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PRESTIGE TERMINOLOGY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NORTHERN SOTHO VOCABULARY V. M. Mojela PRESTIGE TERMINOLOGY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NORTHERN SOTHO VOCABULARY by VICTOR MAROPENG MOJELA submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject AFRICAN LANGUAGES at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: PROF I M KOSCH NOVEMBER 1999 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My acknowledgements go to the following people, without whom I may not have succeeded in writing this thesis: My promoter, Professor l.M. Kosch, whose patience, dedication and encouragements gave me hope and confidence. She was always serious and determined to see me go through this 'academic bridge', and this determination was seen in her swiftness in handling the work I submitted to her for correction. To Professor Kosch I want to say: 'I will always remember that I am what I am because of you. You made my future'. I also want to thank Professor L.J. Louwrens for his encouragements and fruitful advices during the course of my studies. I also want to thank the University of the North for the financial aid I received in the form of payments of registration fees and money from the Research Department for binding this thesis. I want to give my gratitude to the following people who also helped during the course of my research: My wife, Mary, for creating a good atmosphere at home for me for research. My colleague, Mr. Sekgaila Chokoe, for helping me in the various problems concerning computer techniques. Christina Kgonyana and Morongwoenyana Ntsala, for their assistance in the printing and typing of this thesis, Annah Thema, the Language Librarian at the University of the North, and Mokgadi Elsie Molelemane, for helping me in processing complicated illustrations in this thesis . • ff+'I ...... ·.. :',..• J 496.39771014 MOJE 111111111111~1 0001761361 PRESTIGE TERMINOLOGY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NORTHERN SOTHO VOCABULARY By: Victor Maropeng Mojela Degree: Doctor of Literature and Philosophy Subject: African Languages Promoter: Prof. l.M. Kosch SUMMARY The thesis investigates the factors which lead to the development of 'prestige' terminology in the Northern Sotho vocabulary. It investigates the factors which lead to the development of 'prestige' language varieties and 'prestige' dialects, which are sources of 'prestige' terminology. These factors include, inter alia, urbanization, industrialization, the missionary activities and standardisation. The thesis tries to explain the reason why most of the Northern Sotho people do not feel free to speak their language when they are among other communities~lt explains the reason why the speakers of the so-called 'inferior' dialects of Northern Sotho have an inferiority complex while the speakers of the 'prestige' dialects have confidence when speaking their dialects. The people who are residents of the urban and industrialized areas have a high standard of living due to the availability of employment opportunities, while the rural communities are usually unemployed and, as such, their standard of living is low. This elevates the urban community to a high status which is shared by the type of language they speak. The rural communities start associating themselves with the urban communities by imitating the urban varieties in order to elevate themselves. This is one of the reasons which lead to the widespread use of urban slang and other language varieties which are associated with the urban areas of South Africa, i.e. the PWV (Pretoria, Witwatersrand and Vereeniging). Standardisation of Northern Sotho and the missionary activities within the Northern Sotho communities led to the creation of 'superior' and 'inferior' dialects. The missionary societies established missionary stations among certain Northern Sotho communities while other communities did not have these stations, and became the vanguards of Western civilization among the indigenous people of Southern Africa. ~The dialects among which the missionary stations were established came to enjoy a high status since these varieties were the first to be converted to written forms. In this case, the first varieties to be considered during standardisation were those which had a written orthography, and this is exactly what happened in the standardisation of Northern Sotho. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 CHAPTER! THE ROLE OF STANDARDISATION OF NORTHERN SOTHO 1.1 Prestige terminology 8 1.2 Factors leading to prestige terminology 8 ~ 1.2.1 Standardisation 8 1.2.2 The missionary activities 16 1.2.3 Political factors 19 i.2A The role of the Language Boards 22 1.2.5 Socio-economic factors 27 1.3 Dialectology and dialects of Northern Sotho 31 1.3.1 Dialects ofNorthern Sotho 32 1.3.2 Attitudes towards dialects 33 1.3.2.1 The low-class dialects 34 1.3 .2.2 Prestige dialects 38 1.4 The consequences of Northern Sotho standardisation 41 1.4.1 The psychological effects - inferiority and superiority complexes 41 1.4.2 The decline of dialectal vocabulary 41 1.4.3 Vocabulary imbalance among the Northern Sotho people 42 CHAPTER2 PRESTIGE TERMINOLOGY IN FOREIGN ACQUISITION 2.1 Introductory definition 44 2.2 Types of borrowing (foreign acquisition) 46 2.2.1 Direct borrowing 46 2 2.2.1.1 Loanwords 46 2.2.1.2 Foreign words 48 2.2.2 Indirect borrowing 51 2.3 Prestige as motive for foreign acquisition (borrowing) 52 2.3 .1 Political domination 54 2. 3 .1.1 The influence of Colonialism 55 2.3 .1.2 English and Afrikaans in South Africa 56 2. 3 .1. 3 Directionality of borrowing 61 2.3 .2 Numerical preponderance 64 2.3 .3 Economic power 66 2.4 The gap-filling motive 67 2.5 The consequences of foreign acquisition in Northern Sotho 70 2.5.1 Morphophonological changes 70 2. 5 .2 The rise of semantic shifts 72 2.5.2.1 Meaning extension and ambiguity 73 2.5.2.2 Meaning restriction 76 2.5.2.3 Complete shift of meaning 77 2.5.3 Enrichment of vocabulary and euphemism 79 CHAPTER3 THE USE OF SLANG IN NORTHERN SOTHO 3.1 Types of slang common in South Africa 81 3.1.1 Tsotsi-taal or flytaal 84 3.1.2 Slang from other speech communities 96 3.1.2.1 The rhyming slang 96 3.1.2.2 The prison slang or the hoop language 97 3.1.2.3 The taxi language 99 3.2 Code-switching and code-mixing 100 3 3 .2.1 Factors leading to code-switching and code-mixing 102 3.2.2 Code-switching and code-mixing with slang 104 3.3 Factors leading to the use of slang in languages 107 3. 3 .1 Multilingualism 107 3.3.2 Prestige motive 109 3.3.2.1 Euphemism 112 3.3.2.2 Recognition 114 3 .3 .3 Disguise motive 116 3.3.4 Short and to the point 118 3.4 The consequences of slang, code-switching and code-mixing in Northern Sotho 119 3.4.1 Semantic shifts and ambiguity 120 3.4.1.1 The creation of synonyms 120 3. 4 .1.2 Ambiguity through polysemy 121 3.4.2 'Contamination' of standard languages 122 3.4.3 Improvement of vocabulary 123 CHAPTER4 CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES OF SOUTHERN AFRICA 4.1 Factors determining the prestige of the indigenous languages 124 4.1.1 Socio-economic factors 124 4.1.2 Proximity to urban environment 134 4.1.3 Literacy rate and civilization 138 4.2 Contributions by the indigenous languages 141 4.2.1 The Sotho languages 144 4.2.2 The Nguni languages 145 4.2.3 The Tsonga and Venda languages 149 4 CHAPTERS SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 5.1 Prestige terminology and prestige language 151 5.2 Factors which determine prestige terminology and prestige language 153 5.2.1 Socio-political factors 153 5.2.2 Missionary activities 155 5.2.3 Economic factors 157 5.2.4 Urbanization 159 5.2.5 Standardisation 162 5.3 The dialects of Northern Sotho 163 5.4 The role of foreign acquisition in the development of prestige terminology in Northern Sotho 166 5.4.l The role played by English and Afrikaans 166 5.4.2 The role played by urban slang 167 5.4.3 The role played by the indigenous languages of Southern Africa 170 5.5 The consequences of prestige terminology in Northern Sotho 171 5.5.l Emotional consequences 171 5.5.2 Expansion of vocabulary 172 5.5.3 Pronunciation shifts 173 5.6 Conclusion 174 Glossary 176 Bibliography 196 5 INTRODUCTION The main objective of this research is to assess the role played by 'prestige' terminology in the development of the vocabulary of Northern Sotho. In the context of this research, 'prestige' terminology refers to: (1) The terminology adopted by Northern Sotho from the two 'prestige' languages which used to be the only official languages before 1994, i.e. English and Afrikaans. (2) The slang terminology which is commonly used by most of the Northern Sotho people. (3) A mixture of Southern Sotho and Tswana terminology which is frequently used with Northern Sotho by the Northern Sotho people. ( 4) The terminology derived from the 'prestige' dialects of Northern Sotho (such as Pedi and Kopa) by the 'inferior' dialects such as Lobedu, Phalaborwa, Pulana, Tlokwa, Khutswe (i.e. the Lowveld dialects). This research explains some of the factors which lead to the use of 'prestige' terminology in Northern Sotho, such as urbanization, missionary activities, standardisation and industrialization. It explains the reasons why most of the Northern Sotho communities do not have confidence in their language, especially the speakers of the 'inferior' dialects in the Lowveld. The thesis is divided into five chapters.