1887
Volume 10, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2214-3157
  • E-ISSN: 2214-3165
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

Linguistic and cultural anxieties have characterized the Ndebele language and culture due to the various hegemonies the people have gone through. The Ndebele as a nation were born out of the Mfecane migrations. In their migration up north they encountered various linguo-cultural groups that posed the risk of possible linguistic and cultural attrition. Upon settling in what is known as Zimbabwe today, the speakers of Ndebele were a minority among other language groups which they had conquered militarily. Both colonial conquest and the subsequent Shona triumphalist and nationalist discourses and policies placed Ndebele in a disadvantaged social and political position which threatened its existence. This paper establishes that all these factors fed into the Ndebele linguistic anxiety, which is manifested in various tense encounters, especially on social media platforms. Data for the study were collected through observations and unstructured interviews. Using the prisms of linguistic purism ideologies and linguistic analysis, the paper analyzes the attitudes towards and the grammar of the various renditions of the toponym. The paper establishes that, while political tensions foment the linguistic tensions around the phonology and morphology of the toponym, there are some idiosyncrasies that are influenced by the mother tongues of speakers and this creates some of the transphonological and morphological changes that infuriate Ndebele speakers.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/ijolc.00051.ndl
2024-05-03
2024-12-10
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abercrombie, A.
    2018 Language purism and social hierarchies: Making a Romani standard in Prizren. Language in Society47 (5). 741–761. 10.1017/S0047404518000969
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404518000969 [Google Scholar]
  2. Baioud, G. & C. Khuanuud
    2022 Linguistic purism as resistance to colonization. Journal of Sociolinguistics261. 315–334. 10.1111/josl.12548
    https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12548 [Google Scholar]
  3. Clarke, M. & P. Nyathi
    2010Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele: “a very dangerous and intriguing woman”. Oxford: African Books Collective.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Kriger, N. J.
    2003Guerrilla veterans in post-war Zimbabwe: Symbolic and violent politics, 1980–1987. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511492167
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511492167 [Google Scholar]
  5. Kroskrity, P. V.
    1993Language, history, and identity: Ethnolinguistic studies of the Arizona Tewa. Arizona: University of Arizona Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Kroskrity, P., B. B. Schieffelin & K. A. Woolard
    2001 Arizona Tewa Kiva speech as a manifestation of a dominant language ideology. InB. B. Schieffelin, K. Woolard, and P. Kroskrity (eds.), Language ideologies. New York: Oxford University Press, 103–122.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Langer, N. & A. Nesse
    2012 Linguistic purism. InJ. M. Hernández-Campoy & J. C. Conde-Silvestre (eds.), The handbook of historical sociolinguistics, 607–625. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 10.1002/9781118257227.ch33
    https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118257227.ch33 [Google Scholar]
  8. Lindgren, B.
    2005 The politics of ethnicity as an extended case: thoughts on a chiefly succession crisis. Social Analysis, 49(3), 234–253. 10.3167/015597705780275129
    https://doi.org/10.3167/015597705780275129 [Google Scholar]
  9. Mpofu, M. & N. Sibanda
    2023 Music, performance and ZANU-PF’s hegemony in Mugabe’s newly independent Zimbabwe. Journal of African Media Studies15 (1). 27–47. 10.1386/jams_00091_1
    https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00091_1 [Google Scholar]
  10. Ncube, G.
    2011 Bulawayo burning: The social history of a Southern African city, 1893–1960 (book review). Kronos, Southern African histories: Rethinking cold war history in Southern Africa371. 137–140.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Ndlovu, S.
    2017 Transphonologisation as ethnophaulism between the Ndebele and the Shona of Zimbabwe in selected toponyms and ethnonyms. Nomina Africana: Journal of African Onomastics31 (2). 117–125. 10.2989/NA.2017.31.2.2.1313
    https://doi.org/10.2989/NA.2017.31.2.2.1313 [Google Scholar]
  12. 2018 Singing the forbidden: An analysis of the political significance of Viomark’s song “Gukurahundi”. InI. Muhwati, T. Charamba & C. Tembo (eds.), Singing nation and politics: Music and the ‘Decade of Crisis’ in Zimbabwe 2000–2010, 171–187. Gweru: Midlands State University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. 2020 Pathologisation and ostracisation of Ndebele history in imagining Zimbabwean heritage. InG. Ncube G & L. Dube (eds), Ndebele language and cultural productions in Zimbabwe, Bulawayo: Amagugu Publications, 140–157.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Ndlovu, S. & T. Mangena
    2014 Articulations of ‘othering’ through ethnic names and naming: Selected Zimbabwean cases. Nomina Africana28 (2). 75–82.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J.
    2008 Nation building in Zimbabwe and the challenges of Ndebele particularism. African Journal on Conflict Resolution8 (3). 27–56.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. 2009Do ‘Zimbabweans’ exist? Trajectories of nationalism, national identity formation and crisis in a postcolonial state. Oxford: Peter Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Nyathi, P.
    1994Igugu LikaMthwakazi: Imbali YamaNdebele, 1820–1893. Gweru: Mambo Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. 2005Zimbabwe’s cultural heritage. Oxford: African Books Collective.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Roche, G.
    2021 Lexical necropolitics: The raciolinguistics of language oppression on the Tibetan margins of Chineseness. Language & Communication761. 111–120. 10.1016/j.langcom.2020.10.002
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2020.10.002 [Google Scholar]
  20. Thomas, G.
    1991Linguistic purism. London and New York: Longman.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Trask, R. L.
    1999Key concepts in language and linguistics. London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Weinstein, B.
    1989 Francophonie: purism at the international level. InB. Jernudd & M. Shapiro (eds.), The politics of language purism, 53–79. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110868371.53
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110868371.53 [Google Scholar]
  23. Woolard, K. A.
    1998 Introduction: Language ideology as a field of inquiry. Language ideologies: Practice and theory3 (11). 1–50. 10.1093/oso/9780195105612.003.0001
    https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195105612.003.0001 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/ijolc.00051.ndl
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/ijolc.00051.ndl
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Bulawayo; language ideology; language purism; Ndebele; transphonologization
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error