The country’s Constitution guarantees equal status to 11 official languages to cater for the country’s diverse peoples and their cultures. These are:
Other languages spoken in South Africa and mentioned in the Constitution are the Khoi, Nama and San languages, sign language, Arabic, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu. There are also a few indigeneous creoles and pidgins.
English is generally understood across the country, being the language of business, politics and the media, and the country’s lingua franca. But it is only spoken in 5 out of 11 homes.
South Africa linguistic diversity means all 11 languages have had a profound effect on each other. South African English, for example, uses a lot of words and phrases from Afrikaans, Isizulu, Nama and other African languages. And Africa-language speakers often use English and African words too.
LANGUAGE DISTRIBUTION
According to the 2001 census, Isizulu is the mother tongue of 23.8% of South Africa’s population, followed by Isixhosa at 17.6%, Afrikaans at 13.3%, Sepedi at 9.4%, and English and Setswana each at 8.2%.
Sesotho is the mother tongue of 7.9% of South Africans, while the remaining four official languages are spoken at home by less than 5% of the population each.
IsiZulu,isiXhosa, Siswati and IsiNdebele are collectively referred to as Nguni languages, and have many similarities in syntax and grammar. The Sotho languages- Setswana, Sepedi and Sesotho- also have much in common.
According to historical data, many of South Africa’s indigenous tribes share a common ancestry. But, as grouping and clans broke up in search of autonomy, variations of the common languages evolved.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario