View Message

This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: Derrol: Magia, please!
in reply to a message by Magia
Well searched, Magia! I actually know this article - and Vivian de Klerk! - but I'd forgotten there was a version of Darryl in there.For those friends who don't feel strong enough to fight their way through the Afrikaans text, here's a quick translation of the relevant bits: (Just note also that Standard Afrikaans is spoken by, typically, educated mother-tongue speakers, Alternative Afrikaans by less-educated people - unskilled and semi-skilled labourers and the rural poor - who may or may not have an indigenous language as their mother tongue.)>I rather suspect that little Stenton Johan was named after someone called Stanton - along the lines of Sendra and Derrol above.I'd like to know if this trend is continuing: I heard recently about some informal research into burial customs, where Sotho-speaking people had, thirty years ago, just buried their dead without even a headstone in one little graveyard outside a country village. Then they started using headstones with names and perhaps a text - the sort of thing we're used to - and using English to do so. More recently, after our liberation as a country, they are continuing to use headstones with words on, but now the words are in the local language, Sotho. Perhaps they are feeling that their own language now has the same feeling of dignity and social distinction that Vivian de Klerk identified as a reason for her Xhosa informants using English names; so maybe things are changing in the Eastern Cape as well.
vote up1vote down

Replies

Now, that was very illustrating and interesting, Anneza. Thank you for taking the time to elaborate, in English, as I got a brief feeling of what it said, but was obviously, missing a good part of the article.Take care,
Magia.
vote up1vote down