Varieties Of South African English Research Articles

The colour of liquid: a sociophonetic analysis of the changing positional allophony of the South African English lateral approximant

This article provides a sociophonetic analysis of General South African English /l/, based on the naturalistic speech of 50 male and female L1-speakers of this variety of South African English (SAfE), all from Cape Town and ranging from 18-82 years of age. Emphasis falls on testing descriptions provided by the impressionistic literature of the so-called ‘colour’ of the two main allophones of this phoneme i.e. those in initial and final positions; and on determining whether there has been any change in this regard. The relevant phonetic (acoustic) analysis focuses on the parameters of F2 or F2-F1 (as general measures of ‘colour’) and co-articulatory resistance (as an additional parameter of darkening, particularly with respect to final-/l/) to determine the overall status of /l/ as well as to determine whether or not the acoustic difference between initial-/l/ and final-/l/ meets the criteria provided by Recasens (2012) for extrinsic allophony. These parameters also constitute dependent variables for a statistical analysis which determines the relative effect of one internal (positional allophony) and two external (age and gender) independent variables on these parameters. The results provide evidence to suggest that pronouncements in the impressionistic literature are incorrect. While there has been a darkening of /l/-colour in apparent time, /l/-colour in General SAfE has been and is consistently of a relatively dark kind, as in the case of the Australasian varieties of English, the closest relatives of SAfE. Furthermore, results show that any remaining difference in colour between the two positional allophones is purely the result of intrinsic allophony i.e. General SAfE does not display a full RP-like clear-dark allophony. Results do, however, confirm that female speakers have a slightly more fronted variant of initial-/l/, probably a prestige variant. Keywords: South African English, English phonetics, English accents, sociophonetics, acoustic analysis, liquids, alveolar lateral, sound change

Revisiting the kit-split in Coloured South African English

Abstract This paper seeks to provide a detailed sociophonetic analysis of kit vowel variation in Coloured South African English (CSAfE). 40 Coloured speakers (20 male; 20 female) from middle-class and working-class backgrounds were analysed using methods of automatic vowel measurement. 2,253 tokens of kit were isolated into phonological environments which condition the split: before and after velar consonants /k, g/, before /ŋ/, before palato-alveolar consonants /ʧ, ʃ, ʤ, ʒ/, after /h/, and word initially. Working-class CSAfE speakers displayed a wider split in the set: they used a higher and fronter variant in all conditioning environments, approximating [ɪ], while tokens in the unconditioned environments were produced in the region of [ə]. Middle-class speakers displayed a definite split, conditioned by the same environments, but with a smaller distance between the two values. The binary split maintains its vitality in this variety of South African English.

Syntactic and prosodic focus marking in contact varieties of South African English

The article presents results of an elicited-production study investigating syntactic and prosodic consequences of language contact on two varieties of multilingual Black speakers of South African English, namely Black South African English (BlSAfE) and a newly emerging variety by Black speakers (“crossing over variety”). The results indicate that contact varieties of South African English share syntactic traits of General South African English (GenSAfE) relating to focus marking. At the same time, BlSAfE also shows differences in the frequency of use of the syntactic structures. The differences cannot be accounted for solely by L1 influence. Also, in prosody, significant differences between the varieties emerge. For BlSAfE, the differences can be related to L1 influence. A language can exert its influence differently on different areas of another language’s grammar: With respect to syntax the “crossing over” variety groups with GenSAfE, with respect to prosody it is in-between GenSAfE and BlSAfE.

Motion event categorisation in a nativised variety of South African English

The present study seeks to expand the current focus on acquisition situations in linguistic relativity research by exploring the effects of nativisation (the process by which a L2 is acquired as a L1) on language-specific cognitive behaviour. Categorisation preferences of goal-oriented motion events were investigated in South African speakers who learnt English as a L1 from caregivers who spoke English as a L2 and Afrikaans as a L1. The aim of the study was to establish whether the categorisation patterns found in the nativised English variety: (1) resemble patterns of L2 speakers of English with Afrikaans as a L1, (2) resemble patterns of L1 English speakers of a non-nativised English variety and (3) do not pattern with either of the above, but instead exhibit a distinct behaviour. It was found that simultaneous, functional bilinguals (Afrikaans and nativised English) patterned with L1 Afrikaans speakers, but the extent to which they did so was modulated by their frequency of use of Afrikaans. Functionally monolingual speakers of nativised English, on the other hand, patterned with L1 speakers of British English. This suggests that bilingualism, rather than nativisation, was a reliable predictor of event categorisation preferences.

Orientations to English in post-apartheid schooling

As Voloshinov has famously argued, ‘the word is the most sensitive index of social changes, and what is more, of changes still in the process of growth’ (Voloshinov, 1986: 19). Scrutiny of young people's discourses on language together with their language practices offers us a window into a society in transition, such as present-day South Africa. This article examines the language ideologies and language practices of Black youth attending previously White, now desegregated, suburban schools in South African cities, important spaces for the production of an expanding Black middle class (Soudien, 2004). Due to their resourcing during apartheid (both financial and human) previously White schools are aligned with quality education and perceived as strategic sites for the acquisition and maintenance of a prestige variety of South African English. This article looks at how mainly African girls (15–16 years) position themselves in relation to English, drawing on data collected using ethnographic approaches in four desegregated schools in South African cities: three in Johannesburg, Gauteng and one in Cape Town, Western Cape. The discussion focuses on two significant themes: English and the [re]production of race; and the place of English in young people's linguistic repertoires. My aim is to show how African youth in desegregated schools orient themselves to English and what their language ideologies and language practices might tell us about macro social processes, including the (re)constitution of race in South Africa. Schooling, as Bourdieu points out, is one of the most important sites for social reproduction and is thus also one of the key sites, ‘which imposes the legitimate forms of discourse and the idea that discourse should be recognised if and only if it conforms to the legitimate norms’ (Bourdieu, 1977: 650). However, co-present with processes of reproduction are practices that work to subvert and unsettle dominant discourses. Suburban desegregated schools are thus productive sites for the re-making of cultural practices (including language) and identities.

Prosodic marking of narrow focus across varieties of South African English

This paper reports on an elicited production study which investigates prosodic marking of narrow focus in modified noun phrases in varieties of South African English. The acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency, intensity, and duration in narrow focus is presented and discussed. The results suggest that these three acoustic parameters are manipulated differently in narrow focus in the varieties of English as a Second Language as compared to General South African English. The article compares the results to what is known about prosodic marking of information structure in other varieties of English as a Second Language and underlines the necessity of carefully controlled data in the investigation of phonological and phonetic variation in varieties of English.

Complexity in word-formation processes in New Varieties of South African English

The research question posed in the article is whether South African English (SAE) has reached Phase four of Schneider's (2007) Dynamic Model of Postcolonial Englishes. This phase is characterised by early indications of linguistic convergence between the Indigenous and Settler strands. In the article, the focus is on lexical innovation and morphologically complex forms in a corpus of approximately 703 300 words from the Vaal Weekly community newspaper. The data are analysed according to semantic domains and morphological structure. To determine if SAE has gone beyond Phase three of Schneider's (2007) model, three criteria are proposed: generality, acceptability and codification in dictionaries. The results show that lexical innovations in the semantic domains are often loanwords originating from the culture of the indigenous strand. There is considerable evidence supporting Phase four among lexical innovations: widespread semantic diffusion, a considerable degree of acceptability, as indicated by use in other newspapers, and codification in the South African Concise Oxford Dictionary. The results for the morphology of complex words show that most of these forms are unique to the Vaal Weekly. The generality and more than negligible degree of acceptability of compounding also indicate that SAE has reached Phase four, but derivational processes, while revealing some generality for negation, otherwise fail to meet the criteria of acceptability and codification. The majority of the analyses support a conclusion that SAE has entered Phase four, but morphologically complex forms are not yet conclusive in this respect.

Global and local durational properties in three varieties of South African English

This article investigates the relationship between the global and local durational properties of an utterance. We show that languages that are similar in terms of their global durational properties are also similar in terms of their local durational properties. However, languages that differ globally also differ locally. We illustrate this with three varieties of South African English. We show that South African English L1 and Afrikaans English both pattern with stress-timed languages and both apply phrase-final lengthening. Tswana English, however, patterns with syllable-timed languages, and does not apply phrase-final lengthening.

Requests in a South African variety of English

Abstract: The main assumption in this article is that the pragmatics of the variety of South African English commonly referred to as black South African English (BSAE) have been shaped, over time, by educated bilinguals, through a transfer of features from African languages. Transfer of syntactic forms, now firmly established in the variety, is evidenced by, among other things, the preferred use of forms dispreferred in requesting formulae in the native varieties of English. To test the hypothesis of transfer of forms into English for the same requesting functions as in Sesotho sa Leboa (Northern Sotho), an African language of South Africa, use was made of a contrastive study, using ethnographic notebook data of BSAE and DCT (discourse completion task)‐elicited requests in both languages and acceptability judgements on ‘politeness’ in the African language. The results of a pragmatico‐syntactic analysis, which found a mismatch between knowledge about and use of appropriate speech act formulae in the native form of English, (1) confirm the hypothesis of a transfer of strategies from L1 to L2 over time in the speech of educated bilinguals which shaped BSAE; (2) suggest the influence of ‘cultural rules’(because contact of languages involves contact of cultures) in shaping the pragmatics of BSAE, on the basis of which the ‘Cultural Difference Hypothesis’ is proposed; and (3) concur with the emerging conclusion of the institutionalization of BSAE as an indigenized variety of English.

Starting with Xhosa English towards a spoken corpus

This paper describes the underlying motivation for the proposed structure and design of a corpus of Xhosa English, which aims ultimately to form part of a larger corpus of Black South African English (BSAE). The planned corpus will be exclusively based on spoken spontaneous Xhosa English, and full justification for this decision is provided in the paper. In particular the paper argues that the current South African English component of the International Corpus of English (ICE) cannot be regarded as representative of any particular variety of South African English, because of the wide range of Englishes spoken in the country (by mother-tongue speakers, Indians, white and coloured Afrikaans speakers and the speakers of South Africa's nine indigenous languages). In addition, the article problematises theoretical concepts such as deciding what “educated” or standard English is (in a multilingual country with a very complex socio-political history), and argues that some of the text categories of ICE and other spoken corpora are inappropriate for the planned Xhosa English corpus.

Black South African English: A new English? Observations from a phonetic viewpoint

This study investigates the extent to which users of Black South African English (BSAE) command the vowel system of English. One mother‐tongue speaker each of English, Southern Sotho and Zulu read a set of stimulus words representing various monophthong contrasts in standard South African English. Three groups of subjects participated as listeners in an experiment on English vowel perception. These include (1) 21 Southern Sotho speakers and 21 Zulu speakers, (2) 41 Arabic speakers, and (3) 20 Afrikaans speakers. The Arabic and Afrikaans speakers were used in the experiment for comparative purposes. Overall the results indicate a general lack of command of the vowel contrasts of Standard South African English by the speakers of Bantu languages. The same holds but to a lesser extent for the other two groups of listeners. Further analysis reveals that the Southern Sotho‐ and Zulu‐speaking listeners process the long vowel/short vowel contrast differently from contrasts based on vowel quality differences. In the concluding section, the results are interpreted against the backdrop of current theories of second language acquisition. The evidence supports transfer‐based explanations for phonological acquisition, since the vowels that the first language and target language of the speakers share are perceived more accurately than those that the languages do not share. In addition, the results are discussed in relation to the question whether BSAE is an interlanguage, or a fully‐fledged new English. On the face of current evidence, it seems that the mesolectal form of BSAE could be viewed as an interlanguage rather than as a new English, but one that has as yet to develop into a more stable alternative to the standard variety of South African English.

The international comprehensibility of varieties of South African English

The justification for the continued use of a high status (‘international’) variety of English in education and the media in South Africa is that re-standardizing to a local variety will result in South Africans becoming incomprehensible to the rest of the world. The study challenges the truth of this statement while it attempts to devise a more contextualized research methodology in the area of intelligibility and comprehensibility studies. It concludes that, although the comprehensibility tests devised for this study prove that South African Englishes are comprehensible internationally, comprehensibility and intelligibility cannot be reduced to linguistic features of a language. The results of the study imply that the use of ‘non-standard’ varieties of language in education does not necessarily preclude international communication possibilities. Furthermore, teachers should be trained to avoid stigmatizing the varieties their students bring to school. The study also points the way to further developments in research methodology.