Linguistic Ideologies, Sociolinguistic Myths and Discourse Strategies in Africa

The third of four volumes of selected papers by Zimbabwean linguist Sinfree Makoni on colonial linguistics, language teaching, language planning, language policy, language in education, multilingualism and urban vernaculars in Africa. The sixteen papers collected in this volume have a triple focus: linguistic ideologies, the social-linguistic myths upon which they are based, and real-world social-linguistic practices, attention to which reveals the misfit between myth, ideology and reality. The author argues that even those whose intentions are specifically to overturn colonial ideologies are often reinforcing and solidifying those linguistic myths upon which colonial ideologies were/are based. Includes papers written in collaboration with Ashraf Abdelhay, Arnetha F. Ball, Janina Brutt-Griffler, Marika K. Criss, Busi Makoni, Ulrike Meinhof, Alastair Pennycook, Aaron Rosenberg, Cristine Severo, Geneva Smitherman and Arthur K. Spears.