Language shift is the process where an individual or speech community shifts over time from using one language to using another. It is described as the increase in function of the one language and the decrease in function of the other language. According to Romaine (1994), bilingualism is the starting point of language shift, which is often accompanied by diglossia on the way to monolingualism. According to Fasold (1984), language it is usually accompanied by the perception that the language being shifted from is inferior to the one being shifted to. Paulston (1988) believes that language shift only takes place if the language that is being shifted to has social prestige and economic advantage, usually in monetary terms. English in this instance can be said to be one such language as it is often perceived as a language of prestige and the language of ‘economic advancement’.
Language maintenance, on the other hand, occurs when a language remains in use and is vital according to its number of speakers and domains of use, even in the presence of a power language of wider communication (Dyers 2008). Language maintenance occurs when individuals or members of a community effectively continue to use the language they have always used, even in the presence of another powerful language. Language ideologies and attitudes play a significant role in language shift and language maintenance. If a language or language variety has very low status in a society, or if individuals develop negative attitudes towards their first or home language for a variety of reasons (societal ideologies often playing a major role), shift may occur, usually to the more dominant language in that society. In the same way, a language can be maintained, if individuals or speech communities value their own languages and see them as intimately related to their identities. For example, a Xhosa
individual may maintain their home language (isiXhosa) as it is intimately a part of their identity even though English may be the dominant language used in their society.
Kamwangamalu (2001) states that an individual’s decision to transmit the ancestral language is not influenced by generation alone but by other factors such as the status of the ancestral language in the wider society, the government’s language policy and the community’s support of the language. According to Bosch and de Klerk (1996), “... (certain) home users of
44 Afrikaans express overt negative attitudes towards Afrikaans”. Afrikaans is seen by some individuals as having less value because of its lack of function in particular domains.
In South Africa, as in much of the world, English is seen as a global lingua franca and is dominant in educational, business and governmental or political spheres. Prabhakaran (1998: 83) states that in South African Indian communities there is a shift away from their native language and towards English. He goes on to explain that this is because the Indian learners’ parents want their children to learn English because “ …the social identity associated with English is more desirable” and that in South Africa the state does not allow Indian languages to be media of instruction or official languages. Pandit (1977) cited in Bhatia et al. (2006:801) found that with regards to the Indian race “…second generation speakers in Europe and America gave up their native language in favour of the dominant language of the region”. He goes on to suggest that language shift is the norm for Indians in these areas where their native language is not of dominance or of status. An example of a region would be the Western Cape in South Africa where the Indian language in not of any dominance in the region. Bowerman (2000) found that English has become the dominant language in the Indian home domain in the Western Cape, especially among the younger generation.
With regard to language shift and maintenance in the South African, Gough (1996b) states that “an African language is typically maintained as a solidarity code”. A reason for this is that maintenance promotes unity and keeps harmony within their culture. Gough (1996b) also goes on to claim that the Afrikaans community has generally shifted towards English because of its status in society globally and nationally. English has become more prominent since the early nineteen hundreds within the Coloured community (Mesthrie: 1993). Regardless of this, an effort within South Africa has been taken to promote Afrikaans in South Africa via the media. The use of Afrikaans in popular South African soap operas, the existence of Afrikaans radio stations and the existence of a Afrikaans medium of instruction university has provided a base for Afrikaans to be maintained and helped to re-establish the respect for Afrikaans, because of these, it is very unlikely that there would be a possible death of Afrikaans in a number of years to come.
45 Kamwangamalu (2001), states that even though Afrikaans and the other African language are not endangered, a shift toward English is rapidly taking place in South Africa. This shift appears to be related to more middle class, educated urban communities, as shown by Ridge (2000:1) as well as Anthonissen and George (2003). Fasold (1984:213) states that “…when a speech community begins to choose a new language in domains formerly reserved for the old one, that may be a sign that language shift is in progress.” However, Stroud et al. (2008) ask us to take account of individuals’ multiple social roles and the younger generation’s use of many new and different networks and language practices. Today’s urban youth, in particular, encounter a wide range of different linguistic features in the multilingual cities they inhabit, and modern sociolinguists are calling them languagers (Lytra and Jørgensen: 2008:5).
Languagers are people who use language, not a language, but features of whatever ranges of
languages they are exposed to in order to achieve their communicative purposes. According to Lytra and Jørgensen (ibid.:6), this phenomenon is known as poly-lingual behaviour, by which is meant the practice of using linguistic features from a wide range of different sets of features (called “languages”). To some extent, it is similar to the concept of truncated multilingualism (Blommaert et al. 2005; Dyers 2008), as the young speakers do not necessarily have a good command of all these languages they encounter, but they still exploit and sometimes redefine the different features in their daily communication. In this research study, it was therefore crucial to obtain sufficient data on the actual language practices of the research population at the school – their use of aspects like code-switching and mixing or crossing (Rampton 1995), in particular - instead of just relying on the more traditional explanations for language shift or maintenance.