Power indexation in language choice in a South African Indian community.
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TextDescription: 199 pSubject(s): Language, Modern | Language, Linguistics | Language, General | 0291 | 0290 | 0679Dissertation note: Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Texas at Austin, 1999. Summary: Framed by the turbulent context surrounding the end of apartheid, this dissertation is a vibrant window into the lives of a group of disenfranchised people on the verge of political empowerment. The reader is brought into kitchens and living rooms of an Indian community in the Western Transvaal and given a perspective on South African reality for people of Indian heritage that heretofore had been overlooked by Western media and academics. Using participant-observation and surveys, this dissertation examines a small multilingual community of Indians in Potchefstroom, South Africa. National politics and local power structures combine to create a situation in which the indexation of a speaker's power is correlated to language choice. Depending upon the context and the need to subtly assert power, whether real or imagined, speakers align themselves with larger, national power hierarchies relevant to the political situation of the country. As a base for understanding the context, the dissertation outlines historical aspects of the colonial languages used in South Africa over the past three centuries, and traces the history of Afrikaans and how it came to be perceived in a negative light in some communities. The history of Indian immigration to South Africa is also discussed. Seeking to create an understanding of Afrikaans in its daily socio-cultural context brings to light the misconception that Afrikaans is solely the domain of Whites. The political mythology surrounding the negative image acquired by Afrikaans through its association with apartheid is examined, along with the current “repositionist” strategy that seeks to redefine Afrikaans as a language of national unity that reflects the very essence of what it means to call oneself South African. This dissertation will undoubtedly be of historical value for many years as it is one of the few to emerge at the fulcrum of change that ended nearly fifty years of White minority government.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 60-09, Section: A, page: 3346.
Supervisor: Mark L. Louden.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Texas at Austin, 1999.
Framed by the turbulent context surrounding the end of apartheid, this dissertation is a vibrant window into the lives of a group of disenfranchised people on the verge of political empowerment. The reader is brought into kitchens and living rooms of an Indian community in the Western Transvaal and given a perspective on South African reality for people of Indian heritage that heretofore had been overlooked by Western media and academics. Using participant-observation and surveys, this dissertation examines a small multilingual community of Indians in Potchefstroom, South Africa. National politics and local power structures combine to create a situation in which the indexation of a speaker's power is correlated to language choice. Depending upon the context and the need to subtly assert power, whether real or imagined, speakers align themselves with larger, national power hierarchies relevant to the political situation of the country. As a base for understanding the context, the dissertation outlines historical aspects of the colonial languages used in South Africa over the past three centuries, and traces the history of Afrikaans and how it came to be perceived in a negative light in some communities. The history of Indian immigration to South Africa is also discussed. Seeking to create an understanding of Afrikaans in its daily socio-cultural context brings to light the misconception that Afrikaans is solely the domain of Whites. The political mythology surrounding the negative image acquired by Afrikaans through its association with apartheid is examined, along with the current “repositionist” strategy that seeks to redefine Afrikaans as a language of national unity that reflects the very essence of what it means to call oneself South African. This dissertation will undoubtedly be of historical value for many years as it is one of the few to emerge at the fulcrum of change that ended nearly fifty years of White minority government.
School code: 0227.
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