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Language, social history, and identity in post-apartheid South Africa

A case study of the "Colored" community of Wentworth

Bibliographic Data

ID4179748
AuthorsNkonko Mudipanu Kamwangamalu (0000-0001-8300-7395, Howard University, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume2004
Issue170
Publication date2004-01-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of the Sociology of Language (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0165-2516 • E-ISSN: 1613-3668
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/ijsl.2004.2004.170.113
OpenAlexW1978894455
LanguageEN
Citations received3

Speakers in multilingual societies have access at any given time to a wide range of different languages and language varieties to meet their communicative needs. This access presents them with at least three dilemmas each time they open their mouths: (a) Who am I? (b) How do others perceive me? (c) How would I actually want to be perceived (Kamwangamalu 1992: 33)? A related dilemma, one might add, is (d) what linguistic means one should use to express one's desired identity or identities? This paper looks at how the members of the “Colored” community of Wentworth use language to respond to these challenges in post-apartheid South Africa. More specifically, the paper examines the linguistic mechanisms that the members of this community employ to construct, maintain, manage, negotiate, or renegotiate their social identities. For instance, to what extent do the social meanings and social histories with which languages such as English, Afrikaans, and African languages have become associated determine the members' linguistic choices in a given interaction? And what is the members' attitude toward the various identity-carrying linguistic mechanisms available in their linguistic repertoire

Aesthetics · Dilemma · Epistemology · Linguistics · Negotiation · Repertoire · Social group · Social identity theory · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy

  • Coloured’ Boys Talk

    Bronwynne Anderson•Journal of Psychology in Africa•2010

  • South African Englishes

    Open Access•Werner Botha, Bertus Van Rooy et al.•World Englishes•2020

  • Them and us

    Liz Johanson Botha•African Identities•2009

Unique citing works3
Citations per year0,18
Citation span2009 - 2020 (12)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1

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