historical sociolinguistics in a colonial world, cultures...
TRANSCRIPT
Historical Sociolinguistics in a
Colonial World, Cultures of
Standardization
Ana Deumert
University of Cape Town
Outline
• Forms of textuality
• Missionaries and cultures of standardization
• Resistances
• Homogenization: Shona
• The present: isiXhosa
• Final discussion
Linguistics andartefactual ideologies
• Language understood as a limited collection of ordered forms (grammar) plus a limited collection of words (lexicon);
• Codification of these in grammars and dictionaries is a central aspect of a linguist‟s professional work;
• And learning a language requires to internalize those forms;
• Assumption 1: Speech (variable and context-bound, parole) can be „reduced‟ to language (langue) in this sense;
• Assumption 2: Reducing speech to language requires specific regimented forms of textuality▫ „[L]anguage‟, ideally, can be carried in one‟s back pocket or briefcase; it
can be stored on the shelves of a library and it can be passed around and traded as an object. Language becomes a book or a paper, or a collection of them, and many „languages‟ exist only by virtue of the existence of such objects.‟ (Blommaert, 2008)
Regimented forms of textuality
• The generic triad▫ A grammar
▫ A dictionary
▫ A collection of texts (typically folktales, etc. i.e. Herder‟s Naturpoesie)
• The agents: missionaries, travellers and colonial officials.
Who were the missionaries?
• „First, these men, the vanguards of empire and its most activeideological agents, came from the interstices of a classstructure undergoing reconstruction; many of them, as we shallsee, were caught uneasily between a displaced peasantry, anexpanding proletariat, and the lower reaches of the rising Britishbourgeoisie .. On the colonial stage itself, they were quite clearly a"dominated fraction of the dominant class" (Bourdieu1984:421), the ruled among the rulers ... In their writings arerehearsed all the arguments of images and ideology, of dreams andschemes, voiced among the colonizers as they debated the mannerin which natives should be ruled, their worlds reconstructed(Comaroff, Images of Empire, 1989)
Tensions of the empire
• Phillip (1828, Researches in South Africa)
▫ „The missions were never popular among the colonists in general; but while the colonists could obtain a sufficient supply of labourers at a low price, the missionaries were allowed to proceed in their efforts to improve the people... The missionary stations in South Africa are the only places were the natives of the country have a shadow of protection, and where they can claim an exemption from the most humiliating and degrading sufferings‟
The civilizing mission• Missionaries „sought to "cultivate" the African "desert" and its
inhabitants by planting the seeds of bourgeois individualism and thenuclear family, of private property and commerce, of rational mindsand healthily clad bodies, of the practical arts of refined living anddevotion to God ... reduce the landscape from a chaotic mass ofcrude, dirty huts to an ordered array of square, neatly boundedresidences (with rooms and doors, windows and furniture, fieldsand fences)‟ (Comaroff, Images of Empire, 1989)
• Christianity, commerce and new forms of consumption wenthand in hand.
Missionary linguistics
• „Ranger notes that though missionary linguistic work in southern Rhodesia was augmented by print literacy, it did not exert what Anderson calls the "vernacularizing thrust"of print capitalism, which helped to level prenational language hierarchies in Europe (Anderson 1991). Deployed outside a market-based system, it promoted instead a superposed codification, or model for speech, which indirectly contributed to the distinctiveness of an emergent, native, literate class.‟ (Errington, Colonial Linguistics, 2001)
• „Primevalness and purity were convergent, overdeterminedaspects of missionary language ideologies‟(ibid.).
Cultures of standardization
• Michael Silverstein (Monoglot “Standard”, 1996)
• „These cultures, grounded in literate images, authoritativeinstitutions, and normative ideals, allow features ofnonstandard speech to be regarded not just as differencesof usage, but marks of personal deficiency, often slottedinto categories of race, class, gender, region and others ...Missionaries, as literate citizens of modern nation states, partook ofsuch social imaginaries and cultures of standardization,which made literacy much more than a resource for devisingscientific orthographies‟ (Errington, Linguistics in a ColonialWorld, 2008)
Language needs to be ‘studied’
• John Ayliff (A Vocabulary of the Kafir Language, 1846)
▫ „Commenced this day the study of the English Grammar and I hope that I may continue my application this time till I have made myself a master of the Same. I have made many attempts but I have as many times grown weary in my efforts. In the course of the evening I have made myself master of the Articles(1827, cited in Mesthrie, Words Across Worlds, 1998)
Consequences• Missionaries created
▫ „school-mediated, academy-supervised idiom[s] codified for the requirements of reasonably precise bureaucratic and technological communication‟ (Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, 1983: 57);
▫ unitary linguistic images and a form of „best speech‟ (cf. Errington‟s discussion of algemeenbeschaafdMaleis)
▫ diglossic hierarchies , i.e. broad linguistic asymmetry between print-literate and „vernacular‟ forms of language.
Non-native speakers
• How proficient were missionaries in the languages they codified?
• „Many a missionary who reported back to his superiors in London that he was making great progress with the Xhosa language was in fact referring to his written translations. For spoken communication he had to refer to an interpreter‟ (Mesthrie, Words across Worlds, 1998)
• Consequence: „[A] production of [codified] African languages that were not anybody else‟s mother tongue. Invented African languages have their sociogenesis as second languages.‟ (Makoni&Mashiri, Critical Historigraphy, 2007)
Double translation
• John Ayliff, A Vocabulary of the Kafir Language, 1846
▫ „The Missionary on entering Kafirland was necessitated to obtain an interpreter who was either a Hottentot, or some other native speaking the Dutch language, no others then being procurable: to make himself understood by his interpreter, he had to study the Dutch language, and the acquirement of Kafir necessarily became a secondary consideration.‟
The instructional project
• Aim: the intellectual and moral improvement of the language‟s speakersAND facilitating Europeans‟ acquisition of these languages
• C.J. CrawshawA First Kaffir Course (1903)
▫ „This little book requires no apology. It is the only attempt that has yet been made to enable Europeans to overcome the first difficulties of learning Kaffir, and Natives (or those who acquired it as children) to learn the Grammar and Construction of the Language ... In the Grammatical part of the work I have had no other aid than that derived from books, but in connection with the Vocabularies, Examples and Exercises ... I have to express my obligations to several friends ... Rev. J.A. Chalmers ... the Honourable C. Brownlee and Rev. P.J. Mzimba ... Rev. E.J. Barrett ... Rev. W.W. Gqoba‟
A literature of the future
• European grammars – view towards the classics; „best‟/‟model‟ language is perceived to have been in the past
• Colonial grammars – „best‟/‟model‟ speech as a project of the future
▫ „The Kafir language, although at present spoken by a race of people only just emerging from a state of complete barbarism, bears strong internal evidence of having been used, at one time, by those who must have constituted a much more cultivated order of society ... [The languages of this family are] highly systematic and harmonious in their construction, and well worthy of receiving a literature‟ (Appleyard, The KafirLanguage, 1850)
Khoisan – not worthy of grammar or
literature
• Boyce, A Grammar of the Kaffir Language, 1844
▫ „The writer of the Kaffir Grammar, in the indulgence of his curiosity, once engaged in the task of compiling a sketch of the grammatical peculiarities of the Hottentot language ...; but relinquished the undertaking in consequence of its apparent inutility: for it is evident that the prevalence of Dutch and English among the few tribes which yet speak these uncouth and inharmonious dialects will soon supersede the necessity of further literary labours, which in this language appear hitherto to have been more curious than useful.‟
The silence of the native speaker
• No or little mentioning made in the early isiXhosa grammars and dictionaries of native speaker consultants (another example of erasure).
• W. Hunter (English-Kaffir Dictionary, 1903)
▫ „Many years ago I contemplated compiling an English-Kaffir Dictionary, and for that purpose accumulated a large number of words; but through failure of health I had to abandon the thought and return to England. ... Debarred from the advantage of those conversant in the Kaffir tongue, I have not only checked most of my words by Dr.Kropf ... The work is now twice its size; and I trust it will prove acceptable and useful to both Europeans and Natives. As it is now twenty-four years since I left South Africa, it is possible that users of the book may find some small slips here and there.‟
A. Kropf Kafir-English Dictionary
(1899, 1915)▫ First edition (1899) – sources: the writings of other
missionaries; also acknowledges assistance of members of the earlyamaXhosa elite (Makiwane, Rubusana, Bokwe)
Continued
• Second edition (R. Godfrey, 1915) -‟I have sought help from every quarter and under all circumstances and cannot therefore attempt to give a list of the persons to whom I am indebted. But I must mention some of my helpers. The Misses Ross ... daughters of the late Dr. Bryce Ross ... the girls of Lovedale and Pierie have greatly assisted me in collecting Hlonipa words ... the scholars of St. Mattews of the year 1910 enthusiastically gathered bird-names and bird-lore for me ... Rev. J.H.Soga... Rev. D.B. Davis ... Dr Péringuey ... Mr J. Hewitt ... Mr Austin Roberts ... Dr. C. Meinhof [Hamburg] ... Mr McLaren ... Mr W.G. Bennie ... the native compositors [at the printing press] have taken keen interest in the progress of the work and latterly rendered great assistance in the definitions of words‟
The white consultant
• Euphonic concord (1832, William Boyce)
▫ „One principal word in a sentence governs the initial letters of syllables of the other words‟
• William Boyce‟s work depended significantly on the then 15-year old Theophilus Shepstone/Somsewu(„white father‟, 1817-1893)
The isiXhosa bible
• 1st September 1859, journal of John Appleyard
▫ „To-day the printing of this edition has been finished, so that now we have the entire Scriptures in the Kafir language. To God be all the praise! We commenced printing this edition in December 1854, so that we have had this work in hand a little more than four year and half. During this period the whole has been translated or former printed portions revised. The translators have been Mr. Dugmore for the Book of Psalms, Mr. Garner for that of Ruth, and Rev. A. Kropf of the Berlin Mission for Judges and the two Books of Samuel. All the other books have been translated by myself, and those which were printed before have been revised, as well as the translations supplied by the Messrs. Garner and Kropf. With God‟s blessing and help I now intend to give another revision to the New Testament … May the Holy Spirit be my teacher and guide in this‟
A ‘new’ science of language
• „[I]n the world of the nineteenth century, social structures of communication in Europe and between Europe and Africa grew increasingly complex, with more contacts, more publications, and more types of audiences. Those structures of communication also grew increasingly hierarchical, mediated by growing structures of colonial authority, deriving from the metropole and displacing Africans downward in the chains of communication ... At the same time, the professionalization of academic linguistics in Europe depersonalized the European author‟s relationship to his or her work ... Increasingly, the academic hierarchy exalted “objectivity” and distance, disparaging social involvement with a language‟s actual speakers.‟(Irvine, Genres of Conquest, 2001)
Colonised minds ...
• Horatio Isaiah Budlwana (Bud) Mbelle (1870-1947), Kafir Scholar’s Companion, 1903▫ „Outwardly, Kafir presents massiveness and bulkiness of form as well
as of idea, - it is coarse, clumsy, and unrefined ... In the expression of better feeling, the language is rude and clumsy, for the savage custom of going naked has denuded the mind, and destroyed all decorum in the language ... The power of forming compound words must in some respect excite the surprise of other nations, which are not African, for the massiveness of idea thus obtained in one word must obstruct the flow of thought; and indeed cause a stagnation of thought. Take for instance the word opelekezelayo, i.e. „one who accompanies another for some distance‟, which is expressed in English by seven words. It is easy to conceive that then mind after having formed this compound words, needs rest or some time for collecting strength in order to proceed with another proposition ... “the Kafir language which would soon be supplanted by English”‟
And resistance ...
• First language speakers, early periodicals
▫ „They were more like magazines than newspapers, but they didestablish a reading public and involve them in a community ofreaders outside the classroom. And they did encourage nativespeakers of Xhosa to take their first hesitant steps in puttingwords to paper for readers they could not see before them.‟ (Opland,2003; Opland, Xhosa Poets and Poetry, 1998)
Continued• In response to the 1934 isiXhosa spelling reform
“It is now clear enough even for a weakling to see that the white man‟sobjective is to make a Native so weak that he cannot stand by himself ...We have been deprived of land, rights and even the dignity of our colour,and, to my discomfiture, we are now under the last cloud – the tragedywhich finishes the whole game – the taking out of the core of ourlanguage ... The whole secret is that the Europeans want to makeour language simple for them to master, and thus deprive us ofthe privilege of being masters of our own language.”
(H.S. Ndlele, Umteteli, 18/8/1934, cited in Opland 1998: 287)
Continued
• “Sometime ago I wrote and told you that Reverend Dowsley wrote a book for African use which was translated by S.E.K. Mqhayi. Mr W.G. Bennie went over the book deleting some words and substituting them with simple words.” (Joseph Scotch Coko, 30/3/1963, cited in Opland 1998: 296)
Two norms
• Ukuze iklab‟u ibe nomdhal‟ omhle nobukekayo, iyakuti kwasezintlanganisweni zayo imbeke ngokoyikekayo u-chairman wayo, manditi u “Kapi” pofu imtande, pofu intembe, pofu imhlonele, elixaakwa ngangayo ngobu ntanga nange mfundo, umhlaumbi engapantsi. Iswi lake malingadlulwa man! (original, Mqhayi, 1930)
• Ukuze ibutho libe nomdlalo omhle nobukekayo, liya kuthi kwasezintlanganisweni zalo limbeke ngokoyikekayo umongameli walo, phofu limthande umphathi, phofu limthembe, phofu imhlonele, elixa‟akwanga ngalo ngobutanga nangemfundo, umhlawumbiengaphantsi. Iswi lakhe ma kangazindlwa! (edited by Bennie)
(„For a club to play well it will have to, in its meetings, treat their chairman with fear, let me say the „captain‟ [chairman] should be loved, trusted and respected even though they are peer and equal in education, maybe his is even lower. His word should be final, man!‟)
Analysis
• Orthographic corrections in line with the „new‟ orthography (designed by a government appointed committee, where „White‟ language guardians held the numerical and political power);
• Replacement of all English borrowings;
• Re-phrasings and further lexical replacements.
Creating homogeneity: the case of
Shona• Zimbabwe is linguistically fairly homogenous with over 80% of
residents speaking „Shona‟;
• Before 1890, speech variation in this region formed what is called a „dialect chain‟, i.e. neighbouring varieties were generally mutually intelligible;
• 1890: five different missionary groups came to the region (Anglicans, two different Catholic orders, Dutch Reformed and American Methodists);
• They created separate print-literate versions of the dialects they encountered in their „field of operation‟.
Continued
• Unification of these different forms was requested by the then government of Rhodesia and C.M. Doke, a professional linguist, set out to create a unified orthography;
• Basis dialect: Zezeru (but also included were features of Karangaand Manyika);
• The name „Shona‟ (introduced in 1931) was not known to speakers;
• „When Doke came on the scene ... no sense of Shona identity or language existed among speakers of these “dialects” ... some of whom joined their missionaries to actively resist the reforms he instituted ... Before long, though, the spread of Shona had its own naturalizing impact on speakers‟ senses of “ethnic” identity ... Shona had then become the symbol and instrument of an ethnic idea in modernizing Rhodesia‟ (Errington 2008)
Continued
• “It is important to see that the establishment of “Unified Shona” didnot return this region to some precolonial state of linguistichomogeneity, which misguided missionaries had temporarilyinterrupted. Instead, it installed a new homogeneity conformingto the political, economic, and territorial logic of the colonial regimewhich oversaw those missionaries „fields of operations‟. (ibid)
Standard language ideology today
• A strong feeling of disassociation of isiXhosa as spoken at home,and taught at school; a general perception that the study of isiXhosais „difficult‟ and that English is „easy‟;
▫ I will construct this sentence perfectly in Xhosa and if it takes me fiveminutes... it took me three times as long to type the Xhosa version,„cause, „cause with the English, it‟s natural, whereas with vernac its like isthere an „n‟?, even when you are checking, you are unsure, you have toconcentrate;
• The written, school-taught isiXhosa standard norm is frequently described as archaic by native speakers, a form of language that was „locked in, a long time ago, maybe the time of the missionaries’ (interview data, 2010).
African standards, today: rural centres of
prestige
Original/deep/hardcore/core/pure/intense/ hectic/ right/ proper/ exact/ dictionary/ respectful/ genuine/ beautiful/ real/ best /firm/ model/ rude isiXhosa
Communication isiXhosa
Kasi isiXhosa (a lot of misdemeanors/simple/ normal/easy/vague/weak/soft/mixed/light/
casual/watered-down
Kombuis isiXhosa
Final discussion: how to do historical
sociolinguistics in a colonial world• Themes (silences, power/ideologies, centre/periphery, etc.);
• Topics (transplanted/extra-territorial European languages; languages of the colonies)
• Data (going beyond written sources, interrogating the colonial achieve).