The State of Multilingual Publishing in South Africa

South Africa’s Constitution (1996) recognises eleven official languages as equal and that all official languages must enjoy parity of esteem and must be treated equitably (Republic of South Africa). This paper investigates the state of multilingual publishing — publishing in all of South Africa’s of...

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Main Author: Jana MÖLLER
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) 2013-12-01
Series:E-REA
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/erea/3507
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author Jana MÖLLER
author_facet Jana MÖLLER
author_sort Jana MÖLLER
collection DOAJ
description South Africa’s Constitution (1996) recognises eleven official languages as equal and that all official languages must enjoy parity of esteem and must be treated equitably (Republic of South Africa). This paper investigates the state of multilingual publishing — publishing in all of South Africa’s official languages — and through this how close the country has come to meeting the Constitutional requirements. Findings have shown that most books in South Africa are published in English and Afrikaans and that the nine remaining official languages serve mostly for books to be used in schools. Thus tertiary institution students cannot read books for their studies in their mother tongues, and general readers cannot access books for leisure reading. There are various reasons books are not being published in African languages to any great extent, including historical legacies, few authors and small reading markets.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1638-1718
language English
publishDate 2013-12-01
publisher Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
record_format Article
series E-REA
spelling doaj-art-233b7e0a28ee472ca2bc95efde3bf1212025-01-09T12:52:44ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182013-12-0111110.4000/erea.3507The State of Multilingual Publishing in South AfricaJana MÖLLERSouth Africa’s Constitution (1996) recognises eleven official languages as equal and that all official languages must enjoy parity of esteem and must be treated equitably (Republic of South Africa). This paper investigates the state of multilingual publishing — publishing in all of South Africa’s official languages — and through this how close the country has come to meeting the Constitutional requirements. Findings have shown that most books in South Africa are published in English and Afrikaans and that the nine remaining official languages serve mostly for books to be used in schools. Thus tertiary institution students cannot read books for their studies in their mother tongues, and general readers cannot access books for leisure reading. There are various reasons books are not being published in African languages to any great extent, including historical legacies, few authors and small reading markets.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/3507South Africamultilingual publishingindigenous languages
spellingShingle Jana MÖLLER
The State of Multilingual Publishing in South Africa
E-REA
South Africa
multilingual publishing
indigenous languages
title The State of Multilingual Publishing in South Africa
title_full The State of Multilingual Publishing in South Africa
title_fullStr The State of Multilingual Publishing in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed The State of Multilingual Publishing in South Africa
title_short The State of Multilingual Publishing in South Africa
title_sort state of multilingual publishing in south africa
topic South Africa
multilingual publishing
indigenous languages
url https://journals.openedition.org/erea/3507
work_keys_str_mv AT janamoller thestateofmultilingualpublishinginsouthafrica
AT janamoller stateofmultilingualpublishinginsouthafrica