Sustaining linguistic and cultural balance in multilingual South Africa

The present research into the linguistic situation in the Republic of South Africa, which is characterized by the legislative support of multilingualism and equality between the official languages, is relevant because of the danger of a loss of linguistic and cultural diversity in the former colonies of the African continent, most of which, on achieving independence, granted the status of official language only to the language of the former metropolis. The goal of the given article is finding out the nature of interrelations between languages and cultures in multilingual South Africa, and determining the functions which South African languages perform in various spheres of the country’s activities. In accordance with the set goal, the authors sought answers to a number of questions connected with interrelations of languages in South Africa as well as the role of English as one of the official languages. The most important of these questions are the following: 1) which of the official or unofficial South African languages performs the role of the language of common communication (lingua franca)?; 2) is the language balance in South Africa stable, and does the English language present a danger to the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country?; 3) what are the reasons for the difficulties connected with realizing in South Africa the policies of the equality of the official languages