DOI: 10.5176/2251-2853_2.2.116
Authors: Dr.VM Mojela
Abstract:
Before 1994 South Africa had only two official languages, i.e. English and Afrikaans. The 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa declared all the eleven South African languages official, i.e. English, Afrikaans, Sesotho sa Leboa, Setswana, Sesotho, Isizulu, Isindebele, Isixhosa, Isiswati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga. English and Afrikaans, which used to dominate all walks of life before 1994, were, and still are, far more developed than the other nine indigenous Languages in the country. The new government considered as one of its top priorities, the development of the nine previously marginalized indigenous languages to bridge the gap between these marginalized languages and the other two languages, i.e. English & Afrikaans. In order to monitor and to develop all the official languages, the Constitution provided for the establishment of a Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) which, henceforth, replaced all the previous Language Boards, which were structured on the basis of race and ethnicity. To facilitate this development, PanSALB was given, as one of its various constitutional assignments, a mandate to establish the National Lexicography Units for all the eleven South African official languages to compile dictionaries for the respective languages. The main objective with this research is to give critical assessment of the extent to which the Pan South African Language Board succeeded in developing lexicography for the South African official languages. This assessment will be based on the successes and challenges PanSALB had in the execution of its mandate during the 18 years of a liberated South Africa, and the significances of this to the development of multilingualism in South Africa.
Keywords: LEXICOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT, NATIONAL LEXICOGRAPHY UNITS, PANSALB, MONOLINGUAL DICTIONARIES, MULTILINGUAL DICTIONARIES, MULTILINGUALISM, MARGINALIZED LANGUAGES
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