Loan Words versus Indigenous Words in Northern Sotho — A Lexicographic Perspective

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate, from a lexicographic perspective, the preferences of Northern Sotho mother-tongue speakers for loan words versus so-called 'traditional' or 'original' counterparts in the language. Results obtained from a survey conducted among 100 randomly selected mother-tongue speakers from different age and gender groups, backgrounds,
places of residence, etc. will be analysed. It is shown that although the overwhelming preference of the respondents lies with the use of (more) indigenous words in comparison to loan words, lexicographers should be alerted to possible, even rapid, changes in this preference pattern. The results from the survey are compared throughout with frequency counts derived from a corpus as well as with current dictionary treatment.

Keywords: lexicography, dictionary, lemmatisation, northern sotho (sepedi), loan word, sothoised word, indigenous word, questionnaire, corpus, descriptiveness, proscriptiveness, prescriptiveness, preference pattern