South Africa: English alone isn't SA's mother tongue

[Harold Schiffman]

Forwarded From edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu


iAfrica.com



English alone isn't SA's mother tongue



The FW de Klerk Foundation is protesting that government is not fulfilling
its constitutional obligation to respect mother tongue rights of the great
majority of South Africans - "to the detriment of our national goal to
respect our linguistic and cultural diversity". [...] Pointing out that
Thursday is International Mother Language Day, the foundation suggests that
the country is not recognising these constitutional language rights. It said
that English has become the de facto single official language of the
national government, despite the requirement that it must use two official
languages. "The 10 official indigenous languages clearly do not, in
practice, enjoy parity of esteem with English and are not treated
equitably," the foundation said.



Full story:

http://iafrica.com/news/sa/949786.htm


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Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone: (215) 898-7475
Fax: (215) 573-2138

Email: haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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