Many people insist that the official languages of South Africa be written using the form used by the speakers of the language. But of course, there are others who disagree.

 

There are a number of reasons put forward by people for and against the use of indigenous forms of the language names:

 

For

• They are proper names and just as you do not change a proper name the names of languages should not be changed from the way someone who speaks the langauge would use it.
• These languages have been relegated to second-class languages and one way to force them into prominance is to make everyone recognise the language by using their indigenous form.
  
• The prefix distinguishes the language from the people: isiXhosa vs amaXhosa
• Lists of language names are best left in their indigenous form as they are often meant as a guide to the native speaker to find content or features in their own language.
• This is how they are listed in the constitution.
  

 Against

• In English you do not say 'My mother tongue is Deutsh', you would say, 'My mother tongue is German'.  Thus using the English name.
• English does not require prefixes to distinguish languages from people. The context is enough for a listener to understand the difference.
• Languages that make heavy use of prefixes do not respect the 'language in its mother tongue' rule, ie in Xhosa you should say 'Ndithetha English' instead of 'Ndithetha esiNgesi'. The same applies in all South African languages when referring to other South African languages. Sotho languages do not follow the Nguni constructs.
• Translation of the constitution from English into other official languages does not follow the indigenous language name convention as in the English, but uses the prefixes of the target language. In other words, not even the languages that insist on a prefix respect the writing of other language names.

What is Translate.org.za's position?

We believe in the development of African languages. If using prefixes make people conscious of our multi-lingual country then we will support it. We try to use native forms when creating lists of languages that require user selection. We reject the notion that this is the correct way to write language names as it is clearly incorrect in all languages in South Africa. In written communication we prefer the use of the form used in the  language of communication, which ensures the smooth flow of the written word. In presentations and discussions we use the forms interchangably.