Rosalie Finlayson

Orderly mixing and accommodation in South African codeswitching

‘Mixed Language,’ a characteristic pattern of language use among African township residents in South Africa, may well include words or full constituents from several languages. However, from both a structural and a social perspective, such speech has a systematic nature. In reference to grammatical structure, within any CP (projection of COMP) showing codeswitching, only one language (the Matrix Language) provides the grammatical frame in the data studied. Also, while speakers from different educational levels engage in codeswitching with similar frequencies, the types of codeswitched constitutents they prefer are different. In reference to the social use of language, we argue that specific patterns of codeswitching indicate how language is both an index of identity and a tool of communication in South Africa. In the codeswitching patterns they use, speakers exhibit strong loyalty to their own first languages. Yet, because they recognize that codeswitching facilitates communication with members of other ethnic groups, they use a number of codeswitching strategies as a means of accommodating to their addressees and simultaneously as a means of projecting multiple identities for themselves.

l'm a cleva!: the linguistic makeup of identity in a South African urban environment

Rapid urbanization and the approach adopted by the authorities during the previous dispensation have left the new democratic government with townships and informal settlements on the peripheries of the urban concentrations of South Africa. Contact at all levels between Speakers of the nine Bantu languages of South Africa, together with the process of modernization, characterize the social dynamics of these urban societies. The result has been multilingual communities that interact on a daily basis in the urban areas and their peripheries in both a dynamic and complex range of contexts. Multilingual interaction fuelled by the competitive forces of supply and demand coupled with the free movement of communities have resulted in a hybrid form of identity, which distinguishes urban people from their rural counterparts. This paper examines the relationships that exist between the languages and Speech varieties of some selected urban communities and their ethnic and assumed linguistic identities. It has been found that the boundaries and distinctions between ethnic identities and the identities assumed by urban residents become blurred and indistinct, with their lifestyles and sociocultural characteristics changing as they are absorbed within the urban areas of South Africa.

A socio-historical overview of codeswitching studies in the African languages

South African studies in codeswitching (CS) have tended to follow the history of African linguistics. They also run parallel with studies on CS in the rest of Africa. A socio- historical critique of language contact phenomena reveals perspectives that have evolved hand in hand with the social history, not only of South Africa but also of colonial and postcolonial Africa. This would explain for example the emphasis on the interaction between the colonial languages and the indigenous languages in CS patterns which is a typical feature of CS studies in Africa and other post-colonial societies. The more recent trend to focus on CS between the African languages themselves should further be regarded as a function of socio-historical development. Extensive CS on its part raises theoretical questions about language change, language shift, convergence, the pragmatic issues that are associated with each of them and their effects on the social fibre of Southern Africa.

We just mix : code switching in a South African township

This study concentrates on the interaction between languages with similar morphological and syntactic structures. It will show that code switching between morphosyntactically similar languages ofequal social function has certain implicationsfor the matrix language-frame modelfor code switching which has been developed by Myers-Scotton (1993b). The two languages under scrutiny here are Southern Sotho and Tswana, two very closely related and functionally equivalent languages spoken in South Africa. In certain contexts the Speakers ofthese languages will switch frequently from the one language to the o t her. The paper will investigate how the matrix language in this multiple switching can be determined and whether the distinction between the matrix and the embedded language is still relevant in such a Situation. Given the relatedness ofthe two languages, the implicationsfor the constraints which the matrix language-frame model proposes will also be examined. The paper concludes that in this case an interlanguage has developed which must be regarded as a merger between the two languages. This is particularly salient in the South African context since the harmonisation of the Sotho and Nguni languages respectively has been put forward as the Nhlapo-Alexander proposal (Alexander 1989).

HLONIPHA—THE WOMEN'S LANGUAGE OF AVOIDANCE AMONG THE XHOSA

In order to meaningfully illustrate some of the mechanics relating to the use of hlonipha among the Xhosa women of the family groups selected, the structure of one particular Xhosa family is described in some depth, i.e. Nokhonza, who is married to Bonisile, the son of Nina and Dike. Examples of the avoidance patterns of Nokhonzas great grandfather-in-law Saki, her grandfather-in-law, Ntlokwana, as well as her father- and mother-in-law are given. Thereafter the categorisation of avoidance rules which occur regularly in the core vocabulary are discussed. These categories include: 1. Phonological features, where clicks, glide consonants, consonant deletion and palatal plosives are mentioned. 2. The retention of common forms, which are divided into three sections: a. Common Bantu; b. Common Southern Bantu; c. Common Nguni. 3. Association of ideas could be divided into four sections: a. Shift in meaning; b. synonyms; c. descriptive phrases; and d. verbal derivatives. 4. Coinage of new words which is indicati...

Southern Bantu origins as represented by Xhosa and Tswana

Two Southern Bantu languages, namely, Tswana and Xhosa, have been selected as being representative of Zone S. Various aspects, including phonological, morphophonological, morphological and lexical have been considered. Taking Guthries classification, topogram and comparative series into account, it has been deduced that, while it can safely be established that Southern Bantu can be directly related to the Eastern Branch of Proto Bantu, it nevertheless also has correspondences with the Western Branch. One of the major differences between Xhosa and Tswana is the vowel system, with the five vowel system of Xhosa being more typical of the Eastern Branch and the seven vowel system of Tswana being more typically Western. Nevertheless, it is postulated that both groups are descended from two closely related dialects of Eastern Bantu and moved southwards in two streams corresponding with Huffmanns Moloko (Sotho) and Blackburn (Nguni) migrations.

Jam or cheese? The challenges of a national broadcaster in a multilingual context

Abstract In contrast to commercial broadcasters, national broadcasters are partly subsidised by taxpayers’ money and therefore have a mandate to serve their particular society within the context of the current political system. In democratic societies these mandates typically have to balance out the following challenges: • A limited number of available television channels and radio stations • Equity in terms of audience home language/language variety • Audience preferences and values • Audience ratings and the subsequent advertising income. The paper demonstrates that a public broadcaster can promote diversity and multilingualism AND be commercially successful. The multilingual soap operas produced for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will be the case in point. Moreover, the case studies will show how commercially successful multilingual soap operas can give new status to marginalised languages.

Southern-Bantu origins

The theme of this article is the use of linguistic data to trace some Southern-Bantu origins. The presentation deals with these origins at three levels of abstraction. The first level concerns the evolution of Proto-Bantu as postulated by two eminent comparative Africaniste. The validity of their hypotheses is assessed in conjunction with archaeological evidence. The second level of abstraction concerns seven languages from the Southern- Bantu language group, all of which stem from Proto-Bantu. The third and definitive level of abstraction concerns two socio-linguistic features of the Xhosa language, namely khwetha and hlonipha, where specific links have been identified between these forms and the original Proto-Bantu.

The Linguistic Implications of the Xhosa Initiation Schools

Abstract Two initiation schools among the Xhosa, one for boys and the other for girls, form part of the range of traditions found within the Xhosa-speaking communities of South Africa. The various dimensions of the initiation process include different features with regard to the physiological, sociological, contextual, spatial and physical as well as the linguistic components of the initiation process. This paper concentrates on the linguistic implications whilst considering both the similarities and issimilarities which exist between two initiation schools.

'Make una listen o...': codeswitching as a means of accommodation among the Edo-speaking people of Nigeria

Abstract This article examines the language situation in the Ẹdo state of Nigeria, with particular reference to how the people accommodate their interlocutors by adapting their speech through codeswitching. Examples gathered from empirical research are analysed and conclusions drawn regarding the reasons why and when the people, in particular the Binis, codeswitch to accommodate those with whom they speak. Like most of Nigeria, the Ẹdo state has been greatly influenced by the English language and its culture. This article focuses on Ẹdo-English and English-Ẹdo, as well as Pidgin English-Ẹdo and Ẹdo-Pidgin English codeswitching patterns and the social motivations that underly these patterns.