Emergence of Standard Afrikaans

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Language Standardization and Language Change: The dynamics of Cape Dutch

Series Title: IMPACT: Studies in Language and Society 19

Publication Year: 2004
Publisher:	John Benjamins
		http://www.benjamins.com/
		http://www.benjamins.nl/



Language Standardization and Language Change describes the formation
of an early standard norm at the Cape around 1900. The processes of
variant reduction and sociolinguistic focusing which accompanied the
early standardization history of Afrikaans (or 'Cape Dutch' as it was
then called) are analysed within the broad methodological framework of
corpus linguistics and variation analysis. Multivariate statistical
techniques (cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling and PCA) are
used to model the emergence of linguistic uniformity in the Cape Dutch
speech community. The book also examines language contact and
creolization in the early settlement, the role of Afrikaner
nationalism in shaping language attitudes and linguistic practices,
and the influence of English. As a case study in historical
sociolinguistics the book calls into question the traditional view of
the emergence of an Afrikaans standard norm, and advocates a strongly
sociolinguistic, speaker-orientated approach to language history in
general, and standardization studies in particular.


Table of contents

List of figures  xi
List of tables  xv
Acknowledgements  xix
Introduction: Standardization, language standards and standard
   languages 1--11

I. History
1. Afrikaans sociohistorical linguistics: Reconstructing language
   formation 15--44
2. Afrikaner nationalism and the discovery of the vernacular  45--76
3. The Corpus of Cape Dutch Correspondence and the social context of
   language use in the nineteenth century 77--102

II. Variation analysis
4. On the analysis of variability and uniformity: An introduction to
   multivariate clustering techniques 105--133
5. The gradualness of morphosyntactic change  135--178
6. Morphological and syntactic variation  179--219
7. The Cape Dutch variety spectrum: Clusters, continua and patterns of
   language alternation 221--258

III. Establishing the norm
8. Engels, Engels, alles Engels: Language contact, conflict and purism
   261--277
9. Social networks and the diffusion of standard Afrikaans 279--296

Epilogue: Language standardization and language change  297--304
Appendix: The Corpus of Cape Dutch Correspondence  305
References  315
Index  355



Author: Ana Deumert, Monash University

Hardback: ISBN: 9027218579, Pages: xx, 362 pp., Price: EURO 110.00