Sociolinguistic Status of Selected Indigenous Languages in Civil Courts of South Africa: The Past, Present and the Future

Authors

  • Koketso Botlholo

    Department of Language and Social Sciences Education, Central University of Technology, Free State 9300, South Africa
  • Muthuhadini Lufuno Muavha

    Department of Applied Languages, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria 0183, South Africa
  • Itumeleng Shoke

    Department of African Languages and Linguistics, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i12.11656
Received: 15 August 2025 | Revised: 14 October 2025 | Accepted: 15 October 2025 | Published Online: 12 December 2025

Abstract

This study critically investigates the historical and contemporary sociolinguistic status of Sotho-Tswana and isiNdebele within civil courts in Garankuwa, Soshanguve, and Pretoria CBD, South Africa. The central aim is to examine how these languages function within judicial spaces that remain dominated by English and, to a lesser extent, isiZulu despite constitutional guarantees of multilingualism. The study further seeks to understand how historical policies, language attitudes, and institutional practices collectively shape the diminished functional space of indigenous languages in courtroom discourse. A qualitative research design was employed to explore these issues in depth. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, non-participant observation of civil court proceedings, and document analysis of colonial and post-colonial language policies, including the South African Constitution (1996) and local Pretoria linguistic frameworks. The study was theoretically anchored in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and the Ecology of Language Framework, both of which facilitated the examination of how linguistic power, ideology, and policy interact within courtroom practices. Findings revealed a persistent gap between constitutional ideals and courtroom realities. English remains the default language of legal authority, while Sotho-Tswana and isiNdebele occupy peripheral, interpreted roles. Structural limitations such as inadequate corpus development, weak policy enforcement, and insufficient interpreter training compound this marginalisation. The study concludes that sustainable linguistic justice requires functional multilingualism, institutional accountability, and corpus planning that recognises indigenous languages as legitimate mediums of legal reasoning and record.

Keywords:

Multilingualism; Linguistic Rights; Courtroom Discourse; Language Policy; Indigenous Languages; Sociolinguistic Status

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How to Cite

Botlholo, K., Muavha, M. L., & Shoke, I. (2025). Sociolinguistic Status of Selected Indigenous Languages in Civil Courts of South Africa: The Past, Present and the Future. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(12), 1861–1874. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i12.11656

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 12 (December 2025): In progress

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Copyright © 2025 Koketso Botlholo, Muthuhadini Lufuno Muavha, Itumeleng Shoke

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.