scholarly journals Ethnicity in linguistic variation

Pragmatics ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Stell
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
New South ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Sequential Patterns ◽  
Clear Correlation ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ethnic Divide ◽  
Ethnic Norms ◽  
Mixed Code

The Afrikaans speech community is characterized by a long-standing rift between Whites and Coloureds, and is for a large part bilingual, with English being increasingly integrated in its stylistic repertoire. Yet, the history of English is different across the White/Coloured divide, as in particular in terms of diffusion and in terms of ideological associations. The question we wish to ask is twofold. First, how far may there be a question of ethnic norms of Afrikaans-English code-switching? Second, if norms of code-switching are different across the ethnic divide, is code-switching used differently in the negotiation of White and Coloured identities? This contribution is organized in three main parts. First, we give an overview of the different norms of Afrikaans-English code-switching encountered across Whites and Coloureds on the basis of a corpus of informal speech data. Then we give an overview of the sequential patterns of Afrikaans-English code-switching following a CA methodology. Finally, we determine with the help of macrosocial knowledge in how far these different forms and functions of Afrikaans-English code-switching are made relevant to the projection of White and Coloured identities in South Africa’s current post-Apartheid context on the basis of select individual examples. The results of our analysis indicate that Afrikaans-English code-switching in the Coloured data displays the features of a ‘mixed code’, which is perceived as a ‘we-code’, where English input tends to be stylistically neutral. By contrast, English input is more syntactically and sequentially salient in the White data, and more visibly serves purposes of identity-negotiation. Despite those differences, there remains a clear correlation in both White and Coloured samples between the use of English monolingual code and affiliation with ‘New South African values’.

scholarly journals ‘Om weer mens te word’: Identiteit, onreg, skuld en restitusie in die RSG-vertelreeks Almal het ’n storie

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 173-186
Author(s):  
Hein Willemse
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
South African ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Radio Station ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
South African Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Background History ◽  
The Common

A history of internal division marks the Afrikaans speech community. In the past the Afrikaans language was often claimedas ‘the white man language’, a presupposition that led to the common assertion that it was ‘the language of apartheid’. Much of the politics underlying these historical perceptions involve the expression of Afrikaner nationalism during the 20th century. Since the early 1990s the South African society has undergone fundamental political and social changes, also regarding the Afrikaans language. This article explores an Afrikaans radio series Almal het ’n storie (“Everyone has a story”) that illustrates some of these changes regarding current identity formation and social restitution processes. The article will provide an overview of Almal het ’n storie, followed by brief summaries of the story lines of two selected storytelling performances and a closer analysis of its underlying expressions of identity. A more generalised discussion of identity formation and restitution in the radio series will conclude the paper. To put these matters in overall perspective the identity politics of the Afrikaans language, a background history of the radio station and the series sponsor, an Afrikaans cultural association, and their recent strategic changes will introduce the paper along with an abbreviated overview of restitution as formulated in Elazar Barkan’s The Guilt of Nations: Resititution and Negotiating Historical Injustices (2000).

scholarly journals Ethnicity and codeswitching

Pragmatics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-499
Author(s):  
Gerald Stell
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Language Mixing ◽  
Switching Patterns ◽  
Language Alternation ◽  
African Context ◽  
Linguistic Constraints

This article aims to compare three distinct grammatical and conversational patterns of code-switching, which it tentatively links to three different South African ethnoracial labels: White, Coloured and Black. It forms a continuation of a previous article in which correlations were established between Afrikaans-English code-switching patterns and White and Coloured ethnicities. The typological framework used is derived from Muysken, and the hypotheses are based on his predictions as to which type of grammatical CS (i.e. insertional, alternational, congruent lexicalisation) will dominate in which linguistic and sociolinguistic settings. Apart from strengthening the idea of a correlation between patterns of language variation and ethnicity in general, the article explores the theoretical possibility of specific social factors overriding linguistic constraints in determining the grammatical form of CS patterns. In this regard, it will be shown that – on account of specific social factors underlying ethnicity – CS between two typologically unrelated languages, namely Sesotho and English, can exhibit more marks of congruent lexicalization than CS between two typologically related languages, namely Afrikaans and English, while – from the point of view of linguistic constraints – insertional/alternational CS would be expected in the former language pair and congruent lexicalization in the latter. That finding will be placed against the background of different pragmatic norms regulating the conversational use of CS within the Black Sesotho-speaking community (which we will describe as ‘language mixing’ in Auer’s sense) and within the Afrikaans speech community (which in the case of Whites we will describe as tending more towards ‘language alternation’ in Auer’s sense, and in the case of Coloureds as occupying an intermediate position between language alternation and language mixing). The summary of findings on grammatical and conversational CS patterns across ethnic samples will finally be placed against the background of ethnicity and its specific definition in the South African context.

‘Limping, Yet Made to Climb a Mountain!’ Re-Reading the Vashti Character in the Hiv And Aids South African Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan’A Mphahlele)
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
External Factor ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
African Women ◽  
South African Context ◽  
Land Grabbing ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
African Context

The history of the Christian Bible’s reception in South Africa was part of a package that included among others, the importation of European patriarchy, land grabbing and its impoverishment of Africans and challenged masculinities of African men. The preceding factors, together with the history of the marginalization of African women in bible and theology, and how the Bible was and continues to be used in our HIV and AIDS contexts, have only made the proverbial limping animal to climb a mountain. Wa re o e bona a e hlotša, wa e nametša thaba (while limping, you still let it climb a mountain) simply means that a certain situation is being aggravated (by an external factor). In this chapter the preceding Northern Sotho proverb is used as a hermeneutical lens to present an HIV and AIDS gender sensitive re-reading of the Vashti character in the Hebrew Bible within the South African context.

Postcolonial Liberation: Decolonizing Biblical Studies in the South African Postcolony

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald O. West
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
The South ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
African Black ◽  
History Of ◽  
Land Economics ◽  
The 1960S

Liberation biblical interpretation and postcolonial biblical interpretation have a long history of mutual constitution. This essay analyzes a particular context in which these discourses and their praxis have forged a third conversation partner: decolonial biblical interpretation. African and specifically South African biblical hermeneutics are the focus of reflections in this essay. The South African postcolony is a “special type” of postcolony, as the South African Communist Party argued in the 1960s. The essay charts the characteristics of the South African postcolony and locates decolonial biblical interpretation within the intersections of these features. Race, culture, land, economics, and the Bible are forged in new ways by contemporary social movements, such as #FeesMustFall. South African biblical studies continues to draw deeply on the legacy of South African black theology, thus reimagining African biblical studies as decolonial African biblical studies—a hybrid of African liberation and African postcolonial biblical interpretation.

scholarly journals Afrikaans as universiteitstaal: Onlangse ontwikkelinge in historiese en internasionale perspektief

Literator ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Steyn
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Language Community ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
South African Universities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Official Status

A study of the history of South African universities from 1918 to 1948 showed that six factors influenced the use of a particular language as a language medium at a university, namely economic and political power, as well as the number of people in the language community (which determines matters such as the official status of the language and the availability of money for universities), lecturers' and students ’ knowledge of the language, its position as scholarly language, language loyalty and attitudes toward other languages and the support enjoyed by language and related ideologies. Whereas these factors were reasonably favourable for Afrikaans universities in the past, they currently pose a threat to the survival of Afrikaans-medium universities. The standpoint is defended that retaining Afrikaans as educational and scholarly language should be an important factor when making decisions on universities. The tension between internationalisation and retention of the own language and culture is also topical in Europe, and steps have been taken to try to protect the retention of Dutch as language medium at Dutch and Flemish universities.

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