Language maintenance: a Language’s Response to the Forces of Contact Induced Language Change - a Comparative Case Study of the Speech Communities of Sterkspruit (South Africa) and Ngungumbane (Zimbabwe)

Abstract

Language maintenance, with a spotlight on the response of a Ianguage to forces of contact-induced Ianguage change, is the focus of this study. The theoretical considerations of Thomason and Kaufman y(1988) on Ianguage- change inform this research. Languages come into contact when the communities of speakers that use these Ianguages are in social contact. Such contact, in most cases, is the result of migrations or relocations caused by social pressures. The social evolution theory (Croft 2005) posits that, as societies change because of contact, their Ianguages are bound to change. The Iinguistic outcomes of Ianguage contact are the result of non-linguistic human action and choices. This is a qualitative study of the speech communities of Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and Ngungumbane in the Mberengwa district of the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. IsiXhosa is in contact with Sesotho and isiHlubi in South Africa, while isiNdebeIe is in contact with chiShona. The response of the Ianguages in contact is explored to highlight how the socio-cultural environment of a Ianguage, together with its political and historical contexts, determines the Iinguistic outcomes of Ianguage change. The data is triangulated from a variety of sources obtained through interviews and participant observations within the respective speech communities. Bilingual behaviour in the form of codeswitching, borrowing and interference is investigated‚ with the understanding that language is not merely a Iinguistic phenomenon but also a sociolinguistic phenomenon.