South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans. == History == British colonists first colonised the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding operation at the Cape Colony.
The first major influx of English speakers arrived in 1820.
These last two waves did not have as large of an influence on South African English (SAE), for "the seeds of development were already sown in 1820".
Though the British were a minority colonist group (the Dutch had been in the region since 1652, when traders from the Dutch East India Company developed an outpost), the Cape Colony governor, Lord Charles Somerset, declared English an official language in 1822.
Another group of English speakers arrived from Britain in the 1840s and 1850s, along with the Natal settlers.
Another group of English speakers arrived from Britain in the 1840s and 1850s, along with the Natal settlers.
A third wave of English settlers arrived between 1875 and 1904, and brought with them a diverse variety of English dialects.
A third wave of English settlers arrived between 1875 and 1904, and brought with them a diverse variety of English dialects.
However, the Natal wave brought nostalgia for British customs and helped to define the idea of a "standard" variety that resembled Southern British English. When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, English and Dutch were the official state languages, although Afrikaans effectively replaced Dutch in 1925.
More frequent rhoticity is a marker of Extreme SAE. Unaspirated voiceless plosives (like , , and ) in stressed word-initial environments. Yod-assimilation: tune and dune tend to be realised as and , instead of the Received Pronunciation and . ==Lexicon== === History of SAE dictionaries === In 1913, Charles Pettman created the first South African English dictionary, entitled Africanderisms.
In 1924, the Oxford University Press published its first version of a South African English dictionary, The South African Pocket Oxford Dictionary.
However, the Natal wave brought nostalgia for British customs and helped to define the idea of a "standard" variety that resembled Southern British English. When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, English and Dutch were the official state languages, although Afrikaans effectively replaced Dutch in 1925.
The Apartheid policy, in effect from 1948 to 1991, prevented Indian children from publicly interacting with people of English heritage.
BSAE originated in the South African school system, when the 1953 Bantu Education Act mandated the use of native African languages in the classroom.
Rhodes University (South Africa) and Oxford University (Great Britain) worked together to produce the 1978 Dictionary of South African English, which adopted a more conservative approach in its inclusion of terms.
The policy of mother tongue promotion in schools ultimately failed, and in 1979, the Department of Bantu Education allowed schools to choose their own language of instruction.
This has influenced the accent to be one of the most distinctive in Southern Africa. ==Phonology== === Vowels === Allophonic variation in the vowel (from Wells' 1982 lexical sets).
The Apartheid policy, in effect from 1948 to 1991, prevented Indian children from publicly interacting with people of English heritage.
After 1994, these two languages along with nine other Southern Bantu languages achieved equal official status. SAE is an extraterritorial (ET) variety of English, or a language variety that has been transported outside its mainland home.
Likely borrowed from the Afrikaans nou-nou, this expression describes a time later than that referenced in the phrase "I'll do it now". A large amount of slang comes from British origin, such as "naff" (boring, dull or plain). ==Demographics== The South African National Census of 2011 found a total of 4,892,623 speakers of English as a first language, making up 9.6% of the national population.
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Page generated on 2021-08-05