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

Table 3: ESPB students' linguistic situation, according to age group 18-30 30-40 40-50 PU UP P OP PU UP P OP PU UP P OP 77 11 36 2 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 57.0 3% 8.1 % 26.6 % 1.4 % 3.7 % 2,8 % 0 0 0 0 0 0 126 6 0 Data analysis shows that almost 80% of the speakers of Umbundu lose out to Portuguese. This means that nearly 80% of future parents will influence their children to speak Portuguese, as it is their L1. b) Ways to preserve Umbundu as the L2 of Kuito's population It makes sense to resort to the Universal Declaration of Collective Rights of People, approved in May 1990 in Barcelona, which states that all people have the right to express and develop their culture, their language, and their organizational rules through their own political, educational, communication and public administration structures. It is, therefore, necessary that political authorities preserve the languages spoken in Angola. Umbundu, and all other AL languages, confer a very particular identity to their users. The postulate above is supported by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, which affirms the dignity and value of the human person, who is granted equal rights and all freedoms, without distinction of race, color, sex, language, religion, political, national or social origin, fortune, birth, or any other condition. In the Angolan context Portuguese has been superimposed over national languages. Umbundu, previously considered L1 in the city of Kuito, has lost its position in favor of Portuguese, which has seen its protagonism rise with increasing intensity. It is expected that other municipalities in the province will also suffer the same phenomenon, albeit more slowly. The faster disappearance of the Umbundu language in Kuito is due to three factors: 1. Great contact of the indigenous population with people of other cultures and languages, a reality of the cities, which does not happen so markedly in the interior regions; 2. The advance of schooling in Kuito, including the emergence of universitie s 16 , which requires students to have a higher mastery of the Portuguese language; 3. The decreasing use in informal and familiar environments of the Umbundu language, motivated by prejudice, and by the scarce use of it in the media and social networks, for example. 16 At the present moment, there are two university public schools and two private ones, being predicted the inauguration of one more. We argue that efforts should be made so that the Umbundu language is preserved as L2 of the Kuito inhabitants, thus safeguarding the values related to the cultural identity of this population. For such, we point out some ways: 1. Umbundu must become a language of scientific scope, having as a launching point available studies and publications. To this end, Umbundu should incorporate a range of new terms related to science, technology, philosophy, and the world of knowledge. Linguists and scholars of the Ovimbundu culture will play a relevant role in giving this language a scientific and academic scope. 2. On the other hand, the Angolan education authorities should, under Article 9º (3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Angola , confer on Umbundu the status of a language of instruction. Initially only for primary education, up to grade 6, but later extending it to the whole education system. The aim is not to study Umbundu as a subject within a curriculum but to study all subjects in this language. The Angolan government has been testing measures for the incorporation/introduction of the national languages into the educational system, aiming at their preservation. These studies and trials have been going on for several decades, but there are still no concrete results. The reasons are many, but we can highlight the lack of adequately trained teachers, the lack of bibliographic materials, and the existence of several Angolan languages in the same province. These three factors constitute an obstacle to the insertion of national languages in the education system, as intended. Nevertheless, we advocate the possibility of doing so if there is a will and more accurate work. IV. C onclusion Our approach demonstrates the sociolinguistic reality of Kuito, a reality that has been characterized and influenced by the coexistence and interactions between the Umbundu and Portuguese languages for over 500 years. The coexistence between the two codes, for over 500 years, and the influence that the languages exert over each other are determining factors in this sociolinguistic characterization of Kuito. © 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue III Version I 67 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 G Preserving the Umbundu Language