The world in one country: English in South Africa

Abstract

As the allusion in the title to the unintentionally humorous phrasebook published in the nineteenth century suggests, broken English and mistranslation have long been a source of humour and condemnation. Both of them abound due to the increasing prevalence of English in the world and the challenges posed by learning and using a foreign language, and by using translation to bridge the gap between English and other languages. If we add to this the appropriation of English by its speakers beyond the lands of the English, we appreciate some of the issues the spread of the English language in the world brings to the fore. The Englishes spoken in the 21st century are an outcome of the history of the English language, which is in turn bound up with the history of the speakers of the language. In what follows, we will start at the beginning and consider in broad strokes how English came to be, where it went, and how and why it spread. For this I will use as a framework the four diasporas, of spread. Thereafter, suggestions will be shared on how best to approach the study of world Englishes and global Englishes. First of all, how do Englishes vary? Secondly, how are the varieties of World Englishes distributed across the globe, and how can they be grouped into categories? Thirdly, theoretical models that researchers have suggested to help us understand the processes underlying the phenomenon will be presented. Kachru’s Three Circle Model (1992), Schneider’s Dynamic Model (2007) and De Swaan’s Global Language System (2004) have all had a major influence on this field of study and each of them can help us to make sense of the complexly interconnected, diverse aspects of World Englishes. In the final part of this paper, these themes are pulled together by looking at a concrete example. The focus will be on South Africa and how English is spoken there. Once again, we will look at how English came to be spoken there, where the language went and who its speakers were and are. To this end, the specific history of South Africa will be sketched, making the links with the spread of the English language, and relating its use to the use of other languages in the area. The paper will end with a description of the current language situation, the popular and academic debates about English in education, and a discussion of the ambiguous place South African English holds in the general scheme of World Englishes.