Language shift or maintenance? Factors determining the use of Afrikaans among some township youth in South Africa

Dyers, Charlyn

doi:10.5774/38-0-22

Cited by 25 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…These findings are consistent with research by Dyers (2007Dyers ( , 2008 on the significance of vernacular Afrikaans in working class Coloured communities. As she points out even in the presence of a powerful language of wider communication, people can continue to identify powerfully with their home languages, especially when it enhances their personal and group identities or is a marker of their ethnolinguistic distinctiveness (Dyers 2007:97).…”

Section: Sociolinguistic Factorssupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Kamwangamalu 2007) is also evident in certain historically Afrikaans communities. Specifically, the phenomenon of language shift from Afrikaans to English in certain Western Cape Coloured communities has formed the focus of a number of studies, namely Anthonie (2009); Anthonissen (2009);Anthonissen and George (2003); Dyers (2008);and Farmer (2008). Anthonissen (2009), for example, notes that various indicators of language shift are present in the data collected from middle-class Coloured families, specifically that there is a difference across generations of what participants identify as their own L1; there is a shift in the language of schooling from Afrikaans to English L1; and church services, an important form of identity for these communities, show a shift from being conducted mainly in Afrikaans to services that include both English and Afrikaans, and in some cases, services conducted solely in English.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anthonissen (2009), for example, notes that various indicators of language shift are present in the data collected from middle-class Coloured families, specifically that there is a difference across generations of what participants identify as their own L1; there is a shift in the language of schooling from Afrikaans to English L1; and church services, an important form of identity for these communities, show a shift from being conducted mainly in Afrikaans to services that include both English and Afrikaans, and in some cases, services conducted solely in English. Dyers (2008), in turn, argues that despite the shift from Afrikaans L1 to English L1 reported by, for example, Anthonissen (2009), most Coloured people in the Western Cape maintain their L1 Afrikaans, and that "the language remains a key component of their ethnolinguistic identity" (Dyers 2008:52).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Afrikaans as an index of identity among Western Cape Coloured communities

Thutloa

Huddlestone

2012

Stellenbosch pap. linguist.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In South Africa, reports on language shift have focused on instances of language shift from indigenous African languages to English. There is, however, also research that suggests that language shift is taking place from Afrikaans to English in the Western Cape. Anthonissen (2009), for example, notes in her research among Coloured communities that a shift has taken place from Afrikaans first language (L1), across three generations, to English L1. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates language shift in two semi-urban Western Cape Coloured communities; in particular, it examines what patterns of language shift/maintenance can be observed, and investigates sociolinguistic factors, such as age, language of schooling, socio-economic status and language attitudes, to which the observed patterns can be ascribed. The aim is to ascertain whether language shift, from Afrikaans to English has taken place, and which factors appear to encourage or discourage language shift in the two communities. Through the administration of a questionnaire to 50 households, 25 in each of the communities, the study this paper reports on examined language use across a number of domains: at home, in the community, in church, and in the workplace. It also explored the language attitudes of the participants (53 in total) towards Afrikaans in order to investigate the possibility that this language might be used for indexing their identity. The collected data does not provide any evidence of language shift from Afrikaans to English. However, there seems to be increased use of English in the public domains (such as the workplace and in the church), with Afrikaans being used almost exclusively in the intimate domains. It appears that Afrikaans remains a strong marker of identity in the two semi-urban Western Cape Coloured communities, despite English largely being regarded as the language of upward socioeconomic mobility.Keywords: language shift, language maintenance, language attitudes, bilingualism IntroductionThe study reported on in this paper set out to investigate whether language shift is taking place from Afrikaans first language (L1) to English L1, a language often associated with social mobility and work opportunities, in two specific historically Afrikaans Western Cape "Coloured" 1 communities that fall outside of the Cape Metropolitan area.1 Adhikari (2005:2) points out that in South Africa, "contrary to international usage, the term 'Coloured' does not refer to black people in general". Rather, the term is used as a label for a varied social group with diverse cultural and geographic origins. According to Hendricks (2005), "Coloureds are often identified as South Africans who are of mixed race; [they] are descendants of the sexual liaisons between colonialists, slaves and the indigenous Khoisan". This is not a particularly accurate definition, as many slaves of Malaysian descent, Alfred Thutloa and Kate Huddlestone 58Language shift has been observed in a number of contexts and also defined in a number of different wa...

show abstract

Section: Sociolinguistic Factorssupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Afrikaans as an index of identity among Western Cape Coloured communities

Thutloa

Huddlestone

2012

Stellenbosch pap. linguist.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Kroskrity (2000) contends that those who are most conscious of their ideologies are the ones likely to be most vocal about the value of different languages. But ordinary people's ideologies are more likely to be reflected in their actual language usage -the languages they prefer to use as opposed to the languages they avoid using (Kroskrity 1999: 19;Dyers 2008).…”

Section: Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has the most diverse and accommodating language policy in the world. Despite the large number of official languages, English is the dominant language in South Africa (Dyers, 2008), and consequently, many parents do their best to ensure that their children are educated in English. However, the use of mother-tongue education through high schools can adversely affect students at tertiary level especially in institutions like UWC which use English as the medium of instruction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%