TASK # 2

GE 001
PURPOSIVE COMMUNICATION

Members;
Jb Damian Christian Baldo
Jhon Patrick V. Encordia
Sheilo James Marcos
Jonnel N. Tantoy

Course & Section;

BSCE 1-B
 SOUTH AFRICAN ENGLISH
INTRODUCTION
English is a universal language, it is used as a medium of communication anywhere in the
world because it can be easily understood by different races. Due to its functionality, it is
utilized in different settings like informal occasion and in casual face-to-face conversation. The wide
spread of the English language is a product of globalization. English language is being introduced to a
different country which later on used by the natives. The English language is adapted by some non-
English people that is why some of the terms, meanings, structure and sound is being modified that
will result to many varieties of English language.
Africa is the second largest continent on our planet with very diverse cultures, traditions,
beliefs and language. Africa has an influence of the English language due to globalization, especially in
south Africa.
The history of the English language in South Africa is brought by the arrival of the British at
the Cape in 1806. Like in the other country, the English language has been introduced to South
African people by the foreign soldiers, administrators, missionaries, settlers and fortune-seekers
during the 19th century. English language is being introduced first in many African communities in
Cape by English missionaries and later on it is used by Xhosa other than African language. English
language serves as a medium of instruction in mission school, superior English, classical and
mathematical education is being offered. By the end of the century there was an influential corps of
black educators, writers, ministers, and political leaders who were fluent in English. English came to
be perceived as the language of the social elite. But while it was seen as the language of aspiration and
empowerment for black South Africans and for many Afrikaners, among a significant section of the
Afrikaans population, it was consistently received with hostility as an oppressor, and, from the time
the National Party came to power in 1948, Afrikaans became the openly-favored language. Despite
the fact that English was the other official language, the business of government and administration
was conducted almost exclusively in Afrikaans. South African English is not the same as American
and British English due to the modification of structure and word it also led to misunderstanding of
the both communicators.
PHONOLOGY
The two main phonological features that mark South African English as distinct are the
behavior of the vowels in KIT and PALM. The KIT vowel tends to be "split" so that there is a clear
allophonic variation between the front [ɪ] and central [ɪ̈ ] or [ə]. The PALM vowel is characteristically
back in the General and Broad varieties of SAE. The tendency to monophthongise /aɤ/ and /aɪ/ to
[ɑː] and [aː] respectively, are also typical features of General and Broad White South African English.
General South African English features phonemic vowel length (so that ferry /ˈferiː/ and fairy
/ˈfeːriː/ differ only in length) as well as phonemic roundedness, so that fairy /ˈfeːriː/ is distinguished
from furry /ˈføːriː/ by roundedness.
Features involving consonants include the tendency for /tj/ (as in tune) and /dj/ (as in dune)
to be realized as [tʃ] and [dʒ], respectively, and /h/ has a strong tendency to be voiced initially.
Vowels
Allophonic variation in the KIT vowel (from Wells' 1982 lexical sets). In some contexts, such
as after /h/, the KIT vowel is pronounced [ɪ]; before taut syllabic /l/ it is pronounced [ɤ]; and in
other contexts it is pronounced [ə]. This feature is not present in Conservative SAE, and may have
resulted from a vocalic chain shift in White SAE.
Pronunciation of the FLEECE vowel with the long monophthongal. In contrast, other
Southern Hemisphere English’s like Australian English and New Zealand English have diphthongized
FLEECE ([ɪi ~ əi]).
Back BATH, with lip rounding in the broader dialects ([ɑː] or [ɒː]). This differs from
Australian English and New Zealand English, which have central [aː] instead.
Short TRAP ([æ]), resulting in a BATH/TRAP split. Australian English and New Zealand
English also demonstrate this split.
LOT is short, open, weakly rounded, and centralized, around [ɒ̽].
FOOT is short, half-closed back and centralized, around [ʊ].
NURSE tends to resemble the Received Pronunciation non-photic [ɜː] among Conservative
SAE speakers, while the vowel is front, half-close, centralized [øː] in other varieties.
Consonants
In Conservative and Respectable SAE, /h/ is the voiceless glottal fricative [h]. In Extreme
SAE, /h/ has a more breathy-voiced pronunciation, [ɦ]. /h/ is sometimes deleted in Extreme SAE
where it is preserved in Conservative and Respectable SAE. For instance, when it occurs initially in
stressed syllables in words like "house", it is deleted in Extreme SAE.
Conservative SAE is completely non-photic like Received Pronunciation, while Respectable
SAE has sporadic moments of rhoticity. These photic moments generally occur in /r/-final words.
More frequent rhoticity is a marker of Extreme SAE.
Unaspirated voiceless plosives (like /p/, /t/, and /k/) in stressed word-initial environments.
Yod-assimilation: tune and dune tend to be realized as [t͡ʃʉːn] and [d͡ʒʉːn], instead of the
Received Pronunciation [tjuːn] and [djuːn].
 MORPHOLOGY
“Morphology is unusual amongst the sub disciplines of linguistics, in that much of the
interest of the subject derives not so much from the facts of morphology themselves, but from the
way that morphology interacts with and relates to other branches of linguistics, such as phonology
and syntax.”
Basic questions include: What is (vs. isn’t) morphology? How or when should morphology be
identified as something different from phonology? As Inkelas (2008: 1) points out, there is much in
common between realization morphology and morphologically conditioned phonology:
“Morphology and phonology intersect insofar as the statement of morphological
generalizations includes information about sound patterns (realization morphology), and insofar as
the statement of phonological generalizations includes information about morphology
(morphologically conditioned phonology). This intersection is extensive, blurring the distinction
between morphology and phonology in many situations.”
Although African languages are quite varied in how they treat morphology (including barely
at all), their contribution to our understanding of the phonology-morphology interface comes largely
from the following areas: tonal morphology, e.g. tonal morphemes (Welmers 1959), cyclic tonology
(Pulleyblank 1985, 1986); segmental “featural affixes” (Akinlabi 2011), e.g. labiality, palatality,
consonant gradation; non-concatenative morphology, e.g. CV templates (McCarthy 1981, 1986); (iv)
reduplication, especially Bantu, e.g. Downing (1999, 2000), Hyman, Inkelas & Sibanda (2009).
Because of the centrality and variety of tonal interfaces in so many African languages, I
propose to limit discussion to tonal morphology and make the following points: Tonal morphology
can do anything that non-tonal morphology can do; tonal morphology can do more than non-tonal
morphology can do; tonal morphology often obscures the compartmentalization of phonology,
morphology, and syntax. My starting point is the more general question I raised and answered in
Hyman (2011: 214):
SYNTACTICS
Syntax of African English is noticeable, e.g. in the lack of prepositions with many verbs, e.g.
explain, reply, and write. Deletion of verb markers and contracted forms of the verb ‘to be’ are another
salient feature: You looking tired; The wife play. The word busy is often found as a progressive marker:
They were busy talking together. A general purpose is it? is found: He’s gone abroad, is it? There is
also a positive use of no in sentence-initial position as in How are you keeping? No, we’re well thank
you.
The syntax of formal African English is close to that of the international standard. Colloquial
African English, however, has many features, such as:
1. Sentence initiators such as affirmative no, as in How are you?—No, I'm fine, probably from
Dutch/Africans, and the emphatic aikona as in Aikona fish (‘No fish today’), of Nguni
(Bantu) origin. The common informal phrase “ja” well no fine (yes well no fine) has been
adopted in solid written form as an affectionate expression of ridicule (jawellnofine) for
 broad African English usage, and has served to name a South African television
programme.
2. The suffixed phrase and them, as in “We saw Billy and them in town “(‘Billy and the
others’), a form found also in Caribbean varieties.
3. Busy as a progressive marker with stative verbs, as in We were busy waiting for him, and
often with a nonanimate subject, as in the rinderpest was busy decimating their herds.
4. The all-purpose response” is it?”, as in She had a baby last week, Is it?, heard also in
Singapore and Malaysia. But closely parallel in use to Africans Is it?
5. Extensive use of Afrikaans ‘modal adverbs’, such as” sommer “(‘just’) in We were sommer
standing around.

SEMANTICS

South African English American English Meaning

Braai Roasted lamb chops,

Barbecue boerewors (savory sausage)
and steak.

Klap Hitting someone/something

Slap
with the palm of your hand

The automatic light-changing

Robot function of a traffic light
Traffic light
resembles that of a robotic
machine, hence the slang term.

Howzit? How’s it going? Asking for what is happening.

To scale something is to steal

Scale it and a person who’s “scaly” is
To steal
a thief or otherwise sleazy
person.
References
Casalena, E. (2019). south-african-english. Retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com:
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/south-african-english/
Silva, P. (1997). South African English: Oppressor or Liberator? The Major Varieties of English,.