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Chapter 7 - Language Contact in Cape Town

from II - Sociolinguistics, Globalisation and Multilingualism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2019

By
Tessa Dowling ,
Kay McCormick  and
Charlyn Dyers
Edited by
Raymond Hickey
Raymond Hickey
Affiliation:
Universität Duisburg–Essen
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Summary

In this chapter, using historical records and academic commentaries and research, we trace language contact in Cape Town from as far back as 400 CE. We detail how people indigenous to the area, as well as migrants from the rest of Africa and abroad, adapted their speech for social, political and economic reasons, with the result that Dutch, and later Afrikaans and English, gained prominence. After this diachronic account, we focus on two contemporary speech communities in Cape Town, and through interviews and participant observations confirm that while English is considered a prestige language and the key to future success, people still speak vernacular varieties of their own languages and of English. Examination of the linguistic landscape of the city in a number of research articles shows that English (some of it non-standard) is used far more widely in signage than African languages, which are used primarily for stylistic and affective reasons. Finally, we use research into hip-hop and rap performances in the city to argue that in this domain of music, local languages and mixed codes are preferred over English.

Keywords

Cape TownDistrict SixWesbankKhoekhoeDutchAfrikaansKaapsXhosamixed vernacularsTsotsitaaleducationlinguistic landscapeship-hop
Type
Chapter
Information
English in Multilingual South Africa
The Linguistics of Contact and Change
 , pp. 129 - 150
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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