Speaking Xhosa multilingually

IF 0.5 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Language Dynamics and Change Pub Date : 2023-11-01 DOI:10.1163/22105832-bja10028

Rajend Mesthrie, Lulu Mfazwe-Mojapelo

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract Although code-switching has been quite well studied as a worldwide phenomenon, closer attention to effects on the more localized language involved is needed, especially in the repertoires of younger, well-educated speakers speaking in a multilingual mode. We argue that their language shows creativity going well beyond older instances of borrowing and code-switching into a “third space” grammar, which shows an active and creative synthesis of at least two languages. This study is based on interview data with 37 speakers of Xhosa in Soweto, South Africa. It focuses on (a) the verb suffix - isha as a marker of multilingual Xhosa par excellence, (b) a new lease of life given to the class 14 prefix ubu- in connection with (mainly) Latinate adjectives from English, and (c) the interchangeability of logical connectors across the third space.

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多语科萨语

虽然语码转换作为一种世界性的现象已经得到了很好的研究，但需要更密切地关注其对更本地化语言的影响，特别是对以多语言模式说话的受过良好教育的年轻人的语言库的影响。我们认为，他们的语言显示出创造力，远远超越了以往的借用和代码转换，进入“第三空间”语法，这显示出至少两种语言的积极和创造性的综合。这项研究基于对南非索韦托37名科萨语使用者的访谈数据。它着重于(a)动词后缀- isha作为多语言卓越的科萨语的标志;(b)第14类前缀ubu的新生-与(主要)来自英语的拉丁语形容词联系在一起;(c)跨第三空间的逻辑连接器的互换性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Language Dynamics and Change LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS-

CiteScore

2.30

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Language Dynamics and Change (LDC) is an international peer-reviewed journal that covers both new and traditional aspects of the study of language change. Work on any language or language family is welcomed, as long as it bears on topics that are also of theoretical interest. A particular focus is on new developments in the field arising from the accumulation of extensive databases of dialect variation and typological distributions, spoken corpora, parallel texts, and comparative lexicons, which allow for the application of new types of quantitative approaches to diachronic linguistics. Moreover, the journal will serve as an outlet for increasingly important interdisciplinary work on such topics as the evolution of language, archaeology and linguistics (‘archaeolinguistics’), human genetic and linguistic prehistory, and the computational modeling of language dynamics.