Orthographic errors in written Tshivenḓa on funeral programmes of Vhembe District Municipality funeral undertakers

Abstract

Among the Vhavenḓa in the Vhembe District (Limpopo province, South Africa) funeral programmes show conflicting usage of orthography. Some of the programmes are written in acceptable Tshivenḓa orthography, whereas others are not. This article seeks to analyse a sample of twenty-five programmes collected from different undertakers over the period January 2014 to June 2015 with the aim of identifying orthographic mistakes and suggesting ways of correcting them, using the Rules of Orthography and Pronunciation for Tshivenḓa by the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) as a yardstick. The researchers used textual analysis to establish whether these undertakers adhered to the correct Tshivenḓa orthography or not. The researchers randomly collected programmes from each of the five funeral undertakers sampled and subsequently analysed the programmes.