THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF ISINDEBELE ORTHOGRAPHY AND SPELLING (1921-2010) by KATJIE SPONONO MAHLANGU A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Literature in the Department of African Languages at the UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA FACULTY OF HUMANITIES SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR M.J. MOJALEFA August 2015 DECLARATION I declare that “The Growth and Development of isiNdebele Orthography and Spelling (1921-2010)” is my own work and that all the sources that I have used and quoted in the study have been acknowledged by means of complete references. ……………………. K.S. MAHLANGU ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to the Almighty Lord and the following people who contributed to the completion of my thesis: my promoter, Prof. M.J. Mojalefa, for his inspiration, encouragement and insightful guidance throughout my study, despite his own tight schedule – he never gave up even during difficult times; he kept on inspiring me to persevere in my studies;my meticulous editor, Prof. Rosemary Gray; my colleagues in the isiNdebele Dictionary Unit as well as in the Department of African Languages, who always kept their doors open to me; our librarians, Ms Fundiswa Buthelezi, Rianie van der Linde and Hleziphi Napaai, for helping me with all the references I needed for this study; my daughter Thembisile, my nephew Mathula, and my nieces Smunju (Itumeleng) and Maropeng, who had to suffer a lack of attention and household chaos as a result of my study – their presence and support never failed to inspire me and give me strength and courage; and all my brothers and sisters, who wished me success throughout my research. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................. 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Nomenclature ..................................................................... 1 1.1.2 Standardisation .................................................................. 5 1.1.3 Aim of the research study .................................................. 7 1.1.4 Research Methodology ...................................................... 8 1.1.5 Literature review ................................................................ 8 1.1.6 The significance of the research study ............................. 15 1.1.7 Outline of the investigation ............................................. 16 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................ 19 2.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY................................................... 19 2.2 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 19 2.2.1 Research Methods ............................................................ 20 2.2.2 Types of scientific research ............................................. 22 2.2.3 Conclusion ....................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................ 32 3.1 DIALECTS AND STANDARDISATION .................................... 32 3.2 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 32 3.3 DIALECTS .................................................................................... 32 3.2.1 Standard dialects or varieties ........................................... 35 3.2.2 Non-standard dialect ........................................................ 35 3.3 STANDARDISATION .................................................................. 37 3.3.1 What is standardisation? .................................................. 37 3.3.2 Language standardisation ................................................ 44 3.3.3 Standard languages .......................................................... 45 3.4 CONCLUSION .............................................................................. 47 CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................ 49 4.1 STANDARDISATION OF ISINDEBELE DIALECTS ............... 49 4.2 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 49 4.3 THE ORIGIN OF ISINDEBELE DIALECTS .............................. 49 4.4 THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME ‘NZUNZA’ .................................. 51 4.4.1 The Nzunza dialect .......................................................... 53 4.4.2 Nzunza characteristics: ‘Ndrondroza’ feature ................. 53 4.5 THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME ‘MANALA’ .................................. 56 4.5.1 The Manala dialect .......................................................... 57 4.5.2 The Manala characteristics: ‘liliza’ feature ..................... 57 4.6 LANGUAGE STANDARDISATION........................................... 60 4.6.1 IsiNdebele loaned dialect (words) ................................... 62 4.6.2 Lexicalisation of Afrikaans phrases ................................. 71 4.7 CONCLUSION .............................................................................. 75 CHAPTER 5 ................................................................................................ 77 5.1 TERMINOLOGY .......................................................................... 77 5.2 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 77 5.2.1 The concept terminology ................................................. 77 5.2.2 Standardisation of terminology ........................................ 83 5.2.3 Terminology development ............................................... 87 5.2.4 Challenges in terminological development ................... 105 5.2.5 IsiNdebele Terminology ................................................ 110 5.2.6 Conclusion ..................................................................... 113 CHAPTER 6 .............................................................................................. 115 6.1 THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF ISINDEBELEORTHOGRAPHY ................................................ 115 6.2 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 115 6.2.1 The history of isiNdebele orthography .......................... 115 6.2.2 Fourie’s (1921) orthography .......................................... 122 6.2.3 Van Warmelo’s (1930) orthography .............................. 137 6.2.4 Potgieter’s (1945) orthography ...................................... 151 6.2.5 Coetzee’s (1980) orthography ....................................... 157 6.3 CONCLUSION ............................................................................ 162 CHAPTER 7 .............................................................................................. 170 7.1 GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARRANGEMENT OF ISINDEBELE ORTHOGRAPHIC SIGNS .......................................................................................... 170 7.2 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 170 7.2.1 Presentation of vowels in isiNdebele orthographies ...... 171 7.2.2 Deficiencies in articulation of consonants in isiNdebele orthographies regarding (a) explosives, (b) implosives, (c) fricatives, (d) affricates, (e) liquids, (f) vibrant, (g) nasals and (h) click sounds .............................................................. 182 7.2.3 Formulation of spelling rules on capitalization ............. 196 7.2.4 Insufficient argument on word-division ........................ 205 7.2.5 Presentation of punctuation marks ................................. 213 7.2.6 Presentation of borrowed sounds ................................... 230 7.3 CONCLUSION ............................................................................ 232 CHAPTER 8 .............................................................................................. 233 8.1 SYNOPSIS ................................................................................... 233 8.2 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 233 8.3 CHAPTER ONE .......................................................................... 233 8.4 CHAPTER TWO ......................................................................... 235 8.5 CHAPTER THREE ..................................................................... 236 8.6 CHAPTER FOUR ........................................................................ 238 8.7 CHAPTER FIVE ......................................................................... 241 8.8 CHAPTER SIX ............................................................................ 243 8.9 CHAPTER SEVEN ..................................................................... 244 SUMMARY ............................................................................................... 247 KEY WORDS ............................................................................................ 249 RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................... 250 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. LIST OF ADDENDA Addendum A: Van Warmelo’s orthography (1930) Addendum B: The Southern Ndebele orthography (1982) Addendum C: Ndebele Sound System and Orthography (1995) Addendum D: IsiNdebele Terminology and Orthography No. 1 (2001) Addendum E: IsiNdebele spelling and Orthography rules (2005) Addendum F: Imithetho yokutlola nokupeleda isiNdebele (2008) LIST OF