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P. Eric Louw

Political power, national identity, and language: the case of Afrikaans

Afrikaans is the home language of 5.9 million people. During the 1980s, Afrikaans was the dominant state language and a widely-used lingua franca in South Africa and Namibia. But by the end of the twentieth century, English had replaced Afrikaans as the dominant state language and a decline in the use of Afrikaans was in evidence, even among native Afrikaans speakers. An examination of this language's twentieth-century journey helps illustrate the relationship(s) between political power, national identity, and the growth and/or decline of languages.

International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Walter de Gruyter

Print ISSN: 0165-2516
Volume: 2004, 10/2004
Pages: 43 - 58

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