Radio and Music Playtime: A Multilingual Approach in Minority Language Songs
摘要
The multilingual abilities among most minority language speakers in Africa are usually enabled by their co-existence realities with the major language speakers. This chapter analyses the reflection of multilingual abilities and the linguistic diversity of minority language musicians in Zimbabwe and the code-switching advantage in their multilingual songs. The study reflects on radio and music play time for multilingual songs by analysing the content of four songs, showing how these songs reflect a multilingual approach. Through textual analysis and in-depth interviews with the musicians, the study answers questions: how is the multilingual approach adopted in minority language songs and to what extent is the approach effective on radio. The findings of the study reflect positive reception for multingualism music on radio stations in Zimbabwe. Extending the multilingual accommodation, we show that music can be used to promote minority languages through code-switching and mixing to majority languages because it has proven to be more effective and acceptable on African radio.