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

Toetsing van bekende veranderlikes aangaande die houdings wat deur Setswana T1-sprekende universiteitstudente gehuldig word ten opsigte van hul T1

Vorige taalhoudingstudies onder openbare universiteitstudente in Suid-Afrika, het getoon dat hierdie vyf veranderlikes: geslag; ouderdomsgroep; studiejaar; vlak van studie; en studieveld, studente se houdings teenoor tale beïnvloed. Dus was die doel van hierdie opname om te bepaal of die toetsing van hierdie veranderlikes op Setswana T1-sprekende universiteitstudente (n = 247), vorige studies sal bevestig, aangesien dit die eerste studie is wat uitsluitlik data insamel onder Setswana T1-sprekende universiteitstudente by vyf universiteite (beide openbare en privaat) in Tshwane en Johannesburg, tot doktorale vlak. Nog nooit vantevore is data ingesamel onder studente by private universiteite in Suid-Afrika nie. Hierdie gaping het veralgemenings in vorige opnames ten opsigte van alle universiteitstudente verswak. Gemengde metodes is gebruik om data, wat geanaliseer is met behulp van gemiddeldes, chi-kwadraattoets en persentasies, in te samel. Die vyf veranderlikes is getoets vir statistiese betekenisvolheid in die beïnvloeding van taalhoudings. Alles behalwe een veranderlike (geslag) het statisties-beduidende verhoudinge (p ≤ 0.05) gehad met ten minste een van die geslote-einde vrae. Oor die algemeen, het die respondente hulle T1 waardeer en dit relevant geag in hul lewens en die samelewing waarin hulle woon

Attitudes held by Setswana L1-speaking university students toward their L1: New variables

The aim of this survey was to establish the attitudes held by South African Setswana L1-speaking university students toward their L1, as no survey has up to date been conducted exclusively among university students whose L1 is Setswana, whether in South Africa or Botswana. The random sampling method was used to gather data from 247 students who studied at public and private universities in Gauteng province, South Africa, using mixed methods. Four variables were tested, namely: Competence in Setswana; Linguality; Location of nurture; and Type of university attended. Means, chi-square test and percentages were used to analyse data, and means showed that all variables favourably influenced respondents’ attitudes toward their L1, albeit to varying degrees with Competence in Setswana being the most influential. However, the chi-square test showed that such influence was not statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05). Respondents believed that their L1 had limitations in wider society; and that it had prestige, albeit a covert one. Generally, they held favourable attitudes toward their L1. Further comprehensive research needs to be done to explore these new variables, as well as to explore their statistical significance in language attitude studies

The promotion of Setswana through hip hop and motswakolistas

Many South African music genres, such as bubblegum, kwaito and local Afro-pop, originate in Johannesburg and mainly use ‘Jozi Sotho’ or ‘Jozi Zulu’. These two varieties are used as lingua francas in greater Johannesburg and thus reasonably have more ethno-linguistic vitality than other Southern Bantu languages spoken in South Africa. The musical genre of motswako defied tradition and effectively set an unprecedented trend in South Africa, firstly by mainly using Setswana and English code-switches and -mixes, and secondly by developing in Mahikeng. The aim of this article is to highlight this new trend, using qualitative content analysis to examine the lyrics of five popular motswako songs. The analysis illustrates that besides English, motswako mainly uses Setswana (both standard and non-standard varieties). The author proposes that motswako and motswakolistas are part of the identity of Batswana, and thus the growth and popularity of the genre inevitably promotes Setswana’s status in society

Why not use Sepitori to enrich the vocabularies of Setswana and Sepedi?

According to Census 2011, six official languages of South Africa experienced negative growth in a 10-year period (2001–2011), and all of them are Black South African languages (BSALs).1 The remaining five languages experienced positive growth. According to Webb (2010), urban dwellers reject standard varieties of BSALs and perceive them as symbols of traditionalism, lacking the required legitimacy and regarding them as inadequate and inferior. Calteaux (1996) notes that urban dwellers use Black Urban Vernaculars (BUVs) – which are also non-standard varieties – to bridge language barriers and their use is no longer limited to informal domains, but has also spread to formal domains. In reconciling Webb (2010) and Calteaux (1996), standard varieties of BSALs are on a decline among urban dwellers, while BUVs are on an increase. If these trends were to continue, standard varieties of BSALs would likely decline even further as South Africa becomes more urbanised, and BUVs would likely grow further. This article proposes that non-standard varieties should be used to enrich the vocabularies of standard ones so as to reverse these trends. Were the vocabularies used by urban dwellers to be incorporated into the standard varieties of BSALs, there is potential that urban dwellers would change the way they view BSALs. The article will use the example of Sepitori2 – a non-standard variety of the Tshwane metropolitan municipal region – to demonstrate how it could be used to enrich the vocabularies of its two ancestral languages – Setswana and Sepedi.3 Sufficient evidence from a comprehensive study on Sepitori could be brought before ‘language development’ stakeholders, and subsequently to a standardisation body to make a case for its contribution to enriching Setswana and Sepedi.Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2014, 32(2): 215–22

Perceptions of Black South African languages : a survey of the attitudes of Setswana-speaking university students toward their first language

D. Tech. Language Practice.The objective of this study is to draw out, and establish, the attitudes held by Setswana first language (L1)-speaking university students toward their L1, in a context of that L1 being one of the many spoken in a multilingual society, South Africa. The study also aims to test the potential influence of the following nine variables on attitudes toward Setswana: (1) gender; (2) age group; (3) years at university; (4) level of study; (5) competence in Setswana; (6) linguality; (7) location of nurture; (8) field of study; and, (9) type of university attended. The following variables are new in language attitudes studies in South Africa: competence in ones L1; linguality; location of nurture; and, type of university attended

Language contact in African urban settings: The case of Sepitori in Tshwane

There is undisputed evidence that the use of so-called non-standard varieties of language in South Africa is on the increase, and serves as an important communication bridge for a supranation that has many people of different ethnicities living side-by-side in different urban settings in the country. This paper illustrates, using Sepitori (also called ‘Pretoria Sotho’) as a case in point, that non-standard varieties should be explored further with a view to institutionally recording, formalising and supporting them. The paper does this through, first, showing that Sepitori is a mixed language that is used as a lingua franca by many people; second, by re-visiting the literature that demonstrates the important and crucial role played by non-standard varieties in a multilingual society, such as, South Africa, particularly with regard to formal settings (e.g., classrooms, formal meetings, and the media); and, third, by using the strength of such literature to call for a change in attitudes by language purists, who should realise that the sooner non-standard varieties are allowed space beyond the use in informal settings, the better it would be for further development of standard varieties.South African Journal of African Languages 2014, 34(2): 159–16

Travelling terms and local innovations: The <i>tsotsitaal</i> of the North West province, South Africa

This article focuses on the theme of linguistic innovation and expands on recent studies of the South African linguistic phenomenon tsotsitaal to show that it has travelled from its epicentre of Gauteng province into the North West province (henceforth North West), where it uses Setswana as its Matrix Language because it is the dominant language in the North West. Data were gathered from the North West’s three largest cities, namely, Rustenburg, Klerksdorp and Potchefstroom. The article presents examples of tsotsitaal spoken in the three cities and analyses its linguistic structure and lexical items. The significance of this tsotsitaal study is that it is the first to be conducted exclusively amongst first language (L1) Setswana speakers in an environment where the language is the most dominant – the North West. The study confirms previous literature which describes the phenomenon as a register of the urban form. It furthermore suggests that new lexical innovations at a local level are often drawn from the local base language, in this case Setswana, because the local language offers the best opportunities for semantic shift and multiple meanings

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