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In Ethnography from the Mission Field: The Hoffmann Collection of Cultural Knowledge Joubert et al. offer a translated and annotated edition of the 24 ethnographic articles by Missionary Carl Hoffmann and his local interlocutors between the years 1913 and 1958.

Despite the fact that in most communities interaction occurs between the child and multiple speakers, most previous research on input to children focused on input from mothers. We annotated recordings of Sesotho-learning toddlers living in non-industrial Lesotho in South Africa, and French-learning toddlers living in urban regions in France. We examined who produced the input (mothers, other children, adults), how much input was child directed, and whether and how it varied across speakers. As expected, mothers contributed most of the input in the French recordings. However, in the Sesotho recordings, input from other children was more common than input from mothers or other adults. Child-directed speech from all speakers in both cultural groups showed similar qualitative modifications. Our findings suggest that input from other children is prevalent and has similar features as child-directed from adults described in previous work, inviting cross-cultural research into the effects of input from other children.

This study explored the role played by economic, cultural, and political power and influence when a particular dialect was elevated to the status of an official standard language. This was a qualitative study that employed text analysis where journal articles, dissertations, theses, academic books and Parliamentary Joint Constitutional Review minutes were considered for data collection and analysis. In order to supplement the above-mentioned method, 267 research participants involving students (undergraduate and postgraduate) and lecturers from the selected five South African universities, including members of the language authorities, were also invited to participate in the study. Self-administered survey questionnaires and face-to-face interviews were chosen as qualitative methods for data collection. From a dialectal point of view, this study indicated that all official standard languages were dialects before. However, these dialects were considered superior and elevated to the status of official languages because of socio-economic power and political influence. This article further recorded that the status type of language planning in the South African context is quite political in nature, not less linguistic. It was against this background that the researchers claim that there is no official standard language that was not a dialect before.

The article analyses violations of the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) above the word level in Tswana, a Southern Bantu language, by investigating the realization of adjacent lexical high tones across word boundaries. The results show that across word boundaries downstep (i.e. a lowering of the second in a series of adjacent high tones) only takes place within a phonological phrase. A phonological phrase break blocks downstep, even when the necessary tonal configuration is met. A phrase-based account is adopted in order to account for the occurrence of downstep. Our study confirms a pattern previously reported for the closely related language Southern Sotho and provides controlled, empirical data from Tswana, based on read speech of twelve speakers which has been analysed auditorily by two annotators as well as acoustically.

Previous studies on linguistic landscapes have focused on language representation in public signs within fixed physical places. Recent developments on the global stage have brought dynamics of language contestations in virtual spaces to prominence. This study deploys the notion of Virtual Linguistic Landscape (VLL) to explore the nature of language visibility in cyberspace as a virtual linguistic landscape construction. By conceptualising websites as virtual public spaces, the paper analyses language practices on a South African university's website to understand how they align with the institution's multilingual language policy, in a context where websites have become indispensable avenues for communication. As a monologic web 1.0 arena, the university's website is framed as an important space to scrutinise the dynamics of top-down language policy implementation. The study reveals that language use on the university's website does not auger with the language policy's commitment to equitably use, promotion and development of the university's four languages. The VLL of the university is dominated by English and Afrikaans in varying extents while Setswana remains in a subordinate position. Sesotho is completely invisibilised on the website. The paper argues that these language practices validate pervasive language ideologies that valorise English and devalue indigenous African languages in cyberspace.

Research on Xitsonga compounding examines the role of nominal prefixes and headedness (Mlambo & Matfunjwa 2025), while the analysis of Northern Sotho plant names uncovers word formation strategies that link language to ethnobotanical knowledge (Tembane 2025). Research on the reading practices of first-year students reveals a gap between prescribed materials and a wider culture of reading, raising urgent pedagogical concerns (Cekiso, Boakye & Olifant 2025). v46i1. 2130 Ntshangase, X. P., 2025, ‘Renaming as representation of community onomastic interests: A case study of Alfred Duma Municipality’, Literator 46(1), a2092. https://doi.

Winterveldt, a township in Pretoria, has residents who speak a variety of of South African indigenous languages, including Setswana, Sepedi/Sesotho sa Leboa, Sesotho, Nguni (isiZulu, isiNdebele, isiXhosa), Xitsonga, English, Afrikaans, and Tshivenda. With so many languages in township like this, it is not easy for someone to use one standard language. They use urban contact varieties (UCVs) of languages such as Sepitori and Tsotsitaal to communicate, which helps them bridge the communication gap in society.The aim of the study is to describe the type and the extent of interference of UCVs in speaking Setswana of Grade 10 learners and how to improve the oral performance of Setswana Home Language (HL) learners. The study was conducted at two high schools where 34 participants were selected from Grade 10. The study employed a qualitative method. In this regard, two focus groups consisting of ten learners each from each school were interviewed. Similarly, class observations (learners presenting and when teachers were conducting the lesson) were also used to collect the data. The aim of the study to use a qualitative approach was to expand and strengthen the data that the researcher needed to collect.This article examines the possible interference of urban contact varieties (UCVs) on Grade 10 learners at the two selected high schools in Winterveldt concerning speaking and writing Setswana. As a result, many learners tend to perform poorly in Setswana Home Language (HL) and fail when they do not attain the required marks in their exams, mainly because they fail their home language.

This study investigates the development of the lateral fricatives and affricates, to which we jointly refer as ‘lateral obstruents’, in Nguni (S40) languages of Southern Africa. These lateral obstruents, which include /ɬ, ⁿɬ, ɮ, ⁿɮ, k͡ʟ̝̊/, are rare in the Bantu language family, and are not reconstructed for Proto-Bantu. Lateral obstruents are also rare cross-linguistically. They do occur, however, in four sub-branches of Southern Bantu: Shona, Sotho-Tswana, Nguni, and Tsonga. In this paper, we study how Southern Bantu could have acquired such a large inventory of cross-linguistically rare phonemes by investigating their development in Nguni languages, a large but closely related cluster of languages in which lateral obstruents are very frequent. We analyze published data from nine Nguni languages, including languages for which the only available descriptions are dated or of limited scope, in which case we carefully assess the data and their analysis. On the basis of this large database, we show which lateral obstruents are used in Nguni, and the vocabulary in which they occur. Applying the Comparative Method, we show that alveolar lateral obstruents can be reconstructed to Proto-Nguni, where they are the regular reflex of Proto-Bantu palatals *c and *j. The velar lateral affricate, in contrast, cannot be reconstructed to Proto-Nguni, and finds its origin in loanwords, for example, from Khoe languages, where it is used as a click replacement strategy. As a result, we conclude that both inheritance and contact played a role in the development of lateral obstruents in Nguni, likely combined in the case of alveolar lateral obstruents. In order to better understand the contact history, we evaluate existing hypothesized contact scenarios to account for the presence of lateral obstruents in Southern Bantu or Nguni. Given that alveolar lateral obstruents result from a regular sound change, contact does not seem to be as prominent in the development of lateral obstruents as has been proposed before in the literature. This study lays the groundwork for future research into lateral obstruents in Southern Bantu.

This paper evaluates how Sesotho translators have translated Biblical Hebrew proverbs in the 1989 Sesotho translation of the Bible. Because this 1989 translation is undergoing revision by the Bible Society of South Africa, it is important to determine the success of the translation. The orality of proverbs relates to their origin as orally transmitted sapiential sayings. In evaluating how some of the Biblical Hebrew proverbs are translated in Sesotho, the literal translation of 1909/61 will be compared to the 1989 dynamic equivalent translation. Using complexity thinking as a theoretical framework, the paper argues that the Hebrew proverbs are better translated in the 1989 version than they are in the 1909/61 version of the Bible in Sesotho in terms of numerous features of orality. In the 1989 version and its revision, proverbs are translated in a poetic format. This means that the translated proverbs in this version of the Bible, informed by the principles of orality, exhibit Sesotho poetic features or structures. The article is divided into the following components: proverbs in Hebrew and Sesotho, theoretical frameworks, how the theoretical frameworks are used to translate certain Hebrew proverbs in the 1989 version, and conclusions.

Sesotho sa Leboa comprises multiple dialects, estimated at around 33, primarily spoken in Limpopo Province and Mpumalanga Province. Although most dialects are considered mutually intelligible, those in the eastern part of Limpopo Province (Selobedu, Sepulana and Sepai) are argued to be mutually unintelligible with dialects associated with the standard language, that is, Sepedi, Sekopa and Sekone. However, a closer observation of arguments reveals four linguistic factors that have not been considered by previous studies. Firstly, the opinions are advanced without any direct measurement of the mutual intelligibility of the dialects. Secondly, when mutual intelligibility is not bidirectional, the dialects are misconstrued as mutually unintelligible. Thirdly, the dialect continuum has not been explored to explain the linguistic landscape of the dialects. Lastly, language (dialect) contact has not been considered when reference is made to the mutual intelligibility of the dialects. Considering this background, the current study provides a linguistic overview of the mutual intelligibility of Sesotho sa Leboa dialects as reported by various scholars, while also arguing that the above-mentioned linguistic factors are intricately linked to mutual intelligibility and, therefore, essential to be considered when reflecting on the mutual intelligibility of these dialects. The study adopted a qualitative desktop research method, whereby various secondary sources on mutual intelligibility and Sesotho sa Leboa dialects are reviewed for analysis.ContributionThe study postulates that speakers of Selobedu, Sepulana and Sepai can understand speakers of Sepedi, Sekopa and Sekone based on acquired intelligibility as speakers of the first three dialects learn the standard language as a home language in schools. The study further proposes for adoption of a revised methodological approach as a possible means to measure and ascertain mutual intelligibility, while also demonstrating how the approach could be adopted in the context of Sesotho sa Leboa dialects.