Sesotho

To call Sankomota’s first and self-titled album – “Sankomota” – a classic, is not an overstatement or an exaggeration. “Sankomota”, the album; is rich, diverse, tonal and very colourful in sound, lyrics, idioms and language. I have transcribed the lyrics of the album as written on the original LP cover of the album. The lyrics are written in the Sesotho orthography of Lesotho – where vowels can follow each other. South African Sesotho has moved away from this, largely due to the help of Professors Moleleki Moleleki and Mzilikazi Khumalo and many others who have committed their lives to standardising Sesotho orthography. While all care is taken to ensure that the orthography of lyrics in Lesotho’s Sesotho is preserved, should you find differences between the lyrics, names or people and places in the Appendices (or elsewhere) in this book, I apologise in advance.

English summary:

Multilingualism is a reality in South African classrooms. The Constitution of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) and the national language policy recognize language rights and aims at supporting, promoting and developing the official languages. However, despite the advantages of mother tongue education, English is often chosen as language of learning and teaching at the cost of the African official languages. This study proposes the accommodation and promotion of multilingualism through blended learning.

Blended learning refers to the blending of traditional instruction methods, such as face-to-face instruction, with other forms of instruction such as online learning and teaching. Through a discussion of asynchronous and synchronous learning tools it was established that wikis would be used for this study. In terms of blended learning and learning theories the main emphasis in this study is on socio-constructivism as well as communal constructivism.

The empirical research in this study focused on the establishment and testing of a conceptual model for the accommodation and promotion of multilingualism through blended learning in the subject IT. The research took the form of a sequential embedded mixed methods design. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. A questionnaire was used with IT teachers to investigate the language and blended learning context. This was followed up with qualitative research in the form of interviews aimed at provincial and national experts in terms of the subject IT and e-learning. Based on the literature and these two investigations, a conceptual model was developed. The conceptual model’s effectiveness was tested through a quasi-experimental study. A questionnaire was also completed by the respondents at the schools after the completion of the study. Through the testing of the effectiveness of the conceptual model it was found that multilingualism could successfully be accommodated and promoted through this conceptual model.



Afrikaans summary:

Meertaligheid is ’n werklikheid in Suid-Afrikaanse klaskamers. Die Grondwet van Suid-Afrika (Wet 108 van 1996) en die nasionale taalbeleid erken taalregte en het die ondersteuning, uitbreiding en ontwikkeling van die amptelike tale ten doel. Hierteenoor, ten spyte van die voordele van moedertaalonderwys, word Engels dikwels as taal van onderrig en leer gekies ten koste van die Afrikatale wat amptelike tale is. Hierdie studie stel die akkommodering en uitbreiding van meertaligheid deur gemengde leer voor.

Gemengde leer verwys na die mengsel van tradisionele onderrigmetodes, soos gesig-tot-gesig-onderrig, met ander vorme van onderrig soos aanlynonderrig en -leer. Deur ’n bespreking van asinchrone en sinchrone leertegnologie is bepaal dat wiki’s vir hierdie studie gebruik sal word. Met betrekking tot gemengde leer en leerteorieë was die fokus van hierdie studie op sosio-konstruktivisme sowel as gemeenskapskonstruktivisme.

Die empiriese navorsing van hierdie studie het op die daarstelling en toetsing van ’n konseptuele model vir die akkommodering en uitbreiding van meertaligheid deur gemengde leer in die vak IT gefokus. Die navorsing was in die vorm van ’n sekwensiële, insluitende gemengde metode ontwerp. Beide kwantitatiewe en kwalitatiewe benaderings is gevolg. ’n Vraelys is aan IT-onderwysers gestuur om die konteks in terme van taal en gemengde leer te bepaal. Dit is opgevolg deur kwalitatiewe navorsing in die vorm van onderhoude met die provinsiale en nasionele kenners van die vak IT en e-leer. Op grond van die literatuur en die twee ondersoeke is ’n konseptuele model ontwikkel. Die konseptuele model se effektiwiteit is gemeet deur middel van ’n kwasi-eksperimentele studie. ’n Vraelys is ook deur die respondente by die skole voltooi nadat die studie voltooi is. Daar is, na aanleiding van die toetsing van die effektiwiteit van die konseptuele model, bevind dat meertaligheid suksesvol deur die konseptuele model geakkommodeer en uitgebrei kan word.

This study explored Sesotho personal names with clause complex feature as authentic social discourse using systemic functional linguistics (SFL) theory to describe them. It used a systemic form-meaning approach to map and interpret Sesotho names structures as enacted messages. The intent was to complement the current syntax and semantics specific formalist approach to onomastic interpretation. The purpose was to reflect a systemic interface of lexico-grammar and social activity by describing these names as contextual lexico-grammatical properties. In this interface modality, noted as negotiated attitudes of awarders, was incorporated. Data was collected from national examinations pass lists, admission and employment roll lists from Public, Private, Tertiary, Orphanage institutions. Other data was identified in Telephone directories and Media. The results revealed that name –surname or surname-name pairs as well as some single names bear the structure and functions of clause complexes and exchange information as statements, demands and commands, as questions and as exclamations and these are Halliday's Mood types as well as their speech roles-declaratives, imperatives, exclamative and interrogatives depending on the awarder's evaluation. This form-meaning system is justified as a requirement for the expansion of grammar and its relation to other linguistics disciplines as it has features required for functional language found in discourse particularly because Basotho skillfully create discourse using personal names. The article extends SFL-Onomastica relation and literature and opens ways for the grammar of Sesotho to deepen its roots in SFL as it bears lexico-grammatical properties.

This study examined how the quantitative and the numerative features of the nominal group described by Systemic Functional Linguistics theory characterized independent clause Sesotho personal names. They were presented as quantitative and numerative dichotomies with distinct features noted by both areas in the nominal group. Their semantics of interaction displayed speech roles such as statements, demands and commands, and as questions (cf. Eggins, 1996, p 149-150). An additional new feature superficially mentioned by Halliday (2001) extends to exclamatives (p. 45). The aim was to explore how these personal names structured with features of these speech roles are described as enacted messages that exchange information; give the name awarder's evaluation of the situation (modality) and express experiences encountered at the child's birth. Enacted messages negotiate attitudes (Martin and Rose 2007, p. 8) and through this art modality is highly incorporated. Data was collected from national examinations pass lists, admission, Telephone directories, Media and employment roll lists from Public, Private, Tertiary, Orphanage institutions. This article extends SFL-Onomastica relation and literature. The contribution gained from this study is that language users can use personal names to identify discourse elements, present grammar issues, disclose meanings beyond the clause and display attitude as a speech variety through [SFL] modality.

This study examined how the epithet feature of the nominal group described by Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory characterized independent clause Sesotho personal names. These names were described as authentic social discourse that exchanges information. Their semantics of interaction displayed speech roles such as statements, demands and commands, as questions and as the exclamative. The aim was to explore how these epithet personal names structured with features of these speech roles give the name awarder's evaluation of the situation (modality) and context in which the child was born. They function as enacted messages pointing in various ways because these speech roles enfold the art of negotiating attitudes and through this art modality is highly incorporated. Data was collected from national examinations pass lists, admissions, telephone directories, media and employment roll lists from Public, Private, Tertiary and Orphanage institutions. Methodology is qualitative and it allows the researcher to make sense of or interpret phenomena in terms of meanings that people bring to them. It explores and describes the names within a specific context of Basotho and thus attempts to make meanings from the language users' view, not fabricated views. In this way it displays modality and the negotiated attitudes. These help investigate the "why" and the "how" of the people's decision making. The contribution by this article extends SFL-Onomastica relation and literature and opens up grammatical description functionally using material resourced from the speakers' creative potential. It ensures contextual functionality of language use.

Online knowledge communities can affect the status of languages within the internet linguistic landscape. Despite the prominence of English in the online environment, multilingualism is increasingly being promoted in these environments. It is against this background that the status, presentation and representation of African languages are being investigated. This article reports on the contribution of the website Sesotho Online to the establishment of an internet-based language knowledge community for the Sesotho language. In its literature review the article considers the concept of language knowledge communities and the internet language landscape with particular reference to Sesotho. Furthermore, an overview of website usage statistics and qualitative research by means of a descriptive study (borrowing from methodologies of autoethnographical enquiry of the author’s experiences) is provided. Online trends over the past twenty years are mirrored in the development of the researched website. From reflections on this website, some recommendations are made towards future developments in other African languages, for example. In conclusion, through Sesotho Online, clear lessons are learnt for the development of other internet-based language knowledge communities within the South African and other minority language contexts.

The study of code-switching has been mostly undertaken from two perspectives that have developed apart from one another, i.e. the grammatical perspective and the conversational perspective. I attempt in this chapter to join these two perspectives by testing the hypothesis that grammatical and conver- sational forms of code-switching can be jointly predicted via macrosociolinguis- tic factors. To that end, I first show on the basis of sociolinguistically diverse data from South Africa, featuring language with different degrees of typological distance (i.e. Afrikaans, English, Sesotho), that macrosociolinguistic factors by themselves can predict specific grammatical CS patterns irrespective of linguis- tic factors. I then proceed to show that under certain conditions, there is evi- dence in these data of one-to-one relationships between specific patterns of grammatical code-switching and those conversational code-switching patterns which Auer (1999) refers to as language mixing and language alternation.

The study of code-switching has been mostly undertaken from two perspectives that have developed apart from one another, i.e. the grammatical perspective and the conversational perspective. I attempt in this chapter to join these two perspectives by testing the hypothesis that grammatical and conver- sational forms of code-switching can be jointly predicted via macrosociolinguis- tic factors. To that end, I first show on the basis of sociolinguistically diverse data from South Africa, featuring language with different degrees of typological distance (i.e. Afrikaans, English, Sesotho), that macrosociolinguistic factors by themselves can predict specific grammatical CS patterns irrespective of linguis- tic factors. I then proceed to show that under certain conditions, there is evi- dence in these data of one-to-one relationships between specific patterns of grammatical code-switching and those conversational code-switching patterns which Auer (1999) refers to as language mixing and language alternation.

In this article a measurement instrument for the degree of conjunctivism / disjunctivism of the South African languages is presented. Following a discussion on conjunctivism versus disjunctivism, both absolute and relative approaches towards this measurement instrument are experimented with. Three potential absolute instruments are derived: one based on word length, one on sentence length, and one on the standardised type/token ratio. All of them pose problems. The search for a relative instrument is more successful. Although large sets of parallel texts would provide the ideal data, two-by-two parallel corpora offer a good substitute. The final 11 x 11 array is also compiled in this way. Applications of the 11 x 11 array in several fundamental and applied linguistic fields are reviewed. The fields include translation, academic writing, corpus linguistics, and theoretical reflections about spellcheckers and multi-dimension dictionary Rulers. A complete Bantu Array could be the ultimate goal.

Corpora have been built in the Department of African Languages of the University of Pretoria since the early 1990s. Work began on a corpus for Sesotho sa Leboa, the Pretoria Sesotho sa Leboa Corpus (PSC), which gradually grew from 156 000 running words or “tokens” in 1990 (see Prinsloo 1991) to 5.8 million words a decade later (see De Schryver & Prinsloo 2001a). Today, this corpus stands at 8.7 million words and is still growing. In addition, corpora had been built for all other official South African languages by the end of the 1990s, although the sizes of these corpora remained rather small compared to PSC (see De Schryver & Prinsloo 2000a). Around the turn of the millennium, however, a dedicated major effort brought about an important change. A joint project between the African-language departments of the University of Pretoria on the one hand, and Ghent University (Flanders, Belgium) on the other hand, resulted in relatively large corpora for all official South African languages, with sizes averaging several million tokens per language. In the process, quite a number of other African-language corpora were built as well, such as corpora for Cilubà, Kiswahili, Hausa, Somali and Lingala (see Van der Veken & De Schryver 2003).

Phonetic string matching involves taking two or more strings to determine if they match. Strings that are often orthographically spelt differently are matchable (nearly equivalent), either as people's names, e.g. Smith and Smythe, or as words, e.g. colour and color. Equivalent examples in various indigenous Southern African languages would be surnames, e.g. Radebe and Hadebe or words, e.g. mpša, mbwa, ntsha which are all equivalent words for ‘dog’ in the various indigenous Southern African languages; similarly, hlapi, tlhapi, inhlanzi for ‘fish’. The authors look at two common string matching algorithms, SoundEx and NYSIIS, and show how they are inadequate for Southern African use. Modifications of these algorithms for Southern African use as well as new algorithms are proposed.

This article offers a distributional corpus analysis of the Northern Sotho noun and gender system. The aim is twofold: first, to assess whether the existing descriptions of the noun class system in Northern Sotho are corroborated by information provided by the analysis of a large electronic corpus for this language, with specific reference to singular-plural pairings, and second, to present a number of novel visualisation aids to characterise a noun class system (in a radar diagram) and a noun gender system (using a two-directional weighted representation) for Northern Sotho in particular, and for any Bantu language in general. The findings include the discovery of two new genders in Northern Sotho (i.e. class pairs 1/6 and 3/10), and also indicate that the Northern Sotho noun class system, and by extension any one for Bantu, should be seen as dynamic.

In this article we explore the historical construction of literary infrastructure established in Lesotho. Building on an analysis of Sesotho language orthography by Dr Litšepiso Matlosa, we recall the colonial genesis of written Sesotho by Swiss and French missionaries. As a result of this influence, Lesotho’s written Sesotho remains embedded with marks of orthographic inconsistency. The legacies of written language in Lesotho inform the relationships the Basotho have with literature.

It is against this backdrop that in 2011, a young Mosotho woman, named Liepollo Rantekoa, organised a series of literary events that she called the Ba re e ne re Literature Festival. We show that through the ensuing dialogues, the Ba re e ne re Literature Festival has since served as a creative outlet and knowledge exchange for Basotho while expanding its reach through additional creative interventions rooted in decolonial theory. Partnerships with peer literary and cultural organisations in other African countries have generated valuable exchanges as well. In mapping out its myriad connections, we argue that through reflexive praxis, the Ba re e ne re Literature Festival unlinks literary culture in Lesotho from colonial institutions and practices by cultivating a new generation of storytellers, readers and cultures.