Cover not available
Part of
The Dynamics of English in Namibia: Perspectives on an emerging variety
Edited by Anne Schröder
[Varieties of English Around the World G65] 2021
► pp. 275–298

Chapter 12
The dynamics of English in Namibia

A World Englishes perspective

| University of Regensburg
| Bielefeld University
This paper positions the volume’s findings on English in Namibia in the wider context of World Englishes. After briefly summarizing generally important insights of the book’s contributions, Namibian English is compared to other global varieties with respect to its sociohistorical embedding (being an exceptionally young variety), sociolinguistic settings (including multilingualism, language contact, linguistic mixing), language policy (found to be unique) and structural properties on the levels of pronunciation, morphosyntax and lexis (showcasing an idiosyncratic vowel split and many shared structures). Special attention is paid to Namibia’s linguistic relationship with South Africa and other southern African countries. Finally, closer attention is paid to Namibia’s role in several models of World Englishes, including traditional, established and more recent lines of thinking.
Keywords: Dynamic Model, models of World Englishes, Namibian English, South African English, southern African Englishes
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Select findings from the present volume in view of modelling NamE as a new variety
  • 3.Namibian Englishes compared to other World Englishes
    • 3.1Sociohistorical embedding and sociolinguistic settings
    • 3.2Structural properties
    • 3.3NamE vs. South African and southern African Englishes
  • 4.NamE and World English modelling revisited
    • 4.1Early models
    • 4.2NamE in the Dynamic Model and the Extra- and intra-territorial Forces Model
    • 4.3Recent and other modelling approaches
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 September 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g65.12sch
References (59)
References
Arua, Arua E. 2004. Botswana English: Some syntactic and lexical features. English World-Wide 25: 255–272. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biermeier, Thomas. 2008. Word-Formation in New Englishes: A Corpus-based Analysis. Berlin: Lit Verlag.Google Scholar
Borlongan, Ariane Macalinga. 2016. Relocating Philippine English in Schneider’s Dynamic Model. Asian Englishes 18: 1–10. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buschfeld, Sarah. 2013. English in Cyprus or Cyprus English? An Empirical Investigation of Variety Status [Varieties of English Around the World, G46] Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2014. English in Cyprus and Namibia: A critical approach to taxonomies and models of World English and second language acquisition research. In The Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and Beyond [Varieties of English Around the World G49], Sarah Buschfeld, Thomas Hoffmann, Magnus Huber & Alexander Kautzsch (eds), 181–202. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buschfeld, Sarah & Kautzsch, Alexander. 2014. English in Namibia: A first approach. English World-Wide 35(2): 121–160. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2017. Towards an integrated approach to postcolonial and non-postcolonial Englishes. World Englishes 36(1): 104–126. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2020a. Theoretical models of English as a world language. In The Cambridge Handbook of World Englishes, Daniel Schreier, Marianne Hundt & Edgar W. Schneider (eds), 51–71. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
(eds). 2020b. Modelling Current Linguistic Realities of English, World-Wide: A Joint Approach towards Postcolonial and Non-Postcolonial Englishes. Edinburgh: EUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buschfeld, Sarah, Kautzsch, Alexander & Schneider, Edgar. 2018. From colonial dynamism to current transnationalism. In Deshors (ed.), 15–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buschfeld, Sarah & Schneider, Edgar W. 2018. World Englishes: Postcolonial Englishes and beyond. In World Englishes: Rethinking Paradigms, Ee-Ling Low & Anne Pakir (eds), 29–46. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Buschfeld, Sarah & Schröder, Anne. 2020. English and German in Namibia. In English in the German-speaking World, Raymond Hickey (ed.), 334–361. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Clyne, Michael (ed.). 1992. Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Deshors, Sandra C. (ed). 2018. Modeling World Englishes: Assessing the Interplay of Emancipation and Globalization of ESL Varieties [Varieties of English Around the World G61]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Görlach, Manfred. 1990. The development of Standard Englishes [1988]. In Studies in the History of the English Language, Manfred Görlach (ed.), 9–64. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.Google Scholar
Hackert, Stephanie, Laube, Alexander & Wengler, Diana. 2020. English in the Bahamas and developmental models of World Englishes: A critical analysis. In Modelling Current Linguistic Realities of English World-Wide: A Joint Approach towards Postcolonial and Non-Postcolonial Englishes, Sarah Buschfeld & Alexander Kautzsch (eds), 251–273. Edinburgh: EUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hundt, Marianne. 2013. The diversification of English: Old, new and emerging epicentres. In English as a Contact Language, Daniel Schreier & Marianne Hundt (eds), 182–203. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Kachru, Braj B. 1985. Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the Outer Circle. In English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures, Randolph Quirk & Henry G. Widdowson (eds), 11–30. Cambridge: CUP & The British Council.Google Scholar
(ed.). 1992. The Other Tongue: English across Cultures, 2nd edn. Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Kautzsch, Alexander. 2019. Namibian English on the web: Lexical and morphosyntactic features in a corpus of Namibian online newspapers (CNamON). In Corpus Linguistics and African Englishes [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 88], Alexandra U. Esimaje, Ulrike Gut & Bassey E. Antia (eds), 231–258. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kautzsch, Alexander & Schröder, Anne. 2016. English in multilingual and multiethnic Namibia: Some evidence on language attitudes and on the pronunciation of vowels. In Anglistentag 2015 Paderborn: Proceedings. Christoph Ehland, Ilka Mindt & Merle Tönnies (eds), 277–288. Trier: WVT.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, Andy. 2010. English as a Lingua Franca in ASEAN: A Multilingual Model. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kortmann, Bernd & Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt. 2004. Global synopsis: Morphological and syntactic variation in English. In Kortmann et al. (eds), 1142–1202.Google Scholar
Kortmann, Bernd, Burridge, Kate, Mesthrie, Rajend, Schneider, Edgar W. & Upton, Clive (eds). 2004. A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol. II: Morphology and Syntax. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kortmann, Bernd & Lunkenheimer, Kerstin (eds). 2012. The Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leitner, Gerhard. 1992. English as a pluricentric language. In Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations, Michael Clyne (ed.), 179–237. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Lowenberg, Peter H. 1992. Testing English as a world language: Issues in assessing non-native proficiency. In The Other Tongue: English across Cultures, 2nd edn, Braj. B. Kachru (ed.), 108–121. Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Martin, Isabel Pefianco. 2014. Beyond nativization? Philippine English in Schneider’s Dynamic Model. In The Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and Beyond [Varieties of English around the World G49], Sarah Buschfeld, Thomas Hoffmann, Magnus Huber & Alexander Kautzsch (eds), 70–85. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McArthur, Tom. 1987. The English languages? English Today 11 3(3): 9–11. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meer, Philipp & Deuber, Dagmar. 2020. Standard English in Trinidad: Multinormativity, translocality, and implications for the Dynamic Model and the EIF model. In Modelling Current Linguistic Realities of English World-Wide: A Joint Approach towards Postcolonial and Non-Postcolonial Englishes, Sarah Buschfeld & Alexander Kautzsch (eds), 274–296. Edinburgh: EUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meierkord, Christiane. 2020. The global growth of English at the grassroots. In The Cambridge Handbook of World Englishes, Daniel Schreier, Marianne Hundt & Edgar W. Schneider (eds), 311–338. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Meierkord, Christiane & Schneider, Edgar W. (eds). 2020. World Englishes at the Grassroots. Edinburgh: EUP.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend. 2004a. Synopsis: The phonology of English in Africa and South and South-East Asia. In Schneider et al. (eds), 1099–1109.Google Scholar
. 2004b. Synopsis: Morphological and syntactic variation in Africa and South and South-East Asia. In Kortmann et al. (eds), 1132–1141.Google Scholar
Mlambo, Muzi. 2009. A survey of the language situation in Zimbabwe. English Today 98 25(2): 18–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 1996. The Founder Principle in creole genesis. Diachronica 13: 83–134. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Onysko, Alexander. 2016. Modeling World Englishes from the perspective of language contact. World Englishes 35: 196–220. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W. 2004. Global synopsis: Phonetic and phonological variation in English world-wide. In Schneider et al. (eds), 1111–1137.Google Scholar
2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014a. New reflections on the evolutionary dynamics of World Englishes. World Englishes 33(1): 9–32. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014b. Global diffusion, regional attraction, local roots? Sociocognitive perspectives on the pluricentricity of English. In Pluricentricity: Language Variation and Sociocognitive Dimensions, Augusto Soares da Silva (ed.), 191–226. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
2016a. Hybrid Englishes: An exploratory survey. World Englishes 35(3): 339–354. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016b. Grassroots Englishes in tourism interactions. English Today 127 32(3), 1–10. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019. Zooming in on endonormative stabilization: How stable, how uniform? Plenary paper given at the symposium “English in Contact”, Fukuoka, Japan.
2020. English around the World: An Introduction. 2nd edition. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2021. Developmental patterns of English: Similar or different? In The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes, 2nd edn, Andy Kirkpatrick (ed.), 408–421. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W., Burridge, Kate, Kortmann, Bernd, Mesthrie, Rajend & Upton, Clive (eds). 2004. A Handbook of Varieties of Englis, Vol. I: Phonology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Schröder, Anne & Schneider, Klaus P. 2018. Variational pragmatics, responses to thanks, and the specificity of English in Namibia. English World-Wide 39(3): 338–363. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schröder, Anne & Zähres, Frederic. 2020. English in Namibia: Multilingualism and ethnic variation in the Extra- and Intra-Territorial Forces Model. In Modelling Current Linguistic Realities of English World-Wide: A Joint Approach towards Postcolonial and Non-Postcolonial Englishes, Sarah Buschfeld & Alexander Kautzsch (eds), 38–62. Edinburgh: EUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schröder, Anne, Zähres, Frederic & Kautzsch, Alexander. 2020. Ethnic variation in the phonology of Namibian English: A first approach to Baster English. English World-Wide 41(2): 193–224. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seoane, Elena & Cristina Suárez-Gómez (eds). 2016. World Englishes: New Theoretical and Methodological Considerations [Varieties of English Around the World G57]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smieja, Birgit & Mathangwane, Joyce T. 2010. The development of English in Botswana: Language policy and education. In The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes, Andy Kirkpatrick (ed.), 212–228. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Steigertahl, Helene. 2020. English(es) in Post-Independence Namibia: An Investigation of Variety Status and its Implications for English Language Teaching [Duisburger Arbeiten zur Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft]. Berlin: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Stell, Gerald. 2016. Trends in linguistic diversity in post-independence Windhoek: A qualitative appraisal. Language Matters 47(3): 326–348. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2020. The founder principle and Namibian English. World Englishes. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tonchi, Victor L., Lindeke, William A. & Grotpeter, John J. 2012. Historical Dictionary of Namibia, 2nd edn. Lanham MD: The Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
Watermeyer, Susan. 1996. Afrikaans English. In Focus on South Africa [Varieties of English Around the World G15], Vivian de Klerk (ed.), 99–124. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar