South African Language Research Articles

The Officialisation of South African Sign Language—What Is There to Gain?

The Constitutional Review Committee's 2017 recommendation that the South African Constitution be amended to include South African Sign Language (SASL) as one of South Africa's official languages gives rise to the question: What gains will such a step bring for the Deaf community, given the special status this language already enjoys? This question is answered by undertaking a comparative study on language officialisation in South Africa from a language rights and language planning perspective. The impact of national officialisation in 1994 on the historically marginalised indigenous South African languages alongside English and Afrikaans and the officialisation of SASL is considered in comparison to the advance of SASL as a unique minority language of South Africa since 1996. The study identifies some anomalies regarding the relation between the officialisation of the historically marginalised indigenous languages and their current status in different language domains and proposes a strategy to overcome the structural limitations regarding language officialisation in South Africa.

“A Name That Recognises You”: Local Analysis of Semiotic Dynamics in Semi-Informal Markets in South Africa

This article explores the linguistic landscape (LL) of semi-informal markets in townships in the Tshwane (Pretoria) Metropolis in South Africa. Similar to other urban African markets, these LLs operate in a context of longstanding and ever-changing multilingualism and multiculturalism. Several indigenous and colonial South African languages are spoken in the area and many traders in the markets are immigrants from other African and South Asian countries. Despite this multilingualism, the public signage is dominated by English. The analysis draws on the semiotic reading of the LL by residents regarding the indexicality of traders’ names. Local sign writers provide insight into their instrumental role in shaping the LL of these areas. Furthermore, we draw on the notions of emplacement, spatial scope, and assemblages of semiotics to discuss the significance of mobile phone numbers in unregulated, potentially high-risk activities.

They just don’t get it! Towards informing course and syllabus design – an error analysis of referencing in undergraduate writing

For students to formulate a well-supported academic argument, proper source integration skills need to be applied. This depends on a student’s ability to quote or paraphrase sources and adhere to referencing styles’ technical requirements. Academic writing teachers need to investigate which aspects of source integration students fail to master. By utilising the multilevel, multi-genre, multi-language learner corpus of South African languages for academic purposes compiled on behalf of the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR), we performed an error analysis of typical referencing errors and the frequency of specific kinds of referencing errors in the academic writing of first-year students. This error analysis enabled us to move beyond “having an idea of what errors they make”, to an in-depth investigation of recurring errors, in order to be able to offer focused academic writing support. Findings include, firstly, consistently recurring technical errors with citation format. Secondly, students struggle with formatting reference lists as per the required referencing style. With this paper, we wish to initiate a discussion on the importance of teaching the mechanics of referencing and other pedagogical inferences to inform course and syllabus design, focused on source integration.

A proposed artificial intelligence-based real-time speech-to-text to sign language translator for South African official languages for the COVID-19 era and beyond: In pursuit of solutions for the hearing impaired.

BackgroundThe emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in communication being heightened as one of the critical aspects in the implementation of interventions. Delays in the relaying of vital information by policymakers have the potential to be detrimental, especially for the hearing impaired.ObjectivesThis study aims to conduct a scoping review on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) for real-time speech-to-text to sign language translation and consequently propose an AI-based real-time translation solution for South African languages from speech-to-text to sign language.MethodsElectronic bibliographic databases including ScienceDirect, PubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE and ProQuest were searched to identify peer-reviewed publications published in English between 2019 and 2021 that provided evidence on AI-based real-time speech-to-text to sign language translation as a solution for the hearing impaired. This review was done as a precursor to the proposed real-time South African translator.ResultsThe review revealed a dearth of evidence on the adoption and/or maximisation of AI and machine learning (ML) as possible solutions for the hearing impaired. There is a clear lag in clinical utilisation and investigation of these technological advances, particularly in the African continent.ConclusionAssistive technology that caters specifically for the South African community is essential to ensuring a two-way communication between individuals who can hear clearly and individuals with hearing impairments, thus the proposed solution presented in this article.

ADOPTION OF DIGITAL MEDIA BY AFRICAN LANGUAGE PRINT NEWSPAPERS: THE CASE OF ISOLEZWE

Digital media have transformed media’s news gathering, production and news dissemination traditions. However, African language newspapers’ use of digital media has been overlooked and understudied. Therefore, this study explores the adoption of digital media by Isolezwe, a South African indigenous language newspaper that publishes in IsiZulu. Data were gathered using the interview and observation methods. Deploying strands drawn from media convergence and diffusion of innovation theories, the study shows the convergence of African language print media and digital media, and advancement of African language newspapers towards increasing their digital and social media presence. This development has positively enhanced Isolezwe’s journalistic functions of newsgathering and dissemination. The study provides insights into understanding African language journalism in the context of the advancement of digital and communication technologies. Findings from this research show that Isolezwe has expanded its digital presence to social media. Over and above the online version, Isolezwe is also actively engaged on Twitter and Facebook which are the two most popular social networking sites in South Africa. The platforms are strategically deployed for newsgathering and news dissemination purposes. This is a timely contribution to existing scholarship on the adoption of digital media by indigenous languages newspapers in South Africa in particular and Africa in general. The study also provides insights into understanding African language journalism in the context of the advancement of digital and communication technologies.

Teachers’ perspectives on the use of ICT in the teaching of a South African home language, Sesotho

The study sought to unpack teachers’ perspectives of teaching one South African language, Sesotho, as a home language using information and communication technology (ICT) in secondary schools in South Africa. Teachers were recruited to participate in the study by providing lesson plans for analysis. From the analysis, four teachers were selected to participate in semi-structured interviews. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework guided the study. The following findings emerged from our analysis of data in the study. Firstly, regardless of having limited ICT resources, teachers nevertheless attempted to use those available in their schools to ensure that teaching does not solely depend on traditional methods. Secondly, teachers in the district studied lacked technological knowledge (TK). In addition, teachers seemed to lack knowledge of ICT policies. Finally, lack of Sesotho content on ICT resources affects the adoption of ICT in the teaching and learning of Sesotho. We recommend that in addressing the issue of the digital divide, there is a need to focus on provision of ICT resources to all schools, irrespective of quintile level, and to provide teachers with proper training, focusing on Sesotho and other African languages as subject.

Educators’ Experiences of using multilingual pedagogies during emergency remote teaching: a case study of South African universities

ABSTRACT Since the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in 2020, universities worldwide have undergone unanticipated changes in how they operate and deliver the academic programme. Chief among these changes has been a wide-scale adoption of emergency remote teaching (ERT). This phenomenological study draws on critical pedagogy to analyse the experiences of South African academics of how the adoption of ERT influenced their use of multilingual pedagogies. Seven lecturers from seven different South African universities were purposively selected to participate based on their prior use of multilingual pedagogies. They teach in fields such as politics, history and education, with some based in traditional universities and others at universities of technology. The participants’ reflections reveal that they essentially found using multilingual pedagogies amid emergency remote teaching very challenging. The challenges can be grouped into three categories: shifts from in-person to on-screen interactions; shifts in the types of multimodal resources used to teach multilingually; and shifts from approaches that intellectualise indigenous languages to approaches that are focused on delivery. According to these educators, multilingual teaching online, particularly in the context of emergency remote teaching, does not bode well for the intellectualisation of indigenous South African languages.

Literacy matters in sustainable livelihood development among refugee adults in South Africa

Background: Political and economic upheavals in the current millennium globally have displaced millions of people, making cross-border and forced migration a reality. Many refugees are forced out of their countries and flee to other countries to find new languages with which they are not familiar. South Africa as a signatory to the 1954 UN Convention on refugees and stateless persons accepts refugees (asylum seekers) from all over the world. The displaced persons are mostly illiterate in English and the indigenous languages of their new settlement countries.Objectives: The study was set up to investigate the socio-economic value of literacy in the lives of refugee adults in South Africa. Hence, in this article, literacy refers to the ability to read, write, calculate, communicate and function in any language with a basic understanding in one’s environment.Method: This ethnographic qualitative study used interviews, observations and focus group meetings to explore how literacy matters in the sustainable development of entrepreneurial activities among the refugee adults and youths in South Africa. The study is grounded in Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy theory and has some implications for adult literacy throughout the developing world where millions of adult refugees find themselves vulnerable.Results: The study revealed that refugee adults learn functional literacy in English and other 11 local South African languages informally as communication skills for the survival of their small businesses and for social and economic use in their ‘adopted home’. They find it difficult to get employment in the formal sector and often use their ingenuity to create their own jobs for survival and livelihoods in informal trade and entrepreneurship.Conclusion: The article concludes that within the public adult learning interventions by the Department of Basic Education, where literacy programmes are offered, refugees should be encouraged and supported in attending formal classes to deal with their livelihoods and small businesses for survival.

Table of Contents Vol 42 Issue 1

Literator publishes research articles and essays on linguistics and literature in general, but focuses in particular on the (comparative) study of South African languages and literatures and other cultural phenomena across language, media and cultural boundaries (examples of topics would be: different manifestations of Post-Modernism, the interaction between visual arts and literature, the representation of the South African War in literature, language attitudes and language policy).

A blatant disregard of Section 6 (1) of the Constitution of South Africa by higher education institutions and language authorities: An onomastic discrepancy

The primary focus of this article is the onomastic discrepancies that are considered a blatant disregard of Section 6 (1) of the Constitution of South Africa (Act No. 108 of 1996). The article employs a qualitative research approach where text analysis is used, focusing on constitutional documentation, legislative frameworks on language-related matters and higher education policy documentations, as well as language policy documentation from the selected 10 South African universities that offered Sepedi as a first language or conversational module. It is found that there is a constitutional disregard by competent organisations such as universities, financial institutions, Google and language authorities (such as Pan South African Language Board, Sesotho sa Leboa National Language Body and Sesotho sa Leboa National Lexicography Unit), since most of the policies are inconsistent with Section 6 (1) of the South African Constitution, 1996. In summary, the article records that the policies supersede the Constitution, since the language name ‘Northern Sotho/Sesotho sa Leboa’ is the most used name to refer to the official standard language rather than its counterpart, Sepedi.

Psycholinguistic errors in signed simultaneous interpreting

Abstract In this article, errors and repairs in a corpus of English news broadcasts interpreted simultaneously into South African Sign Language are explored from a psycholinguistic perspective according to Levelt’s (1989) cognitive levels (comprehension, conceptualisation, formulation, morphological encoding and articulation). Breaking away from traditional perspectives, the study offers a novel approach to empirical research into sign(ed) language interpreting, with applications relevant to spoken-language interpreting. Most slips involved lemma selection, followed by slips in articulation and conceptualisation (syntactic planning). Significantly fewer errors in comprehension compared to production indicate that professional interpreters have excellent listening skills, although reconceptualising is sometimes problematic. The interpreters mainly repaired incorrect lemma selection and reception errors that resulted in mistranslations, suggesting the existence of a true/false error-detection mechanism, with little attention being paid to other forms of error, possibly owing to time and cognitive pressures. Errors do not increase over time, which suggests cognitive overload rather than fatigue as their cause.

Re-considering orientations in South African Language Policies

Abstract What should be taken into account when language policies are developed? It is rarely the case that when language policies are developed, the focus is on issues outside of ‘language’. However, when issues of language are experienced in certain societies as a “cumulative disadvantage” (Piller 2016) together with other forms of domination, normative conceptualisations of language policy seem inadequate. The notion of ‘inhabitance’ is a generative lens through which to illustrate this. In the South African university space, since the #MustFall protests, the question of ‘inhabitance’ has taken centre stage in issues of curriculum and access. Through the act of throwing poo on the statue of Cecil John Rhodes, the #MustFall protests have firmly put on the agenda the need for universities to reflect upon itself, and to ask whose knowledges, bodies, histories and lifeworlds it legitimizes, and therefore, its complicity in maintaining coloniality. This has led to a wider call to decolonize universities. However, while the notion of ‘inhabitance’ has been central to the #MustFall protests, it has not been considered from the position of language and language policy. This paper reflects on institution-wide language policy conversations at a South African university arguing to shift attention from the orientations we take to language in language policy, to how policies “orient” (Ahmed 2007) bodies in university spaces. This paper seeks to add to the conversation in the South African Higher Education space in anticipation of the implementation of the new Language Policy for Higher Education (2020).

Exploring multilingualism at the national department levels in South Africa post the Use of Official Languages Act of 2012

The main objective of this article is to explore how multilingualism (i.e. the use of three or more languages) is practised at the level of national departments in South Africa since the passing of new language legislation called the Use of Official Languages Act (No. 12 of 2012). In support of this main objective, the article seeks to establish the attitudes held towards languages and official multilingualism (i.e. multilingualism which is recognised by government) by national departments’ employees responsible for matters related to language and communication. It also seeks to establish the perception of the general public on how public servants treat language when communicating with them. Data were gathered through document analyses, survey questionnaires (completed by employees at two national departments), and face-to-face interviews (with members of the public). Participants (i.e. national departments’ employees and members of the public) held positive attitudes towards official multilingualism by supporting the development and use of all 11 official languages, particularly the historically marginalised Black South African languages (BSALs). Also, as far as these two national departments are concerned, the Use of Official Languages Act (No. 12 of 2012) was yet to be fully implemented as per its objects set out in its Preamble, as the language policies developed by these national departments were yet to be implemented.

By die dag: Eunice Basson se bedrewe omgang met die brose daaglikse werklikheid

Literator publishes research articles and essays on linguistics and literature in general, but focuses in particular on the (comparative) study of South African languages and literatures and other cultural phenomena across language, media and cultural boundaries (examples of topics would be: different manifestations of Post-Modernism, the interaction between visual arts and literature, the representation of the South African War in literature, language attitudes and language policy).

Lexikos and AFRILEX — A Perfect Lexicographic Liaison

After in-depth discussions with interested parties in 1991 the Bureau of the Woorde­boek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT) realized that the future of Afrikaans is inextricably connected with that of the other existing and utilized languages in South Africa. One of the results of the dis­cussions was the establishment in 1991 of an academic journal Lexikos in the AFRILEX Series. An external feasibility study was also conducted on behalf of the Board of Control of the Bureau of the WAT to determine the possibility for the establishment of an Institute for Southern African Lexi­cog­raphy. The results of the feasibility study indicated that respondents did not want another bureau­cratic institution. A major result of the feasibility study, however, was the establishment in 1995 of a professional association, the African Association for Lexicography, that concentrates exclu­sively on lexicographical issues. The Bureau of the WAT gave permission to the new association to use the acronym "AFRILEX". The Pan-South African Language Board (PanSALB), also established in 1995, was a direct consequence of the country's new multilingual dispensation. The legislation governing PanSALB was amended to allow for equal justice to all dictionary projects for the official South African languages. This led to the establishment of national lexicography units for each of the offi­cial South African languages. Both the activities of AFRILEX and the articles published in Lexikos have a huge influence on the activities of the national lexicography units. Keywords: association, communication, dictionary, feasibility study, journal, language for special purposes, legislation, lexicography, national lexicography units, terminography, terminology

Optical Character Recognition and text cleaning in the indigenous South African languages

This article represents follow-up work on unpublished presentations by the authors of text and corpus cleaning strategies for the African languages. In this article we provide a comparative description of cleaning of web-sourced and text-sourced material to be used for the compilation of corpora with specific attention to cleaning of text-based material, since this is particularly relevant for the indigenous South African languages. For the purposes of this study, we use the term “web-sourced material” to refer to digital data sourced from the internet, whereas “text-based material” refers to hard copy textual material. We identify the different types of errors found in such texts, looking specifically at typical scanning errors in these languages, followed by an evaluation of three commercially available Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tools. We argue that the cleanness of texts is a matter of granularity, depending on the envisaged application of the corpus comprised by the texts. Text corpora which are to be utilized for e.g. lexicographic purposes can tolerate a higher level of ‘noise’ than those used for the compilation of e.g. spelling and grammar checkers. We conclude with some suggestions for text cleaning for the indigenous languages of South Africa.

The South African National Lexicography Units — Two Decades Later

The lexicography practice in South Africa has distinctive features and to a great extent relates to the political dispensation current at a given period. During the previous political dispensation only two dictionary units existed in South Africa that were state funded, namely the Bureau of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT) and the Dictionary for South African English (DSAE). These dictionary units, therefore have a long dictionary history. Some of the African languages, such as Xhosa, Zulu, Tswana and Northern Sotho also had dictionary units at the time but they were situated at and funded by tertiary institutions. The current national government requires dictionaries in all official languages for proper communication in languages the citizens understand best, i.e. their respective mother tongues. The Pan-South African Language Board (PanSALB), established in 1996, was a direct consequence of the country's new multilingual dispensation. This dispensation required equal rights for all the official languages and the legislation governing PanSALB was therefore amended to allow for equal justice to all dictionary projects for the official South African languages. This led to the establishment of national lexicography units for each of the official South African languages. A strategic planning process conducted at the Bureau of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal not only influenced the lexicography practice at the Bureau, but also had a huge impact on the newly established national lexicography units (NLUs). Both the articles published in Lexikos, that originated in 1991, and the activities of the African Association for Lexicography (AFRILEX), established in 1995, have a huge influence on the activities of the NLUs. Although the NLUs are already 21 years old and should officially be of age, the question remains whether they really gained their independence. This article focusses on the heritage of the Bureau of the WAT as National Lexicography Unit for Afrikaans and the example that it has set to the other NLUs. Keywords: academic journal, association, communication, dictionary, feasibility study, human language technologies, language for special purposes, legislation, lexicography, management, national lexicography units, strategic planning, terminography, terminology

Erratum: The plague of Athens

Literator publishes research articles and essays on linguistics and literature in general, but focuses in particular on the (comparative) study of South African languages and literatures and other cultural phenomena across language, media and cultural boundaries (examples of topics would be: different manifestations of Post-Modernism, the interaction between visual arts and literature, the representation of the South African War in literature, language attitudes and language policy).

Developing Core Technologies for Resource-Scarce Nguni Languages

The creation of linguistic resources is crucial to the continued growth of research and development efforts in the field of natural language processing, especially for resource-scarce languages. In this paper, we describe the curation and annotation of corpora and the development of multiple linguistic technologies for four official South African languages, namely isiNdebele, Siswati, isiXhosa, and isiZulu. Development efforts included sourcing parallel data for these languages and annotating each on token, orthographic, morphological, and morphosyntactic levels. These sets were in turn used to create and evaluate three core technologies, viz. a lemmatizer, part-of-speech tagger, morphological analyzer for each of the languages. We report on the quality of these technologies which improve on previously developed rule-based technologies as part of a similar initiative in 2013. These resources are made publicly accessible through a local resource agency with the intention of fostering further development of both resources and technologies that may benefit the NLP industry in South Africa.

Cultural adaptation and Northern Sotho translation of the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers

Background: In recent reviews of autism spectrum disorder screening tools, the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised with Follow-Up (M-CHAT-R/F TM ) has been recommended for use in lower middle-income countries to promote earlier identification. Aim: The study aim was to culturally adapt and translate the M-CHAT-R/F TM into Northern Sotho, a South African language. Setting: An expert panel was purposively selected for the review and focus group discussion that was conducted within an academic context. Method: The source translation (English) was reviewed by bilingual Northern Sotho-English speech-language therapists who made recommendations for cultural adaptation. A double translation method was used, followed by a multidisciplinary expert panel discussion and a self-completed questionnaire. Results: Holistic review of test, additional remarks and grammar and phrasing were identified as the most prominent themes of the panel discussion, emphasising the equivalence of the target translation. Conclusion: A South African culturally adapted English version of the M-CHAT-R/F TM is now available along with the preliminary Northern Sotho version of the M-CHAT-R/F TM . The two versions can now be confirmed by gathering empirical evidence of reliability and validity.