The language policy of Botswana limits official language usage to English and Setswana only. Apart from Setswana, all of the other 25 ethnic languages do not have any degree of official status. There is a serious lack of government support to develop and support linguistic diversity,even for purposes of literacy – learning how to read and write. This lack of recognition and support means that indigenous languages other than Setswana are marginalized. For most of these languages, the marginalization has led to a serious endangerment. This situation is tragic for Khoesan languages whose socio-economic characteristic of aborigine becomes an added risk factor in language maintenance processes. Such deprivation in essence means that the speakers of marginalized languages cannot express their culture in their own languages, and the education of their children cannot be conducted in a familiar mother tongue. This paper will ethnographically define and examine the relationship of these linguistic minorities in the current language policy context. Recommendations will be made, which, if adopted, should bring about a harmonious development of minority languages and cultural identity.
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