The social setting

In the urban centres of most of post-colonial Africa, Western languages have become permanently associated with those domains or spheres of social activity which symbolise Western influence, while the indigenous languages remain as symbols of family ties and ethnic identity.

In most monolingual communities, different varieties of a single language are employed to express every aspect of life; in post-colonial Africa, however, speakers generally use two or three different languages to express different aspects of their social identities. Research conducted in Kenya, notably that of Parkin (1977) and Scotton (1982), shows that ethnic identity in that country is expressed in one's mother tongue, transethnic solidarity (as Africans) in Swahili, and power, education and high economic status in English. In the Zambian urban setting, where both Western and traditional institutions are present, the choice of English rather than a local language, or vice-versa, in a given situation, carries certain habitual value connotations. These, in the long run, regulate the way in which the languages are used within the community. The aim of the present paper is to illustrate how the position of the mother tongue in the households of Lusaka is being encroached upon by the two major lingua francas, namely English and Nyanja. The paper also attempts to explain the social significance of language choice in the home domain.