ABSTRACT
This chapter examines recent variationist studies of South African English and Afrikaans that utilize the techniques of acoustic sociophonetics coupled with statistical analysis. Ethnicity remains a salient social variable in South African sociolinguistics. At the same time the language practices of the young, especially at a middle-class level, have overcome some of the social barriers of the past. The chapter synthesizes research on L1 varieties of South African English that emphasize the reversal of an older short front vowel shift, most likely under global influences in the new millennium. The pace set by global norms affects young speakers of White ethnicity, who in turn have influenced Black, Coloured, and Indian peers at the more prestigious schools and in post-apartheid social networks. Salient variables showing this influence include schwa as well as goose. Studies of voice quality and phonation, however, show that much remains to be researched around the topic of “sounding Black” and “sounding White” (whether consciously or not). The chapter also examines new studies of variation in L2 English of Black people, including changing proportions of the trap vowel within political communities of practice most likely affected by norms of L2 English elsewhere in Africa. Studies of Afrikaans sociophonetics emphasize the salience of consonantal variants like uvular versus alveolar /r/ among younger people.
