Linguistic variation in urban vernaculars and rural and urban youth language in South Africa

Abstract This article describes and attempts to differentiate varieties of spoken isiXhosa in South Africa – including variations of the isiXhosa-based stylect commonly referred to as Tsotsitaal (plural tsotsitaals), and the urban vernacular form of isiXhosa. The article introduces some new Tsotsitaal data from a rural context and unpacks whether a comparison with both standard and urban forms of isiXhosa is a useful analysis, and whether we can look at these different practices as varieties, or alternatively as a continuum of isiXhosa. The comparison highlights what may be features of the lexicon and morphosyntax of isiXhosa-based tsotsitaals compared to urban and standard isiXhosa, and points to possible differences between rural and urban tsotsitaals. Ultimately, the article concludes that the inherent variability in stylistic practice within youth and urban varieties demands larger datasets if we are to argue that different varieties are at play, rather than simply stylistic variation in interactional contexts.