| Abstrakt: |
In 1996, post apartheid South African adopted a constitution that (a) identified languages that would be recognized by the state - both official and non-official, and (b) stated the obligation of the state to these languages. The policy was striking in that it gave official status to eleven languages nationally while also paying attention to minority languages. No language was chosen as a national lingua franca. In theory, all the official languages were to be treated as equal. The constitution also recognized that languages needed to be developed to achieve parity of esteem and use. The Pan South African Language Board was specifically tasked with (a) promoting and creating conditions for and development of all official languages as well as the Khoi, Nama and San languages and Sign language, and (b) Promoting and ensuring respect for all languages used by communities in South Africa, listing a number of minority languages including German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi Portuguese, Arabic, Hebrew. With nine years having passed since the adoption of the constitution, this paper reviews how efforts to implement the vision enshrined in the constitution have faired both in status planning and corpus planning terms. Recognizing that nine years is a short time to pronounce on the success or failure of these efforts, this paper will instead critically appraise the dynamics which shaped and continue to shape both status and corpus planning since 1996. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
