Browsing by Subject "African Languages"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    A comparative analysis of metaphorical expressions used by rural and urban Ndebele speakers: the contribution of S'ncamtho
    (2018) Ndlovu, Sambulo; Hurst, Ellen
    This thesis explores language expansion and change through metaphorical expressions that originate with urban youth varieties. It focuses on the impact of S'ncamtho, an Ndebele-based urban youth variety of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe along the variables of rural/urban, sex, age and level of education. The thesis uses Cognitive Metaphor Theory to build on research on metaphor in urban youth varieties to answer the overarching question; how is S'ncamtho impacting Ndebele? It confirms that sex and sexuality, music and partying, love and relationships are popular themes in S'ncamtho. The thesis identifies relexicalisation and replacement of metaphoric vehicles as the main metaphor derivational strategies in S'ncamtho and confirms the existence of clearly discernible genres of metaphor in S'ncamtho which are proverbs, sayings, aphorisms and euphemistic metaphors. While S'ncamtho and other youth varieties in Africa have been identified as urban varieties, the study brings in the dimension of measuring the spread of S'ncamtho to peri-urban and rural areas. Data from questionnaire tests, interviews and observations is analysed using the Idiom Familiarity and Comprehension Judgement Method to measure the impact and spread of S'ncamtho metaphors. The guiding theory in evaluating the spread of S'ncamtho metaphors is a Social Psychology framework- Social Impact Theory (SIT). The thesis argues that S'ncamtho metaphors spread outside Bulawayo’s high density male youth to female and older Ndebele speakers in and outside the city, it identifies male youth in the age cohort 15- 35 years as more familiar and using more S'ncamtho metaphors compared to females and older males in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. It also reveals that S'ncamtho metaphor familiarity declines with age and distance from Bulawayo, and that generally females use less S'ncamtho compared to males and the young are more familiar with S'ncamtho compared to adults. The research reveals that there is no significant difference between rural and urban professionals in S'ncamtho metaphor familiarity and this confirms that improved communication networks impact on the spread of S'ncamtho as professional people frequent Bulawayo for pay and other services. However, the study also noted that there are still more people who have negative attitudes towards S'ncamtho, compared to those who view its impact positively. The thesis argues that the popularity of S'ncamtho has seen S'ncamtho metaphors operating in professions including journalism, health professions, teaching and religious professions. Furthermore, attitudes are changing as some people have begun to view S'ncamtho positively outside the criminal prejudices.
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    De-creating Language Borders at the University of Cape Town: “The Fall of English” and the Rise of African Languages in Education
    (2021) Botes, Inge-Ame; Nyamnjoh, Francis
    The salience of English as the main language of instruction at tertiary institutions across South Africa has not been without critique. At the University of Cape Town, henceforth UCT, conversations surrounding language and academic success have become bolstered by the rhetoric of decolonisation, necessitating a review of policy and practice. This in turn has opened up research opportunities pertaining to student and staff experiences of language at the institution. This thesis is a response to the urgent need for ethnographic focus on the language situation at UCT and higher education institutions countrywide, where increasingly light falls on the language question within quests for decolonisation and social justice. Focusing the language question within frameworks of decoloniality, glocalisation, translanguaging and the development of African languages in education, this thesis distills ethnographic data to argue that language borders need to be reevaluated in a quest for conviviality informed by the universality of incompleteness, where fluidity, interconnection, and interdependence are prioritised over the current dominance of English. Grounded in rich ethnographic evidence in the form of student interviews and reflections, meeting at the intersection of social and linguistic anthropology, this thesis grapples with the critical questions: “What is language at UCT? And what does language do?”
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    Educational implications of nonstandard varieties of Xhosa
    (1998) Sigcau, Nompucuko Eurica; Gxilishe, D S
    This study aims: (i) to find out if language interference and language change would cause the students to fail Xhosa. The response of schools to this situation will be investigated and an attempt will be made to understand the dichotomy that exists in spoken and written Xhosa. (ii) to look at the implications on nonstandard Xhosa of sociolinguistic factors such as attitudes, language policies, communicative influence of the mass media, and language use in multilingual societies. (iii) to examine the effects of 'dialects' of Xhosa on standard Xhosa. (vi) to investigate the causes of this apparent lack of learners' interest towards learning Xhosa. (iv) to assess the contribution of language planners towards remedying the situation.
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    An exploration of teaching and learning in an isiXhosa communicative language skills course in a medical school
    (2016) Tyam, Nolubabalo; Paxton, Moragh
    This thesis reports on research conducted into the teaching and learning of an isiXhosa Communication Skills course as a Second Language (SL) at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The research was an exploration of an isiXhosa language teaching pedagogy with a particular focus on learning and teaching and the usage of isiXhosa in the isiXhosa Communications Skills classroom. In doing this research, I wanted to know what could be the cause of these attitudes. Questions that need to be considered in developing this pedagogy are: What are the benefits of its usage in the classroom? What are the language pedagogies that the teachers are struggling with? The study was carried out with second year medical students. In this study, questionnaires were distributed to 63 research subjects. Four classroom observations were carried out and 12 students were interviewed. I observed that teachers as a group had characteristic pedagogical styles and approaches. The teachers were using more teacher-centred method, relying heavily on the use of textbooks, focused more on the teaching of pure isiXhosa language and used less varied techniques of instruction and engagement. There was little evidence of learner-centred teaching and incorporation of more communicative, interactive lessons and activities that help students for speaking competence. Students had strong positive attitudes towards learning isiXhosa communication skills. The students' views from the interviews and classroom observations point towards broadly issues of learning second language and pedagogy in learning and teaching. Students seemed to be concerned and frustrated with the fact that they cannot speak in isiXhosa with the patients. They felt that learning isiXhosa was essential for their future careers, and the ability to speak isiXhosa would be beneficial for their work. The students' interviews reinforced the conclusions that I drew from the classroom observations and yielded insights into how teachers teach a Second Language.
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    Proto-Sotho and the Sotho-Group
    (1977) Auer, Richard Steven
    From the early years of the Nineteenth Century, language investigation had been undertaken to show what the relationship was between the languages of Africa, and in particular, Southern Africa. Perhaps one of the earliest informed investigators who postulated the concept of distinctive language "types" among the languages of Southern Africa and particularly with the Southern Bantu languages, was Heinrich » Lichtenstein. Writing in 1 808, he divided the peoples and languages of Southern Africa into two distinctive groups: the "Hottentots" and the Hottentot class, of languages, and the "Kaffirs", and the "Kaffir" class of languages. He clarified this relationship by stating, "All linguistic types of the South African aborigines must be classified as dialects of 2 either one or the other of these two principal classes." Implied in this statement is the concept that within the group composed of all the languages of his "Kaffir" class, as indeed of his "Hottentot" class, distinctive dialectical qualities came about through dialectical divergence. Despite this implication he did not attempt to analyse the relational aspects of each of the dialects composing his "principal ("Kaffir") class". 1 .0.01 It was not until twenty-seven years later, in 1837» that William Boyce, in his introduction to Archbell’s "Grammar of the Bechuana Language", enlarged upon Lichtenstein's division by stating, "....(that) the second division or family, of his South African languages....(is composed of) the sister dialects spoken by the Kafir and Bechuana tribes." The linguistic boundaries were now enlarged to include two distinctive linguistic families, rather than "types", viz. the Hottentot family and the Nguni ("Kafir") and Sotho (Bechuana) families. In 18 5O, J. W.Appleyard, produced his "The Kafir Language; comprising a sketch of its History; remarks upon its Nature and a Grammar". In this work he postulates four groups within our future Bantu family, those of Congo, Damara (i.e. Herero), Sechuana and "Kafir" It is noteworthy that in this work he classified Sotho under the "Sechuana"^ group, from which it could be implied that Sotho was either a dialect or a separate Cluster of the Tswana group. This is the first discernible effort to note that under the main families of the Southern Africa geographical areas there could be dialects that were affiliated to larger groups.
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