Children in language shift: The syntax of fifth-generation, pre-school Indian South African English speakers

Language shift, the process by which a second language ousts a community's first language as the everyday vernacular, almost inevitably throws up a vast array of morpho-syntactic and phonetic variety in the new vernacular. This paper seeks to ascertain what choices the first post-shift generation of child learners makes from such an array of competing forms. Data from longitudinal studies undertaken in the early to mid-1990s is presented from Indian South African English, focussing on fifth generation, monolingual, pre-school children in a natural (i.e. non-classroom) setting. The paper shows that while these children do make a selection of the morpho-syntactic variants in the elder's speech, there is no syntactic innovation. On the other hand, a surprisingly large number of former second-language features persist in post-shift speech, probably enhanced by the peculiarities of apartheid society, during which these children acquired their vernacular

A history of the Bhojpuri (or "Hindi") language in South Africa

Bibliography: pages 308-318.Although Indian languages have existed in South Africa for the last 125 years, there are no academic studies of any of them - of their use in South Africa, their evolution and current decline. Many misconceptions persist concerning their names, their structure, and status as 'proper' languages. This thesis deals with the history of one such language, Bhojpuri (more usually, but incorrectly, referred to as "Hindi"). I attempt to trace the origins of the South African variety of this language by examining the places of origin of the original indentured migrants who brought it to South Africa. A complex sociolinguistic picture emerges, since these immigrants came from a very wide area in North India spanning several languages. I also attempt to describe the early history of Bhojpuri in South Africa as a 'plantation' language. Subsequent changing patterns of usage are then detailed, including phonetic, syntactic, lexical and semantic change. The influence of other South African languages - chiefly English, but also Zulu, Fanagalo, and other Indian languages - is described in detail, as well as changes not directly attributable to language contact. A final section focusses on the decline of the language and the process of language death. From another (more international) perspective this study lays the foundation for comparisons between Bhojpuri in South Africa and other 'overseas' varieties of it, spawned under very similar conditions, in ex-colonies like Surinam, Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad and others. Such a comparative study could well make as great a contribution to general and socio-linguistics as the study of creoles has in the recent past. Information concerning this unwritten language was gathered by field-work throughout Natal. This involved informal interviews with over two hundred fluent speakers, including four who had been born in India during the time of immigrations. The study also draws upon the author's observations on language practices as an 'inside' member of the community under study

A Study of Variation in the BATH Vowel among White Speakers of South African English in Five Cities

This paper is part of a larger project covering South African English dialectology via five cities (Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley, Johannesburg and Durban) and four ethnicities (Whites, Black, Coloured and Indian), using a single vowel to explore and exemplify regional and ethnic similarities and differences. For reasons of space only the White speakers are analysed in this paper. BATH was chosen as exemplar since it is known to vary in the White communities between an RP-oriented central to back variant, a fully back variant with weak lip rounding and a raised and rounded variant. BATH tokens arising from interviews with 50 speakers were subjected to acoustic analysis via PRAAT and statistical analysis via ANOVA. The results show a diversity of means per city and gender for Whites: in general females show means closer to the older prestige RP norm; while Kimberley the smallest city shows the broadest realisations of BATH (as superback and raised)

Book ReviewSociolinguistics -- a Resource Book for Studentsby Peter Stockwell

Routledge, London (2002) Hardback ISBN 0-415-23452-2 (GBP50.00) Paperback ISBN 0-415-23453-0 (GBP14.99) xv + 213 pp. (S/ern Af Linguistics & Applied Language Stud: 2003 21 (3): 187-188

Children in language shift -- the syntax of fifth generation, pre-school, Indian South African English Speakers

Language shift, the process by which a second language ousts a community's first language as the everyday vernacular, almost inevitably throws up a vast array of morpho-syntactic and phonetic variety in the new vernacular. This paper seeks to ascertain what choices the first post-shift generation of child learners makes from such an array of competing forms. Data from longitudinal studies undertaken in the early to mid-1990s is presented from Indian South African English, focussing on fifth generation, monolingual, pre-school children in a natural (i.e. non-classroom) setting. The paper shows that while these children do make a selection of the morpho-syntactic variants in the elder's speech, there is no syntactic innovation. On the other hand, a surprisingly large number of former second-language features persist in post-shift speech, probably enhanced by the peculiarities of apartheid society, during which these children acquired their vocabulary. (S/ern Af Linguistics & Applied Language Studies: 2003 21(3): 119-126

English tsotsitaals? − an analysis of two written texts in Surfspeak and South African Indian English slang

This paper examines the use of “tsotsitaals” that use English as a base language, viz. Surfspeak used mainly by White surfing subcultures in Cape Town, and the unnamed variety characteristic of (mainly) young Indian and coloured males in Durban. Examples from written sources are used to characterise the varieties and their status. Attention is paid to the extent to which they can be considered autonomous enough to succeed as written text. This article will serve to: (a) demonstrate that tsotsitaals may operate via the medium of English; (b) give an appreciation of the humour, wit and style associated with English tsotsitaals, via the analysis of two written texts; and (c) show the limitations of tsotsitaals in extended written usage, for which they have to co-exist with more mainstream forms of the dialect of English they utilise for their base.Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2014, 32(2): 173–18