The author develops an ethnography of language shift, based on her study of the Yeyi, who are in an advanced stage of shifting from their original language to SeTawana, taking into consideration the interrelationship between linguistic and extralinguistic factors. It is clear that the social structures of the two neighbouring groups -the Yeyi and the Tawana-favored discrimination against the Yeyi, motivating the latter to acquire the language of the Tawana.