ellen hurst

University of Cape Town, Humanities EDU, Faculty Member

Followers

809

Following

188

Co-authors

Public Views

InterestsView All (27)

Uploads

Papers by ellen hurst

Style, Structure and Function in Cape Town Tsotsitaal

Chapter 1 'slang'varieties. Ntshangase (1995: 292) states that the Amalaita spoke 'Shalambombo'. ... more Chapter 1 'slang'varieties. Ntshangase (1995: 292) states that the Amalaita spoke 'Shalambombo'. Shalambombo, according to Glaser (2000: 50), comes from ' ... two Zulu words: shala meaning "shunning" and mba-mba meaning "covering over" or "turning upside down''', which could relate to the secrecy function of criminal gang slang 6 • Glaser (2000: 50) furthermore reports that the Funani youth gangs of Pretoria used Shalambombo, which was a precursor to Flaaitaal, ' ... an embryonic form of tsatsitaal' (Glaser 2000: 49). He argues that the Funanis were later incorporated under the term Tsotsi (Glaser 2000: 49; Ntshangase 1993: 56). Shalambombo is also the name af the variety which is used by the infamous '26' and '28' prison to this day as the '26' and '28' 'number gangs', who speak a linguistic variety called 'Shalambombo' (Stone 1995: 283).

Download

Slang registers, code-switching and restructured urban varieties in South Africa

Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 2013

This paper examines the status of an informal urban variety in Cape Town known as Tsotsitaal. Sim... more This paper examines the status of an informal urban variety in Cape Town known as Tsotsitaal. Similar varieties, going by a plethora of names (Flaaitaal, Iscamtho, Ringas) have been described in other South African cities, especially Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban (see also Sheng in Kenyan cities). This paper seeks to describe the essential characteristics of Cape Town Tsotsitaal, which is based on Xhosa, and to argue for its continuity with similar varieties in other South African cities. However, this continuity eventually calls into question many of the previous assumptions in the literature about Tsotsitaal and its analogues: e.g. the thesis that these varieties necessarily involve code-switching, or that they are pidgins, even ones that are creolising in some areas. More generally, this paper serves several purposes: (a) to comment on and elucidate why there is a proliferation of often contradictory names, (b) to examine the degree and types of switching in the different var...

Travelling terms and local innovations: The tsotsitaal of the North West province, South Africa

Literator, 2016

This article focuses on the theme of linguistic innovation and expands on recent studies of the S... more This article focuses on the theme of linguistic innovation and expands on recent studies of the South African linguistic phenomenon tsotsitaal to show that it has travelled from its epicentre of Gauteng province into the North West province (henceforth North West), where it uses Setswana as its Matrix Language because it is the dominant language in the North West. Data were gathered from the North West’s three largest cities, namely, Rustenburg, Klerksdorp and Potchefstroom. The article presents examples of tsotsitaal spoken in the three cities and analyses its linguistic structure and lexical items. The significance of this tsotsitaal study is that it is the first to be conducted exclusively amongst first language (L1) Setswana speakers in an environment where the language is the most dominant – the North West. The study confirms previous literature which describes the phenomenon as a register of the urban form. It furthermore suggests that new lexical innovations at a local level ...

Download

Metaphors and their link to generational peer groups and popular culture in African youth languages

Linguistics Vanguard, 2020

This article focuses on Sheng and Tsotsitaal metaphors in order to highlight the centrality of ge... more This article focuses on Sheng and Tsotsitaal metaphors in order to highlight the centrality of generational peer groups and popular culture in the formation of linguistic and social meaning within these language practices. Drawing on data from a comparative database, the analysis considers aspects such as generational narratives, the transition of a metaphor from a generational peer group context into a conventionalised metaphor, as well as multiple salience and ambiguity. We illustrate the use of metaphor in youth language and its relationship to popular culture, to make the case that youth language involves the innovation of new terms from popular culture. Metaphors are mini-narratives that index the particular culturally- and contextually-shared experiences of a generation of young people, and for this reason tend to be specific to a peer group. We therefore maintain that the term ‘youth language’ is useful because youth continue to drive the relexicalization process, which is th...

African (Urban) Youth Languages

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 2017

A growing phenomena in urban centers on the African continent in the latter half of the 20th cent... more A growing phenomena in urban centers on the African continent in the latter half of the 20th century and start of the 21st century has been what have been described as Urban Youth Languages,’ although the ‘urban’ moniker is increasingly being dropped as these phenomena spread out from cities to rural areas. The term tends to refer to language phenomena such as Sheng or Engsh in Kenya, Tsotsitaal in South Africa, Nouchi in Ivory Coast, Camfranglais in Cameroon, and many more, both named and unnamed. These language styles are used and innovated predominantly by young people, and in this way they are distinguished from the large urban vernaculars present in African urban centers such as urban Wolof.African (Urban) Youth Languages usually utilize a dominant urban language as the grammatical base, such as Swahili in Nairobi Sheng and Zulu or Sotho in Johannesburg Tsotsitaal, and they feature a great deal of lexical borrowing from other languages present in Africa’s highly multilingual ur...

Academic literacy workshops: a handbook for students and instructors

The document is aimed at students who are engaged in writing tasks. The early chapters give infor... more The document is aimed at students who are engaged in writing tasks. The early chapters give information which would be useful to undergraduate as well as postgraduate students on writing basic essays, citation techniques and reading techniques. Later chapters focus on more complicated texts, specifically a research report and a literature review. Each chapter was developed from a workshop, and can be run by instructors or tutors in this way. The document can also just be used directly by students as a resource to draw on while they write.

‘When you hang out with the guys they keep you in style’: The case for considering style in descriptions of South African tsotsitaals

Language Matters Studies in the Languages of Southern Africa, Mar 1, 2013

The collection of South African urban language phenomena called Tsotsitaal, Scamtho, Ringas (in s... more The collection of South African urban language phenomena called Tsotsitaal, Scamtho, Ringas (in short ‘Tsotsitaals’) etc, have been described differently as code-switching, mixed languages, or essentially slang vocabulary. These descriptions however, fail to acknowledge the centrality of performance to these phenomena. Tsotsitaals draw on extra-linguistic modes of identity performance such as body language, clothing, and other facets of what could commonly be called ‘style’. This article uses Coupland's (2007) description of style to understand how tsotsitaals can be viewed as discursive practices performed to achieve social meaning. The research draws on fieldwork conducted in Cape Town in 2006–2007 to expand our understanding of tsotsitaals. It considers perceptions of the style associated with tsotsitaals from the viewpoint of both speakers and listeners in a township community in Cape Town. We argue that current terminology used for varieties of this sort is inadequate to describe the combination of performance, lexicon and style associated with tsotsitaals.

8. Overview of the tsotsitaals of South Africa; their different base languages and common core lexical items

Youth Language Practices in Africa and Beyond, 2015

Translanguaging" as a socially just pedagogy

Education as Change

South African higher education relies primarily on English as the medium of education. This is a ... more South African higher education relies primarily on English as the medium of education. This is a result of the colonial history of the country, yet it disadvantages a large section of South African students who undertake their education in a language that is not their first language. It also reproduces the monolingual norm and anglonormativity. This can be read as a social justice issue, since students are impacted negatively by discrimination through language. Indeed, recent protest movements, particularly Rhodes Must Fall, have highlighted language as a critical issue in the "decolonisation" of the university curriculum. This article presents translanguaging pedagogy as a way to address this issue; it analyses the implementation of translanguaging pedagogies in an introductory course at the University of Cape Town in 2015 and 2016. Through an analysis of lecturer reflections, classroom practice and assessments, it highlights how translanguaging pedagogies can empower students who are disempowered by English monolingualism and it demonstrates how students respond positively to these pedagogies. The article makes the argument that multilingual pedagogies are a necessary response to the current crisis in South African higher education.

Download

Sociolinguistics in African Contexts

This volume offers a new perspective on sociolinguistics in Africa. Eschewing the traditional app... more This volume offers a new perspective on sociolinguistics in Africa. Eschewing the traditional approach which looks at the interaction between European and African languages in the wake of colonialism, this book turns its focus to the social dynamics of African languages and African societies. Divided into two sections, the book offers insight into the crucial topics such as: language vitality and endangerment, the birth of ‘new languages’, a sociolinguistics of the city, language contact and language politics. It spans the continent from Algeria to South Africa, Guinea-Bissau to Kenya and addresses the following broad themes:
Language variation, contact and change; The dynamics of urban, rural and youth languages; Policy and practice
This book provides an alternative to the Eurocentric view of sociolinguistic dynamics in Africa, and will make an ideal read or supplemental textbook for scholars and students in the field/disciplines of African languages and linguistics, and those interested in southern theory or ‘sociolinguistics in the margins’.

Metaphor in South African tsotsitaal

Halliday’s concept of ‘anti-language’ has been applied to a number of African Urban Youth Languag... more Halliday’s concept of ‘anti-language’ has been applied to a number of African Urban Youth Languages (AUYLs) in recent literature. Halliday described the concept of antilanguage as a language generated by an ‘anti-society’ which is set up as a conscious alternative to established societal norms. Anti-language, then, is a conscious alternative to the language of the wider society and it distinguishes itself primarily through relexicalization (the principle of same grammar, different vocabulary) and metaphor. Halliday states that in an anti-language, metaphor goes ‘all the way up and down the system’ – that an anti-society is a metaphorical variant of society, an anti-language is a metaphor for an everyday language, and the language itself employs metaphorical variants to distinguish it, including phonological metaphors, grammatical metaphors (morphological, lexical, and syntactic) and semantic metaphors. This article presents natural speech data from a multi-sited research project in South Africa, in order to analyze the use of metaphor in tsotsitaal – the South African AUYL used amongst peers in South Africa’s townships. The analysis considers how metaphor is used at three different levels – the level of lexical items; phrases; and social structure. Processes of innovation and creativity will be described, and the article will evaluate the use of the term anti-language to describe tsotsitaal (and, by implication, other AUYLs). The ﬁndings suggest that the term is a useful one to understand the metaphorical processes in AUYLs, but that it needs to be cautiously applied.

Travelling terms and local innovations: The tsotsitaal of the North West province, South Africa

by ellen hurst and Thabo Ditsele

[OPEN ACCESS] This article focuses on the theme of linguistic innovation and expands on recent st... more [OPEN ACCESS] This article focuses on the theme of linguistic innovation and expands on recent studies of the South African linguistic phenomenon tsotsitaal to show that it has travelled from its epicentre of Gauteng province into the North West province (henceforth North West), where it uses Setswana as its Matrix Language because it is the dominant language in the North West. Data were gathered from the North West’s three largest cities, namely, Rustenburg, Klerksdorp and Potchefstroom. The article presents examples of tsotsitaal spoken in the three cities and analyses its linguistic structure and lexical items. The significance of this tsotsitaal study is that it is the first to be conducted exclusively amongst first language (L1) Setswana speakers in an environment where the language is the most dominant – the North West. The study confirms previous literature which describes the phenomenon as a register of the urban form. It furthermore suggests that new lexical innovations at a local level are often drawn from the local base language, in this case Setswana, because the local language offers the best opportunities for semantic shift and multiple meanings.

English and the academy for African skilled migrants: The impact of English as an ‘Academic lingua franca’

International Perspectives on Higher Education Research, 2014

ABSTRACT This chapter analyses interviews with 13 African scholars from a range of countries who ... more ABSTRACT This chapter analyses interviews with 13 African scholars from a range of countries who are currently working at a South African university. The interviews explore aspects of their migration journeys and the role that language, particularly the English language, has played in their mobility. The majority of the participants originate from English-speaking African countries, and are fluent English speakers. English is currently the international language of the academy, and English fluency can almost be seen as a prerequisite for an international academic career. The driving question behind this research is what have these African highly skilled academic migrants gained and lost from English in terms of their mobility, careers and identities? The participants show complex orientations towards the medium. On the one hand, English is recognised as an enabling medium for international success in academia, and for career and educational opportunities aboard. On the other hand, participants perceive that the emphasis on the English medium has negative effects on their relationships with their home languages and their home countries. The research raises questions about the role of English in higher education in Africa.

Download

Overview of the Tsotsitaals of South Africa; their different base languages and common core lexical items.

Tsotsitaal in South Africa has many characteristics in common with other African ‘urban youth lan... more Tsotsitaal in South Africa has many characteristics in common with other African ‘urban youth languages’), for example, it incorporates lexical innovation, metaphor and neologisms, its origins are in criminal argot, and it is used primarily by male youth in urban centers possibly as a marker of modernism and being ‘streetwise’.
It can be considered as a set of language resources rather than a ‘language’ in any traditional sense of the term, and one of the more interesting characteristics of tsotsitaal in South Africa is its existence in multiple base languages – all the official languages in South Africa (11 in total) have their own accompanying tsotsitaal. Other non-official languages, including mixed forms of language in highly multi-lingual townships such as Soweto, also have their variety of tsotsitaal.
This paper gives examples of tsotsitaals which utilize a range of base languages – Setswana (Tswana); Tshivenda (Venda); Sesotho sa Lebowa (Northern Sotho); Sesotho (Sotho); IsiZulu (Zulu); Sepedi (Pedi); and IsiXhosa (Xhosa) – to demonstrate the core features of the phenomenon, and to try to outline why the tsotsitaal phenomenon is an exemplar of youth language practice as fluid repertoire.

Download

Navigating language: strategies, transitions, and the ‘colonial wound’ in South African education

Higher education institutions in South Africa are dominated by English, a result of the colonial ... more Higher education institutions in South Africa are dominated by English, a result of the colonial history of the country and its education system, a legacy which is intensified by the current dominance of English in higher education worldwide. This paper applies a decolonial theoretical lens to argue that the dominance of English in South African education manifests in the ‘colonial wound’, what Walter Mignolo describes as the damage done by ‘the fact that regions and people around the world have been classified as underdeveloped economically and mentally’. It provides evidence for this argument by analysing a set of ‘language histories’ submitted by students at a prestigious English language university in South Africa. Strategies for educational success described by students include mobility and language shift, yet students find these transitions traumatic. They experience feelings of inferiority in terms of their own languages and social practices, which highlights the pervasiveness of the colonial matrix of power.

Download

A visual and linguistic comparison of features of Durban and Cape Town tsotsitaal

Tsotsitaal is a South African language phenomenon spoken in urban centres around South Africa whi... more Tsotsitaal is a South African language phenomenon spoken in urban centres around South Africa which involves the use of a range of linguistic and semiotic resources as part of a process of styling an urban identity. The tsotsitaal phenomenon originated in the urban context of Johannesburg's racially mixed townships in the 1940s and it can now be found in all provinces. Although there are calls to recognise it as a ‘national language’, it is not clear what features the different regional varieties share. This article considers two regional examples of tsotsitaal – from Durban and Cape Town – to unpack their common features.

The data analysed here was gathered in 2012, and involves video recordings of 22 young adults, aged between 16 to 25, speaking tsotsitaal together. The data was analysed to determine: the grammatical framework of each example; the lexical items both common to, and unique to, the two sites; topics areas of relexicalisation; and the use of gestures and other semiotic markers. The article demonstrates that tsotsitaals in geographically distant Cape Town and Durban share lexicon, gestures and relexicalised topics, but cautions that regionally and contextually specific features need to be taken into account in broad claims about, and descriptions of, tsotsitaals.

Download

Special Issue: Tsotsitaal studies: urban youth language practices in South Africa

The study of non-standard urban forms of African languages in South Africa, or what I will refer ... more The study of non-standard urban forms of African languages in South Africa, or what I will refer to here as ‘tsotsitaal studies’ (based on Mesthrie’s 2008 broadening of the term ‘tsotsitaal’ to include a number of related varieties), has been a focus of sociolinguistic research for several decades. This introduction to the special issue will briefly summarise the history and development of these studies, in order to situate the articles in this issue and their relevance to, and advancement of, the field.

Download

Local villages and global networks: the language and migration experiences of African skilled migrant academics

African skilled migrants and their circular and return migration strategies have received relativ... more African skilled migrants and their circular and return migration strategies have received relatively little attention in the literature, with the previous focus of much African migration literature being on the net loss of skills to countries with developed economies in the global north. This article considers 13 interviews with African skilled migrant academics on topics of migration, networks and language resources. The majority of the participants migrated to major receiving countries and then returned to the African continent to take up employment as academics in South Africa. In the migration trajectories of these African academics, their language expertise, specifically in English as the current global language of academia, is central to their strategies and migrant routes. It emerges that the paths of migration from their home countries (Zambia, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana, DRC, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe) are connected to language, resources and networks. African skilled migrant academics are caught, physically and metaphorically between the local, linked to the concept of village, and the global, linked to the concept of network in Castells' terms. In language terms, this implies particular responsibilities for home languages on the one hand and English as a transnational language on the other hand.

English and the academy for African skilled migrants: The impact of English as an ‘Academic lingua franca’, in Nina Maadad , Malcolm Tight (ed.) Academic Mobility (International Perspectives on Higher Education Research, Volume 11) Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.153 - 173

This chapter analyses interviews with 13 African scholars from a range of countries who are curre... more This chapter analyses interviews with 13 African scholars from a range of countries who are currently working at a South African university. The interviews explore aspects of their migration journeys and the role that language, particularly the English language, has played in their mobility. The majority of the participants originate from English-speaking African countries, and are fluent English speakers. English is currently the international language of the academy, and English fluency can almost be seen as a prerequisite for an international academic career. The driving question behind this research is what have these African highly skilled academic migrants gained and lost from English in terms of their mobility, careers and identities? The participants show complex orientations towards the medium. On the one hand, English is recognised as an enabling medium for international success in academia, and for career and educational opportunities aboard. On the other hand, participants perceive that the emphasis on the English medium has negative effects on their relationships with their home languages and their home countries. The research raises questions about the role of English in higher education in Africa.

Download

"When you hang out with the guys they keep you in style": The case for considering style in descriptions of South African tsotsitaals

Language Matters, 2013

Download

ellen hurst

Uploads

Papers by ellen hurst

Log In