Pronunciation hurdles for Bakgalagari speakers of English: preliminary observations

Abstract

This paper discusses pronunciation hurdles encountered by Bakgalagari when they speak English, and focuses on problematic areas in the articulation of especially English monophthongs. English is an Indo-European language which is foreign to majority of indigenous population in Botswana despite the fact that it is an official language in the country. Shekgalagari is one of the more than 25 indigenous languages spoken by between 50 000 (various authors) and 272 000 (Cf RETENG, 2006; Gaotlhobogwe, 2006) Bakgalagari people in Botswana. As a non-native language, English present many challenges in education and in various areas for native populations. This article examines vowel inventories for English and Shekgalagari and outlines fundamental differences in the two systems, pointing out areas that lead to possible errors in pronunciation for Bakgalagari speakers of English.