Perceptions of “new Englishes”: responses to the use of Swazi English in newspapers in Swaziland
Date
2009-03
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch
Abstract
The concept of ‘new Englishes’ developed as a result of the relatively new perception of
English as an adapting and evolving language within increasingly wider global contexts.
According to McArthur (1992:688) the term “new Englishes” refers to "recently emerging
and increasingly autonomous variet[ies] of English, especially in a non-western setting, such
as India, Nigeria, or Singapore." Such varieties of English develop from an English,
traditionally recognised as standard, to become distinctly individual: they retain some cultural
and linguistic characteristics of the standard English but additionally represent and include
many aspects of the culture and language of the country in which the new English functions.
These new Englishes are lexico-grammatically sophisticated and as viable as any of the
traditionally recognised standard Englishes. The “new languages” are used intranationally and
internationally and so are not only a result of intercultural communication; they also facilitate
and enable intercultural communication. This thesis investigates (i) Swazi English (SwE) as a
‘New English’ and (ii) the perceptions that Swazis themselves, as well as speakers from other
language communities, have of SwE and its users.
Swaziland is a landlocked country in the northeast region of Southern Africa and one of the
last remaining monarchies on the African continent. English was introduced to Swaziland
during the 1800’s and remained one of the official languages alongside siSwati after
Swaziland achieved independence from Britain in 1968. English in Swaziland continued to
develop despite increasingly restricted access to input from English first language speakers of
British descent thus resulting in SwE developing independently of any external norm. SwE
now appears to be a stable variety of English that is not only spoken but also written in
newspapers, in government and legal correspondence and in the public relations documents
of Swazi companies.
The research for this thesis identifies a number of lexical, syntactic and semantic features of
SwE that are different from those of standard British or American English. These features of
SwE occur frequently and consistently in newspaper articles. Nevertheless, as indicated by
the research results of this thesis, SwE continues to be perceived as an error-ridden second
language variety rather than as a new English in its own right. Furthermore, the language
prejudice is extended to users of SwE as many judge the intelligence, credibility and
trustworthiness of writers of SwE negatively on the basis of linguistic features that cannot be
indicators of character, skill or competence. This prejudice gives rise to stereotyping which is
a barrier to effective intercultural communication.
Description
MPhil
Keywords
New Englishes, Swazi English, English usage -- Swazi newspapers, Dissertations -- Linguistics, Theses -- Linguistics