The English of white Eastern Cape farmers in South Africa

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the features of the English used by a farming community in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It shows how the farmers form a cohesive unit characterized by a particular style of speech. Aspects of this speech style include code‐switching with Xhosa (a local African language), as well as the prevalence of terms of address. The social significance of this speech style, especially codeswitching, is explored in terms of the identity the farmers wish to communicate. Discourse features are also examined, including the narrative style characteristic of the area. There is also a brief discussion of the linguistic features of the ‘deep’ farming community which is shown to conserve certain features of ‘settler’ English. The study ends with an examination of ‘dialect’ tales which are told in the area.