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

The results of this survey are described in Table 2: Table 2: Language reality of the 4th generation students Respondents Teachers Umbundu- speaking teachers Pupils allocated to teachers Umbundu- speaking students Students who do not speak Umbundu Percentage of pupils who do not speak Umbundu 21 1 875 51 824 97,6 The age range of the pupils taught by the teachers surveyed is between 6 and 25 years. Only 4.7% of the teachers speak Umbundu. The percentage of pupils who speak it is 2.4%, revealing a clear trend of decline in the use of this language. Paradoxically, political discourses tend to defend the preservation of the Umbundu language, despite the controversies alluded by Benvindo (2016) regarding the necessary implementation of Angolan National Languages in the school system. Such a fact is positive. We fear, however, the different phenomena linked to linguistic contact, as pointed out by Gomes (2015:41): Nos casos em que há abandono de uma das línguas, as forças sociais e políticas exercem grande pressão para o retorno ao monolinguismo. Esse tipo de contacto linguístico ocorre, muitas vezes, entre uma língua oficial e majoritária e línguas com um número relativamente baixo de falantes – línguas étnicas, línguas regionais, línguas de imigrantes, etc. Grande parte dessas línguas não possui tradição escrita e muitas ainda sequer foram descritas. Trata-se muitas vezes de populações marginalizadas, pertencentes a comunidades linguísticas frequentemente dispersas, cujas línguas possuem baixo prestígio social na sociedade mais ampla em que estão inseridas. 11 Some elements mentioned by the author deserve attention, as they show the increasingly fragile reality of the Umbundu in Kuito. There is some pressure of the Portuguese language (in this case, the official and primary language) on the Umbundu language (regional and less used/secondary). The latter has a fragile written tradition, but thanks to the decisive intervention of Catholic and Protestant missions, its written form can still be found in Bibles translated for the region. Gomes (2015: 43) quotes McMahon (1994) to refer to the death or extinction of a language. The process is not instantaneous; it takes time, as can be gauged: 11 In cases where one of the languages is abandoned, social and political forces exert tremendous pressure for a return to monolingualism. This type of language contact often occurs between an official and majority language and languages with a relatively low number of speakers - ethnic languages, regional languages, immigrant languages, etc. These languages have no written tradition and many have not even been described. These are often marginalized populations, belonging to often-dispersed language communities, whose languages have low social prestige in the wider society in which they live. (Gomes, 2015: 41) A “morte” de uma língua envolve essencialmente mudanças linguísticas “normais”, mas motivadas por razões sociolinguísticas particulares. Em geral, ocorre uma transferência de fidelidade de uma parte da população da língua nativa para uma língua introduzida mais recentemente, na qual os falantes se tornaram bilingues. Esta nova língua é em geral falada nativamente por falantes com maior poder econômico/político, prestígio e muitas vezes mais numerosos. A língua nova está frequentemente associada a novas tecnologias e a uma cultura que se apresenta como mais desenvolvida. Essa língua é então associada à riqueza e ao progresso o que faz com que os falantes abandonem gradativamente a língua nativa, que passa a ser usada em contextos cada vez mais reduzidos até ser totalmente substituída pela língua introduzida. 12 It is clear, therefore, that despite having persisted for several centuries, AL and, in the case of this study, the Umbundu language, is not safe from the possibility of extinction, as evidenced by its gradual weakening due to the gradual reduction in the number of speakers. This reduction is due to either natural reason s 13 or the discredit caused by the lack of use in school or official contexts. Any measure to reverse this situation would involve increasing its prestige, which would imply its use in school contexts. Figure 1 accounts for the Ethnolinguistic map of Angola. 12 The 'death' of a language essentially involves 'normal' linguistic change but are driven by sociolinguistic reasons. In general, a transfer of allegiance from part of the population of the native language happens to a more recently introduced language in which speakers have become bilingual. This new language is generally spoken natively by speakers with greater economic/political power and prestige. The new language is often associated with new technologies and a culture that presents itself as more developed. This language is then associated with wealth and progress, which causes speakers to gradually abandon their native language, which is used in increasingly reduced contexts until it is completely replaced by the new idiom. (Gomes, 2015: 43) 13 Here we call natural reasons for the disappearance of the older population which is the centripetal force for the preservation of the language. © 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue III Version I 63 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 G Preserving the Umbundu Language