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

some extent, associated with the UNITA "rebels" since it was the region of origin of the majority of their leaders and where that political organization had always had the greatest influence. Thus, to speak Umbundu, in certain parts of Angola, had a negative connotation. People living in the government-controlled areas became accustomed to pejoratively calling any person from the South of the country "Bailundo" 9 . These were associated with being a soldier or militant of UNITA. This reality lasted for decades and there were even parents who did everything in their power so that their children would never learn any word in this language, a fact that also contributed to an inevitable weakening of this language’s use. One of the signs that indicate the decadence of a language is the decrease in the number of speakers, the lack of renewal of its demographic stratum or the undervaluation of such language in detriment of another overvalued one, raised as the privileged code in communication. This phenomenon is called substitution, as one linguistic code replaces the other. This decline is evident in data collected by INE in the 2014 population census, which shows that 23% of the Angolan population used the Umbundu language as means of communication at home. These data, of course, do not indicate the exclusive use of Umbundu, but rather, often, a parallel use. We thus see the confirmation of bilingualism (with some cases of diglossia 10 ), with the use of Portuguese filling most of the communicative space. This phenomenon, named linguistic alternation, occurs, in the words of Lopes (2011), in an asymmetric power relation, with a disadvantage to the minority language. a) Case Study A survey was conducted to achieve a clearer perspective of the linguistic context of Kuito’s inhabitants. The instrument was given to parents, guardians, teachers, and students residing in this municipality. The survey was sent via Whatsapp and Messenger to 30 parents/guardians of 37 children, aged between 5 and 10 years old; to 40 teachers from different primary and lower secondary schools, who teach a total of 875 students. The survey was also given to 135 college students of the Escola Superior Pedagógica do Bié. Only 17 parents (56.6%) responded to the survey, while the percentage of teachers who sent in response was slightly lower, at 52.5%, as shown in Table 1. Table 1: Population and Sample Parents/Carers Primary School Teachers University Students Population Sample Population Sample Population Sample 30 17 40 21 405 135 56,6% 52,5% 33,3% From the parents' survey, it was possible to find out that only four parents (23.4%) taught their children some words of Umbundu language. Despite this, no children use the Umbundu language as a communication tool. Regarding the data sent by the teachers, only one speaks fluent Umbundu (4.7%). The percentage of pupils who speak Umbundu is not significant, since only 51 of the 875 pupils communicate in this AL, which is equivalent to only 5.5%. If we consider that there is a rapid rejuvenation of the Angolan population, one can assume that there is a slowdown in the use of Umbundu. The data produced by the population census (INE, 2016), show that the population of Bié, in the age group between 0 and 14 years, is approximately 51%, the second highest in the country, which has an average of 48%. This demographic factor exerts a significant linguistic influence, since the older populations tend to retain more of the AL or, at most, the mastery of Portuguese and its AL, in contrast the younger ones dominate almost exclusively the Portuguese language. As is known, one of the elements that threaten the weakening or disappearance of a language is the death of its speakers, acculturation, and the inhibiting linguistic policies of the dominant authorities. So, what to expect from a language without literature or bibliography worth mentioning? What can we expect from a language that is neglected as means of communication between parents and children? What will happen when a large part of the population that speaks it disappears through the dialectics of life? For the time being, we can point to its weakening because of its increasingly limited use. If this tendency continues, over time, AL may even disappear. Teachers were asked the following questions: 1. How many students do you have in your class? 2. What is the age range of your students? 3. How many of them speak Umbundu and can keep a fluent conversation of at least 30 minutes, on any topic? 9 Name of a municipality in Huambo province, therefore, found in the Ovimbundu region. 10 According to Lopes (2011: 64-66) a community is diglossic when two varieties of a same language coexist within it, both not being too differentiated but also not so close. Volume XXIII Issue III Version I 62 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 G © 2023 Global Journals Preserving the Umbundu Language