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Afrikaans English is seen as connected to White South African English (WSAfE), a Southern Hemisphere English. What makes Afrikaans-speakers’ English varieties distinctly WSAfE or distinctly Afrikaans in a context that has seen much convergence between English and Afrikaans? To answer this question, this study looks at experimental English and Afrikaans phonetic data simultaneously elicited from an informant sample representing three Afrikaans-speaking populations in Namibia, a former dependency of South Africa: the Afrikaners, Basters, and Coloureds. By comparing the informants’ English and Afrikaans vowels, the study establishes that their English varieties display unmistakable WSAfE features, especially found among the Whites, while some of their English vowels co-vary with their nearest Afrikaans equivalents. While generally showcasing the methodological benefits of bilingual data elicitation, the study concludes that postcolonial L2 English varieties are likely to mirror change-in-progress occurring in their historical L1 models, even where access to these models becomes disrupted.

This article aims to compare three distinct grammatical and conversational patterns of code-switching, which it tentatively links to three different South African ethnoracial labels: White, Coloured and Black. It forms a continuation of a previous article in which correlations were established between Afrikaans-English code-switching patterns and White and Coloured ethnicities. The typological framework used is derived from Muysken, and the hypotheses are based on his predictions as to which type of grammatical CS (i.e. insertional, alternational, congruent lexicalisation) will dominate in which linguistic and sociolinguistic settings. Apart from strengthening the idea of a correlation between patterns of language variation and ethnicity in general, the article explores the theoretical possibility of specific social factors overriding linguistic constraints in determining the grammatical form of CS patterns. In this regard, it will be shown that – on account of specific social factors underlying ethnicity – CS between two typologically unrelated languages, namely Sesotho and English, can exhibit more marks of congruent lexicalization than CS between two typologically related languages, namely Afrikaans and English, while – from the point of view of linguistic constraints – insertional/alternational CS would be expected in the former language pair and congruent lexicalization in the latter. That finding will be placed against the background of different pragmatic norms regulating the conversational use of CS within the Black Sesotho-speaking community (which we will describe as ‘language mixing’ in Auer’s sense) and within the Afrikaans speech community (which in the case of Whites we will describe as tending more towards ‘language alternation’ in Auer’s sense, and in the case of Coloureds as occupying an intermediate position between language alternation and language mixing). The summary of findings on grammatical and conversational CS patterns across ethnic samples will finally be placed against the background of ethnicity and its specific definition in the South African context.

This study examines acoustic data from Namibian English to gain insights into how substrates may impact the formation of New Englishes. To this end, the study singles out the Namibian English vowels face and goat, following the assumption that they could be realized as either diphthongs or monophthongs depending on which Namibian language the speaker has as a native language. Based on a sample of face and goat vowels elicited together with their equivalents in several Namibian languages, the study shows that influence from Namibian native languages in face-goat realizations is more likely among the members of the demographically dominant ethnolinguistic group, as well as among men in general. Another significant finding is that, irrespective of the vowel systems of their native languages, specific ethnolinguistic groups tend to converge with the monophthongizing face-goat variants encountered in the demographically dominant ethnolinguistic group. The study’s general conclusion is that New Englishes can develop ethnically neutral varieties whose emergence seems to follow the general principles of new-dialect formation.

This study generally looks at indigenization in languages historically introduced and promoted by colonial regimes. The case study that it presents involves Namibia, a Subsaharan African country formerly administered by South Africa, where Afrikaans was the dominant official language before being replaced by English upon independence. Afrikaans in Namibia still functions as an informal urban lingua franca while being spoken as a native language by substantial White and Coloured minorities. To what extent does the downranking of Afrikaans in Namibia co-occur with divergence from standard models historically located in South Africa? To answer this question, the study identifies variation patterns in Namibian Afrikaans phonetic data elicited from ethnically diverse young urban informants and links these patterns with perceptions and language ideologies. The phonetic data reveal divergence between Whites and Non-Whites and some convergence among Black L2 Afrikaans-speakers with Coloured varieties, while suggesting that a distinctive Black variety is emerging. The observed trends generally reflect perceived ethnoracial distinctions and segregation. They must be read against the background of shifting inter-group power relations and sociolinguistic prestige norms in independent Namibia, as well as of emergent ethnically inclusive Black urban identities.

This study sheds light on the socio-economic factors determining the (re)location of sociolinguistic prestige in postcolonial environments. It uses the case of Namibia, an ethnolinguistically diver...

This study discusses Kasietaal, a continuum of language practices associated with youth in the low-income areas of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. To what extent does Kasietaal fit the descriptio...

This study addresses itself with the effects of urbanization on ethnolinguistic boundaries in Subsaharan African postcolonial environments using as a case study Namibia, an ethnically diverse country where indigenous languages co-exist with English and Afrikaans, the country's two lingua francas. The data that the study uses consist in spatialized perceptions of sociolinguistic distinctions elicited via Perceptual Dialectology methodologies, implemented for the first time in a multilingual environment. The study shows that the respondents perceive a sociolinguistic urban/rural divide. Urban areas are depicted as ethnically diverse environments where indigenous languages fade out in favour of lingua francas through language-mixing and language loss. Additionally, there is a perception that cities are home to ethnically unspecified standard and non-standard varieties of Afrikaans and English, set against rural Afrikaans and English varieties marked by interferences from indigenous languages. Against the background of both social and linguistic characterizations, the study concludes that urban environments provide scope for more or less prestigious ethnically neutral identities superseding traditional ethnolinguistic ones while there are indications that ethnic authenticity, linked to rural areas and indexed by ‘unmixed varieties’, remains strongly valued.

L1 background is often described as the main factor accounting for variation in postcolonial ESL varieties. However, recent studies (e.g.Mesthrie 2009,2017) suggest that variation patterns in ESL varieties can in some cases also be linked to identity factors rooted in local patterns of intergroup relations. This study examines the interrelation between L1 background and such identity factors in the phonetic patterns found in the English varieties spoken in Namibia. The data consist of a corpus of careful style elicited via sociolinguistic interviews from an ethnically stratified sample of L2 English speaking Namibian students with Afrikaans, Bantu languages (Oshiwambo and Otjiherero), and Khoekhoeghowab as L1s. Individual speakers tend to be related in their phonetic behaviors if they share the same L1. However, some features cannot be directly attributed to L1 background, so their distribution is best read against the background of Namibian inter-ethnic relations and ethnolinguistic vitality differentials.

This study addresses the question of how multilectal behaviours can become stylistically functional. It proposes as a case study informal multilectal behaviours in Namibia, where indigenous...

This study addresses the question of how focused code-switching practices can become. It takes two complementary approaches to determine sorts and degrees of focusing, namely, a sequential analyst perspective, and a holistic perspective involving general sociolinguistic data and member’s perspectives. The case study presented involves a multilectal interaction between urban speakers of Oshiwambo, the main ethnic language of Namibia, where it cohabits with English and Afrikaans, the country’s lingua francas. The analysis reveals a range of structurally or qualitatively distinctive CS patterns involving Oshiwambo (dialects), English, and Afrikaans, used by all participants. Mostly alternational CS and specific types of backflagging display sequential regularity, while other CS patterns seem randomly distributed, at first sight an attribute of ‘free variation’. However, the examination of social indexicalities attached to the observed CS patterns shows that they all contribute to the performance of a multi-layered balancing act between urban and ethnic authenticities.

The issue of linguistic distinctions in creole continua has been extensively debated. Are creole continua comprised of just an “acrolect” and a “basilect,” or do they also comprise additional varieties? Studies of variation in creole continua have been typically based on directly observed linguistic data. This study argues that perceived sociolinguistic distinctions can offer one point of departure for establishing what linguistic components constitute creole continua. Following a protocol developed within “Perceptual Dialectology” (see, e.g., Preston 1999) this study describes perceived sociolinguistic distinctions via folk linguistic descriptors elicited by means of linguistic map-drawing and labeling tasks. The aim of this study is to investigate perceived language variation in the Caribbean island of Trinidad, where Standard English historically co-exists as an official language with creolized varieties of English, which the literature generally refers to as “Trinidadian Creole English.” The main finding of this study is that Standard English has a strong perceptual association with Trinidad’s historic urban centers, while non-standard varieties collectively referred to as “dialect” or “creole” are associated with the rest of the island. The study discusses indications that linguistic boundaries—largely parallel to ethnoracial boundaries—are perceived within the standard and non-standard part of the Trinidadian continuum. One major perceived linguistic criterion for differentiation within the non-standard part of the continuum is the presence or absence of Standard English elements. The saliency of “mixed” varieties suggests that a variety located halfway between Standard English and Trinidadian Creole English could be emerging. The study concludes that the urban-rural divide and ethnoracial distinctions constitute two salient social fault lines that future studies of language variation in Trinidad should take account of while searching the Trinidadian continuum for objectively verifiable linguistic boundaries.

Ethnicity and language have often been considered jointly on the grounds of their intrinsic interrelation: hard ethnic boundaries are manifested by the use of heritage languages, while dynamics of assimilation reduce the need to linguistically project ethnic distinctness. This article seeks to test the interrelation between patterns of language use and ethnic boundaries in the context of Suriname by analyzing perceptions of ethnolinguistic boundaries elicited from a sample of young informants from Paramaribo. The findings suggest that Surinamese ethnic boundaries are salient, albeit eroding in urban areas. Erosion is visible at a linguistic level in what seems to be a general shift in urban areas toward Dutch and Sranan Tongo. However, this shift might be proceeding at different paces from one ethnic group to the next. As a result, ethnicity is reflected in variable levels of linguistic competence in Dutch and Sranan Tongo.

Despite regular objections, creole research tends to regard Europeans-to-non-Europeans ratios in colonial settings as a decisive factor in degrees of restructuring. As a result, relatively high proportions of Europeans are seen as the explanation for the emergence of partially restructured varieties. Quite problematic, however, is that some colonial settings with relatively low proportions of Europeans show little historical evidence of restructuring. To address this apparent paradox while avoiding too locale-specific explanations, I attempt to sketch a unified sociolinguistic account of restructuring, or the absence thereof. Central to the account I propose is the notion of upward social mobility in colonial societies, whose linguistic impact I illustrate by means of a comparison between Orange River Afrikaans (ORA)1and Cape Malay Dutch (CMD), i.e. two partially restructured non-European varieties of Dutch that arose at the colonial Cape. I emphasize that ORA, which developed in socially fluid frontier settings, seems in certain respects to display less restructuring than CMD, which developed in increasingly segregated settings. I present the fact that Europeans were less represented where ORA developed than where CMD did as evidence that social mobility might to an extent override European/non-European demographics as a factor in degrees of restructuring. I finally discuss the extent to which a socio-historical reconstruction of ORA and CMD can shed light on historical sociolinguistic developments elsewhere than the Cape, such as in particular colonial Ibero-America.

This article provides a qualitative description of current patterns of linguistic diversity in Namibia’s capital city, Windhoek, using as its main source of data perceptions elicited from an ethnically representative sample of Windhoek residents on language-related themes. The data suggest that the pre-independence diglossic pattern which involved Afrikaans as high-status language and ethnic indigenous languages as low-status languages is giving way to a triglossic pattern dominated by English – the country’s only official language since 1990. Indigenous ethnic languages are still hardly used for inter-ethnic communication, which seems to be a correlate of ‘hard’ inter-ethnic boundaries inherited from apartheid. Instead, the dominant linguistic patterns of informal inter-ethnic communication in Windhoek rely either mostly on English, or on mixed linguistic repertoires combining ‘Coloured Afrikaans’ and English. Which of the two linguistic options dominates depends on the interactants’ race, ethnic...

This study examined how six different ethnolinguistic groups in Windhoek, capital of Namibia, adjust their language use during intergroup encounters. Invoking communication accommodation theory, we predicted that relatively low-vitality groups (high-vitality groups) would be inclined towards linguistic convergence (maintenance), but that these general patterns would be moderated by prevailing sociocultural norms and each group’s language proficiency. These hypotheses were largely supported. Relatively low-vitality groups tended to linguistically converge (typically via lingua francas), whereas relatively high-vitality groups tended to engage in linguistic maintenance. This resulted in two distinct patterns of adjustment: (a) symmetrical accommodation in interactions involving groups of relatively equal vitality, typically consisting of mutual convergence to lingua francas or mutual maintenance of a shared heritage language and (b) asymmetrical accommodation in intergroup interactions involving groups of relatively unequal vitality, typically consisting of upward convergence among lower vitality groups, and maintenance among higher vitality groups.

To what extent can ethnic boundaries be transcended in interethnic interactions? We are tackling this question in reference to Namibia, a post-apartheid society marked by a legacy of ethnic and racial divisions. Relying on discourse as a source of data, we identify the strategies employed by Namibians in a range of interview data and semi-experimental interethnic interactions for either accentuating or attenuating interethnic boundaries. We identify these strategies at the levels of ethnic categorization, language choice/variation and the management of speaker turns, and place them in the perspective of the participants' perspectives on ethnic Others. Our findings suggest that ethnic categories are salient in our data, although they do not exclude identification with superordinate categories in specific contexts. Our findings also show that patterns of categorization are reflected in language choice and turn management in the interactional context.

In a context where new English varieties from the Outer Circle have been receiving increasing attention, I propose to outline a descriptive approach to their uses and functions on the basis of their patterns of co-occurrence with local languages across intra and inter-ethnic boundaries. The case study I offer is Namibia, a multiethnic and multilingual African country where English has been the sole official language since 1990 without having had much local history prior to that date. The general question that I pose is to what extent and how English is used in informal interactions in Namibia. Considering Namibia's ethnolinguistic diversity as well as the locally widespread practice of code-switching, the questions I more specifically ask are: What are the patterns of code-switching with which English finds itself associated both within and across Namibia's inter-ethnic boundaries, and how can they be characterized in terms of social function? On the basis of a corpus of intra- and inter-ethnic interactions involving a range of Namibian ethnicities, I show evidence of a continuum of linguistic usage ranging from different patterns of code-switching involving English and local languages to more or less monolingual English varieties. I finally place that evidence within the perspective of new Englishes theory, emphasizing the possible relevance of code-switching patterns to the emergence of indigenized English varieties in general, and of an indigenized Namibian variety in particular.

This article attempts to place the discussion on the relationship between African American and European American vernacular Englishes within a broader context involving another speech community split along ethnic lines, namely South Africa's Afrikaans speakers. It specifically attempts to compare observations on the coloured-white linguistic divide within South Africa's Afrikaans speech community with those made on the black-white linguistic divide in the United States, with the aim of shedding light on the correlation between ethnicity and language variation. The article first presents ethnicity and its social and linguistic correlates, drawing on literature on AA(V)E and South Africa. It then identifies the social and linguistic specificities of the American English and Afrikaans speech communities. After presenting a range of grammatical variables and their comparability across both speech communities, it provides an overview first of the various trends of grammatical variation from a mainly variationist perspective, then of Afrikaans-English code-switching, which is treated as a phenomenon that correlates with grammatical variation. It finally attempts to answer the general question whether the U.S. black-white linguistic divide and the coloured-white linguistic divide in South Africa's Afrikaans speech community can be referred to as complementary in the study of ethnicity and language variation.

In the context of the White and Christian-dominated Afrikaans language movements, followed by apartheid, little attention has been paid to an Afrikaans literary variety used among Muslim Cape Coloureds, a group often referred to as ‘Cape Malays’. Descending mainly from Asian slaves brought by the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC, Dutch East India Company), and bearing the marks of cohabitation with non-Asian populations at the Cape, the Cape Malays at an early stage developed a distinct religious culture through their adherence to Islam, as well as a distinct Cape Dutch linguistic identity through their connections with the Dutch East Indies and the Islamic world. These cultural idiosyncrasies found expression in a local literature, religious and (more rarely) secular, using as a medium a variety of Cape Dutch/Afrikaans written either in the Arabic alphabet or in the Roman alphabet.

In this paper we present a case study of interethnic relations through language variation involving two population groups supposedly belonging to one single speech community, namely the White and Coloured Afrikaans speakers of Namibia. The specific question that we wish to tackle in reference to that community is the extent to which Coloured and White identities are differentiable via linguistic means and how those identities are negotiated in intergroup settings where Coloured and White Afrikaans speakers are in mutual contact. The methodology used to answer this question is largely based on Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), which entails the characterization of intergroup language variation in terms of convergence, divergence and maintenance, as well as the characterization of speakers’ group identities in terms of ‘subordinate’ and ‘superordinate’ identities.Keywords: Afrikaans; code-switching; identity; Coloureds; Namibia

There has been considerable interest in the linguistic emergence of “pan-ethnicities” in urban Europe, while much less attention has been paid to the emergence of such identities in post-colonial contexts, where it could serve as an indicator of nation-building processes. The case study I propose is Namibia, a country bearing a legacy of segregation along ethnolinguistic lines. Relying on an experimentally set-up corpus of interethnic interactions, I investigate patterns of linguistic convergence and divergence/maintenance across ethnic combinations. On the basis of an analysis of lexical and morphosyntactic variation as well as of code-switching patterns involving up to three languages simultaneously (i.e. Afrikaans, English and one among the various Namibian ingroup languages), I first identify evidence of a general dichotomy between whites and nonwhites. I further identify evidence of a Nonwhite pan-ethnicity, which, however, reveals upon closer inspection signs of a socio-historical division between northern and southern ethnicities. Finally, I demonstrate the relevance of “multiethnolectal studies” to describing nation-building processes by placing the findings of this study in a broad post-colonial context.

The first significant appearance of Cape Dutch/Afrikaans as a literary medium has been situated in the satirical dialogues published in the journalist Meurants Cradocksch Nieuwsblad from 1860 onwards. In the context of the White and Christian-dominated Afrikaans language movements, and afterwards of Apartheid, little attention has been paid to the evidence of an older Cape Dutch/Afrikaans literary tradition cultivated among Muslim Cape Coloureds, often referred to as Cape Malays. Descending mainly from the Asian slaves brought by the VOC, the Cape Malays have from an early stage developed a distinct religious culture through their cultivation of Islam, as well as a distinct linguistic identity through their connexions with the Dutch East Indies and the Islamic world. Those cultural idiosyncrasies resulted in a relatively late nativization of Cape Dutch as well as the appearance in the early 19th century of a local Muslim literature, using as a linguistic medium a distinct religious variety of Cape Dutch/Afrikaans. That variety was among other things known as Kitaab-Hollandsch, a term which stressed its vernacular identity, as well as its literary and religious character. Reflecting its specificity, that variety was initially using only the Arabic alphabet until knowledge of the Roman alphabet started to spread among the Cape Malay intelligentsia in the late part of the 19th century. The use of that variety, in both its Arabic and Roman forms, seems to have endured up until the mid 20th century. Due to the particular socio-cultural settings in which it evolved, Kitaab-Hollandsch/Afrikaans can offer an interesting outlook on the process of standardization of the non-White varieties of Cape Dutch/Afrikaans. In the absence of a thorough diachronic survey, we have compiled a range of Cape Malay Afrikaans religious texts covering roughly one century from the mid 19th up to the mid 20th century, i.e. that period which saw the gradual transition from Dutch to Afrikaans as official norm. This article presents the socio-historical and linguistic context of Muslim Cape Dutch/Afrikaans literature using the same text as in a previous article (Stell et al. 2007). It then focuses on the areas of greatest diachronic variation in the phonology, lexicon, idiomaticity, morphology and syntax of our Cape Malay texts. It then attempts to place that variation within the perspective of the evolution of Cape Dutch/Afrikaans.

The Afrikaans speech community is characterized by a long-standing rift between Whites and Coloureds, and is for a large part bilingual, with English being increasingly integrated in its stylistic repertoire. Yet, the history of English is different across the White/Coloured divide, as in particular in terms of diffusion and in terms of ideological associations. The question we wish to ask is twofold. First, how far may there be a question of ethnic norms of Afrikaans-English code-switching? Second, if norms of code-switching are different across the ethnic divide, is code-switching used differently in the negotiation of White and Coloured identities? This contribution is organized in three main parts. First, we give an overview of the different norms of Afrikaans-English code-switching encountered across Whites and Coloureds on the basis of a corpus of informal speech data. Then we give an overview of the sequential patterns of Afrikaans-English code-switching following a CA methodology. Finally, we determine with the help of macrosocial knowledge in how far these different forms and functions of Afrikaans-English code-switching are made relevant to the projection of White and Coloured identities in South Africa’s current post-Apartheid context on the basis of select individual examples. The results of our analysis indicate that Afrikaans-English code-switching in the Coloured data displays the features of a ‘mixed code’, which is perceived as a ‘we-code’, where English input tends to be stylistically neutral. By contrast, English input is more syntactically and sequentially salient in the White data, and more visibly serves purposes of identity-negotiation. Despite those differences, there remains a clear correlation in both White and Coloured samples between the use of English monolingual code and affiliation with ‘New South African values’.

Codeswitching in its function as a marker of ethnicity within the same speech community has so far mostly been illustrated with case studies involving closely related codes (e.g. dialect/standard) rather than distinct standard languages. The purpose of this article is to show in how far Afrikaans-English codeswitching reflects in its grammatical forms ethnic divisions within the Afrikaans speech community. In order to answer this question, Muysken's threefold taxonomy of insertions, alternations and congruent lexicalization is used to categorize and quantify forms of Afrikaans-English codeswitching in the informal speech of three age cohorts distributed across seven samples of White and Coloured Afrikaans speakers from South Africa and Namibia. The analysis reveals that codeswitching patterns differ across the ethnic divide not only in terms of relative proportions of insertions, alternations and congruent lexicalization, but also in terms of specific grammatical or syntactic characteristics which these codeswitching types may assume. On the basis of some of these specific characteristics the conclusion is drawn that codeswitching practices remain to some degree conditioned by perceptions of ethnic group membership rather than by histories of language contact or typological distance between Afrikaans and English.

Back in the days of colonial South Africa, "Cape Dutch" used to refer collectivelyto the Dutch-based varieties typical of the Cape. The most formalversion of these registers was close, if not similar to European Dutch.Conversely, the least formal versions of these registers had a distincty localcharacter. The nationalist réveil of the late 19th century prompted the definitionof a new language to be called 'Afrikaans', i.e. truly local, truly SouthAfrican, and as such severed as much as possible from its Dutch connexion.Not as radical, the Afrikaans language activists from the period following thesecond Boer War (1899-1902) would rather endeavour to emphasize theAfrikaans linguistic identity within a Dutch context.The codification of Afrikaans has continuously been marked by the -sometimes conflicting - concerns of nurturing 'truly Afrikaans' linguistic features,while cultivating similarities with Dutch for the sake of distantiationfrom English. However, Afrikaans norms have recently tended to open up tolanguage reality for the sake of stylistic and ethnic representativity.

In the context of the White and Christian-dominated Afrikaans language movements, followed by apartheid, little attention has been paid to an Afrikaans literary variety used among Muslim Cape Coloureds, a group often referred to as ‘Cape Malays’. Descending mainly from Asian slaves brought by the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC, Dutch East India Company), and bearing the marks of cohabitation with non-Asian populations at the Cape, the Cape Malays at an early stage developed a distinct religious culture through their adherence to Islam, as well as a distinct Cape Dutch linguistic identity through their connections with the Dutch East Indies and the Islamic world. These cultural idiosyncrasies found expression in a local literature, religious and (more rarely) secular, using as a medium a variety of Cape Dutch/Afrikaans written either in the Arabic alphabet or in the Roman alphabet.

The ‘ Creolist turn’ in Afrikaans historical linguistics is largely based on interpretations of a collection of sentences uttered by 17th/ 18th century slaves and Khoekhoen, as well as of 20th century Orange River Afrikaans data. A creolist scenario on the emergence of Afrikaans that has come to the fore is that by den Besten (1989, 2001a[ 2012]), who assumes that basilectal Cape Dutch varieties were largely based on what he calls Hottentot Hollands, i. e. a pidginized Dutch variety which seems to bear the marks of partial syntactic transfers from Khoekhoe languages. Khoekhoen being regarded as the founders of the Cape Dutch basilect, historians’ attention has been focused on Orange River Afrikaans – i. e. that Afrikaans variety spoken by the descendants of the Khoekhoen – as a possible source of explanations for the crystallization of Afrikaans linguistic specificities. In the process, the role in the development of Afrikaans of other non– European populations at the Cape – namely the slaves and Free Blacks – has somewhat been neglected. The discovery of a corpus of Cape Malay Dutch literary texts dating back to the 19th century provides a source of information on non– European Cape Dutch varieties likely to refine the existing creolistic reconstructions of the emergence of Afrikaans. In this paper I present the Cape Malay Dutch variety against its general sociolinguistic background, emphasizing its directly recognizable Asian features and its un– Dutch features of indeterminate origin. On the basis of a comparison between the Cape Malay Dutch data and both historical Cape Dutch and synchronic Afrikaans data I argue that Cape Malay Dutch descends from a non– European Cape Dutch variety that is to be distinguished from Hottentot Hollands, as a result of which it presents specificities – including one possible creole feature – which are not present in Orange River Afrikaans., Le ‘ tour créoliste’ dans la linguistique historique de l’afrikaans est largement basée sur l’interprétation d’un corpus de phrases datant du 17e et 18e siècle attribuées à des esclaves et khoekhoen du Cap, ainsi que de données contemporaines sur le dialecte afrikaans de la rivière Orange. Un scenario créoliste sur l’émergence de l’afrikaans qui a vu le jour est celui proposé par den Besten (1989, 2001a[ 2012]), qui spécule que les variétés hollandaises du Cap basilectales étaient largement basées sur ce qu’il dénomme le ‘ hollandais hottentot’, c. à. d. une variété pidginisée du hollandais qui semble porter les marques de transferts syntaxiques partiels en provenance des langues khoekhoe. Les khoekhoen étant considérés comme les fondateurs du basilecte hollandais du Cap, l’attention des historiens s’est fixée sur le dialecte afrikaans de la rivière Orange, c. à. d. cette variété parlée par les descendants des khoekhoen, qu’ils ont présentée comme source possible d’explications des spécificités de la langue afrikaans. Ce faisant, le rôle joué dans le développement de l’afrikaans par les autres populations non– européennes du Cap – c. à. d. les esclaves et les ‘ affranchis’ – a quelque peu été négligé. La découverte de textes littéraires en malayo– hollandais du Cap datant du 19e siècle fournit une source d’information sur les variétés non– européennes du Cap qui est en position de raffiner les scenarios créolistes formulés sur l’émergence de l’afrikaans. Dans cet article, je présente tout d’abord la variété malayo– hollandaise tout en référant au contexte sociolinguistique de son émergence. Je présente ensuite ses traits asiatiques directement reconnaissables ainsi que ses caractéristiques d’origine indéterminée qui ne peuvent être imputées au hollandais d’Europe. Sur la base d’une comparaison historique entre le malayo– hollandais et les autres variétés du hollandais/ afrikaans, je conclue que le malayo– hollandais représente le point d’aboutissement d’une variété hollandaise du Cap qui doit être distinguée de ce que den Besten dénommait le hollandais hottentot, ce qui entre autres explique pourquoi le malayo– hollandais exhibe des caractéristiques qui le différentient du dialecte afrikaans de la rivière Orange., De ‘ creolistische wending’ in de historische Afrikaanse taalkunde berust in hoge mate op interpretaties van, enerzijds, een verzameling zinnen uit de 17de en 18de eeuw die aan slaven en Khoekhoen toegeschreven worden, en anderzijds, van hedendaagse gevevens over het Oranje Rivier Afrikaans. Den Besten (1989, 2001a[ 2012]) stelde een ‚ creolistisch scenario’ over het ontstaan van het Afrikaans voor, en veronderstelde dat basilectale Kaap– Hollandse variëteiten tot op hoge mate afgeleid waren uit wat hij Hottentot Hollands noemt, d. w. z. een gepidginiseerde Nederlandse variëteit die de sporen van gedeeltelijke syntactische transfers uit Khoekhoen-talen lijkt te vertonen. Doordat de Khoekhoen beschouwd worden als de ‚ stichters’ van het Kaap– Hollandse basilect, ging de aandacht van taalhistorici naar het Oranje Rivier Afrikaans – d. w. z. die Afrikaanse variëteit die door de afstammelingen van de Khoekhoen gesproken wordt ; in die variëteit worden verklaringen gezocht wordt voor het ontstaan van de kenmerken van het Afrikaans. De rol die andere Kaapse niet– Europese bevolkingsgroepen speelden bij de ontwikkeling van het Afrikaans (met name de slaven en ‘ Vrije Zwarten‘) werd hierdoor over het hoofd gezien. De ontdekking van een corpus 19de eeuwse Kaapmaleis– Hollandse literaire teksten geeft ons een bron aan informatie over niet– Europese Kaap– Hollandse variëteiten ; die gegevens kunnen creolistiche reconstructies van het ontstaan van het Afrikaans verfijnen. In dit artikel bespreek ik de Kaapmaleis– Hollandse variëteit, in de brede algemene sociolinguïstische context van zijn ontstaan. Ik beschrijf hierbij zijn direct herkenbare Aziatische kenmerken alsmede zijn‚ on-nederlandse’ kenmerken van onbepaalde herkomst. Op basis van een vergelijking tussen het Kaapmaleis– Hollands en andere variëteiten van het Kaap– Hollands en Afrikaans toon ik aan dat Kaapmaleis– Hollands het resultaat is van een niet– Europese variëteit die onderscheiden moet worden van het Hottentot Hollands. Dit verklaart waarom deze variëteit kenmerken heeft die niet in het Oranje Rivier Afrikaans voorkomen., Stell Gerald. Cape Malay Dutch: The Missing Link Between Cape Dutch Pidgin and Afrikaans?. In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, tome 91, fasc. 3, 2013. Langues et littératures modernes Moderne taal en lettrekunde. pp. 763-786.