‘With English the world is more open to you’ – language shift as marker of social transformation

Abstract

This article gives an appraisal of bilingualism in Afrikaans and English among the Cape ‘Coloured’ community and of shifting patterns within it. It has become customary to use quotation marks around the term Coloured and lower case to signal that this and other race-based terms are contested ones in South Africa (see Erasmus, 2001; Ruiters, 2009). On the advice of the ET editor for this issue, however, I will use the term with the capital and without quotation marks, since he argues – conversely – that the use of lower case and scare quotes in print can also be misconstrued as disrespect for a community. In this community it appears that a shift is underway from Afrikaans as first and as home language to English as the dominant family language. However, this shift does not follow a straightforward linear trajectory, and while some speakers appear to have abandoned Afrikaans in favour of English, in many families the language has not been jettisoned. Before citing studies that explore this complexity, including current work by the author, it is necessary to give a brief overview of the background to Afrikaans and English in South Africa and their place in the country's overall multilingualism.

Language shift among Kurds in Turkey: A spatial and demographic analysis

“…Since most Kurds in Turkey are bilingual (Zeyneloğlu et al, 2014), a Kurdish individual may also easily opt for Turkish as her main medium of expression during early adulthood and Kurdish drops to second position even if that was the language she first learned from her parents. Upward social mobility and economic opportunities are also known major drivers of language shift (Anthonissen, 2013;Hinton, 2014;Kandler et al, 2010) which is usually preceded by bilingualism (see Field, 1980;Backus, 2004). On the other hand, language retention is not a prerequisite for retention of a minority ethnic identity.…”

Language, residential space and inequality in Cape Town: Broad-brush profiles and trends

“…iv The distinction is therefore particularly relevant in the context of the Western Cape, where a number of studies have noted patterns associated with an inter-generational shift from Afrikaans to English (Anthonissen, 2013;Farmer, 2008).…”

Cognitive Interviewing during Pretesting of the Prefinal Afrikaans for the Western Cape Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Questionnaire following Translation and Cross-Cultural Adaptation

“…The variation that exists in the Afrikaans language is often a product of social, cultural, situational, or geographical differences between people [ 8 ]. Afrikaans is spoken by 13.5% of the population of South Africa and most widely used in the Western and Northern Cape Province [ 9 ]. Variations however exist.…”