LL-L "Language politics" 2010.11.30 (07) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 30 November 2010 - Volume 07
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From: Mike Morgan <mwmbombay at gmail.com>

Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2010.11.30 (03) [AF-EN]



Mark, and everyone!

Mark asked:


> PS: As I said I have no detail knowledge about South Africa. Would be
interesting to hear
> a report of the current status. African language TV stations? Newspapers?
Software
> localization? Book production? etc. Do they exist, are they actually used,
what's their
> quality etc.?

My first hand info is slightly dated (I was in the NE for 3 months about 5
years ago -- Pretoria, then Nelspruit in east, then (after a short side trip
to Mozambique) several places along the western border of Kruger Park,
ending up in Thohoyandou (Vendaland) and finally some time in Polokwane on
my way back to Pretoria (Linguistically this is basically seTswana, siSwati,
Shangaan (chiTsonga), tshiVenda and Sepedi territory... with the
interspersal of Afrikaans and English) -- but I think from various sources
(from what I gather the general picture has stayed reasonably much the same.


Books there were galore in all the official languages ... except I found
very little in Ndebele, and I only saw a variety of languages while staying
in Hatfield in Pretoria, where there were a couple GREAT bookstores. MOST of
what I saw (and bought) seemed aimed at an academic / school student
audience, but included collections of short stories, plays, novels and
non-fiction for most languages (excepting again Ndebele).

As for magazines and newspapers, other than for isiZulu, I am not sure I saw
ANY dailies or weeklies. BUT, isiZulu has a glossy weekly (I think!) on the
order of the US's People magazine.

MY great surprise (and thrill) was that the TV had so much! (At least much
more than I expected). Again isiZulu was better represented than the others,
but even the "minor" languages like tshiVenda had a news broadcast every
other day (alternating with news in another "minor" language). There were
also "soaps" in a couple of the major African languages, and the "normal"
range of programming.

As a SIgn Language linguist (who also still "does" other languages),
although I was delighted to see the various spoken language newses, I was
THRILLED to see so much South African Sign Language. I think I calculated
that one could watch 2.25 HOURS of signed language news every day Monday
through Friday: one hour each on the public channels (with HALF the screen
devoted to the sign language interpreter rather than a tiny bubble in the
bottom corner as you see in most countries), and then 15 minutes on eTV
(which I think is a private network). Now, this was all HEARING interpreters
interpretting what the regular isiZulu or siSwati or Sepedi or
English-speaking newscaster was saying, so not exactly Deaf signing, but
still...

Also, there was a half hour Deaf produced sign language variety/newsmagazine
programme called DTV on Saturdays (?), produced every two weeks and then
rebroadcast on the off week. THIS was REAL SASL ... and had a 8-10 minute or
so comedy serial which takes place in a Deaf bar that was HILARIOUS!

And my FAVORITE was a South African version of Sesame Street called Fundani
Nathi. This show had bits and pieces in various "African" (no comment on
whether Afrikaans is African or not ;-)) languages as well as a majority in
English, and ONE of the cast would sign everything being said ... not an
interpreter exactly as he would interact just like the other cast...

hope this gives a clear picture...

cheers!

              mwm || U C > || Mike  (aka Dr Michael W Morgan)
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soon @ IGNOU-UCLan New Delhi, India, Allah, YHWH & Ganesh willing
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     *Sadang kayu di rimbo tak samo tinggi, kok kunun manusia.*



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