Language maintenance and shift: a survey of isiZulu speakers residing in Soshanguve
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Date
2020
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University of Zululand
Abstract
The study’s main objective was to investigate the language maintenance and shift amongst the isiZulu language speakers residing in Soshanguve, a township in which Sotho-Tswana languages (or Sepitori) dominate. The most current South African Census offers quantifiable insight into the variety of this area. With more than 400,000 populations, the inhabitation of Soshanguve is dense, and most of the inhabitants belong to the Black African group (99.17%). In terms of language distribution, the census specifies that the languages spoken mostly in households are Sepedi (28.20%), Setswana (16.70%), Xitsonga (15.05%), isiZulu (13.58%) and other or non-applicable languages (1.84%), which may point to non-South African languages (for example, languages spoken by immigrants of other African countries and South Asia) or to inborn speakers of local mixed language Sepitori.
The study was looking at how growing up in an environment that is dominated by Sotho-Tswana languages (or Sepitori) had influenced the participants’ knowledge of their isiZulu language. The study also examined the language use of the isiZulu language speakers in Soshanguve in order to discover the areas or domains of use of the isiZulu language, their attitudes concerning their cultural language, as well as the influences that caused them to either preserve or move away from their cultural language. In order to achieve this study’s objective, mixed-methods were used to collect data from the participants (=20) who are isiZulu speakers residing in Soshanguve (different generations). This gathering of data was in the form of questionnaires as well as individual interviews. The responses from 20 distributed questionnaires and 20 interviews served to provide a sociolinguistic profile of the language maintenance and shift in Soshanguve. Both the distribution of questionnaires and interviews occurred almost simultaneously. The use of purposive sampling as a sampling method was suitable for selecting a sample of 20 participants for this study. The focus was on those isiZulu speakers who went to schools that offered isiZulu as a home language.
The study revealed that the participants held positive attitudes toward isiZulu as their cultural language. They also held positive attitudes toward Sotho-Tswana languages (or Sepitori) as the languages existed side-by-side within their township. In addition to this, they believed that living in a neighbourhood with a majority of amaZulu as well the degree of social unity among them helps a great deal to maintain the isiZulu language, and they also believed that it was also important for them to know the Sotho-Tswana languages (or Sepitori) for communication purposes. The
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findings suggest that language attitude as well as language use, which corresponds to Haugen’s theory of language ecology, are the reasons why the isiZulu language is prolonging in Soshanguve as a viable language despite living side-by-side with dominant languages for centuries. The findings also indicate that language attitudes contribute to language maintenance, however; it is also a stepping-stone to learning a second language, which could cause harm to the mother tongue
Description
A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of African Languages in the Faculty of Arts, University of Zululand, 2020.
Keywords
Language maintenance, isiZulu language, African Languages and Culture