Language practices and mobility in Cape Town's townships

Mobility is a factor increasingly taken into consideration in research on language variation and change. Language studies in slums, informal settlements or townships have to account for how mobility functions in these highly... [ view full abstract ]

Mobility is a factor increasingly taken into consideration in research on language variation and change. Language studies in slums, informal settlements or townships have to account for how mobility functions in these highly dynamic places. In the townships of Cape Town mobility is and has been strongly constrained by apartheid and (post-apartheid) urban planning. The aim of this paper is to analyse how voluntary and forced mobility, but also non-mobility, influence language in Cape Town’s townships. This study is based on data collected through recordings and observation following an ethnographic sociolinguistics approach, and complemented with material from social media and newspapers. The analysis undertaken is geared towards accounting for which (mobility-related) factors have an influence on language in the disadvantaged areas of Cape Town. However, the investigation not only focuses on linguistic constraints, but also on social meaning, indexicalities and style. Results show that (non-) mobility based on need, forced removals, rural to urban migration, the instability of informal settlements, availability of and access to public transport, or in the past certain laws have a considerable influence on language practices in Cape Town. In addition, more than 20 years after the end of apartheid there are still many traces left from apartheid urban planning (spatial segregation, infrastructure, housing, transportation) that constrain the mobility or non-mobility of the residents and, hence, also the language practices in use in Cape Town’s townships. Thus, examining patterns of (non-) mobility is crucial for language research in (Cape Town’s) townships. This paper aims to propose novel ways of how to factor in the complex dynamic social realities of emerging cities (in the Global South) in sociolinguistic studies.