Sociolinguistic developments in Windhoek: A contextualised quantitative survey

Abstract

Namibia’s post-independence English-only language policy has been portrayed as incompatible with the country’s pre-independence sociolinguistic character. Language attitudes and patterns of language use in pre-independence Namibia were documented in a large-scale pre-independence sociolinguistic survey conducted by the South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), published in 1982. What has changed since then? This article presents findings from a recently conducted sociolinguistic survey involving Windhoek residents. The quantitative component focuses on ethnolinguistic self-identification, language attitudes and language choices. The qualitative component focuses on folk categorisations of Namibian ways of speaking, their perceived social diffusion and the ideologies underpinning them. The survey finds that English has eclipsed Afrikaans as a lingua franca, although Afrikaans has maintained itself in a distinctive form among young black men. Even though Oshiwambo is spoken by Windhoek’s new Ovambo demographic majority, its use remains largely confined to family settings, while Otjiherero has lost its former role as a marginal urban lingua franca. The article ultimately argues that post-apartheid Namibia’s English-only language policy, combined with mass migration from Oshiwambo-speaking districts historically more exposed to English than to Afrikaans and long-standing proficiency in English among urban Afrikaans speakers, catalysed the seemingly abrupt post-independence shift in lingua franca use. At the same time, the rural stigmatisation of Oshiwambo has hindered its potential to develop as a lingua franca.