Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 23 Issue 3

© 2023. Ana Alexandra Silva & Hermenegildo Pinto. This research/review article is distributed under the terms of the Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). You must give appropriate credit to authors and reference this article if parts of the article are reproduced in any manner. Applicable licensing terms are at https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Preserving the Umbundu Language By Ana Alexandra Silva & Hermenegildo Pinto University of Évora From the procedures and techniques point of view, this work is configured on bibliographical or documental research, combined with a case study approach. The exploratory research approach consisted of the use of surveys. 135 students of Escola Superior Pedagógica do Bié, in the 2018 academic year, were chosen as our sample group. The objective was to determine the percentages of L1 and L2 speakers of Umbundu and Portuguese. Keywords: first language (l1) - second language (l2) - angolan languages (al) - linguistic contact. GJHSS-G Classification: DDC Code: 306.44 LCC Code: P40 PreservingtheUmbunduLanguage Global Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL SCIENCE: G Linguistics & Education Volume 23 Issue 3 Version 1.0 Year 2023 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Online ISSN: 2249-460x & Print ISSN: 0975-587X Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: Abstract- The present article discusses the current sociolinguistic situation of the city of Kuito, the capital of Bié province, from a historical perspective. It examines the use of the Umbundu language among the inhabitants of Kuito. In addition to presenting historical information of the linguistic contact between the Portuguese and the Umbundu languages, this article also presents the linguistic situation surveyed at the time of the 2014 population census, as well as data from another study that show the diminishing use of Umbundu as a communication language. The older generation had Umbundu as L1, but the younger generation does not.