BILL BLUMENFELD, Cape Town | Tuesday
INDIGENOUS languages such as Xhosa, Afrikaans and Khoi are continuing to grow in stature in the Western Cape, according to the Western Cape Language Committee.
However, concern has been expressed by the Xhosa Action Group over the lack of Xhosa signage in the Western Cape; the shortage of translation and interpreting services, and the paucity of Xhosa newspaper supplements. There was a need for a Xhosa journal, the economic empowerment of Xhosa speakers and for mother tongue education.
In the annual report of the language committee’s report, the committee’s chair Prof Isabel Cilliers said indigenous languages were the pillars of multilingualism and a partnership should be forged between them.
”The pride the speakers of these indigenous languages take in their languages is growing day by day in the Western Cape,” Cilliers said.
According to the report, the number of languages in the world was shrinking. Of the 6 528 languages now spoken world-wide, up to half were already endangered, because they were no longer spoken by the children.
Next to Mandarin Chinese, English is the language spoken by most people in the world — an estimated 1,5 billion.
During the past year, the committee hosted a series of think tanks with representatives of the public and private sectors and conducted surveys of the language usage and preferences of local authorities and tourism organisations and bureaux in the Western Cape.
Cilliers said complaints had been received about the unavailability of trilingual brochures at tourism bureaux in the Western Cape.
She said copies of the draft language policy were provided to eight regional tourism organisations for use as a point of departure for implementation, also in the municipal tourism bureaux.
”From their responses it became clear that English was the working language for tourism in the Western Cape. Financial constraints impeded multilingualism,” said Cilliers.
The committee also commissioned an extensive audit of the language needs, usage, preferences, skills and training of 78 000 officials in the Western Cape provincial government, and undertook a survey of language usage and preference in municipalities.
”It appears from this research that most institutions in the Western Cape do not have formal language policies.
”This, despite the fact that the province has three official languages, namely Afrikaans, Xhosa and English,” Cilliers said.
Meetings had been held with the Xhosa Action Group. The committee had also hosted a workshop near Oudtshoorn in consultation with the different Khoi/San tribal houses in the Western Cape and the University of the Western Cape’s Institute for Historical Research.
The aim was to identify objectives for future language-related projects to be initiated by the committee. – Sapa