Urban language research in South Africa: achievements and challenges

Abstract

Currently an anti-essentialist view on languages and speech communities is gaining ground in linguistics world-wide. This new paradigm also fuels research on hybrid urban speech in Africa and even more so in the global North. In the wake of these interests, research needs to be adapted in order to cast light on the manifold structures, functions and perspectives these hybrid codes enclose. An integrated approach comprises natural linguistic and gestural data coupled to fine-grained accounts of social networks and localities in which urban subjects interact. In this respect, recent research in South Africa as exemplified in the present volume is currently setting the benchmark for urban language research. Taking this claim as a starting point the paper tries to give an account of already achieved insights and remaining challenges that can be extracted from South African urban language research. To this end, I relate the findings as presented in this issue to some of the latest theoretical developments in the field, paying special attention to so-called ‘third wave’ sociolinguistic concepts and the theoretical and methodological issues that come along with it. Furthermore, the intriguing question of the nature of the object of research will be highlighted through the answers found in the present volume.