Language practitioners in South Africa were almost exclusively concerned with the language of literature and took little account of everyday spoken language. However, all the great literary changes of the world are ultimately derived from the spoken languages of particular communities. Because of this, community interpreters sometimes use the language of a community’s subcultures, trying in this way to win the group’s support for the interpreter’s aims and programmes. But the effect of this approach may equally well be to increase the community’s alienation rather than ameliorating it. This article illustrates the above concerns and emphasises what isiXhosa interpreters can achieve, given that external social pressures often thwart their efforts.