comprise the so-called Ethio-Semitic languages, that is, Tigre, Tigrinya, Amharic, Harari, Argobba, and several "Gurage" languages. The latter have occasionally been treated as a single language, but it is obviously erroneous to do so (Hayward 2000: 80). SIL 14 lists five distinct Gurage languages (Soddo, West Gurage, Mesmes, East Gurage, Zay), and there seems to be no reason to question that number. There may well be more. Still, SIL's total of 20 African Semitic languages seems to be corroborated by other sources. If we sum up the various figures above, we get a rough total of 228 Afroasiatic languages, compared to SIL's 305, with the largest discrepancies being among the Chadic and Berber languages.

3. Khoesan languages Moving over to the so-called Khoesan languages, we may first note that it consists of several linguistic-genetic units. In terms of linguistic relatedness, the Khoesan grouping has very much the status of being an African version of the so-called Nostratic hypothesis. Be that as it may, SIL 14 has a total of 29 Khoesan languages, four of which are explicitly noted as extinct. The Ju (or North Khoesan) grouping seems somewhat tricky. König and Heine (2001: 1) describe it as "a cluster of speech forms that are linked by a chain of mutual intelligibility, but speakers at the extreme ends of the chain do not understand each other", and they "prefer to treat the various speech forms ... as a single, even if complex, language" (see also Snyman 1997). However, Miller-Ockhuizen and Sands (1999) point to the muchignored typological diversity within the Ju grouping, opening up the possi-

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283

bility of recognising it as a language cluster rather than a dialect cluster. Nevertheless, data is so far very scanty. Possibly a 'true' figure lies somewhere between one and seven. Table 3. The number of Khoesan languages

KHOESAN

SIL 14

OTHER COUNTS & COMMENTS

2

2

Güldemann and Vossen (2000)

1

1

Güldemann and Vossen (2000)

Hadza

1

1

see Maho and Sands (2002)

Ju or North Khoesan

7

1

König und Heine (2001)

!Ui-Taa or South Khoesan East +Höä

5

Khwe or Central Khoesan

13 1

Sandawe In toto:

25

ca. 20 Güldemann and Vossen (2000) 1

see Maho and Sands (2002)

26

Güldemann and Vossen (2000: 101, see also Vossen 1997) estimate ca. 20 Khwe (or Central Khoesan) languages, a figure even higher than that found in SIL 14. The majority of these languages comprise the non-Khoekhoe Bushman (or San) languages of Botswana. The !Ui-Taa (or South Khoesan) languages number only two, namely, !Χόδ in Botswana/Namibia, and the recently discovered N/u language, spoken by perhaps 30 individuals in South Africa. Barring the possible discovery of one or two more languages in the future, all other South Khoesan languages became extinct during the 19th and 20th centuries. Thus I can conveniently ignore this otherwise very difficult group of languages to handle. This gives us a total of 26 languages within the Khoesan grouping, which does not differ that much from SIL's total of 29.

4.

Niger-Congo languages

SIL 14 has a total of 1,482 Niger-Congo languages, including 14 explicitly marked as extinct, giving us a total of 1,468 spoken mother tongues. 6 SIL 14 lists 10 different Ijoid languages, while Williamson and Timitimi (1983: xv) treat them as three (possibly four) groups of dialects, saying that it "is reasonable to refer to each of these groups of dialects as a

284 Jouni Filip Maho

language, since within each group speakers can communicate relatively easy". Table 4. The number of Niger-Congo languages NIGER-CONGO

SIL 14

OTHER COUNTS & COMMENTS

Adamawa

87

80-90

see text

Atlantic

62

45

Wilson (1989)

Bantu

498

ca. 300

Nurse (1997)

Benue-Congo (excl. Bantu)

433

ca. 340

see text

Dogon

1

Gur

98

Ijoid

10

Kordofanian

23

Kru Kwa

39 80

Mande

1 ca. 90 3-4

Naden (1989)

20 ca. 20

Schadeberg (1989)

35

Stewart (1989)

68

37

Williamson and Blench (2000)

Ubangi

69

40-45

see text

In toto:

1.468

Williamson & Timitimi (1983) Marchese (1989)

ca. 1.020

By going through the various chapters and surveys in Bendor-Samuel (1989), it is possible to extract other figures than those presented in SIL 14.7 Thus I can count some 45 Atlantic languages listed by Wilson (1989). He treats Fulani as a single language, as do most West African specialists, while SIL 14 splits this into nine distinct languages. There is some confusion about the Baga-Landuma cluster. SIL 14 has six different Baga languages, while Wilson (1989) refers to them interchangeably as the Baga languages (p. 90) as well as the Baga dialects (p. 91). Dwyer (1989) reproduces a lexicostatistically derived Stammbaummodel for 40 named Mande varieties. Taking Manding to be a single (huge) dialect cluster, the total drops to 31; or 37 if we instead rely on the slightly more detailed tree provided by Williamson and Blench (2000: 20). Schadeberg (1989) lists 20 Kordofanian languages in four groups, for which he provides some lexicostatistical data. If we lump together those varieties that share more than 80% vocabulary, the total number of Kordofanian languages can be lowered to 16. The Kru languages pose a problem due to the lack of detailed data. Marchese (1989) goes through several problems with regard to this particular group, but based on Marchese's survey, an estimate of some 25 to

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285

30 Kru languages sounds fair (see also Marchese 1986: 2-10). It seems particularly difficult to make a safe estimate of the Guere and Grebo complexes. The former may comprise a complex dialect chain, or be subject to a three- or four-way split (see Marchese 1989: 124), while the latter seems easiest to break into nine separate subdivisions (languages?). SIL 14 has split each of these complexes into nine distinct languages. Aizi is usually referred to as a single language, but SIL 14 has divided it into three. The Kwa (or New Kwa, in current terminology) grouping comprises approximately 35 languages and dialect clusters in Stewart's (1989) survey. This is less than half of the 80 Kwa languages listed in SIL 14. The bulk of the divergence stems from deciding on the status of the Gbe cluster. SIL 14 splits this into 21 (!) separate languages. Few if any sources seem to corroborate such a massive fragmentation. Stewart (1989) simply lists as a single language (dialect cluster), as do Lefebvre and Brousseau (2002: 1 3), who survey many of the statements made about the status of Gbe (in particular one of its dialects, Fongbe). Naden's (1989) very detailed list of Gur languages includes some 90 entries, though there are many recognised uncertainties in some areas, especially among the Senufo languages. At any rate, Naden's language count does not significantly differ from SIL's total of 98. The Adamawa languages are, like many other groups of languages in Africa, poorly documented and surveyed. SIL's count of 87 Adamawa languages seems to tally well with what I can extract from lists and discussions by Wolf (1981), Boyd (1989) and Kleinewillinghöfer (1996). Although their recognition of what is a dialect and what is a language differ in some respects, the total numbers seem to add up to about equal. The Ubangi languages are difficult to make a safe estimate about. Based on Boyd (1989) as well as the contributions in Monino (1988), I can count some 40-45 languages in this group. The largest divergence is that found in the Banda subgroup. Cloarec-Heiss (1988: 59) and Boyd (1989) treat this as a single language (the former gives a list of 50 "noms de varietes dialectales", classified in two main groupings). SIL 14, on the other hand, splits Banda into 16 separate languages. The Benue-Congo languages, even when excluding the Bantu languages, is a difficult grouping to handle briefly, due to its size. In SIL 14, it comprises 433 named languages. From what I can extract from various other sources (especially the contributions in Bendor-Samuel 1989), a total number of some 340 languages seems more reasonable. Occasionally there are huge discrepancies. For instance, SIL 14 has a list of 16 Defoid lan-

286 Jouni Filip Maho

guages. Based on Hounkpati Capo's survey (in Bendor-Samuel 1989: 275290), I can count only four, namely, Yoruba/Ede, Itsekiri, Igala and Amgbe. Similarly, SIL 14 lists seven Igboid languages, while by most scholars Igbo(id) is treated as a single language or large dialect cluster (see Emenanjo 1985 and Manfredi 1991). When it comes to the Bantoid (sans Narrow Bantu) languages, SIL 14 gives as many as 165 (including a few that are mostly classified as Bantu A40 or A60). The Bantoid surveys by Robert Hedinger, John Waiters and Jacqueline Leroy (in Bendor-Samuel 1989: 421-449) list only 100 or so languages. Mostly, however, the differences seems negligible. Thus while SIL 14 lists nine Idomoid languages, Robert Armstrong's survey (in Bendor-Samuel 1989: 323-336) seems to come to a total of five. From what I can see in Ludwig Gerhardt's survey of Kainji and Platoid languages (in Bendor-Samuel 1989: 359-376), there seem to be some 45 Kainji languages (55 in SIL 14) and 55-65 Platoid languages (68 in SIL 14). Nicholas Faraclas's survey of Cross River languages (in Bendor-Samuel 1989: 377-399) comprises somewhere around 65 languages (SIL 14 has 67). Roger Blench's survey of Nupoid (in Bendor-Samuel 1989: 305-322) counts 17 languages, while SIL 14 has a total of 12. The number of Bantu languages is usually estimated to be somewhere between 300 and 600. This is by far the largest language group in Africa and it would go far beyond the scope of the present paper to examine each and every Bantu subgroup. Nonetheless, it is here that I will perform the biggest numerical decrease, largely based on Nurse (1997: 367), who extrapolates from his own detailed knowledge of eastern Africa and guesses "that there are slightly more than 300" Bantu languages in total. Having surveyed the Bantu area myself (Maho 1999, 2003), though in less detail than Nurse, I have little to object to his estimate. So, an amalgamated state-of-the-affairs count of the Niger-Congo languages ends up with a total considerably lower than that given in SIL 14, namely, 1,020, which is almost 20% lower than SIL's 1,468.

5.

Nilosaharan languages

Bender (1997) has 116 numbered ο items in his list of Nilosaharan languages (including four noted as extinct), while SIL 14 lists as many as 192 Nilosaharan languages (excluding seven extinct languages). Bender (1997) includes the Kado/Kadugli languages as Nilosaharan, while SIL has classi-

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287

fied them as Niger-Congo. Furthermore, Shabo is listed by SIL 14 as an unclassified Nilosaharan language, while Blench (1999: 33) treats it simply as unclassified. Bender (1997: 27) includes it cautiously among the East Sudanic languages. Table 5. The number of Nilosaharan languages NILOSAHARAN

SIL 14 1

Berta

OTHER COUNTS & COMMENTS 1

Bender(1997)

Central Sudanic

63

32

Bender(1997)

East Sudanic

90

53

Bender(1997)

2

Bender(1997)

Gumuz

3 1

1

Bender(1997)

Kado/Kadugli

7

3

Bender(1997)

Koman

Foran

4

4

9

2

3

Bender(1997) Bender(1997)

Kunama Maban

1

1

Bender(1997)

9

5

Saharan Shabo/Mikeyir

8 1

3 1

Bender(1997) Cyffer (2000)

Songai

9

1-2

Kuliak

In toto:

199

Bender(1997) Nicolai (Ί983); Bender (1997)

ca. 110

The differences between SIL 14 and Bender (1997) can most clearly be seen when looking at the East Sudanic languages. For instance, SIL 14 treats Hill Nubian as seven separate languages, whereas Bender (1997: 26) has simply lumped them together as a single language. Similarly for the Nilotic languages. Where Bender (1997: 32) sees a single language, Kalenjin (with four main dialect clusters), SIL 14 has split this into 14 separate languages. As regards the Saharan languages, SIL 14 has split Kanuri/Kanembu into four separate languages, while Cyffer (2000: 31) treats them as a single language, stating clearly that it is not justified to do otherwise from a linguistic point of view. Another difference can be noted when we look at Songai. SIL 14 has divided Songai into nine distinct languages. Nicolai (1983: 11) talks of "two independent dialect clusters", a southern and a northern, though seemingly treating the entire "Songayphone zone" as a single language (see

288 Jouni Filip Maho

also Nicolai and Zima 1997). Bender (1997: 23) has opted for treating the two dialect clusters as two separate languages. Thus, my estimated total for the Nilosaharan grouping is a modest 110 languages, nearly half of SIL's total count.

6.

Other languages

Among the 'other languages', we find the Germanic language Afrikaans, spoken in southern Africa, a number of mostly European-based Creole languages as well as languages not included in any of the Greenbergian Four. Table 6. The number of other languages OTHER Afrikaans Creoles Sign languages Unclassified In toto:

SIL 14 1 23 20 18 61

OTHER COUNTS & COMMENTS 1 22 see text 20 see text 14 see text 57

The only change I can do to SIL's list of African Creoles concerns their listing of Kituba and Munukutuba as two separate languages, something not done by all (see Mufwene 1997). Thus their total of 23 Creoles can be decreased to 22. 10 SIL 14 lists 20 African sign languages. I cannot but accept that figure since I have no means of comparing it to other counts (not having found any good sources). The category of unclassified languages and/or isolates is normally very small in African linguistics, considering the grossly generous criteria normally used for including any language variety into the Greenbergian Four scheme. SIL 14 lists 18 unclassified languages in Africa." Some or many of these may, however, even be non-existent languages (such as Yauma of Angola). Their entire list includes (with non-extinct languages given in italics): Bete of Nigeria (Crozier and Blench 1992: 24), Bung of Cameroon (extinct; Connell 1998), Cen Tuum/Jalaa of Nigeria (Crozier and Blench 1992: 28), Gail of South Africa (second language only), Hwla of Togo, Imeraguen of Mauritania, Kara of Central African Republic, Kujarge of Chad (Doornbos and Bender 1983: 59f., Blench 1999: 32), Kwavi/Para-

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289

kuyo of Tanzania (presumably South Nilotic; see Maho and Sands 2002: 373), Laal of Chad (Williamson and Blench 2000: 36), Lufu of Nigeria (extinct; Crozier and Blench 1992: 7), Luo/Kasabe of Cameroon (extinct; Connell 1998), Mawa of Nigeria (extinct), Molengue/Balengue of Equatorial Guinea, Rer Bare/Adona of Ethiopia (Blench 1983b: 336), Weyto of Ethiopia (extinct; Sommer 1992: 398; Bender 1983b: 336), Yauma of Angola, and Yeni of Cameroon (extinct; Connell 1998). To this, many more additions could be made, e.g. several versions of Ancient Egyptian (extinct), including Coptic (still used as second language), Old Nubian (extinct), Meroitic (extinct), Shabo of Ethiopia (already mentioned under Nilosaharan above), Gomba of Ethiopia (extinct; Sommer 1992: 346), Hamba of Tanzania (extinct; Sommer 1992: 351; Maho and Sands 2002: 399), Ongota/Birale of Ethiopia (Blench 1999: 32; listed as an unclassified Afroasiatic language by SIL 14), Oropom of Uganda (nonexistent?; Blench 1999: 32), Ambo of Nigeria (Crozier and Blench 1992: 14; classified as Southern Bantoid by SIL 14) and Wutana of Nigeria (extinct?), listed by Crozier and Blench (1992: 108) who have no information other than a location and some census data from the 1920s.12 Discounting languages without mother tongue speakers as well as the ones already treated under other headings above, we arrive at a potential list of 14 unclassified (living) languages in Africa.

7. The answer Having come this far, we can now add all the subtotals arrived at above, and thus present a new amalgamated total of 1,441 African languages.13 It has to be kept in mind that this is the product of a somewhat sweeping survey and amalgamation of non-Ethnologue sources, hopefully having yielded an (almost) independent estimate. Compared to SIL's total of 2,058 African languages, my figure is some 30% lower; or conversely, SIL's figure is almost 45% higher than mine. This is a huge difference, which could be accounted for by two main factors. Firstly, I have fairly consistently favoured lower estimates; thus being a 'lumper', rather than a 'splitter'. Secondly, many of the non-Ethnologue sources have incomplete language lists, while the Ethnologue at least has exhaustiveness as one of its ambitions (wherefore it also contains many uncertain and non-definite entries).

290 Jouni Filip Maho

Table 7. The total number of African languages. AFRICAN LANGUAGES Afroasiatic Khoesan Niger-Congo Nilosaharan Other In toto:

SIL 14 305 25 1,468 199 61 2.058

A MORE CONSERVATIVE COUNT 228 26 1,020 > see above 110 57 1.441

Considering that many of the figures arrived at above derive from guesses and estimates, the amalgamated total has to be taken very cautiously, of course. To be quite honest, I cannot be absolutely sure that I have brought any insight to the matter, or simply added to any confusion. Still, based on the above, I can at least feel confident that a 'true' number must lie somewhere around 1,500 languages, or else, if one favours ranges, between 1,500 and 2,000, which is still considerably smaller than "700 to 3,000" mentioned initially. Still, no matter what figure or range one chooses to rely upon, considering that more than 70% of Africa's languages are spoken by groups of 100,000 individuals or less, we are dealing with fairly small languages, many (most?) of which to one extent or other can be considered endangered. Thus future counts or estimates of African languages is likely to produce even lower numbers than what I have achieved here.

Notes * 1. 2. 3.

Thanks to the editors and Bonny Sands for comments on a previous version of this paper. If we include also those languages explicitly listed as extinct, SIL's total rises to 2,079 African languages. Crystal actually says "no one knows" (p. 9), but makes references to estimates in the range 1,000 to 3,000. Another important point to keep in mind is that the sources consulted are not truly independent of each other. Some of the sources referred to in the present papaer are in fact published by SIL, even sponsored by them. Yet, there are interesting differences nonetheless between these and the information compiled in the Ethnologue.

How many languages are there in Africa? 4. 5. 6.

7.

8. 9. 10. 11.

12. 13.

291

SIL 14 also includes Ongota/Birale as an unclassified Afroasiatic language, but I count that under 'other languages' below. SIL 14 has included East *Höä in the South Khoesan grouping. SIL 14 has included seven Kado/Kadugli languages as Kordofanian. These I have extracted and listed under Nilosaharan instead, following more current and reliable classifications (see Bender 1997: 25; Schadeberg 1981: 124ff., 1989: 74). I should point out that Bendor-Samuel (1989) is a SIL-sponsored publication, so it is not exactly an independent source. However, there are interesting differences when comparing with the data in the Ethnologue (which is a compilation of information from a huge number of sources of varying quality). Also, the people involved in writing the various chapters in Bendor-Samuel (1989) are not all SIL people. Earlier, Bender (1983a: 3) had guessed "that there are closer to 90 distinct [Nilosaharan] languages". SIL 14 has the Kuliak language Nyangi listed as extinct. Bender (1997: 25) says it is dying out "and perhaps already extinct". SIL's category of "language isolates", on the other hand, contains not a single African language. Surely we could add lots more languages as unclassified, but it all depends on how much we want to break up the Greenbergian Four, especially the Khoesan and Nilosaharan groupings. Many of their members could well have been listed as unclassified languages. SIL 14 also includes something they call "Oorlams", a putative Afrikaansbased Creole. This may only be an ordinary Afrikaans dialect. Compare this to Nurse's (1997: 367) recent estimate of ca. 1,250 African languages.

References Anonymous 1986 Afrikanische Sprachen. Brockhaus Encyklopädie (19th ed.), 1: 200. 1993 Afrika: spräk. Bonniers Lexikon 1: 51-52. 1996 Afrika: spräk. Bra Böckers Lexikon 2000 (1): 82. Bender, Lionel M. 1983a Introduction. In: Bender, L. M. (ed.), Nilo-Saharan Language Studies, 1-10. East Lansing: African Studies Center, Michigan State University. 1983b Remnant languages of Ethiopia and Sudan. In: Bender, L. M. (ed.), Nilo-Saharan Language Studies, 336-354. East Lansing: African Studies Center, Michigan State University.

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The Nilo-Saharan Languages: A Comparative Essay. (Lincom handbooks in linguistics 06.) Munich: Lincom Europa. 2000 Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages. (Lincom studies in African linguistics 19.) Munich: Lincom Europa. Bendor-Samuel, John (ed.) 1989 The Niger-Congo Languages. Lanham, New York and London: University Press of America & SIL. Blench, Roger 1999 The languages of Africa: macrophyla proposals and implications for archaeological interpretation. In: Blench, R. and M. Spriggs (eds.), Archaeology and Language V, 29-47. London and New York: Routledge. Boyd, Raymond 1989 Adamawa-Ubangi. In: Bendor-Samuel, J. (ed.), 178-215. Christensen, Dag Η. 1978 Afrika: spräk. Aschehoug & Gyldendals Store Norske Lexikon 1: 60. Crystal, David 1992 An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Cloarec-Heiss, France 1988 Le groupe ngbandi-sango-kpatiri. In: Mofiino, Y. (ed.), 59-61. Connell, Bruce 1998 Moribund languages of the Nigeria-Cameroon borderland. In: Brenzinger, Μ. (ed.), Endangered Languages in Africa, 207-225. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Crozier, D. Η. and Roger M. Blench 1992 An Index of Nigerian Languages. Second edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Cyffer, Norbert 2000 Linguistic properties of the Saharan languages. In: Zima, P. (ed.), Areal and Genetic Factors in Language Classification and Description, 30-59. Munich: Lincom Europa. Dalby, David 1977 Language Map of Africa and Adjacent Islands. London: International African Institute. Doornbos, Paul and Lionel M. Bender 1983 Languages of Wadai-Darfur. In: Bender, L. M. (ed.), Nilo-Saharan Language Studies, 43-79. East Lansing: African Studies Center, Michigan State University. Dwyer, David J. 1989 Mande. In: Bendor-Samuel; J. (ed.), 47-65.

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Ehret, Christopher 1997 African languages: a historical introduction. In: Vogel, J. O. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa, 159-166. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press. Ellegärd, Alvar 1989 Afrika: spräk. Nationalencyklopedin 1: 89. Emenanjo, Emmanuel Nwanolue 1985 Auxiliaries in Igbo Syntax: A Comparative Study. (Studies in African grammatical systems 2.) Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club. Endresen, Rolf Theil 1994 Afrika: sprog. Den Store Danske Encyklopaedin 1: 110-111. Grimes, Barbara F. (ed.) 1984 Ethnologue, 10th ed. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. 1992 Ethnologue, 12th ed. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. 1996 Ethnologue, 13th ed. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. 2000 Ethnologue, 14th ed. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Giildemann, Tom and Rainer Vossen 2000 Khoisan. In: Heine, B. and D. Nurse (eds.), African Languages: An Introduction, 99-122. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gunnemark, Eric V. 1992 Countries, People and Their Languages: The Geolinguistic Handbook. Gothenburg: Geolingua. Heine, Bernd 1992 African languages. In: Bright, W. (ed.), International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, vol. 1, 45-49. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jungraithmayr, Hermann 2000 Chadic: a network of genetic and areal relationships. In: Zima, P. (ed.), Areal and Genetic Factors in Language Classification and Description (Lincom studies in African linguistics 47), 90-98. Munich: Lincom Europa. Kleinewillinghöfer, Ulrich 1996 Die nordwestlichen Adamawa-Sprachen: eine Übersicht. Frankfurter afrikanistische Blätter 8: 80-103. König, Christa and Bernd Heine 2001 The IXung of Ekoka: Α Demographic and Linguistic Report. (Khoisan forum working paper 17.) University of Cologne. Lefebvre, Claire and Anne-Marie Brousseau 2002 A Grammar of Fongbe. (Mouton grammar library 25.) Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

294 Jouni Filip Maho Lystad, Robert A. 1989 Africa: the people. Encyclopedia Americana: International Edition 1:269-272. Maho, Jouni Filip 1999 A Comparative Study of Bantu Noun Classes. (Orientalia et africana gothoburgensia 15.) Gothenburg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. 2003 A classification of the Bantu languages: an update of Guthrie's referential system. In: Nurse, D. and G. Philippson (eds.), The Bantu Languages, 639-651. London: Curzon Press. Maho, Jouni Filip and Bonny Sands 2002 The Languages of Tanzania: A Bibliography. (Orientalia et africana gothoburgensia 17.) Gothenburg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Malherbe, Michel 1995 Les Langages de l'Humanite: Une Encyclopedic des 3000 Langues Parlies dans le Monde. Paris: Robert Laffont. Manfredi, Victor 1991 Agbo and Ehugbö: Igbo linguistic consciousness, its origin and limits. PhD thesis. Harvard University. Marchese, Lynell 1986 Tense/aspect and the development of auxiliaries in Kru languages. (SIL publications in linguistics 78.) Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. 1989 Kru. In: Bendor-Samuel, J. (ed.), 119-139. Middleton, John F. M. 1974 Africa: traditional sub-Saharan cultures. Encyclopedia Britannica: Macropaedia (15th ed.) 13: 60-64. 1995 Introduction to Africa. In: Levinson, D., J. F. M. Middleton and A. Rassam, Encyclopedia of World Cultures, IX: Africa and the Middle East, xxiii-xxxiv. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co. Miller-Ockhuizen, Amanda and Bonny Sands 1999 !Kung as a linguistic construct. Language and Communication 19 (4): 401-413. Monino, Yves (ed.) 1988 Lexique Comparatif des Langues Oubanguiennes. Paris: Librarie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner. MufSvene, Salikoko S. 1997 Kitiiba. In: Thomason, S. G. (ed.), Contact Languages: A Wider Perspective. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 173— 208. Naden, Tony 1989 Gur. In: Bendor-Samuel, J. (ed.), 141-168.

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Newman, Paul 1997 Language families: overview. In: Middleton, J. F. M. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara, vol. 2, 501-503. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Nicolai, Robert 1983 Position, structure and classification of Songay. In: Bender, L. M. (ed.), Nilo-Saharan Language Studies, 11-41. East Lansing: African Studies Center, Michigan State University. Nicolai, Robert and Petr Zima 1997 Songhay. (Languages of the world/Materials 116.) Munich: Lincom Europa. Nurse, Derek 1997 The contributions of linguistics to the study of history in Africa. Journal of African History 38: 359-391. Sasse, Hans-Jürgen 1981 Die kuschitischen Sprachen. In: Heine, Β., T. C. Schadeberg and E. Wolff (eds.), Die Sprachen Afrikas, 187-215. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. Schadeberg, Thilo C. 1981 Das Kordofanische. In: Heine, Β., T. C. Schadeberg and E. Wolff (eds.), Die Sprachen Afrikas, 117-128. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. 1989 Kordofanian. In: Bendor-Samuel, J. (ed.), 67-80. Sim, Ronald J. 1994 African or sub-Saharan fragmentation belt. In: Asher, R. E. and J. M. Y. Simpson (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, vol. 1,48-49. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Snyman, Jan W. 1997 A preliminary classification of the !Xu u and Zu|'hoasi dialects. In: Haacke, W. H. G and Ε. E. Elderkin (eds.), Namibian Languages: Reports and Papers, 21-106. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Sommer, Gabriele 1992 A survey on language death in Africa. In: Brenzinger, Μ. (ed.), Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference to East Africa, 301-417. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Stewart, John M. 1989 Kwa. In: Bendor-Samuel, J. (ed.), 217-245. Vossen, Rainer 1997 Die Khoe-Sprachen: ein Beitrag zur Erforschung der Sprachgeschichte Afrikas. (Quellen zur Khoisan-Forschung 12.) Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

296 Jouni Filip Maho Williamson, Kay and A. O. Timitimi 1983 Short Izon-English Dictionary. (Delta Series 3.) Port Harcourt: University of Port Harcourt Press. Wilson, William A. A. 1989. Atlantic. In: Bendor-Samuel, J. (ed.), 81-104. Wolf, Paul P. de 1981 Das Niger-Kongo (ohne Bantu). In: Heine, Β., T. C. Schadeberg and E. Wolff (eds.), Die Sprachen Afrikas, 45-76. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. Wolff, Ekkehard 1981 Die Berbersprachen. In: Heine, Β., T. C. Schadeberg and E. Wolff (eds.), Die Sprachen Afrikas, 171-186. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.

Languages and language names in Mozambique, 150 years ago and now Tore Janson

1.

Introduction

The languages spoken in Mozambique all belong to the Bantu group; the only exception is the colonial language Portuguese. Many of the languages have still not been studied very much. Only a few are regularly used in writing, and no Bantu language is used extensively as a language of instruction in the schools of the country. The exact number of languages in Mozambique is hard to establish, since in several cases there are divergent views on whether a speech form should be regarded as a dialect or as an independent language. However, modern surveys list at least 14 or 15 languages. There is fairly general agreement on the names of those languages. Little is known about when and how these languages came into existence. The formation of a language is a historical process, which quite often has much to do with the creation of political units. In this process, the naming of the language is often a very important step (for a general discussion, see Janson 2002). This little contribution is meant to draw attention to two important sources for the linguistic situation in present-day Mozambique during the 19th century, and to show why the languages of Mozambique in those sources are denoted by names that are quite different from the ones used today. The two early works to be discussed were published within a few years in the 1850s. The first is a well known landmark in the study of African languages in general, the Polyglotta Africana by S. W. Koelle (Koelle 1854/1963). The book is often referred to and is available in a reprint, with an introduction. The author was a missionary and linguist, active in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He spent a number of years around 1850 assembling data through interviewing many of the freed slaves from all over Africa

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who lived in Freetown at that time. As the full title of the work indicates, the Polyglotta consists of vocabularies of almost 300 common words and phrases for more than 100 African languages. Six of these languages were spoken in present-day Mozambique. The second work is a volume published by Wilhelm Bleek, called The Languages of Mosambique (Bleek 1856). Bleek is a very important figure in the history of African linguistics, but this work of him has not attracted much attention. It is mentioned and described in Doke and Cole (1961: 52), but few if any later scholars have used it. It is quite rare; I have consulted the copy found in the British Library, London. This volume, too, consists of vocabularies, for 9 languages, with occasional quotes of a few other ones. The work is mainly based on notes made in field work by a Dr. Wilhelm Peters from 1842 to 1848. A few of the languages are the same as the ones included in Koelle's work. Bleek had access to Koelle's work in proofs, and added some information from it in his own lists. In addition, Bleek also draws from a few other earlier wordlists that were available to him. The vocabularies in the collections by Koelle and Bleek have so far not been compared systematically with the present forms of the languages in Mozambique. It has not even been much discussed which modern language should be related to which wordlist.1 Koelle and Bleek in almost all cases use other names for the languages than the ones that are in general use now. Therefore, a first step is to determine, for each wordlist from the mid 19th century, to which modern language it corresponds. Such an analysis is presented below. Unfortunately, most of the languages of modern Mozambique are still not well described, and there exists no comprehensive overview. A first general survey is presented in Afido et al. (1989). There are published or unpublished grammars and dictionaries for some languages. One should also mention the lists and maps of languages published in Ethnologue (Grimes 2000). In addition to these sources, I have been able to use a so far unpublished study by Karl Erland Gadelii (Gadelii 2001), which includes comparable data from most of the languages, and I have had access to his primary data. With the information found in those sources it is possible to determine correspondences between the lists in the two works from the 19th century and the languages used today.

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2.

299

Language names of the 19th century

In the work by Koelle, there are vocabularies for the following languages from the area of Mozambique (the diacritic marks, used according to an ingenious but idiosyncratic system, are omitted): Muntu Kiriman Marawi Meto Matatan Nyamban In the book by Bleek, there are vocabularies for the following languages: Lourenzo Marques Inhambane Sofala Tette Sena Quellimane Mosambique Cap Delgado Maravi In addition, there is a column headed "Observations", in which occasional notes about other languages are found. The one represented most frequently is "Anjuane", which is one of the Comoro islands. According to Bleek, Dr. Peters had collected these words "during a week's residence upon the island". Most of the names given above do not correspond to names found in modern lists. In some cases the identification is still obvious, but in others it is more problematic. A discussion of the names follows, arranged roughly according to the geographic location of the languages, from south to north.

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2.1. Lourenzo Marques O n e of the nine languages that are accorded one column each in Bleek (1856) is called "Lourenzo Marquez". That is of course the earlier name of the place that is now called Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Clearly, Bleek uses the place name to designate the language spoken at that place. As will be seen below, he employs this kind of name very consistently, and it does not seem that he or Peters, w h o collected the data, tried to find out what the speakers themselves called their languages. The language of Maputo today is usually listed as Xironga 3 (S.54 in the classification by Guthrie 1967-71). However, in a large area starting immediately north of the city, the very closely related language Xitsonga/Xichangana (S.53) is generally spoken, and the influx of Xichangana speakers to the city has created a somewhat fluid situation. Unfortunately, the material collected by Peters evidently was less extensive for Lourenzo Marquez than for most of the other languages; even some very frequent words are missing. Bleek supplemented the list for this language with material from two published sources available to him. One he refers to as " A p p l e y a r d ' s Kafir G r a m m a r " (most probably Appleyard 1850), and the other is an early travel account (White 1800). Even so, the number of w o r d s is fairly small, and because of the various sources spelling is inconsistent. There is no doubt, however, that the list printed by Bleek represents a Tsonga language. Almost all the words are identical with, or similar to, the corresponding words in Xironga or in Xichangana, or (most often) in both. T h e list clearly is a sample of the language spoken in Lourenzo Marquez around the 1840s. Whether that language should be called Xironga or Xichangana is another matter. Actually, the question is anachronistic. In the time of Peters and Bleek, these names were not in use among scholars, and it is very uncertain whether they were used by the speakers. It has been shown that the whole idea of t w o neatly distinguished languages with different names is a fairly recent one. T h e Tsonga group clearly constitute what linguists call a dialect continuum. That is, there are many dialects, and adjacent dialects are usually very similar, while dialects that are distant from each other differ a great deal. W e know very little about how the speakers perceived the situation before the 20th century, but there is nothing to suggest that they thought of differ-

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ent languages, or that they used any names that designated these entities (although naturally people could name their own dialect if they wanted to). In two very interesting articles, Harries (1988, 1995) has described how written languages were created in two different locations within this dialect continuum, in Transvaal and in Lourenzo Marques. In both cases, the main actors were Swiss missionaries. After attempts at creating one unitary written form had failed, two separate standards came into existence. The language form in Transvaal was first called Gwamba (or Sigwamba), later on Thonga or Shangaan; the names Tsonga/Xitsonga and Changana/ Xichangana are still later denominations for the same written language standard. On the other hand, the written language based upon the dialect of Lourenzo Marques has been called Ronga or Xironga from the beginning. Thus, the idea that Xichangana and Xironga are neatly separated languages is just about a century old. For that reason, there is no real point in asking what language is represented by the sample printed by Bleek. It represents a spoken language that most probably did not carry a name that is used for any language today.

2.2. Inhambane/Nyamban In the work by Bleek, there figures a language called "Inhambane", the name of a port town and of a province in southern Mozambique. In the work by Koelle, there is a language called "Nyamban", obviously a distorted rendering of Inhambane. There are similarities between the two lists, but also considerable differences. The main languages spoken in the area at present are Cicopi and Gitonga. They are usually regarded as forming one subgroup within the Southern Bantu grouping, for example in Doke (1954), where they are called the Inhambane group. In Guthrie (1967-1971) they form the S.60 group, called "Chopi". However, in Lanham (1955) it is suggested that the differences between the two languages are so great that they should be regarded as two separate branches within Southern Bantu. Be that as it may, it seems that these two are more similar to each other than either of them is to any other language. It is not entirely easy to say what the relation is between the two old lists and the two modern languages. Modern Cicopi and Gitonga are not well documented languages, and I have not had the opportunity to consult native speakers. As for the old lists, the quality of Peter's material may not

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be high. Bleek (1856: xi) writes: "The manuscript of this portion was carelessly written throughout, and sometimes almost illegible; some faults may therefore have crept in." Thus, more study is needed to assess the material properly. Still, it is clear that the list in Koelle and the list in Bleek come from informants whose languages differ considerably. Further, the words quoted by Koelle are mostly similar to modern Cicopi forms, and the words that Bleek quotes are mainly similar to modern Gitonga forms. About 70 words figure in both these old lists and also in lists compiled by Gadelii. Among these words, there are 13 cases in which the list from Koelle has a form similar to modern Cicopi, and the list in Bleek has a form similar to modern Gitonga. In no case the reverse is true. The 13 cases are found in Table 1. Koelle's and Bleek's diacritic signs are omitted. Table I. 13 words in lists from Koelle and Bleek compared to modern Gitonga and Cicopi Gitonga (Gadelii) five (cows) livbandre gu thega fall finger nyala, pi dzinyala fire nilo fish ndzandzi, pi. dzindzandzi nya wadi good hair ndzudzu

Inhambane (Bleek) tano, lebande utekire muala 3.

head

hungo

muhuguo

laugh mouth

gu hega likana

ku-eka 15. likana 5.

neck

thamo

tammo 9. (?)

small white

dugwana nya guage

mudokuana kwaka

English

munillo 3. inyandse 9. wadima mududu

Nyamban (Koelle) nklan & klan ne wuite ntsiho, pi metshiho. ndilo & ndelo kikaga. pl. zikaga i nene nsisi, pi misisi nsungo, pl. misungo ne sekile gisofu. pl. sisofu nsanagankolo, pi mesanagankolo indoto ibasile

Cicopi (Gadelii) η 'canu kuwa litiho, pl. titiho undilo chihaka, pl. sihaka unene misisi unsungu kuseka cisofu η 'kolo η 'dotho kubasa

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It seems that the list in Koelle represents an early form of Cicopi, while the list in Bleek represents early Gitonga. It should be noted, though, that there is no perfect fit, as all lists have idiosyncratic forms not found in any other, and there are many problems of interpretation. Here as elsewhere much work remains to be done. Bleek had seen Koelle's work, and he chose to include words from Koelle's "Nyamban" in his own list for "Inhambane". Evidently Bleek regarded these two as so similar that they represented the same language. I have excluded Bleek's repetition of information from Koelle from my table, which is easy to do, as Bleek very carefully distinguishes his various sources. The preliminary conclusion, then, is that "Inhambane" in Bleek (1856) designates the language now called Gitonga, while "Nyamban" in Koelle (1854) designates present-day Cicopi.

2.3.

Sofala

In Bleek (1856) there is a list for "Sofala". The name is that of the then important Portuguese trade centre, just south of Beira. It is still the name of the province of which Beira is the capital. In this part of Mozambique, the language in use belongs to the Shona group, and is called Cindau. There are divergent views on the question whether this is a language of its own or a dialect of Chishona. In Grimes (2000) Ndau is listed as one of the languages of Mozambique, and assigned an area on the map, while the same area is designated "Cishona" in the map of Afido et al. (1989). Anyhow, it seems clear that "Sofala" in Bleek corresponds to present-day Cindau. There is no doubt that the list represents a Shona language.

2.4.

Sena

In the Zambezi valley, the Portuguese maintained large estates and a number of trading stations. One of the stations was named Sena, and the town still carries that name. In the work by Bleek, there figures a list for "Sena". This language is easily identified, as the language spoken around Sena is still called Cisena, and the words of the list are mostly similar to those of that language. Only

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in this case does Bleek use a language name that is identical to the modern one.

2.5.

Tette

The list for "Tette" provided by Bleek is very similar to his list for Sena, and he remarks himself that the differences are merely dialectal. Tette or Tete is the name of another Portuguese station further up along the Zambezi valley, and Bleek as usual employs the place name as the name for the language. The modern name for the language in the area around Tete is Cinyungwe. Bleek (1856: xii) mentions that "Nyungwe is the native name for Tette". In this case, then, it is clear that Bleek used a place name in spite of the fact that he knew that another name was used by the speakers.

2.6.

Maravi/Marawi

Still further inland along the Zambezi one finds the language called Maravi by Bleek and Marawi by Koelle; it is nowadays known as Cinyanja. In this case, the name used by the European scholars is not that of a place, but refers to an important state that dominated the area for a long time (see for example Newitt [1995: 71-72], Rita-Ferreira [1982: 53ff.]). Although it seems clear that the lists for Maravi and Marawi, respectively, represent language forms that are fairly close to modern Cinyanja, there are several remarkable differences. This may partly be because the lists are not very reliable. Bleek says himself about his list (p. xiv): " W e cannot, on the whole, rely upon the Maravi vocabulary so fully as upon that of the others...", and Koelle notes that his informant had been away from home about twenty-two years. There are also clear signs that at least the list produced by Koelle reproduces a dialect that has gone through other sound changes than those of standard Cinyanja. However, a thorough analysis remains to be done.

Languages and language names in Mozambique 305 2.7.

Quellimane/Kiriman

Quellimane was a Portuguese trade station along the coast north of the mouth of the Zambezi. Bleek provides a list of "Quellimane", and Koelle gives one for "Kiriman", a slight distortion of the same name. There is no doubt that both lists document the language that is now known as Echuwabo. In addition, a list that seems to represent the same language is found from another source from the 1850s, Andersson (1855). Karl Andersson was a Swedish explorer who travelled in Namibia and Botswana. A list for "Chylimanse" is provided to allow a comparison with Seyeyi, a language spoken in modern Botswana; see further Lars-Gunnar Andersson (1997). Echuwabo is one of the languages in the Makua group. The number of languages in this group is still a matter of considerable debate. It seems that all modern classifications count at least with the languages Emakhuwa, Elomwe, and Echuwabo (with a number of spelling variants). But Metto, Shirima, and others, are considered to constitute independent languages by some. There is no doubt that Echuwabo was considered a language of its own even 150 years ago, although it was clearly known under another name, at least among Europeans.

2.8.

Mosambique/Matatan

Bleek provides a list of what he calls "Mosambique", i.e. the language of the Mozambique island. Koelle has a vocabulary for "Matatan". His informant stated that "Matatan is west of the sea, opposite the island of O m hibit,' called 'Masambik' by the Portuguese, who possess it, and east of Kuran" (Koelle 1854: 16). The informant's home town was called Norubo. "Norubo is two days' journey from the island of Masambik, where the same language is spoken by the natives." The words of the lists are similar, and they clearly represent Emakhuwa, the language spoken on the island of Mozambique as well as in the adjacent mainland. Bleek (1856: xiii) mentions "the Makua of Mosambique" as a designation for people, but he does not use "Makua" as a name for the language. Koelle states, obviously quoting his informant, that "Matatan is also spoken in Makoa, Sunkulu, Olugwu, and Tokoma".

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Meto

Koelle includes a list for the language "Meto". The informant Edsodso was "born at Nyonmalia, a town in the Meto country". Koelle adds "Meto is perhaps north-west from Masambik". It is perfectly clear that the list represents a Makua language, and reasonably it is the language/dialect still called Metto or Meetto in modern sources; it is listed as Makhuwa-Meetto in Grimes (2000). The Metto area is considerably north of Mozambique, and also extends westwards. I have not had access to any linguistic material pertaining to the Metto language/dialect.

2.10. Cap Delgado Bleek lists in a separate column "Cap Delgado", again a (slightly altered) Portuguese place name used as a language name. The promontory Cabo Delgado is located close to the northern border of Mozambique, in the province that carries the same name. Along the coastline at Cabo Delgado and on the islands of the Quirimba archipelago, one finds the language Kimwani, belonging to the Sabaki group and fairly closely related to Kiswahili. That Bleek's list represents Kimwani has been shown by Petzell (2002), who used a reprint of Bleek's list found in Johnston (1919), comparing it with field notes made by Gadelii. Interestingly, Johnston uses the name "Kiwibu" for the language; it seems to be the name of the prestige dialect (Petzell 2002: 89). The language Kimwani is known mainly through the studies just mentioned; see also Schadeberg (1994). It is separate from Ekoti, another language spoken along the northern coast.

2.11. Muntu In the work by Koelle, there is a list for a language by the name of "Muntu". The compiler himself wrote in a footnote (Koelle 1854: 15): "This seems to be the word for 'man', and my informant was probably mistaken in giving it to me as the proper name of the tribe." The plural of the name is given as "Veiao". In fact, it is clear that the language is Ciyao, used in northern Mozambique and in Tanzania.

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3. Discussion and summary From the survey it transpires that most of the large languages found in Mozambique today are represented by a list in at least one of the 19th century publications. Notable exceptions are Shimakonde, straddling the border to Tanzania, Elomwe, a language of the Makua group, and Xitshwa, a language of the Tsonga group. However, while the languages of the 19th century publications are all found today, their names are different in almost all cases. The situation is summarised in Table 2. Table 2. Modern and previous language names A f i d o e t a l . (1989) Xitsonga/Xironga Cicopi Gitonga Cishona Cisena Cinyungwe Cinyanja Echuwabo Emakhuwa Kimwani Ciyao

Koelle (1854)

Bleek (1856) Lourenzo Marques

Nyamban

Marawi Kiriman Matatan Meto

Inhambane Sofala Sena Tette Maravi Quellimane Mosambique Cap Delgado

Muntu

Where did the names come from? Bleek/Peters obviously used the names of Portuguese establishments to denote the languages of the people in the area, regardless of what the speakers called their form of speech. For "Tette" there is positive proof of this, as Bleek knew the name "Nyungwe" but did not employ it. The only name that is not connected with Portuguese settlements is "Maravi". In this area far inland, there were no Portuguese trading stations. The names used by Bleek are now all discarded, except "Sena", which is still the name of the language (as well as that of the town). The names used by Koelle are in a way more interesting, in that they were the ones used by his informants. It should be noted, though, that those informants had mostly lived for a long time in Sierra Leone, and that they

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had all been slaves before they came there. Thus, they may have adapted their way of speaking about their language to the usage of Europeans. Three of the names used by Koelle (Nyamban, Maravi, Kiriman) are identical to the ones used by Bleek, except for minor divergences in spelling. The name "Muntu" is the result of a bizarre misunderstanding (cf. above). The two remaining names, Matatan and Meto, are used for speech forms which are now mostly regarded as two dialects of Emakhuwa. Both names seem to denote areas, as they are explained in geographic terms: "Matatan is west of the sea...", and "Meto is perhaps north-west from Masambik" (Koelle 1854/1963: 15-16). It seems, then, that Koelle uses only names that primarily relate to a place or an area, not to a group or a people, just like Bleek. It can be inferred that these names probably were used somewhat more widely than just by a handful of European scholars. Koelle had no knowledge of the work by Peters or by Bleek, as it seems, and Bleek saw proofs of Koelie's book only at a late stage in his own work. Thus, they probably did not pick up any names from each other. Still, three names are virtually identical in the two works. For speakers of Bantu languages in southern Africa it is clearly normal usage to denote the language in the same way as the political unit, the state or the people, rather than to use a name for a place. The language names in use nowadays in Mozambique are all of that type (with the possible exception of Cisena). Probably, the naming by places was an invention by Europeans that gained a certain currency during the 19th century. These names must have been employed also by some speakers of the languages, as is seen from the usage of Koelle's informants. They went out of use when the speakers launched their own language names in writing.

Notes 1. 2.

3.

Guthrie (1964) has not been available to me. Karl Erland Gadelii and I have both been active within the project "Languages and language use in Mozambique", of which the present study is an outcome. Many thanks to Karl Erland for fruitful co-operation, and to SIDA, the Swedish Agency for Co-operation with Developing Countries, and Unesco, for financial support to the project. As in many other parts of the Bantu area, the usage in Mozambique concerning the class prefix is not consistent. In Afido et al. (1989), prefixes are used

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for all names of Bantu languages, but in many other sources, for example Grimes (2000), prefixes are omitted. Here, the prefixed forms are used, with the spelling found in Afido et al. (1989).

References Afido, Pedro J., Gregorio Firmino, John Heins, Samba Mbuub and Manuel Trinta (eds.) 1989 I seminario sobre α padronizagäo da ortograßa de linguas Mogambicanas. Maputo: Nucleo de Estudo de Linguas Mogambicanas (NELIMO), Faculdade de Letras, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. Andersson, Karl Johan 1855 Explorations in South Africa with route from Walfisch Bay to Lake Ngami, and ascent to the Tioge River (Damara). Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 25: 79-107. Andersson, Lars-Gunnar 1997 Seyeyi revisited: prospects for the future of a threatened language. In: Haacke, W. H. G. and E. D. Elderkin (eds.), Namibian Languages: Reports and Papers, 265-275. Cologne: Rüdiger Koppe (for the University of Namibia). Appleyard, John W. 1850 The Kafir Language: Comprising a Sketch of Its History, which Includes a General Classification of South African Dialects, Ethnographical and Geographical Remarks upon its Nature and a Grammar. With a supplement by Carl F. Wuras on the Hottentot grammar in the Korana dialect. King William's Town: Wesleyan Methodist Mission Press. Β leek, Wilhelm Η. I. 1856 The Languages of Mosambique: Vocabularies of the Dialects of Lourenzo Marques, Inhambane, Sofala, Tette, Sena, Quellimane, Mosambique, Cape Delgado, Anjoane, the Maravi, Mudasu etc. Drawn Up from the Manuscripts of Dr fVm Peters, M. Berl. A cd., andfrom Other Materials. London: Harrison & Sons. Doke, Clement M. 1954 The Southern Bantu Languages. London: Oxford University Press (for the International African Institute). Doke, Clement M. and Desmond T. Cole (eds.) 1961 Contributions to the History of Bantu Linguistics. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

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Gadelii, Karl Erland 2001 Languages and language use in Mozambique: Report on Sida/SAREC project 1997-2000. Göteborg, Sweden: Department of Oriental and African Languages. Unpublished report. Grimes, Barbara E. (ed.) 2000 Ethnologue. Fourteenth ed. 2 vols. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). Guthrie, Malcolm 1964 Bantu languages in Polyglotta africana. Sierra Leone Language Review 3: 59-64. 1967-71 Comparative Bantu: An Introduction to the Comparative Linguistics and Prehistory of the Bantu Languages. 4 vols. London: Gregg International. Harries, Patrick 1988 The roots of ethnicity: discourse and the politics of language construction in South East Africa. African affairs 87: 25-52. 1995 Discovering languages: the historical origins of standard Tsonga in southern Africa. In: Mesthrie, R. (ed.), Language and Social History: Studies in South African Sociolinguistics, 154-175. Cape Town and Johannesburg: David Philip. Janson, Tore 2002 Speak: A Short History of Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Johnston, Harry H. 1919 A Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Koelle, Sigismund W. 1854 [1963] Polyglotta Africana, or a Comparative Vocabulary of Nearly Three hundred Words and Phrases in more than One hundred Distinct African Languages. Reprint with a historiographical introduction by Paul Η. E. Hair and a word index by David Dalby. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt. Lanham, Leonard W. 1955 Α Study of Gitonga of Inhambane. (Bantu linguistic studies 1). Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. Newitt, Malyn 1995 A History of Mozambique. London: Hurst & Company. Petzell, Malin 2002 A sketch of Kimwani (a minority language of Mozambique). Asia & Africa: Göteborg Working Papers on Asian and African Languages and Literatures 2: 88-115.

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Schadeberg, Thilo C. 1994 Kimwani and the southern fringe of Swahili. In: Bakker, P. and M. Moos (eds.), Mixed Languages: 15 Case Studies in Language Intertwining, 239-244. Amsterdam: Instituut voor Functioned Onderzoel van Taalen Taalgebruik (IFOTT). Rita-Ferreira, Antonio 1982 Fixagao portuguesa e historia pre-colonial de Mogambique. Lisboa: Instituto de investigasäo cientifica tropical / Junta de investigates cientificas do ultramar. White, William 1800 Journal of a Voyage Performed in the Lion Extra Indiaman, from Madras to Colombo, and De Lagoa Bay, on the Eastern Coast of Africa, in the Year 1798. London.

Observations on Swahili and Midzichenda plant names Franz Rottland and Ralf Grosserhode

The editors, who kindly accepted our contribution to this volume dedicated to Karsten Legere, had not, in their first letter of invitation, listed ethnobotany among the suggested topics. Looking at the quantitative distribution of Karsten Legere's work, this seems to be quite justified; however, the quality of his single contribution to ethnobotany as the co-author of Heine and Legere (1995 - henceforth HL) is so outstanding that he has made quite a name for himself in the field. Since we are working on related topics in an adjacent and overlapping geographical area - the Kenyan coast we have consulted HL quite often over the last three years. 1 Therefore, based on our ongoing research it seems appropriate to comment in a preliminary fashion on some of the findings and conclusions in HL. Our main purpose here is to illustrate some of the benefits that can be gained from (historical) comparative ethnobotany. It can show findings from a single language in a new light, while providing direction for further exploration. Our research has so far been focussed on Digo plant knowledge and plant names - with some excursions into other Midzichenda and into Swahili spoken at Gazi on the southern Kenyan coast. The Digo are one of nine groups who together are called Mijikenda (in Swahili) and Midzichenda (in their own languages). The Swahili and Midzichenda are neighbours in some cases and share territory in others (see Map 1 next page), and have a long history of contact and interchange (Nurse and Spear 1985; Spear 1978). In terms of diachronic linguistics the Midzichenda languages and Swahili are close relatives within the Sabaki branch - a classification which has been backed by a number of regular phonological, grammatical and lexical correspondences (e.g. Nurse and Hinnebusch 1993). These correspondences include plant names. Linguistically-based comparative ethnobotany should, therefore, be a worthwhile undertaking within the Sabaki territory.

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Map 1. Distribution of ethnic groups at the Kenyan Coast Having said this, we must comment on the fact that, by implication, HL do not seem to support our aim: they repeatedly underline the high degree of diversity of plant naming in the Swahili area. They state that 'plant terminology differs from one village to another and from one region to ano t h e r ' (1995: 11). They calculated (1995: 38) that, out of 919 plant names, only 166 - or 17% - were known to both communities (Zanzibar and the mainland). For our aims, this is putting it rather negatively. Turning it around, we can instead say that the 166 agreements on plant names that do exist provide considerable data on which to build comparative work. If w e go beyond Swahili, there will be more agreements found between Swahili entries f r o m one area only and other Sabaki entries. As for learning and

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using Swahili as a second language, which almost all Midzichenda do, the situation is not the same as for the up-country Chamus region to which HL refer. For the Midzichenda, Swahili plant names do not constitute a 'relatively distinct domain of the lexicon', as HL state. A common linguistic descent, bilingualism and cultural interchange within a shared coastal area prevent a strong separation of the botanical lexica or, at least, mitigate the possibility of such a separation. We have encountered Midzichenda healers, for example, who possess a high degree of bilingualism in their botanical nomenclature. We do not say this to discredit any statements in HL, but rather to emphasise the chances of a comparative study, which was not within their sights when they wrote the book. It seems that only once a comparative study has been conducted can one verify or reject the statement made in HL that how far the use of a plant's name is spread depends on one of three criteria for the plant's classification, namely its cultural significance, economic importance, and perceptual salience. Such predictions are much more difficult to support when one uses an inductive approach, counting the number of names for a given species. For Lantana camara (Verbenaceae), for example, an omnipresent shrub and a well-known pest throughout East Africa, HL list eight different names - while Midzichenda has only two. One can imagine that its presence in everyday life and the necessity to weed out thickets of Lantana camara may promote the creation of new local names, but why does it not happen in Midzichenda, where the situation is not different from other parts of the East African coast. A more striking example is given by Hoslundia opposita, for which HL (1995: 340) list ten very different names as well as some phonological variants, while Digo and Duruma have only one name each for the species in question. The uniformity is proved by entries from several informants spread over the entire area - six from Digo and five from Duruma. Apart from these examples, our overall impression is that Midzichenda has a higher degree of uniformity in plant names than that which HL present for Swahili. This will need further verification and if borne out - some explanation. Reconstructing a plant name has its problems as well. However, it is much more straightforward than finding out why the name for one plant can be reconstructed and another not. Pointing out that many of these questions have to remain open is not denying the mutual benefit we can already draw from comparative work - as is illustrated in the following by a few examples.

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HL (1995: 252) list mvuja kondoo as Allophylus alnifolius (Sapindaceae). They translate the Swahili name as 'sheep m[ale]\ Evidence from Midzichenda as well as evidence within Swahili makes it very likely that mvuja kondoo is a folk etymology of mvunja kondo, the latter being an obsolete term for 'war' or 'quarrel'. If our derivation is correct, the plant name refers to a supernatural, perhaps ritual, function. This is clearly understood in Midzichenda, at least in the three languages for which we have evidence, namely Digo, Duruma and Giriama2. Here, one of the functions of mvundza kondo, i.e. Allophylus pervillei (Sapindaceae), is to help in deciding a quarrel or a case in one's favour. This is achieved by eating part of the plant, carrying it in one's pocket, or using it in some way. The same name and function for the plant is reported for neighbouring Pokomo (Gelder 1985). The assumption is further supported from both Midzichenda and Swahili by Digo chivundza kesi (Aganthesanthemum bojeri), where kesi is derived from 'case' in English, and by kivunja hukumu (Apodytes dimidiata), which HL (1995: 80) translate as 'destroys judgement' and add 'local healer's name'. They comment further as follows: Ά piece of the root is kept in the defendant's pocket, helps to win legal cases, hence the name'. This name also applies to Mitracarpus villosus (1995: 81). In the context of the plant names mentioned so far, the cognate verbs vunja and vundza refer to the settling of a quarrel or case in favour of the person utilising a particular plant and maybe - as 'local healer's name' suggests - even using a mediator. There are other names containing vunja and vundza, respectively, which at first sight may be interpreted according to their surface meaning, since the second part of the name (mostly) refers to an object that might be broken or blunted, e.g. by cutting a plant. In this regard HL (1995: 81) mention kivunjajembe 'breaks the hoe' (Dichrostachys cinerea) and list (1995: 255-257) mvunjafumo 'breaks the spear' (Capparis sp.), mvunjakongwa 'break the stick' (Synadenium carinatum), mvunjashoka 'breaks the axe' Acacia sp. and Dichrostachys cinerea), and mvunjavumo, where vumo means 'loud roar, kind of drum' (Cadaba farinosa). Digo has five applications of mvundza jembe, namely Acalypha neptunica, Alchornea laxiflora, Allophylus rubifolius, Grandidiera boivinii, and Mallotus oppositifolius. Comments given by HL and implications taken from their book, however, lead to the assumption that in most if not all of these cases, vunja/vundza has the same pacifying meaning and that the names of weapons or cutting instruments (fumo, shoka, jembe) contain the sense of quarrel or dispute. HL (1995: 81) comment on kivunjajembe as follows: 'This

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small plant is used ritually to settle disputes, hence the name. For some informants, this plant is identical with kitulizamambo\ The latter name is translated as 'calm down problems'. With these indications from Swahili we shall have to return to fieldwork on mvundza jembe and explore the possibility of an extended meaning in Midzichenda as well. There is, therefore, good reason to test the hypothesis that plant names containing vunja/vundza indicate a functional category 'case winner', and that this category is a common feature of coastal East African ethnobotany. Such categories - utupa 'fish poison' being another for the entire area - cut across taxonomic hierarchies as outlined in HL, for example. However, the incorporation of such categories into a taxonomic system is still lacking. Comparing Swahili kichawi with its cognate chitsai in Midzichenda opens a vast and entirely different field. Both names refer to witchcraft, and the old question 'What's in a name?' is appropriate here. Botanically, they indicate various species of Striga (Scrophulariaceae), which in English may appear under the name witchweed and in German under Hexenkraut. Even the Latin designation, Striga, may - according to a rather doubtful etymology - refer to a wild female human being with magical powers (cf. Italian Strega 'witch'). We have, however, not found any allusions to witches or magic in other East African Striga names. It seems best to treat the 'witch connection' linking Africa with Europe as a curious coincidence. Beyond ethnobotany, several Striga species have considerable prominence in agricultural literature (e.g. more than 1,000 pages on the Internet) in regard to tropical countries since they are very dangerous parasitic or semi-parasitic weeds, e.g. S. hermonthica and S. asiatica for cereals, and S. gesneroides for legumes. The damage caused by the genus Striga is considered as a major or even the principal problem in tropical agriculture. The Digo do not know that chitsai is a parasite, but they know that they can forget about their maize harvest if chitsai is discovered in their fields. Surprisingly, among the information on Striga contained in HL, there is no reference to its being an agricultural pest. We can only speculate on the reason for this, namely that the data came from areas where cereal farming was not prominent. On the other hand, HL do refer to the genus itself as being considered very poisonous. For example, from kichawi we are referred to the entry for mchawi, which consists of mchawi dume and mchawi mke. For the former, HL (1995: 109) inform us that "the roots are extremely poisonous, people may die when they chew it" (sic). The latter's root is even 'more poisonous'. Other plant names listed as synonyms or

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partial synonyms to mchawi refer, beyond Striga, to plants that are considered poisonous and are used for preparing poison, such as mhang 'ongwa (a synonym for mchawi mke) with reference to Lantana camara (Verbenaceae). The nearest we came to the noxious parasitism of the Striga genus in HL was under the alternate Swahili name for Striga asiatica, namely kichaane, where they state that (1995: 67), "This plant is said to be very poisonous; plants growing near it will die." Thus, in Swahili we find a kichawi complex connected with a strong sense of poison, and in Digo we find the parasite chitsai, both referring to the Striga genus. The functional interpretations on both sides are too close to be accidental and, thus, invite further scrutiny. As for the non-botanical names, both witchweed and kichawi/chitsai might sooner or later be replaced by Striga, since the latter is what the growing bulk of agricultural literature uses. On a poster we find e.g. Kuza Desmodium η a Uzuie Kwekwe la Striga 'Grow Desmodium in order to prevent the Striga weed'. 3 In section 2.2., HL outline their observations on taxonomic ranks. One of the families considered is mkoko (2.2.2.3.). We will add a few observations on mkoko here, concentrating entirely on Swahili this time. Mkoko, in its narrow meaning, refers to specific mangrove trees (Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, Rhizophora mucronata, and two other plants which are not relevant here). Its wider meaning as a botanical family term is reflected in the compound names mkoko bara, mkoko mkandala, and mkoko mpiya. A similar situation is found with the term mkandaa, which seems to be preferred over mkoko in some areas, and is used to form the terms mkandaa dume, mkandaa mwekundu, mkandaa mwitu, mkandaa sisi and mkandaa wa pwani. From interviews conducted in Gazi, mkandamume and mkandamke may be added to this list. Interestingly, the term mkoko mkandala may be considered as consisting of both cover terms, namely mkoko and mkandaa, with mkandala being a variant of the latter. The idea of mangroves forming a plant family may be a rather new development in Swahili since respondents in Gazi rejected this idea and accepted neither mkoko nor mkandaa as cover terms for mangrove trees. From a botanical point of view, only nine mangrove species occur along the East African (or, at least, the Kenyan) coast.4 For these species, 51 Swahili names have so far been identified - all of them are listed in HL except for a few additions from the Gazi interviews.5 Several names may be put together as they are simply a reflection of dialectal differences in the phonological system. This is the case for mchu, mtu, and ntuu. Mtu (with a dental Iii) marks a typical difference between northern Swahili (like Kim-

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vita) and southern Swahili. The change of the noun class prefix from /m/ to [n] is a feature of Pemba-Swahili, for example. Also, mshinzi, msinzi and msizi may be regarded as variants of the same term, as nsusi and nsuti are. With the dialectal variation being as strong as it is in Swahili, even finding different terms for the same plant does not really come as a surprise. A mismatch between the number of botanical terms and the number of Swahili terms was to be expected. What is remarkable is the nature of the variation, as described below. While mkoko refers to only one mangrove species (Rhizophora mucronata), the name mshinzi refers to both Rhizophora mucronata and Bruguiera gymnorrhiza. The latter two species are in turn referred to by several names, one of which (mkandaa sisi) also points to Ceriops tagal. Thus, the dialectal variation does not only affect the names of plants, but also the meaning of names. The same phenomenon can be observed with other plant names. The meaning of plant names shifts from dialect to dialect, resulting in a semantic net that is very tight in some cases (e.g. as regards mkoko) and rather loose in others (e.g. as regards mkandaa). A study of the semantic variation of plant names might provide further insight into the historical and current relationship between the various Swahili dialects. In regard to nomenclature, our own findings largely correspond with those outlined in HL. Nonetheless, a few minor remarks may be in order because they indicate areas for further research. One observation concerns the modifier indicating a wild plant: while this is usually mwitu and less often msitu in Swahili, in Midzichenda it is tsaka, which is cognate with Swahili chaka 'thicket', but semantically corresponds to Swahili mwitu as the unmarked word for 'forest'. Both Swahili and Digo use mdimu for 'lime' (Citrus aurantifolia) and 'lemon' (C. limonia, both Citrus species belonging to the family Rutaceae). Furthermore, Digo has mdimu tsaka for Suregada zanzibariensis (Euphorbiaceae). According to HL, the latter plant is called mdimu chaka in Swahili, while mdimu mwitu refers to Maytenus undata (Celastraceae). It seems unlikely that Swahili distinguishes two types of mdimu 'lime' by reference to different types of wood. There is a greater likelihood that mdimu chaka is a loan. Of course, lending also works in the opposite direction. For 'wild cotton', Gossypioides kirkii (Malvaceae), for example, HL (1995: 196) give mpamba mwitu and mpamba porini, which are synonyms for the plant in

320 Franz Rottland and Ralf

Grosserhode

Swahili, while in Midzichenda, D u r u m a has mpamba tsaka and Digo mpamba mwitu, the latter very probably being a loan f r o m Swahili. H L also list colour terms as modifiers, namely -ekundu ' r e d ' , -eusi ' b l a c k ' , and -eupe ' w h i t e ' (1995: 42). This limitation in modifiers and their use applies to Digo as well, and goes along with existing hypotheses on ' b a s i c colour t e r m s ' (see e.g. Berlin and Kay 1969). What has to be kept in mind, however, is that these colour notions in their traditional (still surviving) usage divide the spectrum in their own way, so that in Digo, for example, the majority of vegetative green is identified as -iru ' b l a c k ' . O u r brief fieldwork with Swahili speakers in Gazi indicates that the same phen o m e n o n exists in Swahili and merits a systematic study. T w o threads ( s o m e w h a t loosely) connect the observations made in this paper: (1) m a k i n g a case for comparative ethnobotany, and (2) showing h o w inspiring Heine and L e g e r e ' s (1995) contribution to Swahili ethnobotany has been for us.

Notes 1.

2. 3. 4.

The project - entitled 'Digo Plant Knowledge as Compared to Scientific Botany' - is part of the SFB/FK {Sonderforschungsbereich 'Special Research Deaprtment') 560 of the University of Bayreuth. It is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council) to whom we extend our gratitude. The project is led by Erwin Beck and Franz Rottland, other (partly temporary) members being Ralf Grosserhode, Mohamed Pakia and Ulrich Schulz-Burgdorf. Because of our closer relationship to Karsten Legere we have limited the authorship to two for this paper, but nevertheless regard our contribution as an outcome of joint work and discussions in the team. However, the responsibility for any statement made here is, of course, ours. We are grateful to Mohamed Pakia (pers. comm.) for most - if not all - the Midzichenda plant names quoted here. The poster is issued by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, ICIPE, 1ACR, Rothamsted, and KAR1 na Wizara ya Kilimo, Kenya. Rhizophora mucronata Lam. (Rhizophoraceae), Bruguiera gymnorrhiza Lam (Rhizophoraceae), Ceriops tagal C. B. Robinson (Rhizophoraceaej, Sonneratia alba Sm. (Sonneratiaceae), Avicennia marina Vierh. (Verbenaceae), Heritiera littoralis Ait. (Sterculiaceae), Lumnitzera racemosa Willd. (Combretaceae), Xylocarpus granatum Koen. (Meliaceae), Xylocarpus moluccensis M. J. Roem (Meliaceae). Xylo, molucc. is not called 'mangrove 1 in Beentje (1994: 410).

Observations on Swahili and Midzichenda plant names 5.

321

mkaka, mkoko, mkoko mkandala, mkoko mpiya, mshinzi, msinzi, msizi, mkifu, muwi, mwia, muia, nkandaa, mkandaa, nkandaa kofia, nkandaa sisi, nkandaa pia, mkanda mke, mkanda mume, mkandaa dume, mkandaa mwekundu, mkandaa mweupe, mkandaa wa pwani, mkandaa mwitu, msindi, kiambapwa, kirarambapwa, mwamba wa pwani, mlana, mliana, mlilana, mpira, mpira mlilana, mchu, mtu, mchui, nchuu, nsusi, nsuti, msikundazi, mgongongo, mbaombao, mtuimtui, mtwitwi, muyanywa, mtonga, mtonga pwani, mkomafi, msikundazi, mronga, mchazi mweupe, mchazi mweusi.

References Beentje, Henk 1994 Kenya Trees, Shrubs and Lianas. Nairobi. Berlin, Brent and Kay, Paul 1969 Basic Color Terms. Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley. Geider, Thomas 1985 Pokomo lexical data on trees and their uses. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 1: 71-89. Heine, Bernd and Karsten Legere 1995 Swahili Plants. An Ethnobotanical Survey. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. Nurse, Derek and Thomas J. Hinnebusch 1993 Swahili and Sabaki. A Linguistic History. Berkeley. Nurse, Derek and Thomas Spear 1985 The Swahili. Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 800-1500. Philadelphia. Spear, Thomas 1978 The Kaya Complex. A History of the Mijikenda Peoples of the Kenya Coast to 1900. Nairobi.

Subject index

absolutive 189-190 adnominals 2 1 9 , 2 3 0 - 2 3 3 African Creoles 288 Afroasiatic languages 253, 281-282, 289-291 attitudes 69, 73, 77, 109, 112, 130, 134-136, 141, 144, 147-148, 151, 156, 158, 163, 168, 174, 193 Bantu language 61, 70, 89, 91, 165, 181, 182, 194,219, 221-222, 227, 229-230, 239, 243, 2 4 7 248, 257, 263, 285-286, 297, 308-309 bilingual education 68, 76, 165, 168, 176 bilingualism/Bilingualismus 12, 15, 17, 23, 41, 53, 68, 76-77, 104, 105, 106, 112, 165, 167168, 176,315 Bole-Angas major group 253 Cabo Delgado 306 capacity planning 54-57, 60 Chadic 253, 255-257, 259-260, 2 8 1 282 Cicopi 301-303, 307 Cinyanja 150, 304, 307 Cinyungwe 304, 307 Cisena 1 4 9 , 3 0 3 , 3 0 7 - 3 0 8 Cishona 303, 307 Ciyao 149, 3 0 6 - 3 0 7 classification 114, 125, 177, 181-182, 194, 2 2 3 , 2 6 3 - 2 6 4 , 2 8 1 , 2 9 1 , 300, 3 0 5 , 3 1 3 , 3 1 5 codeswitching 58, 88, 90-91, 94 colonialism 66, 156

complement clause 267, 274 contact 67, 85-86, 88-90, 98-99, 110, 133, 167, 1 8 2 , 2 5 6 - 2 5 7 , 2 5 9 260,271,313 corpus 107, 126-128, 134, 148, 199201,205,208,212,215-217 corpus development 126-127, 134 cultural pluralism 68 derivative verb 246 development 54-57, 60, 68, 85, 89, 93, 95-97, 111, 114, 119, 123, 125-127, 131, 134-137, 149, 153, 1 5 6 , 2 5 7 - 2 6 0 , 3 1 8 development of vowel systems 2 5 7 260 dialect(s) 13-14, 22, 25, 48, 54, 70, 74, 80, 104, 120, 122-126, 132-1333, 138-139, 145, 148-149, 165, 1 8 2 , 2 2 0 , 2 3 9 240, 255, 2 5 7 - 2 5 9 , 263, 279, 281-288, 2 9 1 , 2 9 7 , 3 0 0 - 3 0 1 , 303-304, 306, 3 0 8 , 3 1 8 - 3 1 9 dialectal variation 319 diglossia/Diglossie 10-12, 72, 104, 109, 164, 184 Digo 313, 3 1 5 - 3 2 0 double-voicing 91 Duruma 315-316, 320 Echuwabo 305, 307 ecolinguistics 67 education 22, 55, 57-58, 65-69, 7 1 79, 92, 9 4 - 9 5 , 9 7 , 103, 105107, 109-112, 114, 119-121, 123, 128, 133-135, 137, 144, 147, 149-158, 163-165, 168, 172, 175-176, 178, 199

324 Subject index educational language policy 150, 152, 168, 176 elites 147, 156-158 Emakhuwa 305, 307-308 empowerment 66, 68, 78 endoglossic 103 English only 111, 153, 167 ethnic group 66, 68-69, 74, 106-107, 110, 112-113, 122, 124-125, 155,220, 314 ethnobotany 313, 317, 320 Ethnologue 279-281, 189-291, 298 ethoglossia 103, 111 Euromosaic 35-36, 38, 52 exoglossic 103, 163 First Nation 31-32 Flüsterkultur 51 gender differences 171, 176 Giriama 316 Gitonga 301-303, 307 Harmoniemodell 10, 12 high modernity 85, 88 Identitätskrise 21, 23, 26 identities 68, 87, 88, 91-94, 97, 120, 124 identity 56, 58-59, 61, 69, 71, 76, 88, 90, 92-95,97, 108, 111, 122, 126, 132, 135, 138-139, 173, 176 immigrant languages 280 induced vowel change 258 Infinitive 222, 243-250 Inhambane 93, 299, 301-303, 307 Khoesan 70, 263,271 Khoesan languages 58-59, 61, 70, 106, 281-283,290-291

(Ki)Kerebe 219, 220-223, 225, 227230, 232, 234-235,239-241 (Ki)Swahili 11-12, 54, 56, 61, 81, 103-115, 167, 175-176, 178, 181-184, 187, 189, 190-193, 196, 199-204, 209-210,213, 215-217,219, 221,243-244, 246-250,306,313-319 Kimwani 306-307, 310-311 Kiriman 299, 305, 307-308 Konfliktmodell 19, 19 Kontaktlinguistik 44 Kupto 253-255, 257, 259 Kushi 253-255, 257, 259 Kwami 253-254, 257, 259 Lamba 248 Lango 164-168, 170, 174-175 language — attitudes 130, 134, 136, 144 — contact 67, 85-86, 89, 98, 108, 257, 259-260, 271 — imperialism 10, 21, 23, 65-66, 80 — maintenance 85, 66, 73-74, 109, 303 — policy 68, 74, 79-80, 103-104, 107, 112, 147-155, 165, 168, 176, 183,219 — shift 12, 67, 85-88, 92, 96, 106107, 113, 183,220 L-complex 263 lexical loan 203 lexicography 127-128, 193 lingua franca 11, 25, 53, 58, 60, 66, 70, 73,90, 104, 108-113, 133,163, 181, 183 linguistic — analysis 194 — awareness 122, 126, 135 — capacity 119-120, 134

Subject index — development 54, 56-57, 60, 68-69, 72, 75, 86, 98, 112, 125-127, 135, 150, 181,247, 256-260 — ecology 65, 67-68, 79-80 — pluralism 26, 105 linguistische Diskriminierung 13, 22, 45, 48 linguistische Menschenrechte 19 literacy 69, 87, 95-97, 105, 107, 149, 155, 164-165, 168-176, 178 literacy practices 164-165, 168 loan word 199, 207, 220 Lourenzo Marques 299-301, 307, 309 Luganda 56, 164-170, 172-174, 176, 247-248 Lukwangule 181 Mainhofs law 188 mangrove 318-320 Maravi/Marawi 299, 304, 307-308 Matatan 299, 305, 307-308 medium of instruction 58, 75-78, 105, 119, 134, 149-150, 155, 165 Mehrsprachigkeit 3 9 ^ 4 , 46, 48, 5 0 52 Meto 299, 306-308 MicMac-Indianer 31-34, 45, 47 Midzichenda 313, 315-317, 319-320 Minderheitssprache 10, 38, 41,44, 46, 48,51 minoritised languages 106-107, 114 minority language. 56-59, 62, 67, 8587, 89, 92, 98, 106, 109, 111, 113-114, 149, 183, 193-196 morphology 244, 246, 258, 259 Mosambique/Mozambique 67, 86, 8890, 92-95, 149, 297-301, 303, 305-309 mother tongue 53, 58, 69-71, 73, 7 5 76, 78-79, 103, 105-106, 108, 110-111, 128, 139, 149, 151, 153,220,280,283,289

325

multilingual literacy practices 164, 168 multilingualism 11, 20, 22, 26, 41, 53, 60, 65, 67-68, 74, 76, 78-79, 86, 88, 90, 92-93, 96-99, 103, 105, 108-110, 112, 131, 149-151, 155-158, 163-164, 168-169, 176-177 Muntu 299, 306-308 nasal - n o n - s y l l a b i c 187, 914 — syllabic 187 national language 53, 56, 58-59, 66, 71, 73-74, 103-104, 106, 112-113, 127-128, 138-140, 150-151, 154, 177, 181, 183 Nationalsprache 21-22, 24 nation-building 71, 74 Niger-Congo languages 256-257, 271, 281,283-284,286-287,290 Nilosaharan languages 281, 286-291 nominalisation 244, 246 non-syllabic nasal 187, 914 norm planning 56 Northern Sotho 119-140, 144-145 noun class system 219, 221-222, 239, 243, 246, 263 noun phrase 219, 230-231, 238-240, 269, 270 Nyamban 299, 301-303, 307-308 official language 54-56, 58, 60-61, 67, 70-74, 76, 79, 89, 103105,107-108, 110-111, 113, 124, 126, 136, 150, 156, 163165, 168, 174, 181,183 offizielle Sprache 13, 16, 20, 24-25 OV-order 265-267, 269, 271-272 Pero 253-254, 257, 259 Piya 253-255, 257, 259 plant family 318

326 Subject index plant names 313-317,319-320 positive Diskriminierung 45, 48 preprefix 185, 187, 221-222, 225227, 238, 240, 244 prestige planning 135 pronouns 202,227, 229-232, 235236, 240, 249 pupils' attitudes towards literacy 168 quantitative research 169, 313 Quellimane 299, 305, 307, 309 reciprocals 191-193 reflexive (verbs) 191-193 Regionalsprache 13 Revitalisierung/revitalisation 48, 5051,67, 85-86 second language 53, 55, 78, 90, 112, 280, 288-289,315 Sena 299,303-304, 307-309 sensitisation 147, 155, 158 Sepedi 124-125, 128 Setswana 22, 53-61, 103, 105-106, 110, 112, 248 social status 128 Sofala 299, 303, 307, 309 Sorbien 37,40, 42,45, 47, 49-50 Southern Bole group 253 specifier 185-187, 191 split word order 264-265 Sprach(en)politik 10, 13, 15-16, 23, 25,42, 44, 47, 50-51 Spracheinstellungen 22 Sprachgesetzgebung 16-17, 19 Sprachkonflikt 9-12, 19, 25,44 Sprachkonflikt 9-13, 19, 23,25, 44-45

standardisation 55, 68, 121-123, 126128, 132, 139 syllabic nasal 187 Symbolwert 23 syncretism 99 Tangale 253-260 Tanzania 54, 60, 66, 103, 105-106, 113-114, 149, 157, 181, 183, 193, 199-200,208,219, 222, 239, 241,289,306-307 taxonomic ranks/hierarchies 317-318 Tette 299, 304, 307, 309 triglossia 65, 103, 112-113 type B-language 263, 270-273 Uganda 163-165,168, 170-171, 174177,289 unclassified languages 287-291 Unterrichtssprache 9, 18 Verkehrssprache 23 vernacularisation 105-106 Verwaltungssprache 11, 17, 21, 23 vocational training 119, 135 vowel harmony 256-261 vowel systems in Kwami 259 Widala(-Kholokh) 253-254, 257, 259 word order change 273 writing preferences 166 Xichangana 300-301 Xironga 300-301, 307 Xitsonga 300-301, 307 Zulu 112, 129, 130-131, 133, 137, 247-248