To bry or not to bry: the social meanings of Afrikaans rhotic variation in the South Cape

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dc.contributor.advisorDeumert, Anaen_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorMesthrie, Rajenden_ZA
dc.contributor.authorRibbens-Klein, Yolandien_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2017-01-19T12:18:08Z
dc.date.available2017-01-19T12:18:08Z
dc.date.issued2016en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation investigates the social meanings of Afrikaans rhotic variation in a town in the South Cape region of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. The study combines approaches to 'place as location' (traditional dialectology and sociolinguistics) and 'place as meaning' (ethnography and linguistic anthropology) to explore the relationship between geographical place, local social meanings and linguistic variation. Theoretically, I make use of the concept of indexicality, following Silverstein's (2003) indexical orders and Eckert's (2008) indexical fields. To date, there is no previous study that explores Afrikaans variation from these perspectives. The study therefore contributes to the development of Afrikaans linguistics. The participants are residents of Houtiniquadorp, which was a mission station in South Africa's colonial era and declared a Coloured residential area during apartheid. In South Africa, place has been politicised due to colonialism and apartheid. I argue that the racialisation of places contributes to Houtiniquadorpers' sense of locality and belonging. The linguistic form I focus on is Afrikaans /r/. Afrikaans phonetics texts describe alveolar-r [r] as standard, and uvular-r ([ʀ] or [ʁ]; bry-r) as a non-standard, regional feature. In Houtiniquadorp, [ʀ] and [r] variants of the (r) variable are used. My data collection methods were semi-structured interviews and ethnographic fieldwork. The linguistic variants were quantified from the interview data and description tasks. The qualitative data analysis focused on the participants' narratives about places, lived experiences, and meta-linguistic commentary. I discuss three different sets of results, all of which investigate how people in Houtiniquadorp use Afrikaans /r/ to index locality, belonging, and other forms of social meanings, particularly in the context of social and geographic mobility. I analyse metalinguistic comments, the frequency use of rhotic variants, and the use of variants in interaction. Uvularr forms part of many Houtiniquadorpers' repertoires, and the participants show varying degrees of awareness of the sound as locally, and socially, meaningful. The results show that while uvular-r is an emplaced sound (i.e. a regional stereotype or dialect feature), the sound has various other non-place meanings that index macro-social categories such as residential status, gender and age. Finally, by looking at participants who use both variants, I argue that they use variation to index meaningful moments during the interview interactions.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationRibbens-Klein, Y. (2016). <i>To bry or not to bry: the social meanings of Afrikaans rhotic variation in the South Cape</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Linguistics. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22809en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationRibbens-Klein, Yolandi. <i>"To bry or not to bry: the social meanings of Afrikaans rhotic variation in the South Cape."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Linguistics, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22809en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationRibbens-Klein, Y. 2016. To bry or not to bry: the social meanings of Afrikaans rhotic variation in the South Cape. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Ribbens-Klein, Yolandi AB - This dissertation investigates the social meanings of Afrikaans rhotic variation in a town in the South Cape region of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. The study combines approaches to 'place as location' (traditional dialectology and sociolinguistics) and 'place as meaning' (ethnography and linguistic anthropology) to explore the relationship between geographical place, local social meanings and linguistic variation. Theoretically, I make use of the concept of indexicality, following Silverstein's (2003) indexical orders and Eckert's (2008) indexical fields. To date, there is no previous study that explores Afrikaans variation from these perspectives. The study therefore contributes to the development of Afrikaans linguistics. The participants are residents of Houtiniquadorp, which was a mission station in South Africa's colonial era and declared a Coloured residential area during apartheid. In South Africa, place has been politicised due to colonialism and apartheid. I argue that the racialisation of places contributes to Houtiniquadorpers' sense of locality and belonging. The linguistic form I focus on is Afrikaans /r/. Afrikaans phonetics texts describe alveolar-r [r] as standard, and uvular-r ([ʀ] or [ʁ]; bry-r) as a non-standard, regional feature. In Houtiniquadorp, [ʀ] and [r] variants of the (r) variable are used. My data collection methods were semi-structured interviews and ethnographic fieldwork. The linguistic variants were quantified from the interview data and description tasks. The qualitative data analysis focused on the participants' narratives about places, lived experiences, and meta-linguistic commentary. I discuss three different sets of results, all of which investigate how people in Houtiniquadorp use Afrikaans /r/ to index locality, belonging, and other forms of social meanings, particularly in the context of social and geographic mobility. I analyse metalinguistic comments, the frequency use of rhotic variants, and the use of variants in interaction. Uvularr forms part of many Houtiniquadorpers' repertoires, and the participants show varying degrees of awareness of the sound as locally, and socially, meaningful. The results show that while uvular-r is an emplaced sound (i.e. a regional stereotype or dialect feature), the sound has various other non-place meanings that index macro-social categories such as residential status, gender and age. Finally, by looking at participants who use both variants, I argue that they use variation to index meaningful moments during the interview interactions. DA - 2016 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2016 T1 - To bry or not to bry: the social meanings of Afrikaans rhotic variation in the South Cape TI - To bry or not to bry: the social meanings of Afrikaans rhotic variation in the South Cape UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22809 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/22809
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationRibbens-Klein Y. To bry or not to bry: the social meanings of Afrikaans rhotic variation in the South Cape. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Linguistics, 2016 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22809en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentLinguisticsen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherLinguisticsen_ZA
dc.titleTo bry or not to bry: the social meanings of Afrikaans rhotic variation in the South Capeen_ZA
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnamePhDen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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