South African English
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52575/2712-7451-2025-44-3-530-538Keywords:
Black South African English, sociolinguistic differentiation, phonetic changes, grammatical changes, lexical changesAbstract
Although Blacks constitute the vast majority of the population in South Africa, their version of English has relatively small coverage in literature. The South African English developed from a variety of dialects and sociolects heavily influenced by the indigenous languages of South Africa. The purpose of this paper is to specify phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary of Black South African English. It is shown that phonetically Black South African English exploits overall vowel reduction in a number of positions including the ungilding of diphthongs compared to the British varieties of English. The grammar of Black South African English is generally simplified versus British English. Examples of such simplification include the use of plural nouns and the omission of articles. The vocabulary of Black South African English shows some deviations from the bulk of traditional English words by semantic contractions and expansions. The indigenous languages of South Africa tend to interfere with English at all the linguistic strata. Along with the low educational level of Black South African majority, this interference causes considerable phonetic, grammatical, and lexical transformations of the language.
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