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Fanakalo language


  • URI(s)

  • Variants

    • Basic Bantu language
    • Basic Zulu language
    • Chikabanga language
    • Fanagalo language
    • Fanagoloi language
    • Fanekolo language
    • Isikula language
    • Isilololo language
    • Isipiki language
    • Kabanga language
    • Lololo language
    • Pidgin Bantu language
    • Pidgin Nguni language
    • Piki language
    • Silunguboi language
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  • Sources

    • found: Kashoki, Mubanga E. The Kabanga (Fanagalo) and Swahili element in Icibemba lexical adoptives, 2018.
    • found: Encyclopedia of language & linguistics (Brown), 2006:Fanagalo (Fanakalo (also spelled Fanagalo) is a southern African pidgin that continues to be used two centuries after its inception. It is used in parts of South Africa, Zimbabwe (where it is usually known as Chilapalapa), Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, and Namibia where it has been carried by migrant workers in the South African mines. Fanakalo is a contact language used prototypically in work situations: on farms, in the mines of the Witwatersrand that draw a multilingual workforce from all over southern Africa, in other urban labor situations, and in domestic employment.)
    • found: Encyclopedia of Linguistics (Strazny), 2005:Fanakalo (Fanakalo is used in interethnic contacts in the eastern parts of South Africa. It is referred to variably as a pidgin with Zulu or Nguni vocabulary, Nguni being the Bantu subgroup to which both Zulu and Xhosa belong. Fanakalo is rare among pidgins in that it has spread in part through formal education, as the South African Chamber of Commerce arranged courses in it in order to facilitate comprehension between miners of differing ethnic backgrounds. When European-run mining operations spread in the second half of the nineteenth century, so did Fanakalo. In the 1890s, the pidgin began to be used in Rhodesia and in the Copperbelt region of Zambia. It even ventured into the Katanga (Shaba) province of Belgian Congo, and its use has also been attested in Malawi and Namibia. More than two thirds of the lexicon of Fanakalo is Bantu in origin-mostly Zulu, but influences from Xhosa have also been pointed out. Slightly less than a fourth of the vocabulary is derived from English, while Afrikaans has contributed the remainder.)
    • found: Ethnologue, 2020(Pidgin Bantu, a language of South Africa [fng]; also spoken in Zambia and Zimbabwe; UF Basic Zulu, Fanagoloi, Isilololo, Isipiki, Lololo, Piki, Silunguboi, "Fanagalo" (pej.), "Fanakalo" (pej.), "Fanekolo" (pej.), "Isikula" (pej.); No known L1 speakers in South Africa, Zambia or Zimbabwe; status: 9 (Second language only); classification: Pidgin, Zulu based; Used widely in towns and gold, diamond, coal, and copper mining areas. Originated in 19th century. Alt. names in Zambia and Zimbabwe: Basic Zulu, Chikabanga, Isilololo, Isipiki, Lololo, Piki, "Fanagalo" (pej.), "Fanakalo" (pej.), "Fanekolo" (pej.), "Isikula" (pej.))
    • found: NUGL online: the online version of the New Updated Guthrie List, a referential classification of Bantu languages, 2009("New" languages in the Bantu area: S40A- Fanagalo, Basic Bantu, "Kitchen Kaffir", incl. Chikabanga (Zambia), Chilapalapa (Zimbabwe))
    • found: Mesthrie, Rajend. "Differentiating pidgin from early interlanguage -- a comparison of Pidgin Nguni (Fanakalo) and interlanguage varieties of Xhosa and Zulu" in: Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, vol. 25, 2007
    • found: Wikipedia, access November 7, 2023:Fanaglo (It was previously known as Kitchen Kaffir. Both Fanagalo and Kitchen Kaffir contributed to linguistic colonization as Kitchen Kaffir was created to segregate the colonizers from the local communities and was used as a means to exercise control. The term kaffir was used as a derogatory term for Black people in South Africa and is now considered extremely offensive)
  • LC Classification

    • PM7895.F3
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  • Change Notes

    • 1986-02-11: new
    • 2023-11-30: revised
  • Alternate Formats