Township language dynamics: isiZulu and isiTsotsi in Umlazi

Abstract

Due to the prevalent multilingual contact situation, South Africa is an energetic laboratory for diversity of language varieties and language contact phenomena. Nonetheless, little research has been conducted regarding different urban mixed-codes, and investigations into Tsotsitaal or Iscamtho varieties have focussed on the Gauteng province. This paper, in contrast, focusses on a language variety hitherto discussed only peripherally by South African sociolinguists, an urban mixed-code spoken in the Umlazi township of KwaZulu-Natal, referred to as ‘isiTsotsi' by its residents. Furthermore, I analyse the relationship between this urban mixed-code and ‘standard' isiZulu by drawing from the theoretical framework of diglossia. The societal phenomenon of diglossia (Ferguson, 1959; Fishman, 1972; Hudson, 2002) has been referred to in multifaceted ways in South Africa's multilingual landscape and English is generally identified as the H(igh)-variety. This paper offers an analysis of a different kind. Considering the attention the English language has already received in South African sociolinguistics, it seems apt and timely to concentrate research efforts on less obvious dynamics. Hence, this paper explores the potential of ‘isiTsotsi' as the L(ow)-and standard Zulu as the H(igh)-variety in the township domain (hereafter H- and L-variety).

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2005, 23(3): 305–317