Book contents
- English in Multilingual South Africa
- Studies in English Language
- English in Multilingual South Africa
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- I A Framework for English in South Africa
- II Sociolinguistics, Globalisation and Multilingualism
- Chapter 7 Language Contact in Cape Town
- Chapter 8 Internal Push, External Pull: The Reverse Short Front Vowel Shift in South African English
- Chapter 9 Youth Language in South Africa: The Role of English in South African Tsotsitaals
- Chapter 10 Econo-Language Planning and Transformation in South Africa: From Localisation to Globalisation
- Chapter 11 Multilingualism in South African Education: A Southern Perspective
- III Language Interfaces
- Timeline for South African History
- Glossary
- Index
- References
Chapter 9 - Youth Language in South Africa: The Role of English in South African Tsotsitaals
from II - Sociolinguistics, Globalisation and Multilingualism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2019
Edited by
Book contents
- English in Multilingual South Africa
- Studies in English Language
- English in Multilingual South Africa
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- I A Framework for English in South Africa
- II Sociolinguistics, Globalisation and Multilingualism
- Chapter 7 Language Contact in Cape Town
- Chapter 8 Internal Push, External Pull: The Reverse Short Front Vowel Shift in South African English
- Chapter 9 Youth Language in South Africa: The Role of English in South African Tsotsitaals
- Chapter 10 Econo-Language Planning and Transformation in South Africa: From Localisation to Globalisation
- Chapter 11 Multilingualism in South African Education: A Southern Perspective
- III Language Interfaces
- Timeline for South African History
- Glossary
- Index
- References
Summary
In interactions with their peers, South African male youths use a way of talking that is different from the local varieties spoken in their communities. Labelled tsotsitaals, this practice involves inserting a slang lexicon into the syntactic base of a local language combined with other paralinguistic features. Most studies of this phenomenon have looked at Afrikaans and Bantu language-based tsotsitaals but there are also several instances of English-based tsotsitaals among male youths in English-speaking communities. Across all tsotsitaals, English-derived words make up a substantial part of the slang lexicon. Ethnographic studies among young men who use Bantu-based tsotsitaals show that English plays a key role in indexing different identities. Based on the social meanings they attribute to English use, they incorporate English in a variety of ways making up different styles of tsotsitaal. These styles reflect different social levels, identities, attitudes and aspirations. The way English is incorporated into tsotsitaals challenges common approaches that treat this performance register as an autonomous referential system.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- English in Multilingual South AfricaThe Linguistics of Contact and Change, pp. 176 - 195Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
References
Agha, Asif (2007). Language and Social Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bailey, Richard (1985). ‘South African English slang: form, function and origins’, South African Journal of Linguistics 3(1): 1–42.Google Scholar
Brookes, Heather (2004). ‘A repertoire of South African quotable gestures’, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14(2): 186–224.Google Scholar
Brookes, Heather (2005). ‘What gestures do: some communicative functions of quotable gestures in conversations among Black urban South Africans’, Journal of Pragmatics 37: 2044–85.Google Scholar
Brookes, Heather (2014). ‘Urban youth languages in South Africa: a case study of Tsotsitaal in a South African township’, Anthropological Linguistics 56(3): 356–88.CrossRefGoogle 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): 149–59.Google Scholar
Ditsele, Thabo and Hurst, Ellen (2016). ‘Travelling terms and local innovations: the tsotsitaal of the North West province, South Africa’, Literator 37(2): 1–8.Google Scholar
Glaser, Clive (2000). Bo-Tsotsi: The Youth Gangs of Soweto, 1935–1976. Cape Town: David Philip.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): 244–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurst, Ellen (2015). ‘Overview of the tsotsitaals of South Africa: their different base language and common core lexical items’, in Nassenstein, Nico and Hollington, Andrea (eds.), Youth Language Practices in Africa and Beyond. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton, pp. 169–84.Google Scholar
Hurst, Ellen (2016). ‘Metaphor in South African tsotsitaal’, Sociolinguistic Studies 10(1–2): 153–75.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: Studies in the Languages of Africa 44(1): 3–20.Google Scholar
Hymes, Dell (1981[1975]). ‘In Vain I Tried to Tell You’: Essays in Native American Ethnopoetics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William (1972). Language in the Inner City: Studies in Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Makukule, Idah (2017). ‘The role of language in the performance of male township youth identities on Thokoza street corners’, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (2008). ‘“I’ve been speaking tsotsitaal all my life without knowing it”: towards a unified account of tsotsitaals in South Africa’, in Meyerhoff, Miriam and Nagy, Naomi (eds.), Social Lives in Language: Sociolinguistics and Multilingual Speech Communities: Celebrating the Work of Gillian Sankoff. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 95–110.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (2014). ‘English tsotsitaals? − an analysis of two written texts in Surfspeak and South African Indian English slang’, Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 32(2): 173–83.Google Scholar
Molamu, Louis (2003). Tsotsi-Taal: A Dictionary of the Language of Sophiatown. Pretoria: University of South Africa.Google Scholar
Mooney, Katie (1998). ‘Ducktails, flick-knives and pugnacity: subcultural and hegemonic masculinities in South Africa, 1948–1960’, Journal of Southern African Studies 24(4): 753–74.Google Scholar
Ntshangase, Dumisani (1995). ‘Indaba yami i-straight: language and language practices in Soweto’, in Mesthrie, Rajend (ed.), Language and Social History: Studies in South African Sociolinguistics. Cape Town: David Philip, pp. 291–7.Google Scholar
Rudwick, Stephanie (2005). ‘Township language dynamics: isiZulu and isiTsotsi in Umlazi’, Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 23(3): 305–17.Google Scholar
Schuring, Gerard Kornelus (1983) ‘Flaaitaal’, in Claassen, G. N. and van Rensburg, M. C. J. (eds.), Taalverskeidenheid: ’n blik op die spektrum van taalvariasie in Afrikaans. Pretoria: Academica, pp. 116–33.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
Slabbert, Sarah (1994). ‘A re-evaluation of the sociology of Tsotsitaal’, South African Journal for Linguistics 12(1): 31–41.Google Scholar
Slabbert, Sarah and Myers-Scotton, Carol (1996). ‘The structure of tsotsitaal and Iscamtho: code switching and in-group identity in South African townships’, Linguistics 34: 317–42.Google Scholar
Wilson, Monica and Mafeje, Archie (1963). Langa: A Study of Social Groups in an African Township. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
- 5
- Cited by