scholarly journals Orthographic measures of language distances between the official South African languages

Literator ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.N. Zulu ◽  
G. Botha ◽  
E. Barnard
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Distance Measure ◽  
Similarity Measures ◽  
Levenshtein Distance ◽  
Identification System ◽  
Text Documents ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
N Gram ◽  
The Relationship

Two methods for objectively measuring similarities and dissimilarities between the eleven official languages of South Africa are described. The first concerns the use of n-grams. The confusions between different languages in a text-based language identification system can be used to derive information on the relationships between the languages. Our classifier calculates n-gram statistics from text documents and then uses these statistics as features in classification. We show that the classification results of a validation test can be used as a similarity measure of the relationship between languages. Using the similarity measures, we were able to represent the relationships graphically. We also apply the Levenshtein distance measure to the orthographic word transcriptions from the eleven South African languages under investigation. Hierarchical clustering of the distances between the different languages shows the relationships between the languages in terms of regional groupings and closeness. Both multidimensional scaling and dendrogram analysis reveal results similar to well-known language groupings, and also suggest a finer level of detail on these relationships.

scholarly journals A brief study of the Autshumato Machine Translation Web Service for South African languages

Literator ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nomsa J. Skosana ◽  
Respect Mlambo
Keyword(s):  
Web Service ◽  
South African ◽  
Machine Translation ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Parallel Corpora ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Official Languages

The scarcity of adequate resources for South African languages poses a huge challenge for their functional development in specialised fields such as science and technology. The study examines the Autshumato Machine Translation (MT) Web Service, created by the Centre for Text Technology at the North-West University. This software supports both formal and informal translations as a machine-aided human translation tool. We investigate the system in terms of its advantages and limitations and suggest possible solutions for South African languages. The results show that the system is essential as it offers high-speed translation and operates as an open-source platform. It also provides multiple translations from sentences, documents and web pages. Some South African languages were included whilst others were excluded and we find this to be a limitation of the system. We also find that the system was trained with a limited amount of data, and this has an adverse effect on the quality of the output. The study suggests that adding specialised parallel corpora from various contemporary fields for all official languages and involving language experts in the pre-editing of training data can be a major step towards improving the quality of the system’s output. The study also outlines that developers should consider integrating the system with other natural language processing applications. Finally, the initiatives discussed in this study will help to improve this MT system to be a more effective translation tool for all the official languages of South Africa.

scholarly journals Differences in achievement between home language and language of learning in South Africa: Evidence from prePIRLS 2011

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Surette Van Staden ◽  
Roel Bosker ◽  
Annika Bergbauer
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Reading Literacy ◽  
Literacy Achievement ◽  
Third Language ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Regression Methods ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
Positive Effect

This study utilised regression methods to explain Grade 4 reading literacy achievement taking into account discrepancies between the language of the test and home language for learners who participated in the South African preProgress in International Reading Literacy Study (prePIRLS) 2011. Grade 4 learners were tested across all 11 official languages. The language of testing did not always coincide with the learner’s home language; therefore, prePIRLS 2011 test results reveal achievement for learners who in many cases did the test in a second or third language. Results from the current analyses show that testing in African languages predicts significantly lower results as compared to English, but that exponentially worse results by as much as 0.29 points lower of a standard deviation can be expected when the African language of the test did not coincide with the learners’ home language. Findings from the current study provide evidence that African children stand to be disadvantaged the most when a strong mother tongue base has not been developed and when education for children between Grade 1 and 3 is only available through a medium of instruction other than the mother tongue. Evidence that exposure to a language that at least shares linguistic similarities to the home language could have a positive effect.

scholarly journals Dreams and Realities for South Africa: Use of Official Languages Act, 2012

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Aaron Mnguni
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
The Status ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
The Republic ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
South African Constitution

Language policies are the cornerstone that establish and maintain communication amongst people. Proper communication, particularly amongst speakers of many languages in a country such as South Africa hinges heavily on perceptions regarding the status of the languages used in that specific country. According to the Republic of South African Constitution (Act 108 of 1996), South Africa has eleven official languages. Nine of these official languages (the indigenous African languages), are regarded as historically disadvantaged, while the remaining two, viz. English and Afrikaans enjoyed official recognition under the then ‘apartheid’ era that lasted until 1994. The previously disadvantaged African languages still lag in terms of development, when compared to English and to a lesser extent, Afrikaans. To address this challenge and reverse the status quo, several measures have been undertaken by government, including the passing of an Act called, Use of Official Languages Act, 2012. This Act aims at managing the use of the official languages optimally, with special emphasis on the previously marginalised languages. South Africa is known for developing good language policies but often criticised for producing such good policies for one good purpose only - to display them in office shelves. Following this state of affairs, this article therefore examines the implementation challenges regarding this Act and suggest what could be done to successfully implement it in South Africa. Second, the article also seeks to alleviate the perceived apathy in implementing language policies, particularly in South Africa, and with implications for Africa as a whole.

Co-creating the Psychological “White Picket Fence”: Three Gay Couples’ Relationship Reconfiguration

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Prevan Moodley ◽  
Francois Rabie
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
South African ◽  
Gay Couples ◽  
Core Category ◽  
Picket Fence ◽  
Open Relationship ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Porous Boundaries

Many gay couples engage in nonmonogamous relationships. Ideas about nonmonogamy have historically been theorised as individual pathology and indicating relational distress. Unlike mixed-sex couples, boundaries for gay couples are often not determined by sexual exclusivity. These relationships are built along a continuum of open and closed, and sexual exclusivity agreements are not restricted to binaries, thus requiring innovation and re-evaluation. Three white South African gay couples were each jointly interviewed about their open relationship, specifically about how this is negotiated. In contrast to research that uses the individual to investigate this topic, this study recruited dyads. The couples recalled the initial endorsement of heteronormative romantic constructions, after which they shifted to psychological restructuring. The dyad, domesticated through the stock image of a white picket fence, moved to a renewed arrangement, protected by “rules” and imperatives. Abbreviated grounded theory strategies led to a core category, “co-creating porous boundaries”, and two themes. First, the couple jointly made heteronormative ideals porous and, second, they reconfigured the relationship through dyadic protection. The overall relationship ideology associated with the white picket fence remained intact despite the micro-innovations through which the original heteronormative patterning was reconfigured.

FOLKTALE NARRATION IN THE INDIGENOUS SOUTH AFRICAN LANGUAGES: AN ARTFUL CUL-DE-SAC?

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-37
Author(s):  
Eric Mabaso
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
South African ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
A Performance

This article highlights the problem that the print mode that the indigenous South African languages (IndiSAL) have largely adopted to preserve the folktale is inadequate. It raises shortfalls in support of the contention that not enough is being done to preserve the art of folktale narration and suggests a way out of the cul-de-sac. Most works on IndiSAL folktales focus on the value of preserving the art itself rather than the mode of preservation. The research follows a performance-centred approach as advocated by inter alia Marivate (1991), Bill (1996), Dorji (2010) and Backe (2014). Compared to countries such as Nigeria and Malawi, IndiSAL are lagging behind in digitization for the preservation of folktales. The article is an empirical study based on the author’s experiences and observation of folktale narration and the analysis of the transcribed form. The article critically reviews the various preservation modes and highlights their pros and cons.

Khawuleza—An Instantiation of the Black Archive

Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siseko H. Kumalo
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
African History ◽  
Art Practice ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Philosophical Consideration ◽  
Theory Generation ◽  
Artistic Works

South African history is such that Blackness/Indigeneity were excluded from institutions of knowledge production. Contemporarily, the traditional University is defined as an institution predicated on the abjection of Blackness. This reality neither predetermined the positions and responses, nor presupposed complete/successful erasure of Blackness/Indigeneity owing to exclusion. I contend and detail how theorising, thinking about and through the Fact of Blackness, continue(d)—using the artistic works of Mhlongo, Makeba, Mbulu, and contemporarily, Leomile as examples. Analysing the music of the abovementioned artists, a move rooted in intersectional feminist approaches, will reveal modes of theorising that characterised the artistic expressions that define(d) the country. Theory generation, so construed, necessitates a judicious philosophical consideration if we are to resurrect the Black Archive. I conclude with an introspective question aimed at inspiring similar projects in other traditions that constitute the Black Archive, i.e. African languages and literature, theatre, art practice and theory.

Rapid Development of TTS Corpora for Four South African Languages

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel van Niekerk ◽  
Charl van Heerden ◽  
Marelie Davel ◽  
Neil Kleynhans ◽  
Oddur Kjartansson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
African Languages
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