The Linguistic Implications of the Xhosa Initiation Schools

Abstract

Two initiation schools among the Xhosa, one for boys and the other for girls, form part of the range of traditions found within the Xhosa-speaking communities of South Africa. The various dimensions of the initiation process include different features with regard to the physiological, sociological, contextual, spatial and physical as well as the linguistic components of the initiation process. This paper concentrates on the linguistic implications whilst considering both the similarities and issimilarities which exist between two initiation schools.