Mother tongue education in the official minority languages in Zimbabwe

The government of Zimbabwe officially declared that with effect from January 2002, it was to implement the use and teaching of the officia  minority languages, namely Venda, Tonga, Nambya, Kalanga, Sotho and Shangani, as the media of instruction and subjects in primary schools in areas where they are spoken. The Ministry stated that these  languages would be introduced to a grade per year, increasing until they could be taught at grade seven by 2005. However, the reality at ground level reveals otherwise. After this welcomed move, there has been little commitment or urgency to implement this policy. Is it a  question of the purpose for the encouragement and support by official policy of mother tongue education in the official minority languages? Is it a question of cost-benefit analysis? Is this not a violation of linguistic human rights in education, particularly the right to mother tongue education? This article seeks to address the above questions in view of mother tongue education in the official minority languages in Zimbabwe as well as to assess the impact of this delay in the implementation of  the policy on the learners’ learning experience.S.Afr.J.Afr.Lang., 31(2) 201

The Status of South African Sign Language in South African Universities

This article examines the status of South African Sign Language (SASL) in South African universities. It provides an appraisal of the policy documents which regulate language use in South African universities in order to examine the extent to which the policy documents guarantee the educational linguistic human rights of deaf and hard of hearing students. In 2002 the South African Language Policy for Higher Education made it mandatory for all higher education institutions to develop their own language policies in line with the South African Language Policy for Higher Education. All higher education institutions were expected to submit their language policies to the parent ministry by 31 March 2003. The South African Language Policy for Higher Education and the National Plan for Higher Education emphasise the need for equity and redress in terms of access to, and success in higher education programmes. They stress the need for language policies of South African universities to be responsive to the needs of the disabled by developing SASL competencies and capacity. Against this background, this article examines the extent to which South African universities have complied with these requirements and the extent to which their language policies guarantee the educational linguistic human rights of deaf and hard of hearing students. Findings of this study show that although the majority of the universities have complied in terms on enacting language policies, some of the policies, however, do not convincingly guarantee the educational linguistic human rights of deaf and hard of hearing students, while others are completely silent on this right

The language factor in the media and information disseminating organisations as a means of achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Africa

In discussing the prospects for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa, it is observed that the language factor in media and information disseminating organisations has not been accorded the same attention as matters like speed, volume and channels of communication. Media and information disseminating organisations play a critical role in educating the masses and creating awareness about the MDGs. Information and knowledge that could be useful in achieving the MDGs do not reach the minority language speakers through the media and information dissemination organisations, because minority languages are excluded. Documentary analysis of language policy documents which enshrine language broadcasting and information disseminating policies and observations of the prevailing practice reveal that minority languages are excluded and marginalised and where they are allocated space and air time, these are insignificant. The article concludes that unless the language factor in media and information dissemination is taken seriously, African countries are unlikely to achieve the MDGs, particularly among minority language speakers, who do not have access through the media and information dissemination organisations to critical information related to the MDGs in the languages they understand

The Treatment of Borrowed Nouns in Isichazamazwi SesiNdebele and Isichazamazwi SezoMculo

Abstract: This article focuses on the lemmatisation of vowel-commencing borrowed nouns and the allo-cation of borrowed nouns to noun class prefixes in Isichazamazwi SesiNdebele, the first monolingual general-purpose Ndebele dictionary, and Isichazamazwi SezoMculo, the first specialised Ndebele dictionary of musical terms. It adopts a comparative approach, also highlighting the controversies surrounding the status of the initial vowel of the prefix or the pre-prefix in Ndebele and other Nguni languages. It further looks at the challenges and limitations of lemmatising the noun using either the initial vowel of the prefix or the initial letter of the noun stem. It is found that there are some inconsistencies in the lemmatisation of vowel-com-mencing borrowed nouns and the allocation of borrowed nouns to noun class prefixes in the two dictionar-ies. These inconsistencies impact negatively on the standardisation and treatment of borrowed nouns

The Treatment of Polysemy and Homonymy in Monolingual General-purpose Dictionaries with Special Reference to Isichazamazwi SesiNdebele

<p>ABSTRACT: This article focuses on the treatment of polysemy and homonymy in general-purpose monolingual dictionaries with special reference to Isichazamazwi SesiNdebele. It was found that there are some inconsistencies in the treatment of polysemous and homonymous entries in this dictionary. The article shows that an overreliance on one criterion, particularly etymology, to distinguish polysemy and homonymy is often misleading and unreliable. Polysemy itself has its own inherent complexities, among these being the problem of determining the exact number of meanings of a polysemous lemma. When the meanings of a polysemous lemma are listed, the central or primary meaning, which is not always easily ascertainable, should come first. A holistic approach is proposed to distinguish polysemy and homonymy, which entails the use of the following criteria: etymology, relatedness vs unrelatedness of meaning, componential analysis, the identification of the central or core meaning and the test of ambiguity. Whatever results are obtained from a particular criterion, these findings must be compared with those of other criteria, and verified against native speakers' intuitive knowledge and introspective judgements.</p><p>OPSOMMING: Die behandeling van polisemie en homonimie in eentalige algemene woordeboeke met spesiale verwysing na Isichazamazwi SesiNdebele. Hierdie artikel fokus op die behandeling van polisemie en homonimie in algemene eentalige woordeboeke met spesiale verwysing na Isichazamazwi SesiNdebele. Daar is vasgestel dat daar 'n aantal inkonsekwensies in die behandeling van poliseme en homonieme inskrywings in hierdie woordeboek is. Die artikel toon dat 'n te groot steun op een kriterium, veral etimologie, om polisemie en homonimie te onderskei, dikwels misleidend en onbetroubaar is. Polisemie self het sy eie inherente gekompliseerdhede waarvan sommige die probleem is om die presiese aantal betekenisse van 'n poliseme lemma te bepaal. Wanneer die betekenisse van 'n poliseme inskrywing gelys word, behoort die sentrale of primêre betekenis wat nie altyd maklik bepaalbaar is nie, eerste te kom. 'n Holistiese benadering word voorgestel om polisemie en homonimie te onderskei wat die gebruik van die volgende kriteria behels: etimologie, verwantskap teenoor nieverwantskap van betekenis, die identifikasie van die sentrale of kernbetekenis en die toets van dubbelsinnigheid. Watter resultate van 'n bepaalde kriterium ookal verkry word, hierdie bevindinge moet vergelyk word met daardie van ander kriteria, en uiteindelik geverifieer word met moedertaalsprekers se intuïtiewe kennis en introspektiewe oordeel.</p><p>Sleutelwoorde: POLISEMIE, HOMONIMIE, METAFOOR, KONSEPTUELE BETEKENIS, ETIMOLOGIE, HOMOFONE, HOMOGRAWE, LEMMA, BETEKENIS, INTUÏSIE, INTROSPEKSIE</p&gt