Tsotsitaal is a South African vernacular dialect derived from a variety of mixed languages mainly spoken in the townships of Gauteng province (such as Soweto, Soshanguve, Tembisa), but also in other agglomerations all over South Africa. Tsotsi is a Sesotho, Pedi or Tswana slang word for a "thug" or "robber" or "criminal", possibly from the verb "ho lotsa" "to sharpen", whose meaning has been modified in modern times to include "to con". The word taal in Afrikaans means "language". A tsotsitaal is built over the grammar of one or several languages, in which terms from other languages or specific terms created by the community of speakers are added. It is a permanent work of language-mix, language-switch, and terms-coining.
History The tsotsitaal phenomenon originates with one variety known as Flaaitaal or Flytaal, and then Tsotsitaal, which became popular under this latter name in the freehold township of Sophiatown, west of Johannesburg, in the 1940s and 1950s. Tsotsitaal, the original variety, is based on Afrikaans, in which were originally added SeTswana terms, and later terms from IsiXhosa, IsiZulu and other South African languages. Tsotsitaal spread first as a criminal cant, as it had the power of ensuring secrecy when speaking: initially only criminals could understand it. Later, as a prestigious sign of rebellion against the state and its police, and as gangsters were admired by youths who would see in them examples of success, Tsotsitaal became a youth and street language. At the time, it would exceptionally be heard in households, as tradition did not allow a gangster language to be used in the house. But it quickly became a symbol of the ethnically, culturally, and linguistically mixed culture of Sophiatown. Tsotsitaal is now a moribund variety in the black townships, as its speakers are mainly above the age of 70. However, it has maintained in slightly different forms as a prison language and among the black communities who are Afrikaans-speaking. From the original Tsotsitaal, the noun tsotsitaal came to refer to any gang or street language in South Africa. However, the specific variety behind the term would depend on the languages actually present in the specific urban environment were one tsotsitaal appears. The most important tsotsitaal nowadays in South Africa is the one from the township of Soweto, the largest township and the place which shows the most diverse linguistic setting in the country. It was originally known as Iscamtho or Isicamtho (from Zulu, it is a combination of the class 7 prefix isi- here representing language — see Noun classes in Zulu; with a derivation of ukuqamunda [uk’u!amunda], meaning 'to talk volubly'), but it is now more often referred to as Ringas (from English ringers, as in people forming a ring to chat). Other alternative names are Isitsoti or Setsotsi ('the tsotsi language' in Zulu or Sotho), Sekasi (the township language, from the Iscamtho word kasi 'township', itself derived from Afrikaans lokasie), or simply i-taal 'the language'. However, Iscamtho is quite different from the original Tsotsitaal. It originates in a different criminal argot created in the 1920s by the AmaLaita gang and known as Shalambombo. It is not based on Afrikaans, but on Bantu grammars, mainly Zulu and Sotho. The Zulu-based and Sotho-based varieties are the most widespread in Soweto, but one can actually build Iscamtho over any grammar of the South African Bantu languages, such as Xhosa, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda and others. But as Zulu is the dominant language in Soweto, and as Sotho in Soweto often unifies Sesotho, Setswana and Sepedi in one single variety and is the second most popular language in the township, Iscamtho is more often used "in" Zulu or "in" Sotho. Tsotsitaal has been a model for Iscamtho, due to the cultural prestige of Sophiatown. But the youth abandoned it in the 1970s, when Afrikaans came to be no more associated with the power of the state, as it had been so far, but was recognized as the language of apartheid and oppression (especially after the 1976 Soweto Uprising). Iscamtho then became the one youth language in Soweto.
Structure A number of Afrikaans terms from Tsotsitaal have maintained in Iscamtho (such as niks, vandag, goed, maat,"daso", "darr", vrou, vriendin, mooi). Also, the taste of Tsotsitaal-speakers for word transformation, language-mixing and word creation has been transmitted to Iscamtho speakers. Thus, linguistic creativity is the main characteristic of the speakers of the Sowetan language. And although it has different varieties, Iscamtho carries a single identity for all of its speakers, who recognize it as one variety, whatever form it takes. This is due to the way the language operates: from one grammar which serves as a matrix, the speaker adds words from other languages (including English, Afrikaans, and different Bantu languages) or typically Iscamtho words. One can also create words by modifying existing ones or by coining completely new terms. Thus, Iscamtho and other tsotsitaals experience continuous evolution. Sometimes, new terms made famous by prominent artists can spread extremely quickly and replace older terms. Iscamtho and Tsotsitaal are very similar in form and in the material which forms their vocabulary. But since the seventies and for political reasons, the use of Afrikaans as a matrix has been excluded in Iscamtho. Due to the popularity of Soweto among Black South African youth, and due also to the importance of Soweto-based artists in the foremost post-apartheid culture, kwaito, Iscamtho has been spreading to other township youths in the country, and different tsotsitaals have been enriched with typically Iscamtho material. Thus a form of "standardization" of tsotsitaals around the norm of Iscamtho might be on its way. This is largely the consequence of the presence of Iscamtho on the radio (through music but also because many national radios are based in Soweto and Johannesburg), on television (in series and entertainment shows) and in the kwaito culture.
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