Telugu Diaspora- Countries

Telugus in South Africa - Abstracts of three articles by Dr. Varijakshi Prabhakaran

LANGUAGE ATTRITION--A CASE STUDY OF TELUGU LANGUAGE IN SOUTH AFRICA 

South African Journal of Linguistics, Nov95, Vol. 13 Issue 4

In this article I briefly examine the various aspects of language attrition of a minority language (Telugu) in an `enclaved' linguistic situation. The process of Telugu language attrition in South Africa is studied generation by generation, namely from the immigrant generation (G1) to the present third and fourth generations (G4 and G5). In the introduction I attemp to discuss the process of language attrition of an enclave language. The major theme of the article is dealt under two sub-headings, namely (a) semantic and lexical loss; and (b) morphological and syntactic loss of the Telugu language in South Africa. 

*****

SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF SOUTH AFRICAN TELUGU (HISTORY AND STRUCTURE) 


South African Journal of Linguistics, Nov96, Vol. 14 Issue 4

This article is based on the study undertaken on present-day South African Telugu speakers in Kwazulu-Natal and in ..... Transkei the former homeland of South Africa, where a few immigrant Telugu speakers have settled. This article briefly focusses on the history of Telugu language-in India and South Africa. The major focus of the article is on the dialects of Teluga in Andhra Pradesh and the writer attempts to answers the question 'how far does the STe, resemble the original Teluga dialects that were brought into the country?'. In conclusion, the writer illustrates STe as a separate dialect which developed on its own due to its contact with various languages in South Africa. 

*****

A SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF SOUTH AFRICAN TELUGU SURNAMES 


South African Journal of Linguistics, May-Aug99, Vol. 17 Issue 2/3

Although the caste system plays an important role in the lives of Telugu-speakers (and other Indians) in India and in deriving their surnames (family names or house names), it no longer plays an overt role in South Africa. This article demonstrates the social stratification (based on Indian caste system) evident in South African Telugu (STe) surnames. The first part of the article focuses on upward social mobility in the Telugu-speaking community and argues that this led to changes in the speakers' surnames in the South African context. The second part of the article examines the micro level of Telugu surnames and reveals that they fall into three categories: (a) kinship terms, (b) personal names and (c) caste names, caste titles, and caste professions revealed in the community surnames. 


*****

Courtesy:-

Copyright: The articles/abstracts are a property of the South African Journal of Linguistics, presently, the Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies journal. Please do refer the source (Journal reference) in case you quote the material.

*****

Send your comments/suggestions.

Please send articles on any aspect of Overseas Telugu Diaspora to
bhaskar@telugudiaspora.com  and we will publish them here

Back