Translation Africa Blog - Languages
Street Shona – Language Evolution in Zimbabwe
24/06/2014With few exceptions, languages are always evolving: new technologies or influences from other languages lead to new words and phrases. In Zimbabwe, it is the street life in the big cities that is currently transforming the Shona language. The Shona language is spoken by 80 per cent of all Zimbabweans. However, according to Hilary Siyachitema,…
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Is Social Media Saving Africa’s Languages?
16/06/2014What role can social media have in developing and potentially saving African languages? An article on Think Africa Press says it might be helping.. Entitled, Speak It, Keep It, Tweet It: Reaffirming the Pride and Place of African Languages, the article is a fascinating look at the modern landscape of language on the continent. A…
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Khoikhoi Language Brought Back to Life in South Africa
04/06/2014The Khoikhoi language is the oldest indigenous language in South Africa. Even though the apartheid and colonialism have caused the Khoikhoi culture in its entirety to fade into the background of South African society, people are now making serious efforts to bring the culture and language back to life. In an article on AllAfrica, Yazeed…
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French Book Market in Danger of Losing Out
21/05/2014As French publishers hold on to old habits while the rest of the book industry is moving on, chances are the market will miss out on new growth opportunities. In an article on The Guardian, Pierre Astier and Laure Pécher Only discuss the state of the literary market in France. As France is only one…
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The Most Commonly Spoken African Languages in the USA
14/05/2014Staff writer at Slate, Ben Blatt, has used statistics from Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to create language maps of America. The maps illustrate language use across the USA, interestingly with one map dedicated to African languages. The map below shows the most spoken African languages state by state. As you can see Amharic…
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EALA Members to Make Kiswahili the Lingua Franca of the EAC region
09/04/2014Last week, a number of members from the East African Legislative Assembly stated that they wish to see Kiswahili become the lingua franca of the East African Community. As the language is spoken in all countries of the communities, they do not see the need to continue their activities in English. Website AllAfrica gives an…
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Will French become the World’s Most Spoken Language?
09/04/2014New research has predicted that in 2050, French will be the world’s most spoken language. Francophone Africa plays a large role in this although not everyone believes these predictions to be true due to a large flaw in the study. According to Will Lerner, the French language was long known for slowly losing ground as…
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Does Africa Hold the Key to the Future of the French Language?
31/03/2014On World Francophone day, it was announced that France will train thousands of African teachers to improve the quality of French language teaching in African schools. Is this a sign that France recognises the importance of the continent in securing the future of the French language? Did you know that in the next decade, 400…
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Ghanaian Teachers Push for Fante Language in Schools
17/03/2014During the inauguration of the language department of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, Ghanaian language teachers were asked to put more effort into teaching their students the Fante language. Using the language more often will improve their attitudes towards the local languages, the speakers say. In an article on Vibe Ghana, the editors…
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Are Nigeria’s Native Languages in Danger?
12/03/2014Reports have revealed that many indigenous languages spoken in Nigeria face troublesome times if no immediate actions are taken to protect them. BBC News discusses the bad state of Nigeria’s local languages in a recent online article. The article shares the results of a newspaper report from the Guardian stating that due to outside influences…
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