English in South Africa

Examination Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics grade: 1.3 University of Duisburg-Essen language: English abstract: Due to the spread of English to so many parts of the world which was triggered during the colonial era and by migration of English-speaking people the importance of English not only as a language of commerce science and technology but also as an international language of communication has been realized (Platt Weber Ho 1984:1). This world-wide expansion of English means that it is now one of the most widely spoken languages in the world with well over four hundred million native speakers and roughly the same number who speak it as a second language (Barber 2000:236). Consequently many varieties of English evolved which also means that English is used for many different purposes in varying social contexts. Whereas in North America Australia and New Zealand the native English-language speakers outnumbered the original inhabitants (Amerindians Australian Aborigines Maoris) the native English-speaking community in South Africa is small with a vast majority of the population speaking Afrikaans and indigenous Bantu languages such as Zulu or Xhosa. In spite of this South African English has undergone relatively little influence from the other languages of the country due to the long period of British domination and the cultural prestige of English (237). Therefore social variations in the English language in South Africa are extant with very little regional variation.