Pronunciation of L2 English in Afrikaans Speakers Who Have Relocated to Aotearoa- New Zealand

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Pronunciation of L2 English in Afrikaans Speakers Who Have Relocated to Aotearoa- New Zealand Pronunciation of L2 English in Afrikaans speakers who have relocated to Aotearoa- New Zealand Grant Richard Howie A thesis in fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand August 2018 Abstract An ever greater number of South Africans are relocating to New Zealand and now comprise the fifth largest group of migrants in the country. Among this group, there are first language (L1) Afrikaans speakers who bring with them qualifications, skills, and more importantly, their distinct second-language English. It appears that these Afrikaans speakers quickly adapt to the pronunciation of New Zealand English (NZE). The present study seeks to shed light on changes which occur in the pronunciation of Afrikaans-speaking South Africans living in New Zealand. The results of the present study show that there is a difference in the L2 English pronunciation between Afrikaans speakers in New Zealand and their counterparts in South Africa. The L2 English pronunciation of Afrikaners in New Zealand is shown generally to approximate towards the articulation of NZE. Several factors appeared to influence differences in pronunciation, for example gender, identity change, having a NZE- speaking partner, and exposure to the L2. Afrikaans speakers in New Zealand seem to identify more readily as Kiwis than with their South African English counterparts. The present study concludes with the suggestion that, along with other factors, a change in identity apparently facilitates a change in pronunciation toward NZE pronunciation. The findings provide a novel perspective on the Afrikaans language in New Zealand, and offer a new perspective on the influence of identity on second language acquisition. Key words: Afrikaans, Afrikaans English, L2, New Zealand English, second language acquisition, SLA, pronunciation, identity, dialect change, SDA ii Acknowledgements The journey through this thesis was not often an easy ride and it would not have been possible without the help and support of so many people around me. Their understanding, advice and patience during the last four years made this thesis an enjoyable experience throughout. First and foremost, I would like to thank my primary supervisor, Dr Moyra Sweetnam Evans, who, at every step of way, offered unconditional support, promptly answered questions, and all but adopted me into her family. I must truly express my gratitude for her support and understanding through a particularly distressing time during my PhD which gave me the strength to persevere against what I believed were insurmountable odds. I can never thank her enough. Our impromptu meetings and all the laughter truly made this journey an experience worthy of remembering. I would also like to thank my secondary supervisor, Dr Hunter Hatfield, for translating the language of statistics into something I could understand and subsequently use. His advice made the entire methodology and analysis so much easier to produce. There were so many people who made this possible in their own ways. I would like to thank my good friends; Rose Gleeson for listening to my ideas, patiently putting up with my rants; Leigh Sullivan, who did all this as well as being conscripted into reading a couple of my chapters and providing feedback; and Megan Kliegl for the lunchtime catch-ups about anything else other than my thesis. I must also thank Dr Jo Oranje (the Doctor at Reception) for the advice, printing help, laughs and chats. It made those long days so much shorter. I also wish to thank Dr Karen McLean for the proof- reading and kind comments during the last stages of this thesis. The positive notes made it so much easier to deal with. iii I want to express my gratitude to my partner, Mauro, who came into my life during the last year of my PhD. His unconditional love and support gave me strength to continue and his own incredible work ethic rubbed off on me, facilitating the most productive year of my PhD. I only hope that I can support him as much through his PhD as he has for me through mine. I would also like to express my gratitude to the University of Otago for providing me with a PhD scholarship and the Humanities division for assisting me with their conference funding for my first international conference. Lastly, I would never have begun my journey into the depths of the PhD without the backing of my parents, Jan and Ian Howie. Their support and encouragement (and constant enquiries about my progress) motivated me throughout this journey. My work habits, love of education and drive to achieve stem from the way I was raised and for this, I cannot express my gratitude enough. iv My loving parents whose unwavering support lit up the darkest of nights and illuminated the path to strength, acceptance and success. To them, I dedicate this thesis. v Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. xi List of Charts ............................................................................................................................... xii List of Tables .............................................................................................................................. xiii Abbreviations and Conventions ............................................................................................. xvi Chapter 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.0 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background of the Study ....................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Significance of the Study ....................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Layout of the Thesis ............................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 9 Introduction to the Literature Review and the Dialects ......................................................... 9 2.0 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 9 2.1 New Zealand English .......................................................................................................... 10 2.2 South African English .......................................................................................................... 14 2.3 Afrikaans ............................................................................................................................... 19 2.3.1 Afrikaans in Pre-Apartheid South Africa ...................................................................... 20 2.3.2 Afrikaans in the Post-Apartheid Era - a New South Africa ........................................ 22 2.4 Afrikaans identity ................................................................................................................ 24 2.4.1 The first phase (1902-1947) ............................................................................................... 26 2.4.2 Phase two and the imagined community of Afrikaners.............................................. 27 2.4.3 Third Phase: The decline of Afrikaans and Post-Apartheid Revival ......................... 32 2.4.4 Afrikaans-Speaking Migrants in New Zealand ............................................................ 38 2.5 Afrikaans English ................................................................................................................. 41 Chapter 3 ..................................................................................................................................... 44 The Description of Consonants ................................................................................................ 44 vi 3.0 Overview ............................................................................................................................... 44 3.1 The Stops /p/, /t/, /k/ ............................................................................................................. 48 3.2 The consonant /r/ .................................................................................................................. 52 3.3 The fricative /h/ ..................................................................................................................... 56 Chapter 4 ..................................................................................................................................... 58 The Description of Vowels .......................................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • THE DEVELOPMENT of ACCENTED ENGLISH SYNTHETIC VOICES By
    THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACCENTED ENGLISH SYNTHETIC VOICES by PROMISE TSHEPISO MALATJI DISSERTATION Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in COMPUTER SCIENCE in the FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE (School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences) at the UNIVERSITY OF LIMPOPO SUPERVISOR: Mr MJD Manamela CO-SUPERVISOR: Dr TI Modipa 2019 DEDICATION In memory of my grandparents, Cecilia Khumalo and Alfred Mashele, who always believed in me! ii DECLARATION I declare that THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACCENTED ENGLISH SYNTHETIC VOICES is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references and that this work has not been submitted before for any other degree at any other institution. ______________________ ___________ Signature Date iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to recognise the following people for their individual contributions to this dissertation: • My brother, Mr B.I. Khumalo and the whole family for the unconditional love, support and understanding. • A distinct thank you to both my supervisors, Mr M.J.D. Manamela and Dr T.I. Modipa, for their guidance, motivation, and support. • The Telkom Centre of Excellence for Speech Technology for providing the resources and support to make this study a success. • My colleagues in Department of Computer Science, Messrs V.R. Baloyi and L.M. Kola, for always motivating me. • A special thank you to Mr T.J. Sefara for taking his time to participate in the study. • The six Computer Science undergraduate students who sacrificed their precious time to participate in data collection.
    [Show full text]
  • Cape Flats English'i
    The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University , II , Focusing and Diffusion inI 'Cape Flats English'I A sociophonetic study of three vowels Justin Brown (BRWJUS002) A minor dissertation submitted in partial fullfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics Faculty of the Humanities UniversityUniversity of of Cape Cape Town Town January 20122 COMPULSORY DECLARATION This work has not been previously submittedIII"\I"II'HIT.c.1'II in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature:, ________________Date: _____ Abstract This research contributes to the wider fields of sociophonetics and the social dialectology of English in South Africa. The study looks at three vowel sets; GOOSE, BATH and KIT taken from Wells (1982). The study was designed to identify and attempt to explain potential differences in pronunciation amongst speakers in an English-speaking community living in Cape Town and classified as 'Coloured' during apartheid. The community in question has used English as their first language for several generations and has enjoyed some of the economic advantages attached to this while at the same time being the victims (historically) of discrimination and marginalization.
    [Show full text]
  • English in South Africa: Effective Communication and the Policy Debate
    ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND THE POLICY DEBATE INAUGURAL LECTURE DELIVERED AT RHODES UNIVERSITY on 19 May 1993 by L.S. WRIGHT BA (Hons) (Rhodes), MA (Warwick), DPhil (Oxon) Director Institute for the Study of English in Africa GRAHAMSTOWN RHODES UNIVERSITY 1993 ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND THE POLICY DEBATE INAUGURAL LECTURE DELIVERED AT RHODES UNIVERSITY on 19 May 1993 by L.S. WRIGHT BA (Hons) (Rhodes), MA (Warwick), DPhil (Oxon) Director Institute for the Study of English in Africa GRAHAMSTOWN RHODES UNIVERSITY 1993 First published in 1993 by Rhodes University Grahamstown South Africa ©PROF LS WRIGHT -1993 Laurence Wright English in South Africa: Effective Communication and the Policy Debate ISBN: 0-620-03155-7 No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Mr Vice Chancellor, my former teachers, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen: It is a special privilege to be asked to give an inaugural lecture before the University in which my undergraduate days were spent and which holds, as a result, a special place in my affections. At his own "Inaugural Address at Edinburgh" in 1866, Thomas Carlyle observed that "the true University of our days is a Collection of Books".1 This definition - beloved of university library committees worldwide - retains a certain validity even in these days of microfiche and e-mail, but it has never been remotely adequate. John Henry Newman supplied the counterpoise: . no book can convey the special spirit and delicate peculiarities of its subject with that rapidity and certainty which attend on the sympathy of mind with mind, through the eyes, the look, the accent and the manner.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pronunciation of English in South Africa by L.W
    The Pronunciation of English in South Africa by L.W. Lanham, Professor Emeritus, Rhodes University, 1996 Introduction There is no one, typical South African English accent as there is one overall Australian English accent. The variety of accents within the society is in part a consequence of the varied regional origins of groups of native English speakers who came to Africa at different times, and in part a consequence of the variety of mother tongues of the different ethnic groups who today use English so extensively that they must be included in the English-using community. The first truly African, native English accent in South Africa evolved in the speech of the children of the 1820 Settlers who came to the Eastern Cape with parents who spoke many English dialects. The pronunciation features which survive are mainly those from south-east England with distinct Cockney associations. The variables (distinctive features of pronunciation) listed under A below may be attributed to this origin. Under B are listed variables of probable Dutch origin reflecting close association and intermarriage with Dutch inhabitants of the Cape. There was much contact with Xhosa people in that area, but the effect of this was almost entirely confined to the vocabulary. (The English which evolved in the Eastern and Central Cape we refer to as Cape English.) The next large settlement from Britain took place in Natal between 1848 and 1862 giving rise to pronunciation variables pointing more to the Midlands and north of England (List C). The Natal settlers had a strong desire to remain English in every aspect of identity, social life, and behaviour.
    [Show full text]
  • Corpus-Based Study on African English Varieties
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Academy Publication Online ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 615-623, May 2017 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0803.22 Corpus-based Study on African English Varieties Xiaohui Xu Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China Abstract—Corpus-based research is more and more used in linguistics. English varieties are used a lot in daily communications throughout the world. African English varieties are discussed in this paper, including West African English, East African English and South African English. Kenya and Tanzania corpus is the main target corpus while Jamaica corpus is used as a comparative one. The tool used is AntConc 3.2.4. Index Terms—corpus, English varieties, African English, pidgins, creoles I. INTRODUCTION A. Standard English There is an agreeable division among scholars that the whole world is divided into three circles: the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle. In the Inner Circle, English is spoken as mother tongue; in the Outer Circle, English is usually spoken as a second language; in the Expanding Circle, English is usually spoken as a foreign language. Standard English is used in books, newspapers, magazines and nearly everything else that appears in print in the English-speaking world. This type of English is called “standard” because it has undergone standardization, which means that it has been subjected to a process through which it has been selected and stabilized, in a way that other varieties have not.
    [Show full text]
  • The Indigenization of English Vowels by Zimbabwean Native Shona Speakers
    African Englishes: The Indigenization of English Vowels by Zimbabwean Native Shona Speakers by Maxwell Kadenge, D.Phil. [email protected] Department of Linguistics, University of the Witwatersrand Maxwell Kadenge (B.A. Hons, D.Phil.) is a Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Zimbabwe. He is currently engaged as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Literature and Language Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand where he is carrying out research on various aspects of the phonological and morphosyntactic structures of Southern Bantu languages and Zimbabwean English. Abstract This research is largely inspired by the increasing literature chronicling the worldwide emergence of “new Englishes” (Deyuan and David, 2009:70), particularly their subtype known as “African Englishes” (Mutonya, 2008:434). Although the variety of English that is spoken in Zimbabwe is clearly a distinct variation of African English, however it has not received significant attention from both theoretical and applied linguists. In this context, this study seeks to critically examine the vocalic characteristics of the variety of English that is predominantly spoken as a second language (L2) in Zimbabwe. In this regard, this exploratory research adopts a highly observational data collection method and qualitative data analysis approach in order to insightfully investigate the influence of native Shona phonology on the pronunciation of English vowels by Shona-English bilinguals. The main focus of this research is to analyze how native English simple monophthongs and complex vowels such as long monophthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs are pronounced by Shona-English bilinguals. This study shows that first language (L1) Shona speakers employ simplifying strategies such as monophthongization of diphthongs and glide epenthesis in order to reduce English diphthongs and triphthongs to five simple monophthongs corresponding to [i, e, a, o, u].
    [Show full text]
  • Nativization of English Among Bantu Language Speakers in South Africa
    UCLA Issues in Applied Linguistics Title Nativization of English among Bantu Language Speakers in South Africa Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9748v75z Journal Issues in Applied Linguistics, 15(2) ISSN 1050-4273 Author Makalela, Leketi Publication Date 2007 DOI 10.5070/L4152005082 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Nativization of English among Bantu Language Speakers in South Africa Leketi Makalela University of Limpopo 7KLVVWXG\LQYHVWLJDWHVFKDUDFWHULVWLFIHDWXUHVRI%ODFN6RXWK$IULFDQ(QJOLVK %6$( paying attention to the role of the Bantu language substrate system in the nativization proc- HVVRIWKHYDULHW\8VLQJSURWRW\SLFDOIHDWXUHVLGHQWLÀHGLQSUHYLRXVVWXGLHVDQGDGGLWLRQDO GDWDIURPVSHDNHUVRIDQRWKHU%DQWXODQJXDJH6HSHGLWKLVVWXG\H[DPLQHVWKHLQÁXHQFHRI ÀUVWODQJXDJHIHDWXUHVRQPRUSKRV\QWDFWLFSKRQRORJLFDODQGGLVFRXUVHDQGSUDJPDWLF IHDWXUHV7KHUHVXOWVRIWKHVWXG\VKRZWKDW%DQWXODQJXDJHORJLFSOD\VDSLYRWDOUROHLQ IUDPLQJWKHUXOHVDQGV\VWHPDWLFSURGXFWLRQRIWKH%6$(IHDWXUHV,WLVWKHUHIRUHDUJXHGWKDW GHYHORSPHQWVLQ%6$(VKRZWKDWLWKDVHYROYHGLQWRDQHQGRQRUPDWLYHYDULHW\LQLWVRZQ right and that it has future prospects for standardization due to the demographic strength DQGLPSURYHGVRFLDOUDQNRILWVVSHDNHUV5HFRPPHQGDWLRQVIRUODQJXDJHSODQQLQJDUHRI- IHUHGLQWKHHQGIRUDGDSWDWLRQWRRWKHUFRPSDUDEOHVLWXDWLRQV Research on the spread of English as an international language has shown WKDWRILWVVSHDNHUVDUHQRQWUDGLWLRQDOPRWKHUWRQJXHVSHDNHUV %UXWW*ULIÁHU 7KH:RUOG(QJOLVKHV :( SDUDGLJPZKLFKKDVIRUWKHSDVW\HDUVEHFRPH one of the frameworks
    [Show full text]
  • City Research Online
    City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Haman, E., Łuniewska, M., Hansen, P., Simonsen, H. G., Chiat, S., Bjekić, J., Blaziene, A., Chyl, K., Dabasinskiene, I., Engel de Abreu, P., Gagarina, N., Gavarro, A., Hakansson, G., Harel, E., Holm, E., Kapalkova, S., Kunnari, S., Levorato, C., Lindgren, J., Mieszkowska, K., Montes Salarich, L., Potgieter, A., Ribu, I., Ringblom, N., Rinker, T., Roch, M., Slancova, D., Southwood, F., Tedeschi, R., Tuncer, A. M., Unal-Logacev, O., Vuksanović, J. and Armon-Lotem, S. (2017). Noun and verb knowledge in monolingual preschool children across 17 languages: Data from cross-linguistic lexical tasks (LITMUS-CLT). Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 31(11-12), pp. 818-843. doi: 10.1080/02699206.2017.1308553 This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/17686/ Link to published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2017.1308553 Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of Metaphorical Idioms in South African Indian English*
    Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, Vol. 56, 2019, 1-12 doi: 10.5842/56-0-784 An analysis of metaphorical idioms in South African Indian English* Suren Naicker Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, University of South Africa E-mail: [email protected] Abstract This study looks at a selected number of expressions used in the variety of English known as “South African Indian English” (SAIE). Mesthrie (1992, 2010a) compiled a dictionary of expressions used within this language variety, which is the primary source of data for this study. Mesthrie has also published numerous scholarly works documenting various aspects of SAIE (cf. Mesthrie 1991, 1992a). A selection of five metaphorical idioms have been chosen for analysis, and the meanings as put forth by Mesthrie (1992, 2010a) have been cross-checked with 10 native speakers of SAIE, as well as the author’s native-speaker intuitions. The informants were all middle-class, professional, educated persons of Indian origin, who speak English as a first language; they were all between 30 and 60 years of age, and reside either in Johannesburg as internal economic migrants from Durban, or currently reside in Durban. As this analysis is undertaken through the lens of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the various metaphorical idioms are analysed as expressions of underlying conceptual metaphors, which confirms the idea that many entrenched idiomatic expressions are surface manifestations of underlying conceptual metaphors, and therefore part and parcel of the same human conceptual system. The analysis follows an adapted format used by Kövecses (2010), whereby the metaphorical idiom is stated, followed by the meaning, then the underlying conceptual metaphor.
    [Show full text]
  • Overview of Abstracts the Various Guises of Translanguaging Ghent 01/07/2019
    Overview of abstracts The various guises of translanguaging Ghent 01/07/2019 Overview Keynote 1 – Kathleen Heugh – Multilingualisms, translanguaging and transknowledging - 9:00-9:30 ............. 3 Session 1 – 9:30-10:45 ................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Cutrim Schmid, Euline - Learning to Develop and Implement Plurilingual Tasks in the EFL Classroom: The Value of Situated Practice in Pre-Service Language Teacher Education ............................................................ 4 2. Rosiers, Kirsten - Between socio-pedagogical valorisation and professional identity. The effect of translanguaging practices on a teacher in a Dutch-medium secondary school in multilingual Brussels ............. 5 3. Krause, Lara-Stephanie - Relanguaging Language in South African English Classrooms .......................... 5 4. Aleksić, Gabrijela & Džoen Dominique Bebić-Crestany - Translanguaging facing the challenges of multilingual education in Luxembourg .............................................................................................................. 6 5. Carbonara, Valentina & Andrea Scibetta - “L’AltRoparlante”: translanguaging-based inclusive pedagogy in Italian schools ............................................................................................................................... 7 Session 2 – 11:15-12:30 ................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • A View on South Africa Vivian DE KLERK
    Book reviews Links & Letters 5, 1998 259 A view on South Africa Vivian DE KLERK (ed.). Focus on South Africa. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1996. 328 pages. Kathleen HEUGH, Amanda SIEGRÜHN and Peter PLÜDDEMANN (eds.). Multilingual Education for South Africa. Johannesburg: Heinmann, 1995. ix + 150 pages. Russell H. KASCHULA and Christine ANTHONISSEN. Communicating Across Cultures in South Africa: Towards a Critical Language Awareness. Johannesburg etc.: Hodder & Stoughton, and Witwatersrand University Press, 1995. vii + 120 pages. L.W. LANHAM, David LANGHAM, Arie BLACQUIERE and Laurence WRIGHT. Getting the Message in South Africa. Intelligibility. Readability. Comprehensibility. Howick: Brevitas, 1995. iii + 132 pages. Rajend MESTHRIE (ed.). Language and Social History. Studies in South African Sociolinguistics. Cape Town and Johannesburg: David Philip, 1995. xx + 352 pages. The mid-1990s have seen the renewal of linguistic route to democracy and social a vigorous debate in South Africa around justice. Yet English will long continue to the issue of language, as indicated by the play a substantial role. It is at this point appearance of the five books to be dis- that concern tends to be voiced, for the cussed here. Democratisation has been unquestioned perpetuation of the accompanied by major shifts in the lan- present hegemony of English is seen as guage debate, away from the exclusive one of the chief dangers to democracy. focus on English and Afrikaans, and to- This newly heralded multilingualism wards the multiplicity signalled by the has consequences for any post-apartheid eleven official languages now enshrined discussion of English —as a glance at the in the Constitution. Of course the ap- works under consideration soon shows.
    [Show full text]
  • Patterns of Use of and Attitudes Towards the Afrikaans Language by South African Expatriates: a Sociolinguistic Perspective
    PATTERNS OF USE OF AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE AFRIKAANS LANGUAGE BY SOUTH AFRICAN EXPATRIATES: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE MARIAM PARKER Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of General Linguistics at the University of Stellenbosch Supervisor: Dr Marcelyn Oostendorp Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Department of General Linguistics December 2015 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Declaration By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. Mariam Parker December 2015 Copyright © 2015 University of Stellenbosch All rights reserved 2 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Abstract This thesis explores the attitudes of South African expatriates in the Middle East towards the Afrikaans language. It also examines the reported language behaviour of South Africans when meeting and interacting with fellow South Africans irrespective of what their first language (L1) is. The participants who form part of the study all work in the educational, medical and business sectors in the Middle East. This study is particularly interested in what the language repertoires of South African expatriates are and whether these repertoires form part of how they define themselves as a group and contribute to their identity construction. Whilst Afrikaans has had a contested history within the South African context, and is often viewed as the language of the oppressor, it has undoubtedly also been a first language to some of the “oppressed” and has served a function as lingua franca (McCormick 2006).
    [Show full text]