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In most African societies, place names are often connected to the history and ideologies of the people who inhabit the named places. Despite the meanings embedded and associated with certain places, particularly in the Limpopo province of South Africa, there remains a need to explore place names to highlight the traditions that underpin the creation and use of such names. Hence, this article analyses place names in the Molemole District in Limpopo in South Africa, particularly Northern Sotho place names. The aim of the article is to clarify how the residents of the district use place names to record their lived experiences, identity, history and culture, among other things. The Northern Sotho place names that appear on public signage and public signs in the district not only inform the public about geographical locations, but also allude to the material conditions that inform the choice and assignment of a name to a place among Northern Sotho speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates code-borrowing which happens during soccer commentaries in Sepedi on Thobela FM, a radio station which broadcasts in Sepedi. Qualitative in approach, the study collected data from purposively selected Thobela FM listeners to determine whether code-borrowing is beneficial or detrimental to the development of Sepedi soccer terminology. The participants were selected from Mamelodi, Soshanguve and Atteridgeville in Pretoria, where Sepedi is a dominant language. Four different recorded soccer commentaries of five minutes each were played to the participants prior to interviewing them for approximately 30 minutes. The study's findings showed that listeners believe that code-borrowing contributes positively towards the development of soccer terminology in Sepedi, further suggesting the coinage of Sepedi soccer terminology from English equivalents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 1994, in South Africa many people saw the declaration of the previously side-lined indigenous languages as official languages as a move towards respecting and promoting indigenous languages. The main objective of this study is to assess the use of isiZulu in banking services in Durban, KwaZulu- Natal. The focus was on whether isiZulu is used as a language of communication in the banking service and to check whether consumers receive documents in the language they prefer, particularly in isiZulu. The qualitativeresearch approach was used, and the study followed a case study design. Semi- structured interviews were used to collect data, and a wealth of data was generated by thick descriptions of participant responses. The data from semi- structured interviews were recorded and decoded into categories, and the categories were reduced to thematic constructs. Twelve purposively selected participants were involved in the study. The findings revealed that even though isiZulu was incorporated into the banks’ policies as a language that which was supposed to be used, this was not practiced since English was predominantly used, at the expense of isiZulu. The findings further revealed that English was the only language used even in customer documents such as letters and pamphlets, and isiZulu was used mainly for oral communication. The findings also revealed that there was a lack of terminology in the isiZulu language for certain English words. It was recommended that translators be needed to assist with the communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]