The loss of mother tongue? (fwd link)

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The loss of mother tongue?

GOTHATAONE MOENG
STAFF WRITER
Botswana

"Young people nowadays ke makgoa, they speak English only, if you ask
them a question, they respond in English, they don't understand
Setswana," says Freddy 'Rra-Lindiwe' Molebatsi.

Molebatsi is a 79-year-old father of two brought up in Maitengwe who
has been a long time resident of Tlokweng.He speaks Setswana with both
a sprinkle of South African Tswana accent and a slight Ikalanga
accent, the former a result of 27 years spent in South Africa as a
construction worker, where he says he first learnt Setswana along with
Sotho, Zulu, Venda and Afrikaans. Despite the languages he learnt
later in his life, the traces of his formative years in Maitengwe,
where he spoke Ikalanga exclusively - "the language I suckled from my
mother" - are evident.

Molebatsi shares his concern about young people's predilection - at
the expense of indigenous languages - for English with his 68-year-old
wife Gertrude Gini 'Mma-Lindiwe' Molebatsi who, originally from
Standerton, South Africa, grew up speaking Sotho and  Zulu. Their
concern, however, is microcosmic of how the older generation feel
about what has been described in some quarters as a crisis of
Botswana's mother tongue languages.

Languages spoken in Botswana are estimated at around 23, many of which
are under threat of extinction.  Of these, Setswana is the only
indigenous language that has been granted the status of a national
language, a fact that has not sat well with many from non-Tswana
speaking tribes.

Access full article below:
http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=1&aid=1268&dir=2011/February/Friday25