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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
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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

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