Why not use Sepitori to enrich the vocabularies of Setswana and Sepedi?

Abstract

According to Census 2011, six official languages of South Africa experienced negative growth in a 10-year period (2001–2011), and all of them are Black South African languages (BSALs).1 The remaining five languages experienced positive growth. According to Webb (2010), urban dwellers reject standard varieties of BSALs and perceive them as symbols of traditionalism, lacking the required legitimacy and regarding them as inadequate and inferior. Calteaux (1996) notes that urban dwellers use Black Urban Vernaculars (BUVs) – which are also non-standard varieties – to bridge language barriers and their use is no longer limited to informal domains, but has also spread to formal domains. In reconciling Webb (2010) and Calteaux (1996), standard varieties of BSALs are on a decline among urban dwellers, while BUVs are on an increase. If these trends were to continue, standard varieties of BSALs would likely decline even further as South Africa becomes more urbanised, and BUVs would likely...