In: Asian and African Studies, vol. 34, no. 1
Alexander Andrason 
Details:
Pages: 93 - 141
Language: eng
Keywords:
Linguistic landscape, Africa, multilingualism, African languages
Article type: Article
About article:
This article studies the visibility of African languages (official/statal and non-official/non-statal as
well as autochthonous/traditional and migrant/new) in the linguistic landscape (LL) of three nei
ghborhoods in Cape Town (South Africa): Observatory, Salt River and Woodstock. The empirical
evidence demonstrates that African languages are highly visible in the signage, both in quantitative
and qualitative terms. Signs with African languages are frequent and constitute the second most
common signage type after English. African signage draws on a diversified range of Niger-Congo
and Afro-Asiatic languages, exploits various kinds of supports, pertains to different domains of use,
and attests to several manners of multilingual coexistence, with African linguistic elements ranging
from simple to complex. The presence of non-South-African African languages in the signage is
attributed to migratory pressures or the religion-related identity of a local ethnic group. As most
such signs are bottom-up, the visibility of African languages in the signage and its profoundly mul
tilingual character stem from (the agency of) the local communities themselves. Members of the
autochthonous and migrant groups reclaim the landscape of the area in which they live by marking
it with the linguistic material that reflects their own linguistic repertoires. Overall, the LL of Obser
vatory, Salt River and Woodstock closely matches the neighborhoods’ soundscape – a phenomenon
that is relatively rare in LLs across Africa.
How to cite:
ISO 690:
Andrason, A. 2025. RECLAIMING MULTILINGUALISM: AFRICAN LANGUAGES IN THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF CAPE TOWN (OBSERVATORY, SALT RIVER AND WOODSTOCK). In Asian and African Studies, vol. 34, no.1, pp. 93-141. 1335-1257. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/aassav.2025.34.1.07
APA:
Andrason, A. (2025). RECLAIMING MULTILINGUALISM: AFRICAN LANGUAGES IN THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF CAPE TOWN (OBSERVATORY, SALT RIVER AND WOODSTOCK). Asian and African Studies, 34(1), 93-141. 1335-1257. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/aassav.2025.34.1.07
About edition:
Publisher: Institute of Oriental Studies
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