Language shift, cultural change and identity retention: Indian South Africans in the 1960s and beyond
Journal Article
2007
Permanent link to this Item
Authors
Journal Title
South African Historical Journal
Link to Journal
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Publisher
University of Cape Town
Faculty
License
Series
Abstract
Language shift is not a new phenomenon in South Africa: the most significant shifts in the last few centuries have been from Khoe-San languages and Malay to Afrikaans in the Western Cape's Coloured communities and from Indian languages to English among the KwaZulu-Natal Indian communities. This article will focus on the latter, documenting the fate of Indian languages over their 147-year history in South Africa. In this history issues concerning multilingualism, identity and economic integration are of particular significance. The motivation for this article is not to record details concerning the history of Indian languages in South Africa, as this has been done before.' Rather it seeks to understand how and why the rich vein of multilingualism within the community eventually yielded to a largely monolingual habitus. An implicit aim of the article is to suggest how the Indian experience in South Africa shows dilemmas significant to the larger black population today. For lack of space, this comparison will remain an implied one.
Description
Reference:
Mesthrie, R. (2007). Language shift, cultural change and identity retention: Indian South Africans in the 1960s and beyond. South African Historical Journal, 57(1), 134-152.