Challenges to the Usage of a Hyphen in Compound Nouns in Southern Ndebele

Abstract

The problem challenging isiNdebele as a new written language is the manner in which compounds are formed. The major challenge is found in compound nouns that are formed from three to four different parts of speech. Such compound nouns are written differently, there are a lot of inconsistencies in as far as the writing of these compound nouns is concerned. Some are hyphenated and some are not hyphenated. The question is whether to write them with or without a hyphen, if they should be written with a hyphen, and where should one put a hyphen? Compounding involves the joining together of two independent words to form a new word. Cluver (1989:274) states that compounding is “by far the most productive word-forming process in the Germanic languages”. A combination of two or more elements or parts. Linguistically compounding means “A word that consists either of two or more elements that are independent words”. According to the revised orthography and spelling rule (2005 and 2008), the hyphen in isiNdebele is used amongst other things to separate compound nouns signifying linguistic concepts. Language is never static, it is dynamic. The new inventions and new terms that are adopted in isiNdebele affects compounding. There is a rapidly development of new terms coined on daily basis and there is also an influx of new terms that isiNdebele is experiencing which also affects compounding. Language standardization is definitely part of language management. Hudson as cited by Van Huyssteen (2003:26) sees standardization as a process of intervention by society in the normal development of language. As such isiNdebele lexicographers are faced with a challenge in becoming the gate keepers and taking final decisions when dealing with the lemmatization of compounds, hence the inconsistencies. The aim of this article is to try to minimize the inconsistencies that are found in compound nouns formed by more than three parts of speech and to come up with acceptable strategies in the use of a hyphen when writing compounds. Finally this paper will contribute towards solving these problems by offering practical approach within the context of the written standard language. This will also benefit lexicographers as they will be consistent when defining lemmas with hyphens.