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This study concentrates on the interaction between languages with similar morphological and syntactic structures. It will show that code switching between morphosyntactically similar languages ofequal social function has certain implicationsfor the matrix language-frame modelfor code switching which has been developed by Myers-Scotton (1993b). The two languages under scrutiny here are Southern Sotho and Tswana, two very closely related and functionally equivalent languages spoken in South Africa. In certain contexts the Speakers ofthese languages will switch frequently from the one language to the o t her. The paper will investigate how the matrix language in this multiple switching can be determined and whether the distinction between the matrix and the embedded language is still relevant in such a Situation. Given the relatedness ofthe two languages, the implicationsfor the constraints which the matrix language-frame model proposes will also be examined. The paper concludes that in this case an interlanguage has developed which must be regarded äs a merger between the two languages. This is particularly salient in the South African context since the harmonisation of the Sotho and Nguni languages respectively has been put forward äs the Nhlapo-Alexander proposal (Alexander 1989).

Rapid urbanization and the approach adopted by the authorities during the previous dispensation have left the new democratic government with townships and informal settlements on the peripheries of the urban concentrations of South Africa. Contact at all levels between Speakers of the nine Bantu languages of South Africa, together with the process of modernization, characterize the social dynamics of these urban societies. The result has been multilingual communities that interact on a daily basis in the urban areas and their peripheries in both a dynamic and complex ränge of contexts. Multilingual interaction fuelled by the competitive forces of supply and demand coupled with the free movement of communities have resulted in a hybrid form of identity, which distinguishes urban people from their rural counterparts. This paper examines the relationships that exist between the languages and Speech varieties of some selected urban communities and their ethnic and assumed linguistic identities. It has been found that the boundaries and distinctions between ethnic identities and the identities assumed by urban residents become blurred and indistinct, with their lifestyles and sociocultural characteristics changing äs they are absorbed within the urban areas of South Africa.

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