Uses and functions of English in Namibia's multiethnic settings

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn a context where new English varieties from the Outer Circle have been receiving increasing attention, I propose to outline a descriptive approach to their uses and functions on the basis of their patterns of co‐occurrence with local languages across intra and inter‐ethnic boundaries. The case study I offer is Namibia, a multiethnic and multilingual African country where English has been the sole official language since 1990 without having had much local history prior to that date. The general question that I pose is to what extent and how English is used in informal interactions in Namibia. Considering Namibia's ethnolinguistic diversity as well as the locally widespread practice of code‐switching, the questions I more specifically ask are: What are the patterns of code‐switching with which English finds itself associated both within and across Namibia's inter‐ethnic boundaries, and how can they be characterized in terms of social function? On the basis of a corpus of intra‐ and inter‐ethnic interactions involving a range of Namibian ethnicities, I show evidence of a continuum of linguistic usage ranging from different patterns of code‐switching involving English and local languages to more or less monolingual English varieties. I finally place that evidence within the perspective of new Englishes theory, emphasizing the possible relevance of code‐switching patterns to the emergence of indigenized English varieties in general, and of an indigenized Namibian variety in particular.