New study sheds light on complexities of 'Paarl-Kaaps' language
Paarl-Kaaps is associated with Afrikaaps, spoken primarily by Coloured communities in the Western Cape.
Person in a library, picture: Picture: Abby Chung on Pexels.com
CAPE TOWN - Afrikaaps has in recent years received wide recognition as a language on its own, and not a colloquial dialect of Afrikaans.
Now, a new study has shed light on the language system known as "Paarl-Kaaps".
Paarl-Kaaps is associated with Afrikaaps, spoken primarily by coloured communities in the province.
In her master's research, University of the Western Cape (UWC) student, Hayley Smith, elevates Paarl-Kaaps from a stigmatised "slang" to a system with complex syntax and sociolinguistic sophistication.
Quentin Williams, a lecturer at the university’s linguistics department, said Smith’s study makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of "Kaaps".
"It will help us to develop a grammar after the dictionary, and that’s extremely important because if we are going to explain extraposition as part of the Kaaps grammatical system, then it's important to tell the learners in school and the teachers in the school how to identify that when they teach Kaaps grammar."