What is the future of Greek in South Africa? Language shift and maintenance in the Greek community of Johannesburg

Abstract

This article explores the phenomenon of language shift and maintenance in the Greek community of Johannesburg, which is the largest Greek community in South Africa. The main aim of the study is to provide an account of the factors which assist in maintaining the Greek language which is under pressure from English, the dominant official language in South Africa. In contrast to the many studies conducted in the United States and Australia on the Greek community, no previous sociolinguistic studies have been done on the Greek community in South Africa. The main factors which were identified as playing an important role in the maintenance of Greek are education, religion, family, language loyalty and socio-cultural activities; and to a lesser extent, media and residential area. Despite a marked shift towards English in the younger generation, the future of Greek in South Africa may be one of relatively stable bilingualism, provided that current trends continue.

Keywords:

• bilingualism
• code-switching
• Greek immigrant communities
• Greek school
• identity
• language loyalty
• language maintenance
• language shift
• minority language