Abstract:

Tanzania is one of the least developed countries in the world according to the United Nations and is also the largest recipient country of China in Africa. At present, the country has more than one hundred sorts of local dialect, among which Swahili is used for communication between different ethnic groups and was declared as the national language of Tanzania. As one of the British colonial countries and still a member of the Commonwealth, Tanzania uses English as the official language. As a post-colonial country, Tanzania’s language policy is very representative in Africa. As the common language of many nationalities in East Africa and South Africa, Swahili can unite people, strengthen national identity and keep effective exchanges with neighboring countries. At the same time, English provides convenience for Tanzanians in global contacts. Over the past 20 years, the actual social usage of English in Tanzania has greatly decreased despite financial supports from British government. Code switching of Swahili-English is very common in present Tanzania. And Chinese is becoming more and more important in Tanzanian foreign language education policy.

Key words: Language policy; Tanzania; evolution; dilemma

摘要：

坦桑尼亚是联合国宣布的世界最不发达国家之一，也是中国在非洲的最大受援国。目前国内拥有100多种地方土语，其中用作不同民族之间沟通的斯瓦希里语被宣布为坦桑尼亚国语。由于曾经沦为英国的殖民地，而且仍然是英联邦成员国，英语成为坦桑尼亚的官方语言。作为后殖民地国家，坦桑尼亚的语言政策在非洲很有代表性。作为东非和南非许多民族共同语的斯瓦希里语，可以凝聚人心，强化国家认同，并有助于与邻国交往。而英语则为坦桑尼亚人参与全球交往提供了便利。近20年来，虽然英国政府财政支持坦桑尼亚使用英语，但实际的社会使用率已经大大降低了，现实生活中斯瓦希里语和英语的语码转换非常多。在坦桑尼亚的外语教育政策中，汉语的地位越来越突出。

关键词：语言政策；坦桑尼亚；演变；困境

1. Introduction
Language policy is what a government does either officially through legislation, court decisions or policy to determine how languages are used, cultivate language skills needed to meet national priorities or to establish the rights of individuals or groups to use and maintain languages(Wikipedia). The preservation of cultural and linguistic diversity in today's world is a major concern to many scientists, artists, writers, politicians, leaders of linguistic communities, and defenders of linguistic human rights. More than half of the 6,000 languages currently spoken in the world are estimated to be in danger of disappearing during the 21st century. Many factors affect the existence and usage of any given human language, including the size of the native speaking population, its use in formal communication, and the geographical dispersion and the socio-economic weight of its speakers. National language policies can either mitigate or exacerbate the effects of some of these factors.