Language variations serve to strengthen education

Promoting intracultural and intercultural awareness and tolerance

- MBALI SUNRISE DHLAMINI & RUSSELL H KASCHULA

AMONG other descriptions to define language, one of its major characteristics is that it constantly changes.

This means that over time, new variations of the same language develop. The introduction of technology and advancement of visual language such as emojis add more nuances and intricacies to language interpretation.

Emojis are used to enhance texts written in different languages or language variations, among other factors, their interpretations may vary based on different age groups, gender, linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the interlocutors.

For example, one of the questions included in an exemplary annual national exam paper for Grade 2 isiZulu Home Language provided by the Department of Basic Education in 2012, the learners were requested to choose a synonym for the term ukuthukuthela (to be angry) between the following terms: ukujabula (to be happy)/ ukwenama (to be happy)/ ukukhathazeka (to be worried) and ukudinwa. The correct answer being ukudinwa. This is a controversial response when one considers the issue of language variation based on how the term ukudinwa is used by isiZulu speakers from different locations in South Africa.

In reality, if isiZulu speakers from different provinces in South Africa were to react with an emoji expressing the emotion of the term ukudinwa, the majority of speakers who speak isiZulu language varieties from KwaZulu-Natal would react with an angry emoji while the majority of those who speak isiZulu language varieties from Gauteng and Mpumalanga would react with a tired emoji.

If such texts were to be analysed or translated into English as part of linguistic evidence for a court case, it is plausible that the linguistic expert or translator focusing only on the standard language variety of the term would interpret the term ukudinwa supporting the emoji expressions in all the isiZulu language varieties as the interlocutors being angry when they wrote the texts.