Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T13:43:31.292Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Not ‘Deep’ but Still IsiXhosa:

Young People’s Urban IsiXhosa and Its Relation to Tsotsitaal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2021

By
Tessa Dowling
Edited by
Rajend Mesthrie ,
Ellen Hurst-Harosh  and
Heather Brookes
Rajend Mesthrie
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Ellen Hurst-Harosh
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Heather Brookes
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Get access

Summary

This chapter investigates what differentiates Standard isiXhosa, often referred to by speakers as 'deep isiXhosa', from other urban varieties of the language, including Tsotsitaal. It focuses on how the standard variety has an established status, although it is seldom strictly adhered to; dialects and lexical borrowing being some of the key historical drivers of variation in the grammar and vocabulary of the language. Contemporary deviation from the standard is exemplified in the chapter, which draws from research into the speech of the national isiXhosa radio station’s announcers and listeners and into the way young isiXhosa speakers use the language. The data show a flux in the concordial system of isiXhosa, a proliferation of English loanwords and ludic inclusions of Sesotho and Tsotsitaal.

Keywords

isiXhosaUrban isiXhosa'Deep' isiXhosaStandard isiXhosaTsotsitaallexical borrowinggrammatical change in isiXhosaBantu languagesyouth languagelanguage of vernacular radio
Type
Chapter
Information
Youth Language Practices and Urban Language Contact in Africa , pp. 39 - 65
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Androutsopoulos, Jannis. (2007). Bilingualism in the mass media and on the internet. In Heller, M. (ed.), Bilingualism: A Social Approach. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 207−230.Google Scholar
Barkhuizen, Gary P. (2002). Language-in-education policy: students’ perceptions of the status and role of isiXhosa and English. System, 30(4), pp. 499−515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branford, William and Claughton, John S. (2002). Mutual lexical borrowings among some languages of southern Africa: Xhosa, Afrikaans and English. In Mesthrie, R. (ed.), Language in South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 199–215.Google Scholar
Brookes, Heather and Lekgoro, Tshepiso. (2014). A social history of urban male youth ‘varieties’ in Stirtonville and Vosloorus, South Africa. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 32(2), pp. 149–159.Google Scholar
Coupland, Nikolas. (2001). Dialect stylization in radio talk. Language in Society, 30(3), pp. 345–375.Google Scholar
De Kadt, Elizabeth. (1998). The concept of face and its applicability to the Zulu language. Journal of Pragmatics, 29(2), pp. 173–191.Google Scholar
Deumert, Ana. (2010). Imbodela zamakhumsha: reflections on standardization and destandardization. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, 29(3–4), pp. 243–264.Google Scholar
Doke, Clement Martyn, Malcolm, Daniel McK, Sikakana, Jonathan M. and Vilakazi, Benedict Wallet. (2006). English IsiZulu/IsiZulu English Dictionary. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Dowling, Tessa. (2011). ‘Stressed and sexy’: lexical borrowing in Cape Town Xhosa. International Journal of Multilingualism, 8(4), pp. 345–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dowling, Tessa. (2013). ‘Hola, my new cherry!’ Two case studies of isiXhosa advertising in print media. South African Journal of African Languages, 33(2), pp. 173–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dowling, Tessa and Gowlett, Derek. (2016). Problems in the acquisition of noun class 11 among Xhosa children. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 34(4), pp. 289–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dowling, Tessa and Grier, Lara. (2015). ‘Mnandi-licious!’ Trends in African language usage in South African television advertising. Social Dynamics, 41(3), pp. 555–575.Google Scholar
Dowling, Tessa and Whitelaw, Emma. (2018). Working towards culturally and linguistically diverse speech assessments for South African children: a Xhosa Case Study. Language Matters, 49(2), pp. 39–61.Google Scholar
Dowling, Tessa, Deyi, Somikazi and Whitelaw, Emma. (2017). Merger of noun classes 3 and 1: a case study with bilingual isiXhosa-speaking youth. South African Journal of African Languages, 37(1), pp. 41–49.Google Scholar
Finlayson, Rosalie. (2002). Women’s language of respect: Isihlonipho sabafazi. In Mesthrie, R. (ed.), Language in South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 279–296.Google Scholar
Finlayson, Rosalie and Slabbert, Sarah. (1997). ‘We just mix’: code switching in a South African township. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 125(1), pp. 65–98.Google Scholar
Finlayson, Rosalie, Calteaux, Karen and Myers‐Scotton, Carol. (1998). Orderly mixing and accommodation in South African codeswitching. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2(3), pp. 395–420.Google Scholar
Gowlett, Derek and Dowling, Tessa. (2015). Incipient merger of Cls 11 and 5 in Xhosa? South African Journal of African Languages, 35(1), pp. 67–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guyot, Sylvain and Seethal, Cecil. (2007). Identity of place, places of identities: change of place names in post-apartheid South Africa. South African Geographical Journal, 89(1), pp. 55–63.Google Scholar
Gxilishe, David Sandile. (1992). Conversational code-switching. South African Journal of African Languages, 12(3), pp. 93–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamm, Charles. (1991). ‘The constant companion of man’: separate development, Radio Bantu and music. Popular Music, 10(2), pp. 147–173.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd and Kuteva, Tania. (2005). On replicating use patterns. In Heine, B. and Kuteva, T. (eds.), Language Contact and Grammatical Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 40–78.Google Scholar
Herbert, Robert K. (1985). Gender systems and semanticity: two case histories from Bantu. In Fisiak, J. (ed.), Historical Semantics: Historical Word Formation. Berlin: Mouton Publishers, pp. 171–198.Google Scholar
Herbert, Robert K. (1991). Patterns in language change, acquisition and dissolution: noun prefixes and concords in Bantu. Anthropological Linguistics, 33(2), pp. 103–134.Google Scholar
Hurst, Ellen. (2009). Tsotsitaal, global culture and local style: identity and recontextualisation in twenty‐first century South African townships. Social Dynamics, 35(2), pp. 244–257.Google Scholar
Hurst, Ellen and Mesthrie, Rajend. (2013). ‘When you hang out with the guys they keep you in style’: the case for considering style in descriptions of South African tsotsitaals. Language Matters, 44(1), pp. 3–20.Google Scholar
Kamwangamalu, Nkonko Mudipanu. (1994). SiSwati–English code-switching: the matrix language principle and linguistic constraints. South African Journal of African Languages, 14(2), pp. 70–77.Google Scholar
Kießling, Roland and Mous, Maarten. (2004). Urban youth languages in Africa. Anthropological Linguistics, 46(3), pp. 303–341.Google Scholar
Kreutzer, Tino. (2009). Generation Mobile: Online and Digital Media Usage on Mobile Phones among Low-Income Urban Youth in South Africa. Cape Town: Centre for Film and Media Studies, Faculty of the Humanities, University of Cape Town. http://uct.academia.edu/TinoKreutzer/Papers/969314/Generation_mobile_and_digital_media_usage_on_mobile_phones_among_lowincome_urban_youth_in_South_Africa (accessed 13 August 2020).Google Scholar
Kunreuther, Laura. (2010). Transparent media: radio, voice, and ideologies of directness in postdemocratic Nepal. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 20(2), pp. 334–351.Google Scholar
Makoni, Sinfree and Makoni, Busi. (2009). Multilingual discourses on wheels and public English in Africa. In Maybin, J. and Swann, J. (eds.), The Routledge Companion to English Language Studies. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 258–270.Google Scholar
Makoni, Sinfree, Brutt-Griffler, Janina and Mashiri, Pedzisai. (2007). The use of ‘indigenous’ and urban vernaculars in Zimbabwe. Language in Society, 36(01), pp. 25–49.Google Scholar
Mathiesen, Kim Brereton. (2000). Learning South African Languages: The Historical Origins of Standard Xhosa, and the Uses to Which the Written Form of the Language was put c. 1770–1935. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend and Hurst, Ellen. (2013). Slang registers, code-switching and restructured urban varieties in South Africa: an analytic overview of tsotsitaals with special reference to the Cape Town variety. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 28(1), pp. 103–130.Google Scholar
Mini, Buyiswa Mavis, Tshabe, Sonwabo Lungile, Shoba, Feziwe Martha and Van der Westhuizen, P. N. (eds.). (2003). The Greater Dictionary of IsiXhosa Volume 2: K to P. Alice: University of Fort Hare.Google Scholar
Ngwenya, Alfred Vivi. (1995). The Static and Dynamic Elements of Tsotsitaal with Special Reference to Zulu: A Sociolinguistic Research. Unpublished MA thesis, University of South Africa (UNISA).Google Scholar
Ntshangase, Dumisani K. (2002). Language and language practices in Soweto. In Mesthrie, R. (ed.), Language in South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 407–418.Google Scholar
Nyamende, Abner. (1994). Regional variation in Xhosa. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 26, pp. 202−217.Google Scholar
Oosthuysen, Koos. (2016). The Grammar of IsiXhosa. Stellenbosch: Sun Press.Google Scholar
Pahl, Herbert Walter, Burns-Ncamashe, S. M. and Ntusi, Durward Mlungisi Maxego. (1971). IsiXhosa Sebanga Lematriki. Pretoria: Bona Press.Google Scholar
Pahl, Herbert Walter, Pienaar, A. M. and Ndungane, T. A. (eds.). (1989). The Greater Dictionary of IsiXhosa Volume 3: Q to Z. Alice: University of Fort Hare.Google Scholar
Schenk, Jan. (2009). Quantifying taste: findings from a survey on media and taste among teenagers from six high schools in Cape Town. Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR) Working Paper, 250.Google Scholar
Spitulnik, Debra. (1992). Radio time sharing and the negotiation of linguistic pluralism in Zambia. Pragmatics, 2(3), pp. 335–354.Google Scholar
Thipa, Henry M. (1989). The Difference between Rural and Urban Xhosa Varieties: A Sociolinguistic Study. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Natal.Google Scholar
Tomaselli, Keyan G., Shepperson, Arnold and Eke, Maureen. (1995). Towards a theory of orality in African cinema. Research in African Literatures, 26(3), pp. 18–35.Google Scholar
Tshabe, Sonwabo Lungile and Shoba, F. M. (eds.). (2006). The Greater Dictionary of IsiXhosa Volume 1: A to J. Alice: University of Fort Hare.Google Scholar
Verschueren, Jef. (2000). Notes on the role of metapragmatic awareness in language use. Pragmatics, 10(4), pp. 439–456.Google Scholar
Zawada, Britta and Ngcobo, Mtholeni N. (2008). A cognitive and corpus-linguistic re-analysis of the acquisition of the Zulu noun class system. Language Matters, 39(2), pp. 316–331.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×