A hegemonia da língua inglesa e suas implicações para o sul global: uma análise de serra leoa

Abstract

English has become a globally recognized language, playing an intermediary role in interstate and interpersonal relations. Its high position was the result of a long process and, although it performs the important function of communication, it has had negative effects on various societies, especially in the countries of the global South. The former British colony of Sierra Leone was one of the countries that saw English dominate its local languages, such as Mende, Temne and Krio. Thus, from a post-colonial perspective, the general aim of this work is to understand how English became hegemonic and how its hegemony generated implications for the global South, particularly in Sierra Leone. In this sense, we sought to identify the linguistic, political and socio-economic effects for the Global South, based on the hypothesis that England and the United States were the main responsible for this process, one through colonization and the other through new spheres of power with the advent of technology. To do this, a literature review was carried out on the dynamics of languages, how they emerge and are threatened, providing theoretical support to understand the historical process that made English a hegemonic language. Finally, in order to analyze how the effects of English play out in practice, literature and national reports from Sierra Leone were explored, which address the dynamics between their local languages and English.