• Thadeus Marungudzi

  Author

The question whether the variety of English used in Zimbabwe is indeed a legitimate
new English, a standard variety of English, or a mere learner language crying out:“Me too!”
(Bruthiaux 2003) in order to be recognised as indeed a new variety of English, eligible to join
the ranks of other institutionalised new Englishes remains unresolved to date and therefore
interesting. A number of criteria to address this question have been used e.g. see Magura (1984)
Makoni (1993), Mlambo (2009) among others. This paper uses Mollin’s (2007) model that
features processes of functional expansion, nativisation and institutionalisation, to address the
variety status question of ‘Zimbabwean English’. It emerges from a systematic analysis of
Zimbabwean English against Mollin’s three point model that Zimbabwean English is at the
threshold of becoming an institutionalised variety of English since it satisfies two out of three
criteria i.e. expansion in function and nativisation of form. However, the fact that there are no
internal norms governing the variety and that speakers of this new English are somewhat
ambivalent in terms of their attitudes towards the new variety bars Zimbabwean English from
passing the institutionalisation aspect of the test.

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