THE NEW LANGUAGE POLICY IN SOUTH AFRICA: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS AND IMPLICATION FOR THE BANTU LANGUAGES

Authors

Richard Cameron Blake, Brigham Young University

Keywords

language policy, South Africa, sociolinguistic, Bantu languages

College

Humanities

Department

English

Abstract

In April, 1994, the first all-race presidential and parliamentary elections were held In South Africa after several years of multi-party constitutional negotiations. J’ielson Mandela, a political-prisoner-turned-president, was given the charge to uphold the new constitution, one In which all South Africans are regarded equally, regardless of race. Part of that constitution is a new language policy designed to reflect the wide diversity of languages In the country. Under the new language policy, 11 languages (nine of them spoken by different African tribal groups) are now recognized as official languages instead of only English and Afrikaans (a Dutch-based language spoken by a majority of the white population) like in the previous constitution.

Recommended Citation

Blake, Richard Cameron (2014) "THE NEW LANGUAGE POLICY IN SOUTH AFRICA: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS AND IMPLICATION FOR THE BANTU LANGUAGES," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2014: Iss. 1, Article 603.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2014/iss1/603