Everyday Forms of Language-based Marginalization in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This article examines the micro-social forms of language-based marginalization among the diverse ethnolinguistic polities of Zimbabwe. Based on the findings of field research carried out in Zimbabwe from November 2005 to May 2006, the paper highlights the more specific and salient everyday effects of linguistic inequalities on individual members of speech communities. The major forms of language-based marginalization that emerged from the data included negative perceptions and stereotypes about minority languages; forced assimilation of minority language speakers into majority language groups; linguistic imperial tendencies of majority language speakers; as well as internalized domination and inferiority among minority language speakers. This paper comes to the conclusion that these forms of everyday language-based marginalization are not easily discernible as they lie hidden in the fissures and faultlines of insincere ethnolinguistic tolerance that is often accompanied by an admixture of patrimonial and paternalistic tendencies.