Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
Editor and Book Reviews Editor: John Edwards (St Francis Xavier University, Canada)
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Volume: 25 Number: 4 Page: 318–332
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Anglicising Postapartheid South Africa
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P. Eric Louw
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The apartheid state deliberately encouraged linguistic diversity and actively built cultural infrastructures which impeded Anglicisation. With the end of apartheid has come de facto Anglicisation. So although South Africa has, since 1994, had 11 official languages, in reality,
English is swamping the other 10 languages. Afrikaans has, in particular, come under tremendous pressure. Whereas before 1994 Afrikaans was one of two official languages, and was extensively used in government, business, the media, education and as a lingua franca; since 1994, the usage and
status of Afrikaans has been rapidly declining. This paper will explore some of the reasons for this emergent Anglicisation of contemporary South Africa.
Keywords: ANGLICISATION, SOUTH AFRICA, APARTHEID, POSTAPARTHEID, AFRIKAANS, CULTURAL IMPERIALISM
© 2004 Multilingual Matters
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