The impact of english on kirundi and french in burundi: use and attitudes among burundian students

Abstract

In multilingual communities, there are always more powerful languages and less powerful languages. Consequently, an unequal functional distribution results from the values attached to the languages or even more, a partial or complete shift towards the most powerful language or language variety may take place. This view is characteristic of the unbalanced power between English and other languages nowadays, a disparity that has led English to be considered as one of the major factor to many languages displacement and endangerment in all corners of the world where it is continuously adopted. This issue has led us to a reflection on the new sociolinguistic situation that is taking place in Burundi.