In response to "New Englishes"

Abstract

This paper argues that interest in "New Englishes" reflects a kind of proprietary interest in varieties of English, an interest which should be explained within a multidimensional approach which takes into account historical, economic, political and linguistic factors. Historically, the dev~lopment of local varieties of English can be traced back to the British colonial language policy which encouraged the development of local languages and local varieties of English. Because of the nature of British colonial language policy, interest in "New Englishes" should be seen as part of the African scholar's attempt to react to her colonial inheritance. Economically, interest in ''New Englislzes" is an attempt by African scholars to reduce their financial contributions to the British economy. African economies unintentionally subsidise the British economy when they rely heavily on language teaching materials and tests designed by British native speakers of English. Politically, when African scholars are documenting local varieties of English, they are striving to create a sense of national identity. National identity is an important issue in post colonial Africa because most African countries are states not nations. Linguistically, documentation of "New Englishes" is aimed at changing the varieties through corpus planning and, more importantly, it is a vote for restricted proficiency. Unfortunately, by describing localised varieties of English as nativised, linguists are depriving the ''New Englishes" of the very legitimacy which they want to confer on them through their description. The term "nativised" is not only part of colonial discourse, but is also pejorative. The term has not yet been sufficiently rehabilitated in post colonial discourse in Africa for it to confer legitimacy. Hierdie artikel beweer dat belangstelling in ''New Englishes" 'n tipe besittende belangstelling in varieteite van Engels weerspieel, 'n belangstelling wat binne 'n multidimensionele benadering verduidelik behoort te word en wat historiese, ekonomiese, politieke en linguistiese faktore in ag neein. Histories blyk dit dat die ontwikkeling van plaaslike varieteite van Engels teruggevoer kan word na die Britse koloniale taalbeleid wat die ontwikkeling van plaaslike tale en plaaslike varieteite van Engels aangemoedig het. Uit 'n ekonomiese oogpunt is die belangstelling in ''New Englishes" 'n paging deur Afrika-skoliere om hul finansiele bydraes tot die Britse ekonomie te beperk. Polities, wanneer Afrika-skoliere plaaslike varieteite van Engels dokumenteer, streef hulle daarna om 'n mate van nasionale identiteit te skep. Uit 'n linguistiese standpunt is die dokumentasie van ''New Enlishes" 'n paging om die varieteite deur korpus-beplanning te verander en, belangriker, is dit 'n stem vir die aanvaarding van beperkte taalvaardigheid. Deur die plaaslike varieteite van Engels as inheems te beskryf, ontneem linguiste die "New Englishes" ongelukkig juis van die wettigheid wat hulle daaraan wil toeken deur hul beskrywing daarvan.