ellen hurst | University of Cape Town (original) (raw)

Papers by ellen hurst

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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.

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.

Youth Language Practices in Africa and Beyond, 2015

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’.

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.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

South African higher education institutions, in line with international practice and as a result ... more South African higher education institutions, in line with international practice and as a result of the ‘social turn’, are progressing towards mainstream academic literacy support for students. This shift has a political dimension in South Africa where, historically, disadvantage has had racial dimensions, in its departure from ‘deficit’ models of academic development and support. On the other hand, there are practical factors to be considered in the kinds of support we offer students. This article describes a survey of students studying in Engineering and the Built Environment at an English-medium university in South Africa to uncover language issues in their university careers. Students identify difficulties relating to a broad range of academic literacies, yet the research suggests that the process of mainstreaming academic literacy may have to be accompanied by targeted support for English as an Additional Language students.
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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.

Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 2013

Literator, 2016

Linguistics Vanguard, 2020

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 2017

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

Youth Language Practices in Africa and Beyond, 2015

International Perspectives on Higher Education Research, 2014

During a recent conference on African Urban and Youth Languages (AUYLs), held in Cape Town in Jul... more During a recent conference on African Urban and Youth Languages (AUYLs), held in Cape Town in July 2013, a number of important issues were raised regarding the status of informal and youth languages
around the African continent. Some of these informal varieties appear to be becoming ’lingua francas’ or vernaculars in the urban space. In order to function as such, an urban variety would require systematisation which seems to be at odds with their historically subcultural alignments. Additionally, the relationship between these varieties and standard languages and/or urban languages remains
ambiguous.
This paper firstly outlines some recent work in South Africa on the variety ’tsotsitaal’ which has begun to provide some answers. Investigations are being undertaken focusing on: the syntactic frame
of AUYLs and their grammatical departures from ’urban’ forms of African languages; descriptions of AUYL use by children in the home; their relationship to gesture; and gender dynamics. These new studies add to knowledge by answering some of the existing questions regarding the trajectories and statuses of AUYLs. They also enable us to delineate areas that remain open for exploration, gaps in current knowledge, and needs in future research.
Secondly, this paper presents data from a recent multi-sited research project on tsotsitaals, to illustrate the slippery nature of terms such as ’variety’, ’standard’, and even ’language’ when applied in a language practice context such as that of AUYLs. It considers the sociolinguistic proposals of ’metrolingualism’, ’crossing’ and ’linguistic repertoire’ which are being used by theorists to engage with the complexities of language in urban contexts. The paper reflects on whether these frameworks allow for the kinds of variation found in AUYLs, and ultimately considers whether any existing accounts of language are descriptively adequate.

Orientations towards English of Postgraduate students from French-speaking African countries, e.g... more Orientations towards English of Postgraduate students from French-speaking African countries, e.g. Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, who are enrolled at the University of Cape Town.

The data analysed in this paper is drawn from a large project investigating the use of the South ... more The data analysed in this paper is drawn from a large project investigating the use of the South African AUYL tsotsitaal in contemporary South African townships. It takes a comparative approach between two tsotsitaal speech communities from Cape Town: a peer group of young men, and a group of young women who self-identify as lesbian. Both the varieties employ a Xhosa matrix and the comparable base language allows this paper to focus on the role of peer groups and gender in the use of tsotsitaal.
The tsotsitaals used by the respective peer groups differ significantly in lexicon, density and frequency, or ‘deepness’ of the stylect. The lesbian speakers in Cape Town primarily employ older lexical items and exhibit less creativity and neologisms than the male speakers. This trend and other aspects of the data suggest a number of things:
• That lesbian speakers use tsotsitaal lexical items as part of their gender performance, but do not create them.
• That male speakers undertake language experimentation in peer groups.
• That style is central to peer group communication, and members of peer groups experiment with ‘crossing’ to other styles for purposes of identity construction, authenticity and creativity.
• That gender performances in peer groups are supported by the choice of lexical items.
• That the identities being constructed in the female peer group, while ‘streetwise’, lean towards ‘correct’ or standard language.
The findings are in keeping with Labov’s theory that men initiate change in non-standard speech forms, yet women use higher frequencies of innovative vernacular forms, in this case ‘supralocal’ tsotsitaal items, than men do (Labov 1990).
References
Labov, William. “The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic change.” Language Variation and Change 2 (1990), 205-254.

By Ellen Hurst & Mthuli Buthelezi Tsotsitaal is spoken in urban centres around South Africa, bu... more By Ellen Hurst & Mthuli Buthelezi
Tsotsitaal is spoken in urban centres around South Africa, but there is little consensus on what features of languages constitute tsotsitaal, and how to classify the phenomenon (Mesthrie & Hurst, forthcoming). Various authors have attempted to classify the variety as inter-alia a ‘code-switching variety’ (Slabbert & Myers-Scotton 1997), a ‘continuum of use’ (Calteaux 1996), and a ‘diglossic form of Zulu’ (Rudwick 2005). However, there has been a lack of naturalistic data in the literature which has limited the impact of these studies over time. Additionally, specific geographic and temporal varieties have been described in isolation, and there has been little if any comparison across regional varieties (with the exception of varieties from different ‘base-languages’ within the Gauteng region).
This paper seeks to expand our understanding of tsotsitaal by analysing the first data from two research sites which form part of a wider project on tsotsitaal varieties in South Africa. The data analysed here was gathered in Cape Town and Durban in 2011, and involves visual recordings of young men speaking tsotsitaal together.
The data is analysed from both a visual and linguistic perspective. An analysis of the gestures of participants accompanies an analysis of linguistic features of the varieties of Xhosa and Zulu respectively. The analysis unpacks lexical, syntactic and semantic features of tsotsitaal as well as para-linguistic practices. Commonalities and differences between the regional varieties are explored, in order to begin to answer some of the questions of the broader project, for instance, is there a ‘national’ form of tsotsitaal or is it locally specific? And are there linguistic features or is it merely a matter of slang, or style?
References
Calteaux, K.V. 1996. Standard and non-standard African language varieties in the urban areas of South Africa: main report for the STANON Research Programme. HSRC Publishers, Pretoria.
Mesthrie, R. & Hurst, E. (forthcoming) Slang registers, code-switching and restructured urban varieties in South Africa: an analytic overview of tsotsitaals with special reference to the Cape Town variety.
Rudwick, S. 2005. Township language dynamics: isiZulu and isiTsotsi in Umlazi. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 233, 305-317.
Slabbert, S. and Myers-Scotton, C., 1997. The structure of Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho: code switching and in-group identity in South African townships. Linguistics, 35 (2), 317–342.

"There has been a focus in international literature on skilled migration to developed countries f... more "There has been a focus in international literature on skilled migration to developed countries from developing countries, resulting in ‘brain drain’. However, skilled migration also takes place between developing countries in the global south. This research unpacks a series of narratives of migration and language by a group of thirteen African scholars currently working at a South African university.
It emerges that in the process of migration from their home countries (Zambia, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana, DRC, Kenya, Uganda & Zimbabwe) all but one of the participants have taken an indirect route through one or more ‘developed’ countries prior to settling in South Africa, primarily the UK, the USA and Europe; and that these routes are connected to language, resources, and identity. African skilled migrant academics are caught, physically and metaphorically between the ‘local’: represented by village and the ‘global’ represented by network. In language terms, this implies particular responsibilities for home languages on the one hand, and English as a transnational language on the other. This research has implications for the way we think about the dynamics of African skilled migration.
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"This presentation seeks to outline some anticipated and some emergent issues in a current resear... more "This presentation seeks to outline some anticipated and some emergent issues in a current research project being undertaken in South Africa. The research intends to document some of the informal language practices and varieties within African language speaking townships in urban centres in South Africa (varieties that broadly go by the name tsotsitaal).
Challenges that are identified are grouped into two categories: methodological; and theoretical (or conceptual). On the methodological side, issues include the following:
• Difficulties of collecting naturalistic data
• Participants self-reporting language practices
• Access to speakers (particularly 'subcultures' in their authentic contexts)
• Confusion around naming of varieties by participants
On the theoretical or conceptual side, problems include:
• Naming of varieties in the literature
• The standard vs informal spectrum of use
• Lexicon v syntax as the unit of analysis
• Issues around definitions of codeswitching, multilingualism etc
These issues will be expanded upon, and our own perspective and approach will be justified. The overarching approach we are taking is related to Nikolas Coupland's approach to style and styling in contexts, the argument being that the complex contexts we are researching require us to discard the notions of discrete languages and look instead at practices. This allows us to challenge simplistic views of standard languages which conflict with the realities of the super-diverse language contexts that we are faced with when researching in South Africa."

"Urban varieties in South Africa are developing rapidly in the multilingual townships of major ci... more "Urban varieties in South Africa are developing rapidly in the multilingual townships of major cities such as Durban, Cape Town, and Johannesburg. They are characterized by a high incidence of innovation, code switching and style variation impacting on both lexicon and syntax. These patterns can be viewed as the interaction and interface between different local languages (both African and colonial) with additional influences arising from the penetration of global phenomena into these complex urban contexts.
The lexicon in urban language forms is responsive to a number of influences –inter alia: globalization, multilingualism, youth slang and the media. This paper is based on an ongoing analysis of the lexical content of the urban language phenomenon broadly termed ‘tsotsitaal’. A number of data sets are examined to determine a ‘core’ lexicon for the phenomenon. This lexicon is then considered in terms of the influences upon it, and what can (and cannot) be said about the urban form tsotsitaal on the basis of existing research into its lexical content.
The analysis highlights some ambiguities; for example, what can usefully be said about any variety on the basis of lexical identification by researchers? To what extent can claims be made about lexical items ‘belonging’ to particular varieties? It is shown that lexical contributions ‘bleed’ into different language contexts in an urban situation (for example a term considered to be ‘tsotsitaal’ can actually be commonly used in international media as well as by speakers of a ‘non-tsotsitaal’ urban variety in a South African township). This can complicate our picture of the reality and status of urban languages, and make it difficult for linguists to identify and describe these phenomena, particularly if we are not careful in our theorisation of language itself.
The research ultimately leads towards the complexity of language practices in an age of super-diversity. Work by theorists such as Blommaert, Pennycook and Makoni provides a framework by which to begin to approach such phenomena.
"

"The South African popular imagination has birthed the figure of the tsotsi. This persona has bee... more "The South African popular imagination has birthed the figure of the tsotsi. This persona has been reproduced in, inter alia, films, newspapers, everyday language, soap operas, and music. The tsotsi identity construct is linked to a masculinity that condones violence, that lives for material gain and that has no respect for human life. But what is this construction based on? Foucault’s (1979) work identifies the ‘delinquent’ as a scapegoat of structural power; in this research I suggest the discourse of the apartheid system may have been responsible for the tsotsi construct.
What proclaims a tsotsi? The boundaries between the stereotype of tsotsi ‘delinquents’ and ‘normal’ youth are blurry and often misunderstood by community members. Tsotsis were often referred to during my research on tsotsitaal (the slang language attributed to tsotsis but spoken widely in townships around South Africa), yet participants in my research who were speakers themselves would never self-identify as a tsotsi, even those who claimed an involvement in crime. These characters of tsotsis seem to at once exist and not exist.
A recent report has outlined a ‘culture of violence’ in South Africa. The report states that ‘…the greater part of the problem of stranger violent crime in the metros… is associated with young men who tend to be invested in some kind of criminal identity and associate with other like-minded people’ (CSVR 2010: 31).
To what extent is the figure of the tsotsi linked to this ‘culture of violence’ and constructions of masculinity? Are violence and crime romanticized or normalized by this figure? On the other hand, to what extent are young men criminalized and stereotyped by the perception within communities of tsotsi youth? And what work is being done by youth particularly through the media to resist these stereotypes?"

"During the recent World Congress of African Linguistics, held in Cologne in August 2009, a numbe... more "During the recent World Congress of African Linguistics, held in Cologne in August 2009, a number of important issues were raised regarding the status of informal and youth languages in South African townships, and researchers working in the area identified a pressing need to document the current national picture and to understand how informal languages are progressing within increasingly mixed townships. While some researchers have argued that informal varieties are becoming ‘lingua francas’ or vernaculars in the township space, other researchers have identified varieties which are linked to criminality, violent masculinity and gangsterism. In order to function as a national 'lingua franca', an urban variety would require systematisation which seems to be at odds with these subcultural alignments. Additionally, the relationship between grammatical framework and lexicon is currently ambiguous. Discussions around status need to be informed by an empirical understanding of the linguistic structures of these varieties, and what their use signifies for both speakers and non-speakers.
Research into South African urban varieties has been undertaken over the past decade in a number of different townships. The majority have focused on the Gauteng region, while a small number of recent studies have begun to consider other urban centres in South Africa, and each study has had its own research aims and correspondingly different methods, making comparison between varieties nationally a difficult task. This paper attempts to summarise and outline the boundaries of our current knowledge, and presents the known limitations in terms of the functionality and structure of these codes. The discussion has implications for our understanding of the relationship between language and society, particularly in the realms of subcultural and anti-languages, youth culture and style. It also has relevance to discussions of language ‘birth’ and innovation, and the contemporary study of multilingual societies in a globalised world.
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"Based on a recent investigation into the use of Tsotsitaal in Cape Town, and following on from M... more "Based on a recent investigation into the use of Tsotsitaal in Cape Town, and following on from Mesthrie (2008), Hurst (2009), and Mesthrie & Hurst (forthcoming), this paper outlines the argument for the term ‘stylect’ to describe the nature of a particular group of urban varieties that can broadly be classified as tsotsitaals. It is argued that tsotsitaals involve more than just linguistics: that they draw on other symbolic performances of identity such as body language, clothing, and other facets of what could commonly be called ‘style’. It is argued that a linguistic phenomenon that can be classed as a stylect is more than merely a ‘slang’, but not a ‘language’: it is a performed discursive act of styling to constitute identity.
The particular identities constituted through the use of Tsotsitaal in South Africa are outlined in terms of, on the one hand, their historical continuity and on the other hand their specific contemporality. The relations between the spectrum of tsotsitaal subcultures, and the trajectory of apartheid and democracy in South Africa are outlined, in order to demonstrate the intimate relationship between urban languages and both national and global discourses.
Hurst, E. (2009) Tsotsitaal, global culture and local style: identity and recontextualisation in twenty-first century South African townships. Accepted for publication in Social Dynamics, September issue.
Mesthrie, R. (2008) “I’ve been speaking Tsotsitaal all my life without knowing it”: towards a unified account of Tsotsitaals in South Africa. In M. Meyerhoff and N. Nagy (eds.) Social Lives in Language. New York: Benjamins, New York: 95-109.
Mesthrie, R. & Hurst, E. (forthcoming) Cape Town Tsotsitaal: a challenge to previous characterisations of tsotsitaals in South Africa.
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"Since the end of apartheid removed restrictions on the movement of people, there have been incre... more "Since the end of apartheid removed restrictions on the movement of people, there have been increased numbers of internal economic migrants flooding into South Africa’s urban centres. In the Western Cape, this has been characterised by migration from the old rural ‘homelands’ of the Eastern Cape to townships on the Cape Flats, a large, mainly residential area to the east of the city.
This paper will discuss some findings from a SANPAD and South African National Research Foundation funded project on migration and language change. The paper will specifically be considering the impact on young male identities resulting from these patterns of migration. It will focus on the discourses and identities of young urban black males, and the way they relate to other cultural discourses in post-apartheid South Africa.
It is found that many young people come to Cape Town in search of work to support their families who still have land and houses in the rural communities where there are limited job opportunities. Upon arrival many factors, such as language issues, high unemployment and the competition for employment, make it difficult for young people to find work.
Due to a resultant lack of economic resources, networks and communities in the residential areas of the Cape Flats are to a large extent defined by the immediate neighbourhood. Young men may form neighbourhood social groups, and additionally may be drawn into pre-existing gangs. Identity production in these social groups revolves around brand names, lingo, and ‘moves’, or an urban ‘style’.
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Linguistics Society of Southern …, Jan 1, 2006

"Since the early 1990s, high levels of rural-urban migration from the Eastern Cape have transform... more "Since the early 1990s, high levels of rural-urban migration from the Eastern Cape have transformed the sociolinguistic ecology of the Cape Metropolitan Area. Urbanization has not only changed Cape Town’s language demography (with isiXhosa slowly overtaking Afrikaans as the city’s dominant language), but is also affecting language use within traditionally rural isiXhosa-speaking communities.
The historically long-standing migration network connecting the Eastern and the Western Cape shows a distinct pattern of circular mobility with migrants maintaining strong rural connections, culturally, economically and linguistically. Dislocation from the rural home and integration into urban life are often partial and provisional, full of ambiguities and indeterminacies, of shifting and fluid identities. Language is an important marker of identity in such contexts: Sharp (2001), for example, noted that remaining “faithful to tradition” and rural networks implies the avoidance of urban slang in the Joe Slovo settlement in Blaauwberg (Cape Town), and Ferguson (1999) linked the acquisition and use of English to cosmopolitan, urban styles and the use of indigenous languages to rural, localist styles. Documenting the multitude of hybrid social, cultural and especially linguistic forms and structures, and the enactment of ‘alternative modernities’ in urban settlements will allow us to better understand the sociolinguistic consequences of urbanization in the African context. (Note that rapid rural-urban mobility is a general phenomenon on the continent and in the developing world in general, cf. Garau et al. 2005).
This paper is based on research conducted by Monash University between 2002 and 2005, and current work-in-progress at the University of Cape Town. A number of sociolinguistic processes will be discussed on the basis of survey and interview data:
(a) second language acquisition (of English and Afrikaans) and indicators of incipient language shift within the urban environment,
(b) convergence and borrowing as a result of language and dialect contact among isiXhosa speakers, and
(c) the formation of new urban speech varieties (especially among second generation migrants).
The implications of this research are relevant not only for linguistic theory (and especially our understanding of convergence phenomena in language contact), but also for language policy. The paper throws new light on our conceptions of what constitutes the norm(s) of isiXhosa and argues that language planning will need to recognise the sociolinguistic changes in South Africa’s indigenous languages which are brought about by urbanization."

"This paper discusses some recent research undertaken in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built... more "This paper discusses some recent research undertaken in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at UCT, which explored the impact of language on our students. The data comes from a survey conducted across the faculty asking students for their opinions on how language has impacted on their studies. The data elicited information on students’ language practices at university and uncovered common language-related problems that students experience. Two main domains emerged in which students experienced problems. Firstly, it appears that proficiency in English language heavily impacts on a student’s perception of their ability to cope, which has serious affective implications for our African language students, particularly those coming from rural schools where the medium of instruction is a language other than English. Secondly, students report on difficulties relating to what can be described as the 'academic literacies' required to be successful within the engineering programmes. Students provided suggestions for interventions that would help them with both aspects.
Students coming from previously disadvantaged backgrounds are often our target population for Academic Development initiatives. The data suggests that these students are the group affected most by both language and academic literacy expectations. The students at stake are crucial to transformation and redress in post-apartheid South Africa. This paper makes the argument that higher education needs to be responsive to these students who could, and should, be helped through the provision of language-related interventions.
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"This presentation will report on an action research project that was aimed at developing academi... more "This presentation will report on an action research project that was aimed at developing academic literacy assessment and support. The project was in two phases: the first phase involved the analysis of an entry examination which was intended to assess the 'research skills' of students entering on to a professional MSc degree programme; while the second phase of the project involved the development of an intervention to replace the examination with a series of workshops.
The presentation will first discuss the findings of the analysis regarding the validity of the assessment, highlighting the lack of alignment between the purpose of the examination, the material provided and the skills tested in the examination, as well as the lack of success in utilizing the examination for screening purposes. The presentation will then go on to describe the development and implementation of a series of academic literacy workshops as a replacement for the entry examination. It will reflect on some of the limitations and problems with the workshops, as well as the successes reported by students in their evaluations.
The research ultimately uncovers the complexity of academic literacies and disparity between the expectations of lecturers and the abilities of students. The research has implications for researchers and practitioners interested in postgraduate academic literacy support.
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The Postgraduate Writing Project (PGWP) in the University of Cape Town (UCT) Writing Centre was i... more The Postgraduate Writing Project (PGWP) in the University of Cape Town (UCT) Writing Centre was initiated in February 2005, its purview: 1.) to identify the specific academic literacy issues that characterise the postgraduate experience, and 2.) set up interventions capable of effectively ‘scaffolding’ the research and writing processes of postgraduate students across all faculties of the university. As part of 1), the PGWP has embarked on research into the complex of psycho-sociological, affective, literacy and rhetorical factors that impact on the postgraduate experience. The term ‘postgraduate condition’ (PGC) has been adopted by the PGWP to designate this pervasive complex of factors. This paper explores the various facets of the PGC and their possible interrelationships. Having illuminated the lineaments of the PGC, the paper also considers how one of the interventions (under 2) – ‘writer circles’ – address elements of the PGC by affording postgraduate students the space to rehearse their research agendas; develop postgraduate identities; share challenges and triumphs; network; receive peer-critiques on emerging drafts; engage with academic writing structures and conventions etc.

This chapter discusses regional flows and the dynamics of language resources within those flows. ... more This chapter discusses regional flows and the dynamics of language resources within those flows. First it outlines the scholarship on language as resource, particularly in terms of migration, and defines the terms to be used in the chapter. Second it gives an overview of regional flows of people and the role of language within that, outlining current literature on language as a resource in migration. Next the chapter considers the issue of the changing value of resources in different contexts and what implications this has for regional flows. It draws mainly on research conducted in South Africa, looking at both the value of English as a resource and the value of African languages.
The chapter describes how the value of language (value in the Bourdieusian sense of economic and/or cultural capital) changes within various regional flows – and how language resources are conferred value at a local level. The chapter demonstrates through the lived experiences of people that language resources carried between regions do not maintain a neutral or static value but that value is always negotiated within local contexts, and that in many migration scenarios this can result in language resource attrition.