A practical approach to the standardisation and elaboration of Zulu as a technical language

The lack of terminology in Zulu can be overcome if it is developed to meet international scientific and technical demands. This lack of terminology can be traced back to the absence of proper language policy implementation with regard to the African languages. Even though Zulu possesses the basic elements that are necessary for its development, such as orthographical standards, dictionaries, grammars and published literature, a number of problems exist within the technical elaboration and standardisation processes: * Inconsistencies in the application of standard rules, in relation to both orthography and terminology. * The lack of standardisation of the (technical) word-formation patterns in Zulu. (Generally the role of culture in elaboration has largely been overlooked). * The avoidance of exploiting written technical text corpora as a resource for terminology. (Text encoding by means of corpus query tools in term extraction has just begun in Zulu and needs to be properly exemplified). * The avoidance of introducing oral technical corpora as a resource for improving the acceptability of technical terminology by, for instance, designing a type of reusable corpus annotation. This study contributes towards solving these problems by offering a practical approach within the context of the real written, standard and oral Zulu language, mainly within the medical terminological domain. This approach offers a reusable methodological foundation with proper language exemplification that can guide terminologists in terminological research, or to some extent even train them, to achieve effective technical elaboration and eventual standardisation. This thesis aims at attaining consistent standardisation on the orthographical level in order to ease the elaboration task of the terminologist. It also aims at standardising the methods of word- (term-) formation linking them to cultural factors, such as taboo. However, this thesis also emphasises the significance of using written and oral technical corpora as terminology resource. This, for instance, is made possible through the application of corpus linguistics, in semi-automatic term extraction from a written technical corpus to aid lemmatisation (listing entries) and in corpus annotation to improve the acceptability of terminology, based on the comparison of standard terms with oral terms.Linguistics and Modern LanguagesD. Litt et Phil. (Linguistics

A survey of undergraduate students’ attitudes towards studying isiZulu at university

The study’s main objective was to investigate the attitudes held by undergraduate students towards studying isiZulu at university. The purposive sampling method was used to gather data from 100 students who studied the language as major subject, as well as three lecturers who taught the language at the same university. The study was a descriptive survey that used questionnaires to gather quantitative data and face-to-face interviews to gather qualitative data – mixed methods were used. The following five variables, namely: (1) sex, (2) age group, (3) years at university, (4) location of nurture and (5) linguality, were used to test the extent to which they influenced respondents’ attitudes towards the phenomenon under discussion. It was found that all five variables influenced respondents’ attitudes towards studying their L1 at university level. The findings revealed that respondents generally held positive attitudes towards studying isiZulu at university level. The study explored secondary phenomena and found that respondents believed that there were adequate job opportunities for those who studied isiZulu at university level and that they were proud to be the Zulu people

Dolutegravir twice-daily dosing in children with HIV-associated tuberculosis: a pharmacokinetic and safety study within the open-label, multicentre, randomised, non-inferiority ODYSSEY trial

Background: Children with HIV-associated tuberculosis (TB) have few antiretroviral therapy (ART) options. We aimed to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetics of dolutegravir twice-daily dosing in children receiving rifampicin for HIV-associated TB. Methods: We nested a two-period, fixed-order pharmacokinetic substudy within the open-label, multicentre, randomised, controlled, non-inferiority ODYSSEY trial at research centres in South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Children (aged 4 weeks to <18 years) with HIV-associated TB who were receiving rifampicin and twice-daily dolutegravir were eligible for inclusion. We did a 12-h pharmacokinetic profile on rifampicin and twice-daily dolutegravir and a 24-h profile on once-daily dolutegravir. Geometric mean ratios for trough plasma concentration (Ctrough), area under the plasma concentration time curve from 0 h to 24 h after dosing (AUC0–24 h), and maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) were used to compare dolutegravir concentrations between substudy days. We assessed rifampicin Cmax on the first substudy day. All children within ODYSSEY with HIV-associated TB who received rifampicin and twice-daily dolutegravir were included in the safety analysis. We described adverse events reported from starting twice-daily dolutegravir to 30 days after returning to once-daily dolutegravir. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02259127), EudraCT (2014–002632-14), and the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN91737921). Findings: Between Sept 20, 2016, and June 28, 2021, 37 children with HIV-associated TB (median age 11·9 years [range 0·4–17·6], 19 [51%] were female and 18 [49%] were male, 36 [97%] in Africa and one [3%] in Thailand) received rifampicin with twice-daily dolutegravir and were included in the safety analysis. 20 (54%) of 37 children enrolled in the pharmacokinetic substudy, 14 of whom contributed at least one evaluable pharmacokinetic curve for dolutegravir, including 12 who had within-participant comparisons. Geometric mean ratios for rifampicin and twice-daily dolutegravir versus once-daily dolutegravir were 1·51 (90% CI 1·08–2·11) for Ctrough, 1·23 (0·99–1·53) for AUC0–24 h, and 0·94 (0·76–1·16) for Cmax. Individual dolutegravir Ctrough concentrations were higher than the 90% effective concentration (ie, 0·32 mg/L) in all children receiving rifampicin and twice-daily dolutegravir. Of 18 children with evaluable rifampicin concentrations, 15 (83%) had a Cmax of less than the optimal target concentration of 8 mg/L. Rifampicin geometric mean Cmax was 5·1 mg/L (coefficient of variation 71%). During a median follow-up of 31 weeks (IQR 30–40), 15 grade 3 or higher adverse events occurred among 11 (30%) of 37 children, ten serious adverse events occurred among eight (22%) children, including two deaths (one tuberculosis-related death, one death due to traumatic injury); no adverse events, including deaths, were considered related to dolutegravir. Interpretation: Twice-daily dolutegravir was shown to be safe and sufficient to overcome the rifampicin enzyme-inducing effect in children, and could provide a practical ART option for children with HIV-associated TB

Neuropsychiatric manifestations and sleep disturbances with dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy versus standard of care in children and adolescents: a secondary analysis of the ODYSSEY trial

BACKGROUND: Cohort studies in adults with HIV showed that dolutegravir was associated with neuropsychiatric adverse events and sleep problems, yet data are scarce in children and adolescents. We aimed to evaluate neuropsychiatric manifestations in children and adolescents treated with dolutegravir-based treatment versus alternative antiretroviral therapy. METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of ODYSSEY, an open-label, multicentre, randomised, non-inferiority trial, in which adolescents and children initiating first-line or second-line antiretroviral therapy were randomly assigned 1:1 to dolutegravir-based treatment or standard-of-care treatment. We assessed neuropsychiatric adverse events (reported by clinicians) and responses to the mood and sleep questionnaires (reported by the participant or their carer) in both groups. We compared the proportions of patients with neuropsychiatric adverse events (neurological, psychiatric, and total), time to first neuropsychiatric adverse event, and participant-reported responses to questionnaires capturing issues with mood, suicidal thoughts, and sleep problems. FINDINGS: Between Sept 20, 2016, and June 22, 2018, 707 participants were enrolled, of whom 345 (49%) were female and 362 (51%) were male, and 623 (88%) were Black-African. Of 707 participants, 350 (50%) were randomly assigned to dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy and 357 (50%) to non-dolutegravir-based standard-of-care. 311 (44%) of 707 participants started first-line antiretroviral therapy (ODYSSEY-A; 145 [92%] of 157 participants had efavirenz-based therapy in the standard-of-care group), and 396 (56%) of 707 started second-line therapy (ODYSSEY-B; 195 [98%] of 200 had protease inhibitor-based therapy in the standard-of-care group). During follow-up (median 142 weeks, IQR 124–159), 23 participants had 31 neuropsychiatric adverse events (15 in the dolutegravir group and eight in the standard-of-care group; difference in proportion of participants with ≥1 event p=0·13). 11 participants had one or more neurological events (six and five; p=0·74) and 14 participants had one or more psychiatric events (ten and four; p=0·097). Among 14 participants with psychiatric events, eight participants in the dolutegravir group and four in standard-of-care group had suicidal ideation or behaviour. More participants in the dolutegravir group than the standard-of-care group reported symptoms of self-harm (eight vs one; p=0·025), life not worth living (17 vs five; p=0·0091), or suicidal thoughts (13 vs none; p=0·0006) at one or more follow-up visits. Most reports were transient. There were no differences by treatment group in low mood or feeling sad, problems concentrating, feeling worried or feeling angry or aggressive, sleep problems, or sleep quality. INTERPRETATION: The numbers of neuropsychiatric adverse events and reported neuropsychiatric symptoms were low. However, numerically more participants had psychiatric events and reported suicidality ideation in the dolutegravir group than the standard-of-care group. These differences should be interpreted with caution in an open-label trial. Clinicians and policy makers should consider including suicidality screening of children or adolescents receiving dolutegravir

A constitutional language name, lost in translation and its impact on the identity of the first language speakers

The primary aim of the study is to explore the Sepedi language name that got lost during the translation of the English version of the Final Constitution of the Republic of South Africa into the other ten official languages of South Africa and to determine how the identity of the first language (L1) speakers of the language under scrutiny has been affected by the use of both Sepedi and Sesotho sa Leboa as two designations for one official language. One hundred respondents from two South African universities were sampled to take part in the study since they were learning or lecturing the language under investigation as an applied/first language module. A quota sampling was used as well as a Likert scale-type of questionnaire to gather data from the respondents. From a purely linguistic and political point of view, the study indicated how the confusion of Sepedi and Sesotho sa Leboa as official languages denoting one and the same language may be resolved, only if interested parties could jettison their entrenched social and political interests, and undertake a  sociolinguistic survey like this one, yet more on a substantial project level

Exploring the Northern Sotho language name discrepancies in informative documentation and among first language speakers

This article is based on a survey that aimed to explore the Northern Sotho language name discrepancies in informative and descriptive documentation and also in general language use. The survey was conducted in two selected South African universities (Tshwane University of Technology (A) and the University of Limpopo (B)). The quota sampling method was used to gather data from 90 students and ten lecturers who were then doing Northern Sotho as a first-language module or teaching any of these modules, their age groups varying from 17 to 75. These students and lecturers participated by responding to survey questionnaires and the lecturers additionally took part in interviews. The causes for the use of Sepedi and Sesotho sa Leboa in informative documentation and in general language, as well as the language name which was preferred by the research participants were investigated, based on the mixed-methods research approach. From a sociolinguistic perspective, the survey strove to ascertain which of the two language names the research participants preferred and why. It was found that Sesotho sa Leboa was the name opted for by most of the research participants who considered Sepedi as a dialect, not as a standard language

A morphological and lexical analysis of Mandeni urban vernacular

This study investigated morphological and lexical features of an urban vernacular spoken in Mandeni, KwaZulu-Natal. The speech&nbsp; community in Mandeni refers to this urban vernacular as ‘Mandeni tsotsitaal’; however, it is referred to as ‘Mandeni urban vernacular’ (MUV) in this study because it had not been researched before, thus there was no evidence that it was a ‘tsotsitaal variety’. This study compared MUV’s morphological features with those of standard isiZulu because the latter is the former’s base or matrix language. It adopted a qualitative research approach using recordings (i.e. conversations with seven participants) and text analysis (i.e. a corpus&nbsp; developed from transcriptions of the recordings) to gather data. The study revealed that while MUV’s morphology aligned with that of standard isiZulu, there were minor deviations, which included unusual concordial agreement in the form of noun class shift (from class 1a to class 5), indefiniteness (marked by the class 10 concord), reversed derivational patterns (e.g. from nouns to verbs) and the use of&nbsp; foreign-bound morphemes. It also revealed that there were tsotsitaal lexical items and new unique lexical items that were used by the&nbsp; participants

Assessing prior learning in English Business Communication at a South African university of technology

This article is based on a doctoral study (Rossouw 2015).A case study on Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) was undertaken at a University of Technology (UoT) in South Africa, to determine whether the assessmentmethods used for the subject, ‘English Business Communication’, adhered to the principles and ethos of RPL. Focusing on 24 RPL applicants since 2010, the study used document analysis (written exams, questionnaire, oral interviews, portfolios of evidence), a focus group interview with previous applicants, and semi-structured interviews with three RPL assessors. The major findings indicated that: the applicants were not in favour of writing an exam paper, and would not like to be tested on theory; they preferred a combination of portfolio of evidence and oral interview. It is recommended that: RPL applicants be given some pre-application orientation; the RPL process timeframe be shortened; in-process feedback on applications be given to applicants; and, a toolkit be compiled to assist and orient applicants and assessors in future.http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/sajheam2017Science, Mathematics and Technology Educatio

An enhanced terminology development and management approach for South African languages

The study was inspired by observations made by the main researcher of how terminology is being developed and managed in South Africa. Its aim is to propose effective models and principles for terminology development and management and to eliminate the duplication of terminologies. It also recommends a mechanism for terminology project flow, which will ensure verification, authentication and standardisation. It reviews literature on language planning and policy, terminology standardisation, terminology policy, and terminology management in South Africa and internationally, namely in the European Union and African countries (Somalia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia) as well as the francophone countries, during their political transitions. The mixed methods approach that combines the techniques of both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used. After the data analysis and discussion of findings, two models were designed, namely the proposed model for collating existing terminologies (Terminology Developing Model 4) and the proposed model for future terminology development and management (Terminology Developing Model 5). Finally, two recommendations are proposed, one of which is, first and foremost, designing a National Terminology Policy, and secondly, encouraging the National Termbank (NT) to manage and store terminologies of all official South African languages effectivel