Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of phonetic symbols
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The main language groupings
- Part II Language contact
- 9 Fanakalo: a pidgin in South Africa
- 10 Mutual lexical borrowings among some languages of southern Africa: Xhosa, Afrikaans and English
- 11 Code-switching, mixing and convergence in Cape Town
- 12 Code-switching in South African townships
- 13 Intercultural miscommunication in South Africa
- 14 Women's language of respect: isihlonipho sabafazi
- 15 The sociohistory of clicks in Southern Bantu
- 16 The political economy of language shift: language and gendered ethnicity in a Thonga community
- 17 From second language to first language: Indian South African English
- 18 Black South African English
- 19 The lexicon and sociolinguistic codes of the working-class Afrikaans-speaking Cape Peninsula coloured community
- 20 An Introduction to Flaaitaal (or Tsotsitaal)
- 21 Language and language practices in Soweto
- Part III Language planning, policy and education
- Index
- References
12 - Code-switching in South African townships
from Part II - Language contact
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Edited by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of phonetic symbols
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The main language groupings
- Part II Language contact
- 9 Fanakalo: a pidgin in South Africa
- 10 Mutual lexical borrowings among some languages of southern Africa: Xhosa, Afrikaans and English
- 11 Code-switching, mixing and convergence in Cape Town
- 12 Code-switching in South African townships
- 13 Intercultural miscommunication in South Africa
- 14 Women's language of respect: isihlonipho sabafazi
- 15 The sociohistory of clicks in Southern Bantu
- 16 The political economy of language shift: language and gendered ethnicity in a Thonga community
- 17 From second language to first language: Indian South African English
- 18 Black South African English
- 19 The lexicon and sociolinguistic codes of the working-class Afrikaans-speaking Cape Peninsula coloured community
- 20 An Introduction to Flaaitaal (or Tsotsitaal)
- 21 Language and language practices in Soweto
- Part III Language planning, policy and education
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Language contact, including contact within the Bantu language family, is not a new phenomenon. However, switching languages or linguistic varieties within the same conversation, or code-switching (CS) as it is termed, is a dynamic and growing phenomenon as contact between speakers of various languages throughout the world continues to increase. This chapter offers an introduction to the relationship between social history and linguistic studies on CS in South African townships, as well as some contexts within which CS is practised in South African townships. Thereafter, a sociohistorical overview of a variety of perspectives on CS research will be given.
The term ‘code-switching’ will be used in this chapter to include full constituents as well as single lexemes. No distinction will be made between ‘noun switching’ (Poplack 1981: 171), ‘nonce borrowings’ (Sankoff and Vanniarajan 1990), code-mixing (CM) (Kachru 1978) and code-switching. Myers-Scotton (1993b: 24) notes in this regard that many CS researchers do not make clear how they classify single lexemes. In particular they are not willing to label as borrowed forms all singly occurring forms drawn from another language, so ‘code-mixing’ becomes a compromise designation. The distinction between CS and borrowing is also still unresolved. In this chapter the term ‘code-switching’ will include references to singly occurring forms as well as to intrasentential and intersentential CS within, as well as across, conversational turns.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Language in South Africa , pp. 235 - 257Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002
References
1993. ‘Teacher education: code-switching amongst Zulu-speaking pupils and their teachers’. South African Journal of Applied Language Studies, 2, 1: 3–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, D. 1992. ‘Language and social history in South Africa: a task still to be undertaken’. In R. K. Herbert (ed.), Language and Society in Africa. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Press, pp. 71–92
Brownlee, W. T. 1975. Reminiscences of a Transkeian. Shuter & Shooter, Pietermaritzburg
Calteaux, K. 1992 (ed.). South African Journal for African Languages, 12, Supplement 1
Calteaux, K. 1994. ‘A Sociolinguistic Analysis of a Multilingual Community’. Ph.D. thesis, Rand Afrikaans University
Childs, G. Tucker 1996. ‘The status of Isicamtho, an Nguni-based urban variety of Soweto’. In A. Spears and D. Winford (eds.), Pidgins and Creoles: Structure and Status. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 1–27
1990. ‘Old Tswana and new Latin’. South African Journal of African Languages, 10, 4: 345–53Google Scholar
Dittmar, N. 1976. Sociolinguistics. London. Edward Arnold
Finlayson, R. 1993. ‘The changing face of Xhosa’. In R. Hill, M. Muller, M. Trump (eds.), African Studies Forum, vol. II. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council, pp. 175–94
Finlayson, R. and S. Slabbert 1997a. ‘“I'll meet you halfway with language” – codeswitching within a South African urban context’. In Martin Pütz (ed.), Language Choices: Conditions, Constraints, and Consequences. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 381–421
Finlayson, R. and S. Slabbert 1997b. ‘“We just mix”: code switching in a South African township’. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 125: 65–98
Finlayson, R. and S. Slabbert 1997c. ‘“We just mix”: codeswitching functions within an urban context’. South African Journal of Linguistics, 15, 4: 123–34CrossRef
, and 1998. ‘Orderly mixing: codeswitching and accommodation in South Africa’. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2, 3: 395-420CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. 1974. ‘The Social Significance of Conversational Codeswitching’. Working Paper 46. Berkeley, Calif.: Language Behavior Laboratory
1992. ‘Conversational code-switching’. South African Journal of African Languages, 12, 3: 93–7Google Scholar
, and 1997. ‘Transforming South Africa's cities: prospects for the economic development of urban townships’. Development Southern Africa, 14, 1, February: 43–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herbert, R. K. 1997. ‘The meaning of language choices in South Africa’. In Robert K. Herbert (ed.), African Linguistics at the Crossroads. Cologne: Rüdiger Köpper Verlag, pp. 395–415
Heugh, K., A. Siegrühn and P. Plüddeman 1995. Multilingual Education for South Africa. Johannesburg: Heinemann
Janson, T. 1984. ‘A language of Sophiatown, Alexandra, and Soweto’. In M. Sebba and L. Todd (eds.), York Papers in Linguistics. Papers from the York Creole Conference, September 24–27, 1983. Heslington: University of York, pp. 167–80
1978. ‘Toward structuring code-mixing: an Indian perspective’. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 16: 27–47Google Scholar
Kamwangamalu, N. 1989. ‘Code-mixing across Languages: Structure, Functions, and Constraints’. D. Litt. et Phil. thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Kamwangamalu, N. 1994. ‘The siSwati–English code-switching: the matrix language principle and linguistic constraints.’ South African Journal of African Language, 12, 2: 72–7
Kamwangamalu, N. 1996. ‘Sociolinguistic aspects of siSwati–English bilingualism.’ World Englishes, 15, 3: 295–305CrossRef
Kamwangamalu, N. 1998. ‘We-codes, they-codes, and the codes-in-between: identities of English and codeswitching in post-apartheid South Africa’. In N. M. Kamwangamalu (ed.), Aspects of Multilingualism in Post-apartheid South Africa: A Special Issue of Multilingua 17, 2 & 3. Berlin and New York: Mouton, pp. 119–23
1993. ‘The case against codeswitching in multilingual classrooms’. ELTIC Reporter, 17, 2: 13–16Google Scholar
Khati, T. 1992. ‘Intra-lexical switching or nonce borrowing? Evidence from SeSotho–English performance’. In Robert K. Herbert (ed.), Language and Society in Africa. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Press, pp. 181–96
1984. ‘A preliminary survey of Zulu adoptives’. African Studies, 43, 2: 205–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopman, A. 1994. ‘Lexical Adoptives in Zulu’. D Litt. et Phil. thesis, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg
1993. ‘National additive bilingualism’ – a language plan for South African schools'. South African Journal of Applied Language Studies, 2, 1: 28–38Google Scholar
Madiba, M. R. 1994. ‘A linguistic Survey of Adoptives in Venda’. MA thesis, University of South Africa
Makhudu, K. D. P. 1995. ‘An introduction to Flaaitaal’. In R. Mesthrie (ed.), Language and Social History: Studies in South African Sociolinguistics. Cape Town: David Philip, pp. 298–305
Malimabe, R. M. 1990. ‘The Influence of Non-standard Varieties on the Standard Setswana of High School Pupils’. MA thesis, Rand Afrikaans University
1992. ‘Standard and non-standard: towards finding a suitable teaching strategy’. South African Journal for African Languages, 12, Supplement 1: 47–56Google Scholar
1997. ‘The language of learning: current practice and its implication for language policy implementation’. Journal for Language Teaching, 31, 3: 226–37Google Scholar
Mfenyana, B. 1977. ‘Isi-khumsha nesiTsotsi: The Sociolinguistics of School and Town Sintu in South Africa (1945–1975)’. MA thesis, Boston University
Mfusi, M. 1990. ‘Soweto Zulu Slang: A Sociolinguistic Study of an Urban Vernacular in Soweto’. Mini-dissertation for BA Honours, University of South Africa
1987. ‘Impact of Zulu on Tsotsitaal’. South African Journal for African Languages, 7, 3: 82–6Google Scholar
Myers-Scotton, C. 1992. ‘Codeswitching in Africa: a model of the social functions of code selection’. In Robert K. Herbert (ed.), Language and Society in Africa. Johannesburg. Witwatersrand University Press, pp. 165–80
Myers-Scotton, C. 1993a. Social Motivations for Codeswitching. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Myers-Scotton, C. 1993b. Duelling Languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press
1992. ‘The static and dynamic elements of tsotsi language with special reference to Zulu – a sociolinguistic study’. South African Journal for African Languages, 12, Supplement 1: 97–103Google Scholar
Ntshangase, D. K. 1995. ‘Indaba yami i-straight: language and language practices in Soweto’. In R. Mesthrie (ed.), Language and Social History: Studies in South African Sociolinguistics. Cape Town: David Philip, pp. 291–7
Poplack, S. 1981. ‘Syntactic structure and the social function of code-switching’. In R. P. Duran (ed.), Latino Language and Communicative Behaviour. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corporation, pp. 169–84
and 1990. ‘The case of the nonce loan in Tamil’. Language Variation and Change, 2: 71–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuring, G. K. 1985. Kosmopolitiese omgangstale. Die aard, oorsprong en funksies van Pretoria-Sotho en ander koine-tale. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council
Schuring, G. K. 1983. ‘Flaaitaal’. In G. Claassen and C. van Rensburg (eds.), Taalverskeidenheid. Pretoria: Academica, pp. 116–33
1994. ‘A re-evaluation of the sociology of Tsotsitaal’. South African Journal for Linguistics, 12, 1: 31–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and 2000. ‘“I'm a cleva!”: the linguistic make-up of identity in a South African urban environment’. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 144: 119–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and 1996. ‘The structure of Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho: code-switching and in-group identity in South African townships’. Linguistics, 34: 317–42Google Scholar
Slabbert, S. and I. van den Berg 1994. ‘Language study’. Management report, prepared for the South African Broadcasting Corporation
1992. ‘The difference between rural and urban Xhosa varieties’. South African Journal for African Languages, 12, Supplement 1: 77–90Google Scholar
Thompson, J. B. 1991. ‘Introduction’. In P. Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, ed. J. B. Thompson, trans. G. Raymond and M. Adamson. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, pp. 1–31
van Vuuren, D. and A. Maree 1994. ‘Language and broadcasting in South Africa: a research perspective’. SABC Broadcasting Research Unit
- 14
- Cited by