Jul 5th 2012, 16:43 by S.A.P. | JOHANNESBURG
I QUIZ myself once in a while: How many official South African languages can I name? There are eleven—Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu—but I usually get stuck around six or seven. I often wonder how the South African government can keep track of them all. It turns out that they really can’t.
Many languages are regulated by some kind of authority, such as Spain's Real Academia Española (a government body) or France's Académie Française (more of an outside advisor). South Africa’s eleven languages are all regulated by the chronically underfunded Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), a governmental department. English is in no danger, of course. Afrikaans is mostly regulated by a separate body, Die Taalkommissie. As a result, PanSALB concerns itself mostly with the nine official Bantu languages, as well as Khoi, San and South African Sign Language. Read more...