Abstract
In the wider context of globalisation, and in reaction to it, an opposing trend has been observed towards localisation. The rediscovery of local culture, local values and local identities has led to an emergence of local speech varieties as well, and previously ignored or suppressed dialects or variants are increasingly finding their voice. This is the case with Kaaps, or Afrikaaps, around Cape Town, South Africa. Recent publications like Kaaps in fokus (2016), Ons kom van vêr (2016) and Hans du Plessis’s publication of Griekwa-psalms, Innie skylte vannie Jirre: Griekwapsalms en ander gedigte (2008) are examples. This article will describe the sociolinguistic situation of Kaaps from the perspective of the ecology of language, also called ecolinguistics, with the objective of analysing favourable conditions for the development of Kaaps and, as part of that development, a Bible translation.
The study of the ecology of language, or ecolinguistics, focuses on the study of language as a speech variety in its natural environment without making value statements about any of the variants. Ecolinguistics values any speech form for its own sake without setting boundaries, and desires to study its place in a wider socioeconomic and sociopolitical context, and its relationship with other speech forms.
The analysis of the language ecology of Kaaps points to a historical bias against Kaaps in favour of colloquial and standard Afrikaans. Afrikaans was seen as a properly standardised “language” versus Kaaps as only an inferior “dialect” within the Afrikaans macrolanguage cluster. Influences like language hierarchies, standardisation, first and second language approaches in education, etc., led to Kaaps increasingly becoming a “hidden” language – a language still vital in certain domains like the home and in subcultures, but seen as inferior in the domains of religion, media and education. The complex urban environment around Cape Town involves intense language contact, code switching and even translanguaging (in which multiple speech variants are used in a single utterance). Kaaps is often very much mixed with English words.
The varieties of Kaaps can be placed on a continuum. Muslim Kaaps seems to be the more original variation with more Malay and Khoi lexical items, moving to Cape Afrikaans, colloquial spoken Afrikaans, and then to standard Afrikaans. The distinctive features of each variant of Kaaps are not altogether clear yet and merit further study.
The preferred designation of the speech form by its users seems to be Kaaps, and not Afrikaaps or Kaapse Afrikaans (Cape Afrikaans).
There are several issues in relation to the ecolinguistic situation of Kaaps that are relevant to language development. There is an increased interest in and use of Kaaps in media and entertainment, dictionary making, and calls for the use of Kaaps in education and religion. Initial attempts at Bible translation are seeing the light. However, both external and internal resistance to these developments remain strong: Kaaps is still often perceived as unfit for domains like education and religious publications.
Moving from language development to Bible translation is a logical next step. Communication in a preferred speech form leads to a “feel good” factor because identity needs are being met, but it also leads to more effective communication because speakers of preferred speech forms have more vocabulary and semantic ranges of those vocabulary items at their disposal. Hence there exists a growing interest in language development and scripture translation even for speech variants perceived to be less ideal for such developments.
Bible translation in variants within macrolanguages in Europe casts an interesting perspective on the translation of the Bible in Kaaps. In Spain, translations of the Bible in Galician and Asturian, next to standard Castilian, have seen the light, not to mention publications in Catalan and Basque, which are outside the Spanish macrolinguistic cluster. Similarly, in France, the first Bible in western Europe was translated in Franco-Provençal in south-eastern France by Peter Waldo, founder of the Waldensians, in 1160. A new translation in Occitan was published in 2016. In Switzerland, high German remains the language of government, education and religion, but a translation in Swiss German was published in 1984. In the Netherlands, publications in the Low Saxon variants Tweants and Gronings have come to light, in addition to Frisian, which is significantly distant from Dutch and the other Low Saxon variants in north-eastern Netherlands. In Norway, there are two developed “official languages”, Bokmål and Nynorsk, both with Scriptures published, existing side by side.
In terms of some practical recommendations for Bible translations in Kaaps, it is important to recognise the need for local ownership and local initiative. That has already been observed in the Bible translation work of Elsa Coetzee, the publication of Die Pesalms vi ôse mense by Boezak (2019), and in a recent unpublished draft of the Gospel of Mark. There needs to be sufficient language pride to face the external and internal resistance to any language development in Kaaps. A translation in Kaaps cannot really take root unless religious communities, through their leaders, conferences and synods, endorse such a product. One recommendation is to launch pilot projects in both oral and written translation to experiment, bring awareness and create a need for something more substantial in terms of volume. Oral translations will be able to take advantage of the rich and artistic power of expression in Kaaps and could form a bridge to a printed version.
A Bible translation in Kaaps does not automatically entail the full development of standard Kaaps in all aspects. It also does not mean that a Bible in Kaaps will prevent Kaaps speakers from continuing to use the Bible in Afrikaans and English. Multilingualism is here to stay.
Keywords: Afrikaans; Bible translation; ecolinguistics; Kaaps; sociolinguistics; linguistics; language development; language standardisation; language variants
• This article’s featured image by Joel Muniz was obtained from Unsplash.