This is a comprehensive and wide-ranging guide to language and society in South Africa. The book surveys the most important language groupings in the region in terms of pre-colonial and colonial history; contact between the different language varieties (leading to language loss, pidginization, creolization and new mixed varieties). It examines language and public policy issues associated with the transition to a post-apartheid society and its eleven official languages. All the chapters are informed by the importance of socio-political history in understanding questions of language.