Ana Deumert

Tracking the demographics of (urban) language shift – an analysis of South African census data

Abstract This paper provides an analysis of language shift from African languages to English (and Afrikaans) in South Africa, using home language data from the South African population census (1996 and 2001). Although census data have been criticised for its ‘essentialist’ construction of language, they nevertheless provide sociolinguists with a unique opportunity to analyse language choice and shift across large populations, based on a full head-count rather than statistical sampling. The focus of the discussion is on the metropolitan city of Cape Town (with its three-language profile, Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa). The methodology uses small-area statistics to understand the role of social variables (social class, age and gender) in structuring processes of past and present language shift. The results show that language shift (a) has considerable historical depth in South Africa, (b) shows clear patterns of spatial and social variation and (c) is not limited to the middle classes which linguists have often seen to be at the centre of the process.

‘It would be nice if they could give us more language’ – Serving South Africa’s multilingual patient base

This paper considers the role of multilingualism in health care by drawing on the results of an empirical study conducted in three public hospitals in the Western Cape, South Africa. Data were collected through questionnaires, staff and patient interviews as well as ethnographic observation. The focus is on the large number of isiXhosa-speaking patients who have entered the provincial system since the early 1990s. The analysis shows that linguistic barriers between English/Afrikaans-speaking providers and isiXhosa-speaking patients are a deeply entrenched structural feature of the public health system, and significantly impede the provision of equitable and effective health care fifteen years after the end of apartheid.

I-Dollar EYI One! -Ethnolinguistic Fractionalisation, Communication Networks and Economic Participation-Lessons from Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract The relationship between ethnolinguistic fractionalisation and development has long been of interest to economists and linguists. While econometric analyses have shown relatively stable interactions between high levels of fractionalisation and low indices of development, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are still unclear. This paper explores the importance of fragmented versus unified communication networks for socio-economic development, using data from Cape Town, South Africa. Like other cities in low- and middle-income countries, Cape Town shows growing linguistic diversity due to high levels of rural–urban migration. Two aspects of the citys economy will be discussed on the basis of specialised survey data and anthropological fieldwork: (a) the labour market, and (b) informal entrepreneurial activities. The analysis shows the importance of language as an explanatory variable in the study of economic life, and allows us to advance our understanding of human and social capital formation in ethnolinguistically fragmented societies. In the conclusion the authors discuss the policy implications of the study.

Namibian Kiche Duits : The Making (and Decline) of a Neo-African Language

This paper provides the first overview of the history, sociolinguistics, and structures of Namibian Kiche Duits (lit. “kitchen German”), which is today a dying contact variety. The analysis draws on archival records, colonial publications, and memoirs, as well as over 120 sociolinguistic interviews conducted in 2000. Early varieties of Namibian Kiche Duits emerged from 1900 under German colonial rule. The language was used primarily for inter-ethnic communication within the work context. However, speakers also “crossed” playfully into Kiche Duits in a number of within-group speech genres (competition games, scolding, banter, etc.), thus appropriating the colonial language—alongside cultural borrowings ( Truppenspieler , “traditional” dress)—for new in-group practices. These within-group uses contributed to the linguistic stabilization of the language as well as the formation of new (post-)colonial (neo-African) identities. *

‘Every day a new shop pops up’ – South Africa's ‘New’ Chinese Diaspora and the Multilingual Transformation of Rural Towns

In this paper we will provide a preliminary overview of the Chinese diaspora in South Africa, with particular focus on non-metropolitan, rural contexts. The migrations of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries have produced a complex array of Chinese communities around the world. While we know a fair amount about the Chinese diasporas in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and also diasporic communities within Asia, Africas Chinese community remains a vastly understudied aspect of this larger Chinese diaspora (Ma & Cartier, 2003). Yet there have been long-standing ties between Africa and China, going back to the fifteenth century, and presently China is one of Africas biggest trade partners and investors (Rotberg, 2008).

Xhosa in town (revisited) – space, place and language

Abstract This article looks at a particular type of migration, that is, the often cyclical and pendulum-like movements from the villages of the Eastern Cape to Cape Town (South Africa). The ethnographic analysis focuses on the semiotic practices migrants engage in as they make the city their home, and develop urban styles of speaking and being (i.e. fashion themselves as urban personae). Drawing on Bank (2011) and Dick (2010, 2011), these two processes are referred to as place-making and people-making. Two urban ways of speaking are discussed in some detail: the emblematic use of English material in an isiXhosa frame (indexing aspiration and mobility), and the symbolic meanings of Tsotsitaal as a quintessentially urban speech style which indexes social as well local (neighborhood) identity. However, as speakers navigate the complex, shifting and often stylized variety space of the city they draw not only on speech forms which are indexical of urbanity, but also on “deep” isiXhosa, that is, a style of speaking which evokes the normativities of traditional, rural authenticity.

Imbodela Zamakhumsha--Reflections on Standardization and Destandardization.

Abstract While the concept of standardization is well-established in linguistics, destandardization is a more recent addition to linguistic terminology. Drawing on historiographic and ethnographic data from isiXhosa, one of South Africas indigenous languages, this paper reflects on both of these concepts. Standardization is discussed as a modernist grand narrative whose continued application to linguistic thinking has outlived its usefulness, and standard languages as such (hegemonoc, prescriptive, etc.) might be assigned to Becks (Theory, Culture & Society 19: 17–44, 2002) zombie categories of modernity. Discussing the example of brandy-talk in isiXhosa from the perspective of ethnographic lexicography (Silverstein, Annual Review of Anthropology 35: 481–496, 2006), the paper argues for a linguistic perspective which focuses on the articulation and reproduction of social meaning as a central mechanism in the formation of linguistic conventions or ways of speaking. It advocates a recognition of the practices of speakers as they draw on standard and non-standard forms, as well as their associated meanings and ideologies (first/second order indexicality), in positioning themselves as social beings with identities, histories, aspirations, and ideological stances in everyday talk.

My Tribe is the Hessequa. I'm Khoisan. I'm African: Language, Desire and Performance among Cape Town's Khoisan Language Activists.

Abstract In this article we provide a discussion of present-day Khoisan activism in Cape Town, South Africa. The main actors in this movement are people whose heritage is complex: their history can be traced back to the early days of the colonial settlement, reflecting the interactions and cohabitation of the indigenous Khoisan, slaves and the European settlers. Currently, their main languages are English and Afrikaans; yet, efforts are also made by activists to learn Khoekhoegwab. In discussing the Khoisan resurgence we draw on a wide range of sources. The data include: in-depth interviews with language activists; video and audio recordings of ceremonies and other cultural events; discussions and performance of language and identity on blogs and tweets; newspapers; linguistic landscapes; and, finally, artistic performances (with particular focus on the hiphop opera Afrikaaps). We argue that Khoisan activism expresses a deep-seated desire for an identity – linguistic, political and cultural – that is both historically rooted and meaningfully created in the present. Khoisan activism is not only a political program but also an aesthetic-artistic as well as heteroglossic performance, and as such allows for new ways of conceptualizing language revitalization.