Rajend Mesthrie

List of John Benjamins publications for which Rajend Mesthrie plays a role.

Book series

Journal

Titles

Introducing Sociolinguistics: Second Edition

Rajend Mesthrie, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap

[Not in series, 102] 2009. xxvi, 502 pp.
Subjects Sociolinguistics and Dialectology

Introducing Sociolinguistics

Rajend Mesthrie, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap

[Not in series, 102 (1st)] 2000. 528 pp.
Subjects Sociolinguistics and Dialectology

Articles

This paper adds to the South African and international literature on the fronting of /u:/ in present day English. It investigates the extent to which varieties of South African English spoken by “Coloured” people participate in GOOSE fronting, which has been noted as a notable characteristic of the… read more
This paper describes a mid-range (or mesolang) version of Zulu as a second language, acquired ‘naturally’ in a rural area by an Indian South African. Particular attention is paid to the morphology of an agglutinating target language, in relation to the acquisition of an elaborate system of prefixes… read more
Mesthrie, Rajend 2017 Braj B. Kachru (1932–2016)English World-Wide 38:1, pp. 1–4 | Obituary
Mesthrie, Rajend 2014 The sociophonetic effects of Event X: Post-apartheid Black South African English in multicultural contact with other South African EnglishesThe Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and beyond, Buschfeld, Sarah, Thomas Hoffmann, Magnus Huber and Alexander Kautzsch (eds.), pp. 58–69 | Article
South Africa offers an ecological complexity that challenges World Englishes theorizing. The number of speakers of the Settler variety remains relatively large, and other L1 varieties play an important role in public life (primarily those spoken by Indian and Coloured speakers). In addition there… read more
Mesthrie, Rajend 2014 How non-Indo-European is Fanakalo pidgin? Selected understudied structures in a Bantu-lexified pidgin with Germanic substratesPidgins and Creoles beyond Africa-Europe Encounters, Buchstaller, Isabelle, Anders Holmberg and Mohammad Almoaily (eds.), pp. 85–100 | Article
Fanakalo is a southern African pidgin whose main lexifier is Zulu, a non-Indo-European language, and whose genesis lies with Europeans as “imperfect learners” and Africans as “superstrate speakers” in the 19th CE. The question can therefore be raised whether this reversal of social relations and… read more
Mesthrie, Rajend 2014 A lesser globalisation: A sociolexical study of Indian Englishes in diaspora, with a primary focus on South AfricaEnglish in the Indian Diaspora, Hundt, Marianne and Devyani Sharma (eds.), pp. 171–186 | Article
This paper makes a case for the comparative study of Indian English vocabulary in diaspora. Comparing characteristic usage of Indian terms in their new environments reveals socio-cultural niceties that may not always be possible in studies of syntax and phonetics. The domains of food, music,… read more
Mesthrie, Rajend and Alida Chevalier 2014 Sociophonetics and the Indian diaspora: The NURSE vowel and other selected features in South African Indian EnglishEnglish in the Indian Diaspora, Hundt, Marianne and Devyani Sharma (eds.), pp. 85–104 | Article
This chapter explores the potential of phonetic and sociophonetic research in characterising varieties of English in the Indian diaspora, using South African Indian English (SAIE) as a focal point. We first identify key phonetic features that lend themselves to such comparative study. In this… read more
This paper examines the status of an informal urban variety in Cape Town known as Tsotsitaal. Similar varieties, going by a plethora of names (Flaaitaal, Iscamtho, Ringas) have been described in other South African cities, especially Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban (see also Sheng in Kenyan… read more
Deumert, Ana and Rajend Mesthrie 2009 4. Language variation and changeIntroducing Sociolinguistics: Second Edition, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 109 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend 2009 1. Clearing the ground: Basic issues, concepts and approachesIntroducing Sociolinguistics: Second Edition, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 1 ff. | Article
The practices associated with the policy of apartheid entrenched easily-identifiable ethnic varieties of English in South Africa. The collapse of the policy in the 1990s removed social barriers between people and encouraged freedom of association. With new sustained social networks have come new… read more
Mesthrie, Rajend 2009 2. Regional dialectologyIntroducing Sociolinguistics: Second Edition, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 42 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend 2009 3. Social dialectologyIntroducing Sociolinguistics: Second Edition, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 74 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend 2009 9. L anguage contact 2: Pidgins, Creoles and 'New Englishes'Introducing Sociolinguistics: Second Edition, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 271 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend and Ana Deumert 2009 10. Critical sociolinguistics: Approaches to language and powerIntroducing Sociolinguistics: Second Edition, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 309 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend and William L. Leap 2009 11. Sociolinguistics and educationIntroducing Sociolinguistics: Second Edition, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 344 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend and William L. Leap 2009 8. Language contact 1: Maintenance, shift and deathIntroducing Sociolinguistics: Second Edition, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 242 ff. | Article
This chapter focuses on varieties that flourish in South African townships with names like Tsotsitaal, Flaaitaal, Iscamtho, Gamtaal etc. Some speakers and scholars argue that these are new languages arising out of urbanisation and underworld culture in multilingual settings. This chapter examines… read more
Mesthrie, Rajend 2007 Braj B. Kachru. 2005. Asian Englishes: Beyond the CanonEnglish World-Wide 28:3, pp. 329–332 | Miscellaneous
This paper offers a unified account of the syntactic “deviations” found in a second language variety of English, viz. Black South African English (BlSAfE). Most writing on the topic has been content to supply lists of non-standard features which are thought to be diagnostic of the variety. This… read more
A common assumption in studies of English world-wide is that speakers of an L2 frequently rely on the orthographic form of words in settling upon their pronunciation. I call this the “spelling form hypothesis”. This paper critically examines the assumptions behind this hypothesis and shows them to… read more
Deumert, Ana and Rajend Mesthrie 2000 4. Language Variation and ChangeIntroducing Sociolinguistics, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 114 ff. | Article
Leap, William L. and Rajend Mesthrie 2000 11. Sociolinguistics and EducationIntroducing Sociolinguistics, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 354 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend 2000 1. Clearing the Ground: Basic Issues, Concepts and ApproachesIntroducing Sociolinguistics, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 1 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend 2000 2. Regional DialectologyIntroducing Sociolinguistics, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 44 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend 2000 3. Social DialectologyIntroducing Sociolinguistics, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 76 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend 2000 9. Language Contact 2: Pidgins, Creoles and ‘New Englishes’Introducing Sociolinguistics, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 279 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend and Ana Deumert 2000 10. Critical Sociolinguistics: Approaches to Language and PowerIntroducing Sociolinguistics, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 316 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend and William L. Leap 2000 8. Language Contact 1: Maintenance, Shift and DeathIntroducing Sociolinguistics, Mesthrie, Rajend, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William L. Leap, pp. 248 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend 1996 Language Contact, Transmission, Shift: South African Indian EnglishFocus on South Africa, de Klerk, Vivian (ed.), pp. 79 ff. | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend 1995 Review of Chambers (1995): Sociolinguistic TheoryEnglish World-Wide 16:2, pp. 295–299 | Review
Mesthrie, Rajend and Paula West 1995 Towards a Grammar of Proto South African EnglishEnglish World-Wide 16:1, pp. 105–133 | Article
Mesthrie, Rajend 1989 The Origins of FanagaloJournal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 4:2, pp. 211–240 | Article
This paper examines, and refutes, the currently most popular hypothesis concerning the origin of Fanagalo, namely, that it arose on the plantation fields of Natal among indentured East Indian migrants who arrived there from 1860 onwards. Can a pidgin be initiated by a group of migrants from… read more