ENG3702 - The English Language: Context And Purpose
Institution
University Of South Africa (Unisa)
The document discusses the theme of linguistic crime in the context of the misspelling of the Xitsonga word on South African banknotes. The author argues that this linguistic crime represents a form of violence and oppression against indigenous languages, drawing comparisons to historical injustice...
ENG3702 - The English Language: Context And Purpose
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By: LolaJacobs • 1 year ago
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ENG3702
MAY/JUNE EXAM
Year: 2023 (SEMESTER 1)
PREVIEW:
The given text is an opinion piece titled "The SA Reserve Bank has committed a serious
linguistic crime on new banknotes" written by Tinyiko Maluleke. It criticizes the South
African Reserve Bank's misspelling of the Xitsonga word for "Reserve Bank" on the new
banknotes. The text uses a variety of rhetorical and persuasive techniques to convey the
author's message and engage the reader. In the analysis below, we will examine the
genre and language used, lexico-grammatical features employed, the theme of linguistic
crime, and provide a stance on the theme communicated by the text.
LOLA JACOBS ASSIGNMENTS 2023 0618151315
, TEXT FOR ANALYSIS
The SA Reserve Bank has committed a serious linguistic crime on new banknotes
By Tinyiko Maluleke (12 May 2023)
On its recently upgraded banknotes, the South African Reserve Bank has shockingly
misspelt the Xitsonga word for “Reserve Bank”, rendering it as bangikulu instead of the
standard banginkulu, which the bank had been using until only a few weeks ago.
Talk about fixing something that is not broken.
In a sense, this is worse than the Coke can Xitsonga profanity scandal of 2019. Some of
us don’t drink Coke, but all of us need and use banknotes.
More than merely omitting the letter “n” from the word ‘banginkulu’, the SA Reserve
Bank has committed an enormous linguistic crime against a people whose history is
riddled with all manner of linguistic crimes.
Linguistic violence occurs when a small group of powerful people, unilaterally distort,
invent and impose their linguistic experiments, shenanigans and preferences upon an
innocent majority.
Africans know all about the brutal colonial make-as-you-go orthographies in terms of
which names of people, places and things were mutilated beyond recognition
Is it not bad enough that some among us walk around with mutilated names and
surnames? Must we now walk around with banknotes that mutilate and deface our
indigenous languages?
The missionaries and colonialists who first reduced Xitsonga into writing considered the
Vatsonga to be barbarians who were just a level higher than butterflies — hence the title
of the late Patrick Harries’ book on the imposition of foreign knowledge systems upon
the Vatsonga: Butterflies & Barbarians.
Such was the unilateral and unfettered power of the missionaries and their colonial
counterparts on Xitsonga orthography and publishing, that scholars such as Leroy Vail
concluded that, in the process, missionaries actually invented their own new toy
languages.
One would never have thought that a pivotal and respected national institution such as
the SA Reserve Bank would, at this stage in our history, be wilfully drawn into the dark
arts of linguistic violence. As helpless citizens, there are so many ways in which we feel
the crushing power of the SA Reserve Bank, but we never suspected that its
devastating power would also manifest through linguistic violence.
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