The structure of Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho: code switching and in-group identity in South African townships

Abstract

This paper examines the structure of two varieties, Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho, that are spoken predominantly by males who live in the Black urban townships of South Africa. While many think that Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho lack predictable structure, this paper argues that all versions follow the same type of morphosyntactic constraints that structure code switching as well as playing a part in other language-contact phenomena. Data come largely from conversations recorded in Soweto, a major township outside Johannesburg. As in-group markers, the varieties are characterized by much slang and lexical variation across versions of the same variety. Tsotsitaal can be identified as a variety, or set of versions, with a nonstandard version of Afrikaans as its matrix language, while Iscamtho versions have a South African Bantu language - usually Zulu - as their matrix language. Issues considered include these: how are Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho similar and different from other language-contact phenomena; to what extent do their structures support the matrix-language frame model of Myers-Scotton (1993a) ?