‘Only Tonga spoken here!’: Family language management among the Tonga in Zimbabwe

Maseko, Busani; Mutasa, Davie E.

doi:10.2989/16073614.2019.1692676

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…• The South African national, provincial, and local governments should consider developing an all-inclusive bottom-up approach, instead of an exclusive topdown approach to the promotion and preservation of autochthonous languages (Maseko 2021;Maseko & Mutasa 2019;Ndhlovu 2008). The approach should be an open and all-encompassing consultation with various concerned parties (parents, teachers, learners, civil society, policy analysts, researchers, etcetera) of Xitsonga in TLM.…”

Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnolinguistic vitality in Thulamela Local Municipality: A case of Xitsonga

Mashwele,

Mandende,

Sebola

2024

Literator

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The use and status of a language in a given speech community can reveal the prospects of its elevation or lack thereof. Furthermore, one can determine whether a language will be elevated or undermined in a community by exploring the perceptions of its speakers towards its status and use. Hence, this article investigated the status and use of Xitsonga at the Thulamela Local Municipality (TLM) in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, with particular interest in the Vatsonga’s perceptions of the ethnolinguistic vitality of Xitsonga in the TLM. Guided by the Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory, this article probed the demographics of Xitsonga in the TLM, explored the role played by the TLM authorities in promoting Xitsonga as a language, and highlighted the implications of the perceived ethnolinguistic vitality of Xitsonga in the TLM. The study employed a qualitative method to collect data through face-to-face semi-structured interviews from 13 Xitsonga L1 speakers who participated in the study. It was found that Xitsonga speakers preferred to be addressed in their language during the municipality’s formal gatherings – a courtesy they believe is both effective in and necessary for the preservation and promotion of Xitsonga at the TLM. Also noteworthy, despite Xitsonga being dominated by Tshivenḓa in the TLM, Xitsonga speakers nevertheless maintained positive perceptions towards their language. This is commendable, considering that the TLM is located in Ṱhohoyanḓou, the economic hub of Vhembe District, where there is a university, malls and shopping complexes – spheres that encourage acculturation and language shift.Contribution: The findings of this study may contribute to the ongoing discourse on the equal use, preservation, and promotion of indigenous languages in South Africa.

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Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnolinguistic vitality in Thulamela Local Municipality: A case of Xitsonga

Mashwele,

Mandende,

Sebola

2024

Literator

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“…The present study builds on that observation to show how agency is enacted and asserted in parent-child interactions within a Ndebele-English bilingual family. In a study which also elicited parents' language management strategies within the context of intergenerational transmission of Tonga, another minoritised language in Zimbabwe, Maseko and Mutasa (2019) found that high levels of language awareness among parents had a positive effect on the trajectory of heritage language transmission. In particular, they demonstrated how strong impact beliefs, i.e., parents' conviction that they could positively influence their children's language practices (De Houwer, 2009) emboldened parents to take extreme language intervention measures to enforce a Tonga-only FLP (Maseko & Mutasa, 2019).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a study which also elicited parents' language management strategies within the context of intergenerational transmission of Tonga, another minoritised language in Zimbabwe, Maseko and Mutasa (2019) found that high levels of language awareness among parents had a positive effect on the trajectory of heritage language transmission. In particular, they demonstrated how strong impact beliefs, i.e., parents' conviction that they could positively influence their children's language practices (De Houwer, 2009) emboldened parents to take extreme language intervention measures to enforce a Tonga-only FLP (Maseko & Mutasa, 2019). The relatively longer history of Per Linguam 2022 38(2):1-17 http://dx.doi.org/10.5785/38-2-990 language and culture activism by Tonga speakers was thought to have cultivated language loyalty even among children.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's agency in parent-child discourses: A study of family language policy in a Ndebele heritage language family

Maseko

2022

PLING

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This study investigated how children assert agency in parent–child interactions. The inquiry was conducted through a linguistic ethnography of the Ndlovu family, an indigenous Ndebele heritage language family living in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The study shows how Suku and Thabo, the two children in the focal family influenced family language policy through contradictory practices by Suku and conformist practices by Thabo. The researcher conducted interviews with the parents of the focal family to establish their language ideologies and family language policy preferences. Parent–child conversations were recorded during eight visits to the focal family by the researcher. Analysis of the recorded conversations reveal how Suku, the older girl child in the family, participated in resistant agency by her preference for English-centred practices in parent-child interactions, defying her parents’ explicitly articulated pro-Ndebele family language policy. Thabo, the younger child, asserted conformist agency by participating in and reciprocating his parents’ Ndebele-centred practices. These practices by the children are attempts to enact their agency in family language policy, sometimes resulting in parents revising their original dispositions towards the use of the heritage Ndebele language at home. As a result, the parents did not take visible language management steps to correct their children’s choices. The study concludes that children’s contradictory practices are not innocent but instead, reproduce their language experiences in extra-familial spaces. Therefore, their agency is a combination of familial and extra-familial language ideologies and practices.

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Family language policy tensions in Ndebele-Shona intermarriages

Maseko,

Siziba

2024

Social Sciences & Humanities Open

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‘Only Tonga spoken here!’: Family language management among the Tonga in Zimbabwe

Cited by 12 publications

References 27 publications

Ethnolinguistic vitality in Thulamela Local Municipality: A case of Xitsonga

Ethnolinguistic vitality in Thulamela Local Municipality: A case of Xitsonga

Children's agency in parent-child discourses: A study of family language policy in a Ndebele heritage language family

Family language policy tensions in Ndebele-Shona intermarriages

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