Language variation in the Transkeian Xhosa speech community and its impact on children's education
Master Thesis
1993
Permanent link to this Item
Authors
Journal Title
Link to Journal
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Publisher
University of Cape Town
Department
Faculty
License
Series
Abstract
This study investigates language variation in the Transkei Xhosa speech community, focusing on the different dialects spoken in this geographical area and their impact on the education of children. As the study focuses on children's education, it is hypothesized that there is a possible correlation between the dialect spoken and the student's academic achievement and life's chances. It is the sociolinguistic view-point that there exists an intimate relationship between the relative status of a speaker's language and his socio-political status. The Transkeian Xhosa speech community comprises various tribes with different speech patterns (i.e. Gcaleka, Bomvana, Tembu, Cele, Ntlangwini, Baca, Hlubi, Mpondo, Xesibe). In the educational context some of these speech forms are labelled as dialectal or as deviations from the norm and therefore stigmatised. This implies that children enter the school setting as winners or losers depending on the dialect or variant they speak.
Description
Bibliography: leaves 149-160.
Keywords
Reference:
Nomlomo, V. 1993. Language variation in the Transkeian Xhosa speech community and its impact on children's education. University of Cape Town.