Publications

Publication details [#51948]

Plessis, Theo Du. 2009. Language visibility and the transformation of geographical names in South Africa. Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa 40 (2) : 215–238.

Publication type

Article in journal

Publication language

English

Keywords

geography | geolinguistics | language choice | naming2 | standardization

Language as a subject

Languages, African

Place, Publisher

Routledge

Annotation

Exploring data obtained from the South African Geographical Names Council (from between 2001 and 2007), to determine patterns of language choice in geographical name standardisation, this paper argues that language visibility is not a factor in the South African geographical name standardisation process, which continues apartheid preference for monolingual names.