Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of phonetic symbols
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The main language groupings
- Part II Language contact
- 9 Fanakalo: a pidgin in South Africa
- 10 Mutual lexical borrowings among some languages of southern Africa: Xhosa, Afrikaans and English
- 11 Code-switching, mixing and convergence in Cape Town
- 12 Code-switching in South African townships
- 13 Intercultural miscommunication in South Africa
- 14 Women's language of respect: isihlonipho sabafazi
- 15 The sociohistory of clicks in Southern Bantu
- 16 The political economy of language shift: language and gendered ethnicity in a Thonga community
- 17 From second language to first language: Indian South African English
- 18 Black South African English
- 19 The lexicon and sociolinguistic codes of the working-class Afrikaans-speaking Cape Peninsula coloured community
- 20 An Introduction to Flaaitaal (or Tsotsitaal)
- 21 Language and language practices in Soweto
- Part III Language planning, policy and education
- Index
- References
18 - Black South African English
from Part II - Language contact
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Edited by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of phonetic symbols
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The main language groupings
- Part II Language contact
- 9 Fanakalo: a pidgin in South Africa
- 10 Mutual lexical borrowings among some languages of southern Africa: Xhosa, Afrikaans and English
- 11 Code-switching, mixing and convergence in Cape Town
- 12 Code-switching in South African townships
- 13 Intercultural miscommunication in South Africa
- 14 Women's language of respect: isihlonipho sabafazi
- 15 The sociohistory of clicks in Southern Bantu
- 16 The political economy of language shift: language and gendered ethnicity in a Thonga community
- 17 From second language to first language: Indian South African English
- 18 Black South African English
- 19 The lexicon and sociolinguistic codes of the working-class Afrikaans-speaking Cape Peninsula coloured community
- 20 An Introduction to Flaaitaal (or Tsotsitaal)
- 21 Language and language practices in Soweto
- Part III Language planning, policy and education
- Index
- References
Summary
DEFINING BLACK SOUTH AFRICAN ENGLISH
English is a world language, likely to continue to play a leading role internationally as an important language of education and as the language of choice for business, science and popular culture (Platt et al. 1984: 28). A consequence of its dominant position and growth as the language of power and as an important medium for the dissemination of knowledge is the striking increase in the number of those learning and using English as ‘other’ language. In this process English has acquired various identities and multiple ownerships (Kachru 1986: 31), one of them being black South African English (BSAE).
BSAE is the variety of English commonly used by mother-tongue speakers of South Africa's indigenous African languages. In terms of Platt et al's criteria (1984: 2–3), BSAE fits the category ‘new English’ in that it has developed through the education system as an L2 in an area where English is not the language of the majority, and has become localised for use in intra-regional communication, as is typical of colonial contexts in which English has been imported to compete with indigenous languages. However, defining BSAE precisely is problematic: strictly speaking, whose English is BSAE? Is it the English of those learners who have encountered only a smattering of English in informal contexts and use it occasionally for business or work purposes?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Language in South Africa , pp. 356 - 378Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002
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