Cape Flats English
Cape Flats English (abbreviated CFE) or Coloured English is the variety of South African English spoken mostly in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town.[1] Its speakers most often refer to it as "broken English", which probably reflects a perception that it is simply inadequately learned English, though in fact this is not the case; it is a distinct, legitimate dialect of English.[2]
Cape Flats English is very close to the Broad (or "Extreme") variety of White South African English. Wood (1987) argues that the Respectable−Extreme (or "Cultivated−Broad") dichotomy can also be set up for CFE itself, with the former being used by the middle-class (whose L1 tends to be CFE), and the latter being used by the working-class (whose L1 tends to be the Cape Vernacular variety of Afrikaans).[3]
Grammar
- Double negative occurs in the context of a co-occurring indefinite, as in "I didn't catch nothing".[4]
- Calques from Afrikaans may occur, such as "I took that towel and I made me closed" (Afrikaans: (...) myself toegemaak; standard English: (...) wrapped myself).[5]
Phonetics and phonology
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References
- ^ Finn (2004), p. 964.
- ^ Malan (1996), p. 134.
- ^ Finn (2004), pp. 967–968.
- ^ Malan (1996), pp. 138–139.
- ^ Malan (1996), p. 139.
Bibliography
- Finn, Peter (2004), "Cape Flats English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 964–984, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- Malan, Karen (1996), "Cape Flats English", in De Klerk, Vivian (ed.), Focus on South Africa, John Benjamins Publishing, pp. 125–148, ISBN 90-272-4873-7
- Wood, Tahir M. (1987), Perceptions of, and attitudes towards varieties of English in the Cape Peninsula, with particular reference to the "Coloured Community", Grahamstown: Rhodes University
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