Languages of Zambia - Zambian English

Zambian English

English, the former colonial language, serves as a common language among educated Zambians. At independence in 1964, English was declared the national language. English is the first language of only 2% of Zambians but is the most commonly used second language.

The English spoken in Zambia has some distinctive features, such as the omission of certain object pronouns that would be obligatory in Western English ("Did you reach?"), the simplification of some phrasal verbs ("throw" instead of "throw away"), subtle differences in the usage of auxilliary verbs such as "should", simplification of vowel sounds (Zambians may regard "taste" and "test" as the same word), and the incorporation of particles derived from Zambia's indigenous languages (such as chi "big/bad" and ka "little"). Zambian English also incorporates South African words such as braai for "barbecue".

See also Zambian slang, although note that the features listed above are standard within Zambia and should therefore not be regarded as slang.