Language and Identity – The Afrikaans Community in the UK

The role of language in the identity package of Afrikaans-speaking South African expatriates in the UK is investigated in this paper. A description of the community is provided and the domains of use of their first language identified. The main research problem is the relationship between language and identity in a diasporic community such as this. The main findings of the study: In all modes of communication, the percentage of Afrikaans (in a bilingual relation with English) progressively decreased the closer the ties between the interlocutors became. The identification of 73% of all respondents with positive language-related statements correlated with 82% of the group’s support for various types of cultural activities involving visiting South Africans. In conclusion: The mix of functions pointed to a more complex configuration of bilingual and monolingual domains, with some elements of a heterolocal cultural enclave, in which similar domain types are maintained in parallel, but with differences in actual context of usage