COURSE: AFL 1501
My name is __________ and I was born in Pietermaritzburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal in 1980 when apartheid was
still active. Being born into a predominant Indian community I became very familiar with my mother
tongue Hindi, which my grandparents and parents spoke in the house in order for us, as children to
understand our mother tongue and culture. However as a child my parents were very involved in
community upliftment which further exposed me to IsiZulu. I befriended Buhle Patrica Dlamini (whom for
short I called Boo), who was also born within my community (she was a few months older than me) and
we became best friends very quickly. Boo’s father worked with my father and lived in an informal
settlement not far from my house, although she was not in my school, but attended a school within Imbali.
She lived with her aunt over the weekdays, but Fridays she would return to her parents which meant that
we spent most weekends together. Due to us speaking Hindi at home she picked up certain words, and I
picked up certain words from her. This grew into me understanding her language as I could understand
and respond to what was being asked to me in IsiZulu, though I was not able to respond a hundred
percent.
Soon apartheid was slowly dissolved and Boo could attend the school that I was at Ridge View Primary
School. My interaction with her and her brothers and sisters exposed me much more to IsiZulu. I must
mention however that I still remember all the swear words much to the frustration off my parents. Despite
being exposed to IsiZulu at a young age I do not think that I fully understood the cultural aspect but it did
influence my appreciation for the language. I have since used the opportunity to learn the language to its
full glory. I still maintain speaking Hindi, and am a proud “South African Indian”, with all the bells and
whistles. Moving from Kwa-Zulu Natal to Johannesburg, I picked up a lot more Afrikaans phrases which I
was not exposed prior.
What is linguistic identity? As per a global study linguistic identities may refer to the sense of belonging
to a community as mediated through the symbolic resource of language, or to the varying ways in which
we come to understand the relationship between our language and ourselves. These are closely related
aspects of how we position ourselves in social context through language, and globalization has significant
implications for how these aspects unfold. Linguistic identities become central in globalization due to the
fact that movement of people, ideas, products, and cultural forms across national boundaries intensifies
contact among languages. Hybridity and multiplicity introduced by linguistic exchanges on local and
global levels open up new possibilities of identity work and a more complex space in which we come to
understand our place in the world.1. My understanding is that it refers to a person’s identification as a
speaker of one or more languages and is important in that it defines who were are. You are considered to
belong to a certain group which converses in a particular manner.
What is Idiolect? An idiolect is the dialect of an individual person at one time. This term implies an
awareness that no two persons speak in exactly the same way and that each person’s dialect is
constantly undergoing change—e.g., by the introduction of newly acquired words. Most recent
investigations…2. My understanding is that ity is a language variant used by a specific person, the
grouping of words and phrases are mostly unique
What is ecolect? a language variety unique to a household3, My understanding is that it best describes
the language unique to households. i.e you would speak differently based on the environment that you
are in. I can not converse in Hindi in work environment as my colleagues do not know Hindi.
1
https://jspark779.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/linguistic-identities/
2
https://www.britannica.com/topic/idiolect
3
https://www.definitions.net/definition/ecolect#:~:text=ecolect(Noun),%CE%BF%E1%BC%B6%CE%BA%CE%BF%CF
%82%2C%20and%20lect%20from%20dialect
My name is __________ and I was born in Pietermaritzburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal in 1980 when apartheid was
still active. Being born into a predominant Indian community I became very familiar with my mother
tongue Hindi, which my grandparents and parents spoke in the house in order for us, as children to
understand our mother tongue and culture. However as a child my parents were very involved in
community upliftment which further exposed me to IsiZulu. I befriended Buhle Patrica Dlamini (whom for
short I called Boo), who was also born within my community (she was a few months older than me) and
we became best friends very quickly. Boo’s father worked with my father and lived in an informal
settlement not far from my house, although she was not in my school, but attended a school within Imbali.
She lived with her aunt over the weekdays, but Fridays she would return to her parents which meant that
we spent most weekends together. Due to us speaking Hindi at home she picked up certain words, and I
picked up certain words from her. This grew into me understanding her language as I could understand
and respond to what was being asked to me in IsiZulu, though I was not able to respond a hundred
percent.
Soon apartheid was slowly dissolved and Boo could attend the school that I was at Ridge View Primary
School. My interaction with her and her brothers and sisters exposed me much more to IsiZulu. I must
mention however that I still remember all the swear words much to the frustration off my parents. Despite
being exposed to IsiZulu at a young age I do not think that I fully understood the cultural aspect but it did
influence my appreciation for the language. I have since used the opportunity to learn the language to its
full glory. I still maintain speaking Hindi, and am a proud “South African Indian”, with all the bells and
whistles. Moving from Kwa-Zulu Natal to Johannesburg, I picked up a lot more Afrikaans phrases which I
was not exposed prior.
What is linguistic identity? As per a global study linguistic identities may refer to the sense of belonging
to a community as mediated through the symbolic resource of language, or to the varying ways in which
we come to understand the relationship between our language and ourselves. These are closely related
aspects of how we position ourselves in social context through language, and globalization has significant
implications for how these aspects unfold. Linguistic identities become central in globalization due to the
fact that movement of people, ideas, products, and cultural forms across national boundaries intensifies
contact among languages. Hybridity and multiplicity introduced by linguistic exchanges on local and
global levels open up new possibilities of identity work and a more complex space in which we come to
understand our place in the world.1. My understanding is that it refers to a person’s identification as a
speaker of one or more languages and is important in that it defines who were are. You are considered to
belong to a certain group which converses in a particular manner.
What is Idiolect? An idiolect is the dialect of an individual person at one time. This term implies an
awareness that no two persons speak in exactly the same way and that each person’s dialect is
constantly undergoing change—e.g., by the introduction of newly acquired words. Most recent
investigations…2. My understanding is that ity is a language variant used by a specific person, the
grouping of words and phrases are mostly unique
What is ecolect? a language variety unique to a household3, My understanding is that it best describes
the language unique to households. i.e you would speak differently based on the environment that you
are in. I can not converse in Hindi in work environment as my colleagues do not know Hindi.
1
https://jspark779.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/linguistic-identities/
2
https://www.britannica.com/topic/idiolect
3
https://www.definitions.net/definition/ecolect#:~:text=ecolect(Noun),%CE%BF%E1%BC%B6%CE%BA%CE%BF%CF
%82%2C%20and%20lect%20from%20dialect
