<P> British colonisers first introduced English to the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding operation at the Cape . The goal of this first endeavor was to gain control of a key Cape sea route, not to establish a permanent settler colony . The first major influx of English speakers arrived in 1820 . About 5000 British settlers, mostly rural or working class, settled in the eastern Cape . Though the British were a minority colonist group (the Dutch had been in the region since 1652, when traders from the Dutch East India Company developed a post), the Cape Colony governor, Lord Charles Somerset, declared English an official language in 1822 . In order to spread the influence of English in the colony, officials began to recruit British schoolmasters and Scottish clergy to occupy positions in the education and church systems . Another group of English speakers arrived from Britain in the 1840's and 1850's, along with the Natal settlers . These individuals were largely "standard speakers" like retired military personnel and aristocrats . A third wave of English settlers arrived between 1875 and 1904, and brought with them a diverse variety of English dialects . These last two waves did not have as large of an influence on South African English (SAE), for "the seeds of development were already sown in 1820". However, the Natal wave brought nostalgia for British customs and helped to define the idea of a "standard" variety that resembled Southern British English . </P> <P> When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, English and Dutch were the official state languages, although Afrikaans effectively replaced Dutch in 1925 . After 1994, nine other languages from the Bantu subfamily of Niger Kordorfanian languages achieved equal official status . English has become a lingua franca for native African language speakers across the country, as it is the only language that has significant representation in all nine provinces . Moreover, English predominates in several areas of public administration, and is increasingly popular as a "default language" in schools, universities, military camps, and other social settings . </P> <P> SAE is an extraterritorial (ET) variety of English, or a language variety that has been "transported" outside its mainland home . More specifically, SAE is a Southern hemisphere ET originating from later English colonisation in the 18th and 19th centuries (Zimbabwean, Australian, and New Zealand English are also Southern hemisphere ET varieties). SAE resembles British English more closely than it does American English due to the close ties that South African colonies maintained with the mainland in the 19th and 20th centuries . However, with the increasing influence of American pop - culture around the world via modes of contact like television, American English has become more familiar in South Africa . Indeed, some American lexical items are becoming alternatives to comparable British terms . </P> <P> Several South African English varieties have emerged, accompanied by varying levels of perceived social prestige . Roger Lass describes White South African English as a system of three sub-varieties spoken primarily by White South Africans, called "The Great Trichotomy" (a term first used to categorise Australian English varieties and subsequently applied to South African English). In this classification, the "Cultivated" variety closely approximates England's standard Received Pronunciation and is associated with the upper class; the "General" variety is a social indicator of the middle class and is the common tongue; and the "Broad" variety is most associated with the working class, low socioeconomic status, and little education . These three sub-varieties have also been called "Conservative SAE", "Respectable SAE", and "Extreme SAE", respectively . Broad White SAE closely approximates the second - language variety of (Afrikaans - speaking) Afrikaners called Afrikaans English . This variety has been stigmatised by middle and upper class SAE speakers and is considered a vernacular form of SAE . </P>

Is south african english similar to british english