South African English: Labels, Comprehensibility and Status
Author(s)
Coetzee-Van Rooy, S.; Van Rooy, B.
Abstract
Racial or ethnic labels are common practice in South African English, but in recent years some criticism has been leveled against this practice, particularly as far as the label Black South African English is concerned. This article investigates the labeling practices of ordinary, nonlinguist South Africans to determine what may be acceptable to them, following a bottom-up approach to categorization. Data were elicited from 167 black first year students in a survey designed to compare the labels they assigned to six different forms of South African English, alongside their attitudes towards these varieties, their perception of the proximity of these varieties to their own English & a measure of the comprehensibility of these varieties. The results indicate that the participants do avail themselves of ethnic & racial labels, but their main categorization strategy is the national label South African English, used for all varieties, but more frequently for the varieties of Black & Indian speakers than White speakers. Furthermore, the acrolect form of Black South African English emerges as the variety that enjoys the highest status amongst the participants, on the basis of the most favorable attitudes, the sense of greatest proximity & the highest degree of comprehensibility. 15 Tables, 53 References. Adapted from the source document
