The power and authority of the dominant to name: a case study of selected Nyanja and isiZulu linguistic expressions regarding ‘national assets’

Abstract

There is a connection between chosen linguistic elements used in national assets, the ruling party and a group understood to be dominant. Within this connection are a series of activities that lead to excluding minority language groups. Such exclusionary practices may lead to perceptions of a devaluation of ethnolinguistic groups that are neither in the majority nor are significantly represented within the ruling party. In this article I present selected examples of what I term ‘national assets’ as evidence of instances where dominant groups in South Africa and Zambia have used their linguistic elements to name national assets. I reason that the manner in which national assets are named endorses the dominance of the dominant groups in national affairs, while at the same time excluding linguistic minorities – a practice that runs against linguistic human rights, to which both countries overtly subscribe. Within a limited space, the article investigates the impacts of dominant languages on the plight of the languages of minority groups in multilingual societies/communities, such as South Africa and Zambia.

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