“It makes it legit”: local semiotic perceptions of the linguistic landscape in a market in Soshanguve, South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article explores the linguistic landscape (LL) of a semi-informal market in a South African township called Soshanguve. The fieldsite is situated in an area that is characterized by diversity and longstanding multilingualism. An ethnographic approach draws on the semiotic reading of the LL by a participant whose analysis of the multilingual commercial signage provides insight into local perceptions on language use and materiality. The study focuses on the participant’s analysis of the indexicality of African languages and traders’ names used in the LL that is in general dominated by English. Furthermore, the use of Sepitori (mixed language) in the signage will be explored for the first time. Findings contribute to disentangle and expand the notion of luxury and necessity. More specifically, we suggest that these concepts can be extended to include the notions of sponsorship and mediation, which can potentially involve reinterpreting the process of production, use and perception of the materials in signage.

KEYWORDS:

• Linguistic landscape
• translanguaging
• indexicality
• sites of luxury and necessity
• ethnographic approach

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Pedro Álvarez-Mosquera is a full-time lecturer at the University of Salamanca. During his academic career, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to support his PhD’s thesis research at the Claremont Colleges. His main areas of research are sociolinguistics, LL, cognitive linguistics and discourse analysis.

Frieda Coetzee is a PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town. Her Master’s dissertation on bilingual family literacy practices included research on informal commercial literacies. Coetzee’s current research focuses on bilingual language socialization practices and family language policy.

Notes

1. Sphathlo is also spelled as sphatlo on another sign in the market (as well as Sphahlo elsewhere). The term is a possible derivation from sephatlo, meaning “half” (to refer in this context to half a loaf of bread) in Setswana and/or sepela, meaning “to leave, to go” in Northern Sotho (to refer to food “on the go”). In personal conversation, Ditsele (August 2017) noted that although sphatlo is the “common spelling” in Sepitori, there are alternative spellings.

2. Although Junior regards it as an isiZulu name, Ntombi is also used in other Nguni languages, and the noun, intombi also refers to an (unmarried) girl in isiXhosa.

3. According to Junior, Khensani is a Xitsonga name meaning “be thankful.”