Standard and Non-Standard African Language Varieties in the Urban Areas of South Africa. Main Report for the STANON Research Programme
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 402 752 FL 024 304 AUTHOR Calteaux, Karen TITLE Standard and Non-Standard African Language Varieties in the Urban Areas of South Africa. Main Report for the STANON Research Programme. INSTITUTION Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria (South Africa). REPORT NO ISBN-0-7969-1754-X PUB DATE 96 NOTE 258p. AVAILABLE FROMHSRC Publishers, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria 0001, South Africa. PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141) Books (010) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC11 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *African Languages; Diachronic Linguistics; Foreign Countries; Geographic Distribution; Language Classification; *Language Role; Languages; *Language Variation; *Linguistic Borrowing; Phonology; *Standard Spoken Usage; Uncommonly Taught Languages; *Urban Areas IDENTIFIERS *South Africa ABSTRACT This report provides data on standard and non-standard African language varieties occurring in urban areas of South Africa, drawn from nine smaller reports. It illustrates the language use patterns in black urban communities and describes the language varieties spoken ir.them. It was foun impact cf non-standard varieties on the use of standard African languages is reflected clearly in their grammatical systems. Main sources 'of influence are the European languages of daily contact. Grammatical adaptation of the standard African languages, in the form of lexical adoption from foreign languages, is a major focus of the report. Implications of the study's results for African language planning and for education are discussed. Chapters address these topics: research origins, background, and methodology; theoretical bases in research on sociolinguistics, multilingualism, language change,linguistic borrowing, language variation, and language use within a speech community; language use patterns in black urban communities, both general and specific; the nature of phonological change; the nature of morphological change; syntactic change; semantic shift; language interference in the schools; language planning in this context; and implications for South African education policy and practice. Contains 124 references. (MSE) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** r rr I 44,111M IMO JEN I I I r. ID 1 U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Olive of Educational Research ace Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as owed from the person or organization o waling it Minor changes have been made to i improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent 1 official OERI position or policy PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GA:ANTED BY G. .:90,rbec5 i TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) cc 0 I I I BEST COPY AVAILA 11LJ fIL-1 Slandard and non-standard African language varieties in the urban areas of Sod Africa NM Report for the STANON Research Programme Karen Callous HSRC Publishers Pretoria 1996 3 © Human Sciences Research Council, 1996 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN 0-7969-1754-X Published by: HSRC Publishers 134 Pretorius Street PRETORIA 0001 South Africa Printed by: HSRC Printers CONTENTS PAGE List of tables vii List of abbreviations ix Preface xi Chapter 1:Introductory remarks 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Course of research 3 1.3 Rationale 5 1.3.1 The debate between the language purists and the laissez-faire 5 1.3.2 Understanding the language situation in urban areas 7 1.3.3 The phenomena of language contact, interference and adoption 8 1.3.4 The implications of the language variation in urban areas for education 9 1.3.5 The implications of this research for language planning 11 1.3.6 The STANON programme's contribution to the RDP and the White Paper on Education 11 1.4 Brief overview of South African research on language contact phenomena 12 1.5 Aims of the subreports 13 1.6 Data collection 14 1.7 Potentially offensive terms and terminology 15 1.8 Contents of this report 15 Chapter 2:Theoretical background 2.1 Introduction 17 2.2 Sociolinguistics 17 2.3 Multilingualism 17 2.4 Multilingualism in the South African context 18 2.5 Language contact and mixing 19 2.6 "Borrowing" / adoption 20 2.6.1 Cultural "borrowing" 21 2.6.2 Intimate "borrowing" 21 2.6.3 Reasons for lexical adoption (vocabulary gain) 22 2.6.3.1 The need- filling motive 22 2.6.3.2 The prestige motive 22 2.6.3.3 Other factors 23 2.6.4 Vocabulary loss 23 2.6.5 The role of "culture" 24 2.7 Language change 25 2.7.1 Phylogenetic change 25 2.8 Source languages 26 2.8.1 African languages as source languages 27 2.9 The question of language purity 28 2.10 Variety-synthesis 29 PAGE 2.11 Linguistic variation in speech communities 30 2.11.1The concept "language variety" 30 2.11.2The concept "speech community" 30 2.11.3"Language" vs. "Dialect" 30 2.11.4Verbal repertoires 32 2.11.5Register 34 2.11.6Standard language 36 2.11.7Standardisation 37 2.11.8Non-standard language varieties 38 2.11.9Regional dialect vs. Social dialect 39 2.11.10 Lingua franca 40 2.12 Language use in a speech community 40 2.12.1Introduction 40 2.12.2Code choice in multilingual speech communities 40 2.12.2.1 Topic 41 2.12.2.2 The Interlocutors / Participants in the speech event 41 2.12.2.3 Setting and Domains of language use 41 2.12.2.4 Sociolinguistic functions of languages 42 2.13 Concluding remarks 43 Chapter 3:Language use patterns in black urban communities 3.1 Introduction 45 3.2 The origins and nature of the multilingualism in SA townships 45 3.3 Finding a medium of communication 46 3.4 Describing the language varieties which occur in these multilingual settings 47 3.4.1 Home language 48 3.4.2 Colloquial language 48 3.4.3 English and Afrikaans 48 3.4.4 Standard languages 50 3.4.5 Non-standard varieties 51 3.4.5.1 Black Urban Vernacular 51 3.4.5.2 The case of Pretoria Tsonga and Urban Xhosa 54 3.4.5.3 Fanakalo 54 3.4.5.4 Gang language 55 3.4.5.5 Slang 56 3.4.5.6 Tsotsitaat and Iscamtho 56 3.4.5.7 Argot 62 3.4.5.8 Tembisa Iscamtho 63 3.5 The impact of language contact 63 3.6 Sociolinguistic profiles of the linguistic varieties occurring in a typical black urban speech community 64 3.7 Concluding remarks 76 Chapter 4: Phonological changes 4.1 Introduction 77 4.2 Differences between phonological systems 77 4.3. Diachronic and synchronic language changes 77 4.4 The concept "phoneme" 78 4.5 The vowel and consonant systems of the African languages 79 ii6 PAGE 4.6 Changes to the sound systems of the African languages 80 4.6.1 Vowel changes 80 4.6.1.1 Vowel substitution 81 4.6.1.2 Vowel elision 82 4.6.2 Substitution of diphthongs 82 4.6.2.1 Diphthongs reduced to single vowels 82 4.6.2.2 Diphthongs reduced to two vowels (i.e. a vowel sequence) 83 4.6.2.3 Diphthongs separated by semi-vowels 83 4.6.3 Phonetic convergence 84 4.6.4 Consonant changes 85 4.6.4.1 Single consonants 85 4.6.4.2 Consonant clusters 87 4.6.4.3 Nasals and Alveolars 91 4.6.4.4 Assimilation of r 93 4.7 Syllable adjustments 95 4.7.1 Vowel epenthesis 96 4.7.2 No need for vowel epenthesis 97 4.7.3 Modern trends 98 4.7.4 Final vowels in verb stems 98 4.8 Phonological processes 99 4.8.1 Palatalisation in Tsonga 99 4.8.2 Other phonological processes 100 4.9 Stress 100 4.10 Tone 100 4.11 Explanations for the phonological changes of adoptives 101 4.12 Concluding remarks 103 Chapter 5:Morphological changes 5.1 Introduction 105 5.2 Morphological interference 106 5.2.1 Prefixal interference 106 5.2.2 Suffixal interference 108 5.3 Classification of adopted nouns without morphological interference 109 5.4 Back-formations 111 5.5 Derivational processes 112 5.5.1 Nouns derived from nouns 112 5.5.2 Nouns derived from adopted verbs 113 5.5.3 Verbs derived from adopted nouns 114 5.5.4 Verbs derived from adopted verbs 114 5.5.5 Combinations of derivations 115 5.5.6 The suffix -isha 116 5.6 Compounding 116 5.6.1 Compounds with adoptives 117 5.6.2 Non-compounds from source compounds 117 5.6.3 Near-comp6uncis 117 5.6.4 Modern compounds 117 5.7 Morpheme gain and loss 118 5.7.1 Morpheme gain 118 5.7.2 Morpheme loss 119 iii PAGE 5.8 Neologisms 119 5.8.1 Deideophonic neologisms 120 5.8.2 Deverbatives 120 5.8.3 Verbal extensions 120 5.8.4 Compounds 121 5.9 Conclusion 122 Chapter 6: Syntactical changes 6.1 Introduction 123 6.2 The structure of the sentence in the African languages 123 6.2.1 The ordering of sentence constituents 123 6.2.2 Variations in sentence structure 124 6.3 Concordial agreement 125 6.3.1 "Incorrect" concords 125 6.3.2 Foreign concords 126 6.4 Adjectival agreement 127 6.5 Adverbs and locatives 127 6.6 Conjunctives 128 6.7 Codeswitching 129 6.7.1 The nature of codeswitching 129 6.7.2 The functions of CS 129 6.7.3 CS to European languages 131 6.7.4 CS to African languages 131 6.7.5 CS within the classroom situation 131 6.8 Concluding remarks 132 Chapter 7: Semantic shifts 7.1 Introduction 133 7.2 Semantic change 134 7.3 Semantic broadening 135 7.3.1 Semantic broadening in adoptives 135 7.3.2 Semantic broadening in native words 138 7.4 Semantic narrowing 138 7.5 Onomastic shifts 139 7.6 Problems and overlap 140 7.7 Calques 140 7.8 Slang 141 7.9 Semantic categories 142 7.9.1 The semantic category PERSON 143 7.10 Conclusions