Botswana: The Future of the Minority Languages

The editors: Herman Batibo, a well known Tanzanian linguist born in 1947, works now at the University of Botswana. His research interests include sociolinguistics, phonology and Bantu linguistics. He has written extensively on the languages of Tanzania and Botswana. He is also currently the Head of the Department of African Languages and Literature at the University of Botswana. Birgit Smieja, born in 1962, studied English, French and Spanish linguistics at the University of Duisburg. After having worked on Tanzanian languages for her M.A. thesis, she went to Botswana where, since 1996, she has conducted sociolinguistic field research, always attached to the University of Botswana. At present, she prepares her doctoral thesis on language use and language attitudes in Botswana.