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Translanguaging practices in complex multilingual spaces: A discontinuous continuity in post-independent South Africa

2015; De Gruyter; Volume: 2015; Issue: 234 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1515/ijsl-2015-0007

1613-3668

Leketi Makalela,

Linguistic Variation and Morphology

Abstract Whereas the use of discursive linguistic resources among multilingual speakers has been closely scrutinized in recent years, highly complex multilingual spaces have not been adequately documented in research. This article reports on new sociolinguistic developments in post-Apartheid South Africa and explores how people mobility and integration of a historically divided society produces hybrid ways of identifying and making sense of the world. Analysis of self-recorded student interactions from five townships in Johannesburg shows that traditional language boundaries have blurred and given way to a complex and multilayered variety, referred to as