1. SM Ramokopelwa
Student number: 37304496
My Linguistic Background
I was born in apartheid South Africa in a village called Mabeskraal, outside Rustenburg town, in the
then Bophuthatswana Homeland now referred to as North West Province in the Democratic era. As
a child, I spoke Setswana, which is my mother tongue. I started my primary education in Mabeskraal
wherein I conversed mainly in Setswana, Afrikaans and English. I later moved to Meadowlands in
Soweto. I lived amongst, Sesotho speaking people, IsiZulu speaking people, and Venda speaking. As a
young adult, I spoke Setswana, IsiZulu, Afrikaans, English and a little bit of Tshivenda. The people in
the neighbourhood exposed me to these languages and cultures. There has been a great influence
on my language identity by various people I came across in my life during my formative years. My
immediate family influenced my Setswana language learning, as I learnt mostly from imitating. My
primary school education influenced my Afrikaans and English language formation. Being exposed
to various languages and cultures in Meadowlands in Soweto resulted in my Sesotho, Tshivenda an
IsiZulu language formation.
An idiolect is the distinctive speech of an individual, a linguistic pattern regarded as unique among
speakers of a person's language or dialect. But it is even more granular, more narrow than just all
the speakers of a particular dialect. A person's idiolect is not just vocabulary; it's everything from
how we pronounce certain words to how we put them together to what we imagine they mean. For
example, we call beer “booze”, money “zaka”, am okay “ngi grant” and other words. These words
used to be slang but has been embedded into our everyday speech. There is a further language that
we use at home that only apply to our home, or our smaller cycle like office floor, this is called
an ecolect. For example at home my children use certain lingo to refer to people and items in the
household. At work there is office language that is used to avoid obscenity and to scone on
superiors. Language Identity is influenced by not only our mother language, but our other life factors
such as or social circle, social media tends and education.
My ecolect is different to my community’s idiolect, back home in Mabeskraal we
speak Setswana there are idiolects within the community that are influenced by the surroundings.
The young people in Mabeskraal have their own slang or circular language. My own idolect is
inclined to the people of my age group and those within my social circles. I believe that the language
identity conflict comes from the cultural aspects of our lives. The negative impact of this is that it
creates a communication bridge between social groups in communities. Young people tend to avoid
conversations with elders because of this language evolution gap. This means that important
exchanges like indigenous knowledge skills. The advantage of this is that it create a much broader
language identity within society.
Media has exposed Rosie to a different culture that she has fallen in love with, I can say media has
impacted her life positively. She managed to see the beautiful side of Indian culture and embraced it,
most people look at differences in culture, race and ethnicity with prejudice. Mostly we are
influenced a great deal with what we are exposed to on various media platforms. Television and
Social Media has a great impact on my language and cultural as well. It influences my dress sense,
my choice of career and my aspirations. These days people spent more time socialising on social
,media than in person. Language evolution The language and linguistic identity that I possess is one
that I will want to leave as a legacy for future generations. This is because I believe language and
culture evolves, the next generation should feel liberated to create the language that suits their age.
I believe there is need to expand our language as new things come to existence. 100 years ago, most
of the items we use in our day to day lives where not there. As humans improve, there is need for
new a new language that accommodates the evolution.
My language and cultural identity has evolved due to exposure to other languages and cultures.
Although am proud of being a Tswana, I believe my exposure to other languages and cultures has
had an influence on my language and cultural identity. The language that I currently use reveal who I
am and where you come from. When I reflect on my original language identity, the feelings and
thoughts that are invoked in me are those of pride. It makes me feel proud of being a Tswana man,
and that, although my culture and language is evolving, I have managed to maintain my true
identity.
, 2. Noxolo Zondo
LANGUAGE AS A PROCESS
My name is Noxolo Zondo. I was born in South Africa, at a small town in Kwazulu Natal called
Newcatle. Having been a university student, I have been temporarily living in Durban where
I have been studying for the past four years. I come from a family of Zulu speaking people and I
am also Zulu by nature. The communities that I lived in had a major influence on how I spoke
and understood isiZulu
Moving to Durban allowed me to experience the versatility of the isiZulu language in a way that it
highlighted just how different people in Durban spoke the language compared to how we speak
isiZulu in Newcastle. For example: in Durban they call the door "Iscabha" while in Newcastle we
call the door "umnyango", these quoted words are different although they mean the same
thing. There is certainly a difference in a way we use certain words or phrases and I often get
questions like "Am I even Zulu?" or they will say "My Zulu is not proper". However, this highlights
how my ideolect is very much different from my community's ecolect in Durban. I have been
fortunate enough to have been able to get a chance to study because that intrigued my interest
to learning the English language. My father having been an english teacher for many years
afforded me the opportunity to learn english more and know how to read, write, speak and
understand english. I have been exposed to Afrikaans but only in my lower grades and it was an
extremely difficult language to write and understand
Understanding your language helps one understand their roots and more especially where they
come from. Having an understanding of your language helps one understand their culture which
is very important. Learning my roots and understanding where i come from has not been an easy
process due to lack of representation from the media. Radio stations like Ligwalagwala and
Umhlobo Wenene are the only media outlets that speak and represent South African languages
such as IsiZulu and isiXhosa. I do wish that all our south African languages can be celebrated
and taught in different media outlets.
Being exposed to different languages has taught me the importance of learning with
understanding because this is how we get to communicate with different people from different
places which then ignites the spirit if Ubuntu ( I am because You are). Having this knowledge will
not only benefit me but it will benefit my future generation and possessing this knowledge is
important and it is a legacy that will pass on to many generations to come.
Understanding my culture has helped me grow as a woman and learning the other cultures has
helped me be able to interact with different groups of people from different cultures and
races and engage in conversations without the fear of whether or not I will understand them. One
thing amongst others that I adore about my language is the way we carry our culture and how
beautiful our traditional attire is.
Thank you.
Student number: 37304496
My Linguistic Background
I was born in apartheid South Africa in a village called Mabeskraal, outside Rustenburg town, in the
then Bophuthatswana Homeland now referred to as North West Province in the Democratic era. As
a child, I spoke Setswana, which is my mother tongue. I started my primary education in Mabeskraal
wherein I conversed mainly in Setswana, Afrikaans and English. I later moved to Meadowlands in
Soweto. I lived amongst, Sesotho speaking people, IsiZulu speaking people, and Venda speaking. As a
young adult, I spoke Setswana, IsiZulu, Afrikaans, English and a little bit of Tshivenda. The people in
the neighbourhood exposed me to these languages and cultures. There has been a great influence
on my language identity by various people I came across in my life during my formative years. My
immediate family influenced my Setswana language learning, as I learnt mostly from imitating. My
primary school education influenced my Afrikaans and English language formation. Being exposed
to various languages and cultures in Meadowlands in Soweto resulted in my Sesotho, Tshivenda an
IsiZulu language formation.
An idiolect is the distinctive speech of an individual, a linguistic pattern regarded as unique among
speakers of a person's language or dialect. But it is even more granular, more narrow than just all
the speakers of a particular dialect. A person's idiolect is not just vocabulary; it's everything from
how we pronounce certain words to how we put them together to what we imagine they mean. For
example, we call beer “booze”, money “zaka”, am okay “ngi grant” and other words. These words
used to be slang but has been embedded into our everyday speech. There is a further language that
we use at home that only apply to our home, or our smaller cycle like office floor, this is called
an ecolect. For example at home my children use certain lingo to refer to people and items in the
household. At work there is office language that is used to avoid obscenity and to scone on
superiors. Language Identity is influenced by not only our mother language, but our other life factors
such as or social circle, social media tends and education.
My ecolect is different to my community’s idiolect, back home in Mabeskraal we
speak Setswana there are idiolects within the community that are influenced by the surroundings.
The young people in Mabeskraal have their own slang or circular language. My own idolect is
inclined to the people of my age group and those within my social circles. I believe that the language
identity conflict comes from the cultural aspects of our lives. The negative impact of this is that it
creates a communication bridge between social groups in communities. Young people tend to avoid
conversations with elders because of this language evolution gap. This means that important
exchanges like indigenous knowledge skills. The advantage of this is that it create a much broader
language identity within society.
Media has exposed Rosie to a different culture that she has fallen in love with, I can say media has
impacted her life positively. She managed to see the beautiful side of Indian culture and embraced it,
most people look at differences in culture, race and ethnicity with prejudice. Mostly we are
influenced a great deal with what we are exposed to on various media platforms. Television and
Social Media has a great impact on my language and cultural as well. It influences my dress sense,
my choice of career and my aspirations. These days people spent more time socialising on social
,media than in person. Language evolution The language and linguistic identity that I possess is one
that I will want to leave as a legacy for future generations. This is because I believe language and
culture evolves, the next generation should feel liberated to create the language that suits their age.
I believe there is need to expand our language as new things come to existence. 100 years ago, most
of the items we use in our day to day lives where not there. As humans improve, there is need for
new a new language that accommodates the evolution.
My language and cultural identity has evolved due to exposure to other languages and cultures.
Although am proud of being a Tswana, I believe my exposure to other languages and cultures has
had an influence on my language and cultural identity. The language that I currently use reveal who I
am and where you come from. When I reflect on my original language identity, the feelings and
thoughts that are invoked in me are those of pride. It makes me feel proud of being a Tswana man,
and that, although my culture and language is evolving, I have managed to maintain my true
identity.
, 2. Noxolo Zondo
LANGUAGE AS A PROCESS
My name is Noxolo Zondo. I was born in South Africa, at a small town in Kwazulu Natal called
Newcatle. Having been a university student, I have been temporarily living in Durban where
I have been studying for the past four years. I come from a family of Zulu speaking people and I
am also Zulu by nature. The communities that I lived in had a major influence on how I spoke
and understood isiZulu
Moving to Durban allowed me to experience the versatility of the isiZulu language in a way that it
highlighted just how different people in Durban spoke the language compared to how we speak
isiZulu in Newcastle. For example: in Durban they call the door "Iscabha" while in Newcastle we
call the door "umnyango", these quoted words are different although they mean the same
thing. There is certainly a difference in a way we use certain words or phrases and I often get
questions like "Am I even Zulu?" or they will say "My Zulu is not proper". However, this highlights
how my ideolect is very much different from my community's ecolect in Durban. I have been
fortunate enough to have been able to get a chance to study because that intrigued my interest
to learning the English language. My father having been an english teacher for many years
afforded me the opportunity to learn english more and know how to read, write, speak and
understand english. I have been exposed to Afrikaans but only in my lower grades and it was an
extremely difficult language to write and understand
Understanding your language helps one understand their roots and more especially where they
come from. Having an understanding of your language helps one understand their culture which
is very important. Learning my roots and understanding where i come from has not been an easy
process due to lack of representation from the media. Radio stations like Ligwalagwala and
Umhlobo Wenene are the only media outlets that speak and represent South African languages
such as IsiZulu and isiXhosa. I do wish that all our south African languages can be celebrated
and taught in different media outlets.
Being exposed to different languages has taught me the importance of learning with
understanding because this is how we get to communicate with different people from different
places which then ignites the spirit if Ubuntu ( I am because You are). Having this knowledge will
not only benefit me but it will benefit my future generation and possessing this knowledge is
important and it is a legacy that will pass on to many generations to come.
Understanding my culture has helped me grow as a woman and learning the other cultures has
helped me be able to interact with different groups of people from different cultures and
races and engage in conversations without the fear of whether or not I will understand them. One
thing amongst others that I adore about my language is the way we carry our culture and how
beautiful our traditional attire is.
Thank you.
