Bibliography: leaves 232-239 / This thesis investigates the various language varieties of
Venda. In traditional descriptions, researchers were mainly
concerned with linguistic differences which characterised the socalled
Venda 'dialects'. These are spoken forms which are
mutually intelligible to one another and which occur within
identifiable regional boundaries. Each of these forms in turn,
is mutually intelligible to the so-called standard form, commonly
known as Tshiphani. Various factors contributed to the evolvement
of ยท the Venda dialects and, as this study shows, in some cases
these factors are historical in nature and in others, they are
determined by adjacent ethnic groups of people. The linguistic
differences which characterise each of these dialects are
identified and discussed.
It is then argued that the term 'dialect' is far too restricted
to account for the various spoken forms which characterise the
Venda language, and the term 'language variety' is introduced to
deal with the shortcomings of the traditional approach to
language differences. The nature of different spoken forms is
then discussed within the ambit of the definition of 'language
varieties'. This is a term used in general linguistic studies and
accounts for the many different forms that may characterise a
language.+ To this end, a detailed discussion is presented of the
social rural and urban varieties which are found in Venda. Some
of these varieties are secretive in nature, and are not generally
known to the general public. They include language varieties
which characterise various institutions such as murundu, vhutuka,
musevhetho, vhusha, thondo and domba . Then there are those
varieties which are referred to as 'open' rural varieties which
are not, generally speaking secretive in nature, for example
those which characterise traditional religious beliefs, taboo
forms, and those referred to as musanda and malombo. Finally,
reference is made to the language varieties which permeate urban
as well as rural areas, including those of divination, the
church, tsotsitaal, gender, a variety which is referred to as the
the linguistic restriction variety and finally the varieties used
in the courtroom as well as that used by politicians. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/27623 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Mulaudzi, Phalandwa Abraham |
| Contributors | Poulos, G., Khuba, A.E. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xii, 239 leaves), application/pdf |
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