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Power of Babel Ch 5

Power of Babel Ch 5. Language in a Multicultural Context: The African Experience. Widespread languages in Africa. Arabic (helped by Islam) Hausa & Kiswahili (most widespread indigenous languages, hindered by Islam) English, French & Portuguese have largest influence

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Power of Babel Ch 5

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  1. Power of Babel Ch 5 Language in a Multicultural Context: The African Experience

  2. Widespread languages in Africa • Arabic (helped by Islam) • Hausa & Kiswahili (most widespread indigenous languages, hindered by Islam) • English, French & Portuguese have largest influence • More languages per capita than any other continent; Africa has 1/10 of world population, but 1/4 of its languages

  3. Africa’s triple linguistic heritage: • Indigenous African languages • Islamic tradition • Western contribution

  4. Typology of languages in Africa: • Afro-ethnic: indigenous languages, between 800 and 2000 of them • Afro-Islamic: Arabic (over 60% of Arabic speakers are African); E Africa: Swahili, Somali, Nubi; W Africa: Hausa, Fulfulde, Mandinka • Afro-Western: Kriyol, Pidgin, Krio (Sierra Leone), Fanagalo, Afrikaans • Western: English, French, Portuguese -- sometimes these can be nativized

  5. Writing • Colonial efforts to provide Roman script have helped preserve Afro-ethnic languages • Amharic has an ancient written tradition • Some indigenous scripts were invented -- Bamoun (logographic > syllabographic > alphabetic) in Cameroon & Vai (logographic > syllabographic) in Sierra Leone

  6. Writing, cont’d. • Afro-Islamic: Arabic has ancient written tradition - these languages were written using Arabic script, but now most Afro-Islamic languages use Roman script • Afro-Western: Afrikaans uses Roman script, but most other Afro-Western languages lack a standard orthography

  7. Poetry • Amharic, a descendant of Ge’ez, has ancient tradition dating from BCE • Afro-ethnic languages tend to have oral tradition instead • Afro-Islamic languages have major religious poetry tradition that is both oral and written • Afro-Western languages have very little in the way of literary tradition

  8. Geographical distribution • Western languages have widest geographical spread in Africa • Arabic has more speakers than any other language in Africa • English is expanding the most • Over 20 African countries use French as their main language

  9. Geographical distribution, cont’d. • Afro-Western languages tend to be national and trans-national • Afro-Ethnic languages are usually subnational • Afro-Islamic languages are virtually all national or transnational

  10. Transnational languages • Kiswahili -- transnational lingua franca of E and Central Africa and national language of Tanzania and Kenya; for most of its speakers, it is a 2nd or 3rd language • 5 top lingua francas in terms of number of speakers: Arabic, Kiswahili, Hausa, Fulfulde, Mandinka

  11. Demographic distribution • English & French are limited to urban educated population • Afro-ethnic languages tend to be rural & associated with lower classes • Afro-Islamic languages tend to be urban, with rural varieties, and based on urban masses (not elite), and they facilitate migration from rural to urban areas • Afro-Western languages also associated with the urban masses, except Afrikaans, which is elitist

  12. English as an African language • English is spoken by more Africans than French • Liberia is home of the first Afro-Saxonism, since 1820s the home of African-American returnees • British colonized Nigeria, largest African country, with 25% of black population of all of Africa

  13. Categorization of countries in relation to English A: English is the language of society & state: Liberia (Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana) B: English is the language of state, but not of society: Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and some 15 other African countries

  14. Categorization of countries in relation to English, cont’d. C: English is the language of neither state nor society, but people need English: Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique, Angola, Egypt, Cameroon, Congo (Japan, Mexico) D: Societies that rely mainly on a world language other than English for their specialized activities: Francophone African countries

  15. Three uses of languages: Vernacular: intra-ethnic communication and solidarity: Afro-ethnic languages Vehicular: inter-ethnic communication and integration: Afro-Islamic & Afro-Western languages Official: administration and national communication: Western languages

  16. More about Western languages • Western languages are beginning to trickle down from upper classes • Tanzania is replacing English with Kiswahili, and the two languages compete in Kenya • Arabic is being challenged by French • Afro-ethnic languages have demonstrated resilience and held their ground. • Africans tend to be multilingual

  17. Foreign Relations vs. Religions • Language has been a greater determinant of foreign policy than religion because: • Policy is made by elite, with Western languages • Western languages are more useful for learning foreign affairs than religions • Education of elite in West does not depend on religion • African nations are grouped by Western language heritage, not by religion

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