Afrikaans-English in the Western Cape : a Descriptive Sociolinguistic
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AFRIKAANS-ENGLISH IN THE WESTERN CAPE: A DESCRIPTIVE SOCIOLINGUISTIC INVESTIGATION Susan Jean Watenneyer Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts University of Cape Town University of Cape Town September 1993 ABSTRACT' I have attempted to give a broad description of the variety of English used by first-language (White) Afrikaans-speakers in the Western Cape. The first chapter outlines the aims of the thesis with respect to the study of English as a world phenomenon. Important work on other varieties of English, notably that of William Labov and that of Lesley Milroy, is discussed, with emphasis on variationist studies. The chapter nlso includes a description of the methods used for the collection of data. I did not usc questionnaires but rather conducted 'participation interviews'. A brief outline of the areas that the informants were selected from is given. Chapters 2 and 3 give the historical and sociolinguistic background of the Afrikaners. This is imp011ant as without an \mderstanding of their history and social circum stances one cannot apprccinte their present attitudes to language. The fonnative history of the Afrikaners includes a description of the policies of the British government at the Cape at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the subsequent emergence of national identity among the fonnerly Dutch community. The establishment of such organisations as the Afrikaner Bond, the Broederbond and the Osscwabrandwng all contributed to the identity of the Afrikaners today. The final section of chapter 3 deals with speech communities as well as the concept of social class, as applied to the White South African community. There is a brief outline of the differences between the White and Coloured Afrikaans-speaking communities of the Cape. The third section of this thesis (chapter 4) concems language: _acquisition, in particulnr theories of second language acquisition. I have outlined the development of (White) education in South Africa, with particular reference to medium of education, and have included a brief description of second language teaching in South Africa today. Bilingualism and ,communication strategies nrc discussed and r have grouped the infom1ants according to their individuaHevel of proficiency in English. The use of code-switching' and code-mixing techniques is also discussed in this chapter, with a brief look at the stmctural differences between English and Afrikaans. The last, and major, part of the thesis, chapters 5 and 6, is a detailed description of the phonology, syntax, morphology and lexis of Afrikaans-English. The features of this variety are compared to those of standard South African English. The presence or absence of features in the speech of the infonnants is discussed and indicated in the tables given; the core features, i.e. those that are found even in the speech of the most fluent speakers, are noted. It is also shown that although all the features are possible, no single speaker will have the full set of variables in hisl11er speech. The presence of the features discussed in this section in Afrikaans English, Coloured English and other, non-South African, varieties of English is shown; the presence of a feature in non-South African varieties of English appears to reinforce the use of that particular feature in Afrikaans-English. It is shown that Afrikaans-English overlaps phonologically with the continuum of first language South African English at either end of the spectmm: on the one hand the accent of Afrikaans English has features in common with Extreme South African English and at the other, Ll-fluency end, it is almost indistinguishable from Respectable South African English. Mention is also made of syntactic, morphological and lexical features that spill over into L I varieties o~ South African English. Finally I have appended a brief outline of each of the four competence groups and have given annotated extracts from the data for each. I have also included a collection of the comments regarding language made by the informants. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF MAPS AND TABLES .............................................. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS · · · · · · · • • · · · · · · · · · · · • · · • · · • · · · · · · · · · · · · ........... VI CHAPTER 1 AIMS AND METHODOLOGY 1.1 AIMS 1.2 METHODOLOGY . 5 1.2.1 V ariationist studies . 5 1.2.2 Netv•orks . 1 1.2.3 Interviews . 9 1.2.4 Infom1ants . 12 Touws River . 14 Cape Town . 16 Control Group . 17 Representative sample . 18 1.2 ..5 Data analysis . 19 Other observations . 19 Transcription . 20 CHAPTER 2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 FIRST WHITE SETTLERS . 23 2.2 INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH . 24 2.2.1 Anglicization policies . .. 25 2.2.2 1820 Settlers . 26 2.2.3 Medium of instruction in schools . 27 2.2.4 English becomes the official language of the Cape . 29 2.2.5 The Press . 30 2.2.6 Influence of the Anglicization policy . 30 2.3 THE GREAT TREK AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BO)::R REPUBLICS ...................... 33 2.4 IMMIGRATION TO NATAL . 34 2 . .5 DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS AND GOLD . 36 2.6 THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR (THE BOER WAR) . 38 2.7 MILNER'S ANGLICIZATION POLICY . 39 2.8 BROEDERTW IS ('STRIFE BETWEEN BROTHERS') . 41 ii CHAPTER 3 SOCIOLINGUISTIC SETTING 3.1 LANGUAGE LOYALTY ........................................... 43 3.1.1 Attitudes and Opinions ...................................... 44 3.1.2 The Afrikaner Bond ........................................ 48 3.1.3 Broederbond ('Brotherhood') ................................. 51 3.1.4 Ossewabrandwag ('Oxwagon Sentinel') ......................... 55 3.1.5 Exclusivity .............................................. 56 3.2 SHIFT .................................................... 6 3.2.1 Shifts in Attitude .......................................... 56 3.2.2 Shift in Language ......................................... 58 3.3 SPEECH COMMUNITY ............................................ 61 3.3.1 Definitions of speech communities ............................. 62 3.3.2 English in South Africa ..................................... 67 3.3.3 Social class in South Africa 68 3.3.4 The District Six community .................................. 72 . CHAPTER 4 LEARNING AND USING A SECOND lANGUAGE 4.1 SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ................................... 74 4.1.1 Theories of Second language Acquisition ......................... 74 4.1.2 Education in South Africa ................................... 79 4.1.3 Method of L2 teaching in South Africa . 89 4.2 BILINGUALISM . 92 4.2.1 Communication strategies .................................... 95 4.3 CODE-SWITCHING AND CODE-MIXING . 98 4.3.1 Similarities and differences between English and Afrikaans ............ 98 4.3.2 Code-switching and code-mixing .............................. 100 4.3 .3 Functional and metaphorical switching . 103 4.3.4 Code-switching and code-mixing in Afrikaans-English . 105 CHAPTER 5 PHONOLOGY 5.1 PHONOLOGY OF ENGLISH IN SOUTJI AFRICA 110 5.2 VOWELS . ~ . ' . ·. 113 5.2.1 Variation in vowel quality . 114 5.3 CONSONANTS ............................................................. 117 5.3.1 Trilled or tapped /r/ . 118 5.3 .2 Voiceless plosives . 119 iii 5.3.3 [fJ for [8] .............................................. 120 5.4 PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES ...................................... 120 5.4.1 Obstruent devoicing . 120 5.4.2 Epenthetic !hi ........................................... 121 5.4.3 Epenthesis and 'spelling' pronunciation ......................... 123 5.4.4 Assimilation and cluster reduction . 124 5.4.5 Afrikaans pronunciation of proper nouns . 125 5.5 VARIATION ................................................... 127 5.5.1 Regional variation . 127 5.5.2 Word lists .............................................. 127 5.6 CONCLUSION ................................................ 129 0-IAPTER 6 SYNTAX, MORPHOLOGY AND LEXIS .................... 132 6.1 SYNTACTIC FEATURES AND TENDENCIES . 13 8 6.1.1 Tense, aspect and modals . 13 8 6.1.2 Word order . 142 6.1.3 Relative clauses . 146 6.1.4 Double negative . 150 6.1.5 Incorrect use of the infinitive . 150 6.2 MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES . 151 6.2.1 Concord . 151 6.2.2 Prepositions . 158 6.2.3 Articles . 161 6.2.4 Deletion of :J.y . 164 6.3 LEXIS AND IDIOM . 164 6.3 .1 Idiomatic transfer ................... , . 164 6.3.2 Lexical items . 168 6.3.3 Lexical confusion . 170 6.3.4 Duplication . 174 6.3.5 Get . 174 6.3.6 No . 176 6.4 CONCLUSION . 176 IV BIBLIOGRAPHY . 181 APPENDICES 1 GROUP PROFILES 190 2 EXTRACTS FROM THE OAT A . ..