The Handbook of English Pronunciation

16The Pronunciation of English in South Africa

IAN BEKKER AND BERTUS VAN ROOY

Introduction

This article offers a brief but general overview of the evolution of South African English (SAfE) as well as its current characteristics, both from a descriptive point of view as well as from the point of view of what might be referred to as the “social life” of this dialect, i.e., the linguistic system’s diachronic and synchronic relationships with social factors and forces. In line with the volume of which this chapter forms a part, emphasis will fall on the pronunciation features of SAfE. Details will be provided not only for the standard variety (General White SAfE) but also the various sociolects (e.g., Broad SAfE), ethnolects (e.g., South African Indian English) as well as L2 varieties (especially Black South African English, the numerically strongest and best researched of the nonancestral SAfE dialects).

In what follows, the social history of SAfE is first sketched, detailing its emergence via a complex nineteenth century koineization process and then focusing on subsequent developments. The process of the transmission of English to nonancestral communities also receives attention. The next section then provides an overview of the various varieties’ pronunciation features while the chapter ends with a section overviewing current developments in the field and a conclusion.

The historical sociolinguistics of South African English

The history of English in South Africa begins with ...