People's English, codification, function, and logic

Abstract

A response to Pearl Ntlhakana, ‘People's English’, on the language situation in South Africa, in ET62 (16:2), Apr 2000.

If you have a non-standard local form of English, what do you do with it?

Pearl Ntlhakana gives a bold answer, supporting her arguments by reference to an article by Chick and Wade (1997), also on the South African situation. By “People's English”, Ntlhakana means what is usually referred to as Black South African English (BSAE), the English that is said to be characteristic of the indigenous African population of South Africa. What she suggests is that “a restandardised variety would actually replace the current standard (White South African English with Southern British English as its model), performing the whole range of formal functions”.