International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue V, May 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Promoting the Use of Indigenous Languages on Social Media

Mosibudi Aretha Munyadziwa¹, Elliot Mthembeni Mncwango^2*
1Limpopo Province, South Africa
²Department of General Linguistics & Modern Languages, University of Zululand, Private Bag X1001 Kwa-Dlangezwa, 3886, South Africa
Corresponding author*

ABSTRACT
This article aimed to analyse the use of indigenous languages on social media in South Africa. The objective was to establish if the use of indigenous languages is promoted on social media. A qualitative approach was used, and a survey was employed for data collection purposes. A sample size of 150 respondents was purposively selected and the respondents were from KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo provinces of South Africa. Five indigenous languages were targeted for the study: isiZulu, siSwati, Sepedi, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga.
The findings revealed that people’s interaction on social media has contributed to the promotion of indigenous languages as more and more people use these languages. It was also found that while most of the respondents prefer using the English language on social media, they code-mix or code-switch between English and their indigenous language. Interestingly, this has resulted in new meanings being assigned to some existing words, and some ‘new’ words being created which are a result of the interface between English and indigenous languages. Another finding was that access to websites that support indigenous languages is limited due to irrelevant and insufficient content on these websites.

Keywords: Social media, indigenous languages, code-switching, code-mixing, language promotion

1.INTRODUCTION
After the first democratic elections, South Africa increased the number of official languages to eleven (11) by elevating the status of nine (9) indigenous languages (isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati, isiNdebele, Xitsonga, Sesotho, Setswana, Sepedi and Tshivenda) into official status in 1996. This was an attempt on the democratic government to correct the imbalances of the past in which only English and Afrikaans were the only official languages in a country with an estimated population of over fifty (50) million people. As Beukes (2014) observes, a variety of languages are used on a daily basis by the population of South Africa. ‘Most indigenous Africans still speak their first languages and feel their languages have a role to play in the development of their country’ (Mncwango & Sithole, 2017: 89). Some of these languages have a small distribution, like Xitsonga, Tshivenda and Sepedi, but their significance cannot be downplayed, especially in the regions and provinces where they are dominant. Besides, no matter how small the distribution, language carries with it the identity of speakers it represents.