English in Brian Chikwava’s Harare North: The blueprint of the ideal global English

Abstract

Different studies on the fascinating language in Chikwava’s Harare North have yielded inconsistent findings, implying shortcomings in the methodologies and the need to study the phenomenon further using more robust methodologies. Consequently, the present study employed an artificial intelligence application, iAsk.ai, to objectively analyse and synthesise diverging findings on the novel’s language. The study finds that the author uses every linguistic resource at his disposal and is not bound to a specific setting. He mixes standard Englishes with native non-standard Englishes and non-native Englishes with pidgin Englishes. He Africanizes English and code mixes it with Zimbabwean languages and major African lingua francas. He uses Africanized names, colloquial English and slang. I baptise the style Globlish, which I define as a style of presentation that permits the user to exhaust his/her repertoire without care for standard English. The style helps the author to portray realism in characters and settings, exhibit polyglotism, resist English imperialism, and exhibit identity. Its use in fiction romanticises an ideal global English, valuing every speaker’s culture, background, affiliation, and linguistic profile.