Academic literature on the topic 'Written Zulu language'

Scientific word identification and classification in Bantu languages with special reference to Zulu Despite the fact that Van Wyk’s word theory (1958) is the only scientifically justified word theory for Bantu languages, his work has not had the expected impact on the study of Bantu languages (especially the Nguni languages). This is partly due to the fact that his thesis was written in Afrikaans and is inaccessible to many Bantu language scholars. Secondly, this state of affairs is due to the fact that his treatise is highly theoretical and that the principles have not been applied exhaustively to Zulu or any of the other Nguni languages. Lombard et al.’s Northern Sotho grammar of 1985 is the only grammar written totally within the Van Wykian framework. The recognition of a word category “particle (word)” is probably the aspect that has had the most far-reaching consequences for a morphological and syntactical analysis of Bantu languages. The justification for distinguishing a word category “particle word” is examined in this article.

In oral cultures, proverbs are a window to the very fabric of society. This article looks at how the current generation is using traditional proverbs in modern ways, by employing Zulu memetic aphorisms. These memetic aphorisms function in the same manner as memes; except that the former has no images underneath the writing. Memetic aphorisms are written in Zulu; however, they involve a lot of codeswitching and use of numbers instead of words. These memetic aphorisms are factual, ironical, funny, and use word play. They are generally acceptable comments and meaningful assertions about life in general. Memetic aphorisms have become an easy and quick way to communicate opinions of the speaker regarding the behaviour, dress code, physical appearance, social status and religious affiliation. This article will look at how the content of these memetic aphorisms is organised to criticise and shun the bad behaviour of women in an effort to prepare them for marriage. It will also look at the correlation between the languages of memes, as it relates to traditional proverbs in Zulu. The article proposes a simple typology for analysing and identifying common features between the aphorisms and traditional proverbs in Zulu social discourse. These memetic aphorisms gain their relevance and meaning in the context within which they are used.

B.W. Vilakazi is rightly famous for his Zulu poems that integrate the Zulu creative genius with established European poetic trends. He was also the creator of the Zulu romantic novel, having written the first three examples of the genre dealing with both personal and national romantic ideals. These are, however, seldom analysed. This article reflects on the emerging literatures in African languages, their aims, contents and forms. After a general introduction on Vilakazi’s life and innovative approach to creative writing within the context of the African mini-renaissance period of the 1930s, there is a brief exposition of Vilakazi’s vision of an African literature, rooted in the need for self-identification, and recognition of perceived historical greatness. Then each novel is contextualised and analysed, through a description of the characters that exert the greatest influence on the events, since plot and character are also the highest achievement of the folktale, when told by expert performers. An attempt is also made to identify Afro-centric narrative elements and to justify perceived shortcomings in plot construction.

While translation can be studied with a view to throwing light on a number of aspects in life, in this thesis translation has been researched with a view to outlining the development of written Zulu from its earliest stages, using twelve texts of the Book of Matthew. The Book of Matthew has been chosen in this undertaking because it was the first book of the Bible to be translated into Zulu and was thought to be the most apposite instrument with which the development of written Zulu could be measured. The polysystem theory and the descriptive approach to translation studies are the theoretical models that inform the arguments presented in this study. Polysystem theory sees translated literature as a system operating in the larger social, literary and historical systems of the target culture, while with the descriptive approach translations are regarded as facts of the target culture. Against this premise the focus of this study is mainly on the twelve translations of the Book of Matthew and no comparisons between source and target texts are undertaken here. Corpus-based research provided tools such as WordSmith Tools 3.0 for linguistic analysis. Biblical texts were obtained, scanned and presented in electronic format ready to be analysed. From the findings drawn, written Zulu developed all the way through Bible translation, with some translations revealing slight developments and others showing enormous ones. As the findings of this study reveal, Zulu developed gradually, as evidenced by the change to conjunctive writing which occurred over a considerable period, along with the appropriate representation of Zulu speech sounds and grammar conventions. It could also be established at what point during the development of the language, processes such as consonantalisation and palatalisation were introduced into the written language. It is also clear that words of Greek and Hebrew origin were brought into the Zulu language through Bible translation. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that it is feasible to use corpus-based research for analysis in the indigenous languages of South Africa.
Linguistics
D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF EDUCATION in the Subject Didactics in the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 1987.
The purpose of this dissertation is to look into the teaching of Zulu as a first language at Junior Secondary school level with special reference to the spoken and written language and grammar. It appears as though the teaching of Zulu in Junior Secondary schools is not as effective as it should be, the examination results are not as good as could be expected. This study opened with an orientation to the problem. Findings from literature, interviews and questionnaires were related to the theory discussed in chapter two on the teaching of a language. The spoken language lays the foundation of all language teaching and learning, it increases the pupils' vocabulary, it helps children arrange their ideas logically, and makes children appreciate the beauty of speaking their own language. The literature studied revealed that children are stimulated to explore and elaborate their own thoughts through writing. Writing enables the teacher to provide different learning styles and needs. This research revealed that a number of teachers of Zulu are not adequately qualified to teach the subject. Teachers do not receive adequate in-service education on the subject and the syllabi are not prescriptive enough to give teachers the necessary guidance. These factors contribute, to some extent to the fact that the teaching of the subject is not receiving the attention it deserves. From the analysis of data on the field study conducted in this research it was found that: 1. The classes are very big so a limited number of pupils are involved in class discussions and it becomes difficult to give a lot of written work. Very few children are afforded a chance to practise the language in class. 2. The highest academic qualification of the majority of teachers that teach Zulu is the matriculation examination, so it is unlikely that these teachers can teach the language efficiently and competently. 3. Children are made to write a few compositions, opportunities for 'free writing' are not many. Very little is done to help children talk on topics of immediate interest and to communicate in as many situations as possible. These findings led us to recommend that: 1. Teachers should, from time to time, resort to group work so as to solve the problem of big classes. If a class is divided into small groups and works as such groups all the children should have the opportunity to practise the language. 2. The teachers' academic qualifications should be high. Teachers should have done at least two courses in Zulu to be able to teach effectively at Junior Secondary school level. 3. The pupils should be provided with the opportunity of developing a wide range of speech. Teachers must ensure that children are put into the position that they can express their emotions and observations in writing in an accurate and convincing manner.

The lack of terminology in Zulu can be overcome if it is developed to meet international scientific and technical demands. This lack of terminology can be traced back to the absence of proper language policy implementation with regard to the African languages. Even though Zulu possesses the basic elements that are necessary for its development, such as orthographical standards, dictionaries, grammars and published literature, a number of problems exist within the technical elaboration and standardisation processes: * Inconsistencies in the application of standard rules, in relation to both orthography and terminology. * The lack of standardisation of the (technical) word-formation patterns in Zulu. (Generally the role of culture in elaboration has largely been overlooked). * The avoidance of exploiting written technical text corpora as a resource for terminology. (Text encoding by means of corpus query tools in term extraction has just begun in Zulu and needs to be properly exemplified). * The avoidance of introducing oral technical corpora as a resource for improving the acceptability of technical terminology by, for instance, designing a type of reusable corpus annotation. This study contributes towards solving these problems by offering a practical approach within the context of the real written, standard and oral Zulu language, mainly within the medical terminological domain. This approach offers a reusable methodological foundation with proper language exemplification that can guide terminologists in terminological research, or to some extent even train them, to achieve effective technical elaboration and eventual standardisation. This thesis aims at attaining consistent standardisation on the orthographical level in order to ease the elaboration task of the terminologist. It also aims at standardising the methods of word- (term-) formation linking them to cultural factors, such as taboo. However, this thesis also emphasises the significance of using written and oral technical corpora as terminology resource. This, for instance, is made possible through the application of corpus linguistics, in semi-automatic term extraction from a written technical corpus to aid lemmatisation (listing entries) and in corpus annotation to improve the acceptability of terminology, based on the comparison of standard terms with oral terms.
Linguistics
D. Litt et Phil. (Linguistics)