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-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T06:04:31.350Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 2 - South Africa in the Linguistic Modeling of World Englishes

from I - A Framework for English in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2019

By
Edgar W. Schneider
Edited by
Raymond Hickey
Raymond Hickey
Affiliation:
Universität Duisburg–Essen
Get access

Summary

This paper summarizes scholarly approaches to varieties of South African English, mainly from the perspective of World Englishes theorizing. South Africa's complex ethnic composition has produced a range of distinctive varieties of English and has defied simplistic notions of dialect evolution. Neither Kachru's “Three Circles” model nor Schneider's “Dynamic Model” allow coherent accounts of South African English as a whole in their respective frameworks. In contrast, many South African scholars, often extrapolating from the “Dynamic Model”, have highlighted the need to focus on internal sub-varieties rather than favouring a national, overall perspective. The questions of how uniform or diverse South African English is and how these relationships can be modelled are widely addressed in scholarship, including ongoing changes, as for example the recent emergence of a pan-ethnic middle class compromise variety described primarily by Rajend Mesthrie.

Keywords

Dynamic Modelkoinéizationmultilingualismpostcolonial EnglishesSouth African EnglishThree Circles modelWorld Englishes theories
Type
Chapter
Information
English in Multilingual South Africa
The Linguistics of Contact and Change
 , pp. 16 - 29
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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

Bailey, Richard W. and Görlach, Manfred (eds.) (1982). English as a World Language. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Bekker, Ian (2009). ‘The Vowels of South African English’, unpublished PhD thesis, North-West University.Google Scholar
Bekker, Ian (2012). ‘South African English as a late nineteenth-century extraterritorial variety’, English World-Wide 33(2): 127–46.Google Scholar
Bowerman, Sean (2004). ‘White South African English: phonology’, in Schneider, Edgar W., Burridge, Kate, Kortmann, Bernd, Mesthrie, Rajend and Upton, Clive (eds.), A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol. 1: Phonology. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 931–42.Google Scholar
Bowerman, Sean (2012). ‘Standard South African English’, in Hickey, Raymond (ed.), Standards of English: Codified Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 198–12.Google Scholar
Branford, Jean, with Branford, William (1991). A Dictionary of South African English. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Buschfeld, Sarah, and Schneider, Edgar W. (2017). ‘World Englishes: Postcolonial Englishes and beyond’, in Low, Ee Ling and Pakir, Anne (eds.), World Englishes: Rethinking Paradigms. London, Singapore: Routledge, pp. 29–46.Google Scholar
Buschfeld, Sarah, Hoffmann, Thomas, Huber, Magnus and Kautzsch, Alexander (eds.) (2014). The Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and Beyond. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coetzee-Van Rooy, Susan 2014. ‘The identity issue in bi- and multilingual repertoires in South Africa: implications for Schneider’s Dynamic Model’, in Buschfeld, Sarah, Hoffmann, Thomas, Huber, Magnus and Kautzsch, Alexander (eds.), The Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and Beyond. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 39–57.Google Scholar
Du Plessis, Deon (2015). ‘Regionality in White South African English: an acoustic dialectometric investigation’, unpublished MA Thesis, North-West University.Google Scholar
Du Plessis, Deon (2019, in press). ‘The Dynamic Model (re-)applied to South African English’, English World-Wide 40.Google Scholar
Du Plessis, Deon, and Bekker, Ian (2014). ‘To err is human: the case for neorhoticity in White South African English’, Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa 45(1): 23–39, https://doi.org/10.1080/10228195.2013.840010.Google Scholar
Finn, Peter (2004). ‘Cape Flats English: phonology’, in Schneider, Edgar W., Burridge, Kate, Kortmann, Bernd, Mesthrie, Rajend and Upton, Clive (eds.), A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol. 1: Phonology. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 964–84.Google Scholar
Görlach, Manfred (1990). ‘The development of Standard Englishes [1988]’, in Görlach, Manfred (ed.), Studies in the History of the English Language. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, pp. 9–64.Google Scholar
Görlach, Manfred (1991). Englishes. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Görlach, Manfred (1995). More Englishes. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Görlach, Manfred (1998). ‘English – the language of a new nation. The present-day linguistic situation of South Africa’, in Görlach, Manfred, Even More Englishes: Studies 1996–1997. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 101–18.Google Scholar
Kachru, Braj B. (1985). ‘Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: the English language in the outer circle’, in Quirk, Randolph and Widdowson, Henry G. (eds.), English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and The British Council, pp. 11–30.Google Scholar
Kachru, Braj B., (ed.) (1992[1982]). The Other Tongue: English across Cultures. Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Kruger, Haidee, and van Rooy, Bertus (2017). ‘Editorial practice and the progressive in Black South African English’, World Englishes 36(1): 20–41.Google Scholar
McArthur, Tom (1987). ‘The English languages?’, English Today 3(3): 9–11.Google Scholar
McArthur, Tom (1998). The English Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McArthur, Tom (2002). Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (1992). English in Language Shift: The History, Structure and Sociolinguistics of South African Indian English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (2004). ‘Indian South African English: phonology’, in Schneider, Edgar W., Burridge, Kate, Kortmann, Bernd, Mesthrie, Rajend and Upton, Clive (eds.), A Handbook of Varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 953–63.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (2009). ‘Deracialising the goose vowel in South African English: accelerated linguistic change amongst young, middle-class females in post-apartheid South Africa’, in Hoffmann, Thomas and Siebers, Lucia (eds.),World Englishes – Problems, Properties and Prospects: Selected Papers from the 13th IAWE Conference. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 3–18.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (2010). A Dictionary of Indian South African English. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (2014). ‘The sociophonetic effects of ‘Event X’: post-apartheid Black South African English in multicultural contact with other South African Englishes’, in Buschfeld, Sarah, Hoffmann, Thomas, Huber, Magnus and Kautzsch, Alexander (eds.), The Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and Beyond. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 58–69.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend and Bhatt, Rakesh M. (2008). World Englishes: The Study of New Linguistic Varieties. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parmegiani, Andrea (2017). ‘Gender and the ownership of English in South Africa’, World Englishes 36(1): 42–59.Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey and Svartvik, Jan (1972). A Grammar of Contemporary English. London, New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey and Svartvik, Jan (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London, New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Roussow, Ronel and van Rooy, Bertus (2012). ‘Diachronic changes in modality in South African English’, English World-Wide 33(1): 1–26.Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W. (2003). ‘The dynamics of New Englishes: from identity construction to dialect birth’, Language 79(2): 233–81.Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W. (2007). Postcolonial English: Varieties Around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W. (2011). English Around the World: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W., Burridge, Kate, Kortmann, Bernd, Mesthrie, Rajend and Upton, Clive (eds.) (2004). A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol. 1: Phonology. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Seoane, Elena and Suárez-Gómez, Cristina (eds.) (2016). World Englishes: New Theoretical and Methodological Considerations. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Silva, Penny, Dore, Wendy, Mantzel, Dorothea, Muller, Colin and Wright, Madeleine (eds.) (1996). A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Spencer, Brenda (2011a). ‘International sporting events in South Africa, identity re-alignment, and Schneider’s EVENT X’, African Identities 9(3): 267–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, Brenda (2011b). ‘Linguistic penetration at Schneider’s Phase 4: acceptability ratings of entrenched features of Black South African English by South African teachers outside the originating culture of the variety’, Journal for Language Teaching 45(2): 133–49.Google Scholar
Strang, Barbara M. H. (1970). A History of English. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter (2004). New-Dialect Formation: The Inevitability of Colonial Englishes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Van Rooy, Bertus (2004). ‘Black South African English: phonology’, in Schneider, Edgar W., Burridge, Kate, Kortmann, Bernd, Mesthrie, Rajend and Upton, Clive (eds.), A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol. 1: Phonology. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 943–52.Google Scholar
Van Rooy, Bertus (2010). ‘Societal and linguistic perspectives on variability in world Englishes’, World Englishes 29: 3–20.Google Scholar
Van Rooy, Bertus (2014). ‘Convergence and endonormativity at Phase 4 of the Dynamic Model’, in Buschfeld, Sarah, Hoffmann, Thomas, Huber, Magnus and Kautzsch, Alexander (eds.), The Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and Beyond. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 21–38.Google Scholar
Van Rooy, Bertus and Terblanche, Lize (2010). ‘Complexity in word-formation processes in New Varieties of South African English’, Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 28(4): 407–24.Google Scholar
Watermeyer, Susan (1996). ‘Afrikaans English’, in de Klerk, Vivian (ed.), Focus on South Africa. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 99–124.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
×