Publications

Publication details [#62012]

Dekoke, Taty. 2016. Congolese migrants and South African language appropriation. Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa 47 (1) : 84–104.

Publication type

Article in journal

Publication language

English

Keywords

language attitude | language contact | language status | migration | multilingualism

Language as a subject

Afrikaans | English | Languages, South African | Sotho | Zulu

Place, Publisher

Routledge

Annotation

This assay uses the usual questionnaire and interview sociolinguistic methodologies to explore Congolese migrants’ appropriation of South African languages' experiences in the Vaal Triangle region. English appears to have an intricate symbolic power seeing its symbolic capital. Also, African languages (like Zulu, Sotho and Afrikaans) hold a salient role in the migrants’ language repertories.