Herstandaardisering aan die hand van skoolhand-boeke vir die legitimering van Kaapse Afrikaans

Restandardisation by means of school textbooks in order to legitimise Cape Afrikaans The discourse on the restandardisation of Afrikaans often raises the issue of the negative consequences of a hegemonic standard variety in the Afrikaans classroom and how the school system has been using teaching materials such as textbooks to protect the point of view that the standard language is the only legitimate language. Various educators, researchers, linguists, artists, and language activists have spoken out about how Standard Afrikaans (Standaardafrikaans) alienates learners who are speakers of Cape Afrikaans and how drastic changes to the language form of Standard Afrikaans and language functions of varieties such as Cape Afrikaans are needed so that Afrikaans can serve the entire Afrikaans-speaking community. Yet the school context and textbooks are predomi-nantly underutilised as a source of language legitimation in the course of the current discussion on restandardisation. Bearing in mind Haugen’s (1987:637) view that changes to the language form should be implemented by educational institutions, this conceptual article investigates how the inclusion of Cape Afrikaans in textbooks can legitimise this variety and ultimately advance the restandardisation of Afrikaans. First, Odendaal’s (2012:125-126) theoretical exposition of the concept of “restandardi-sation” is discussed. From her definition, the conclusion is made that restandardisation could be a social restitution aimed at democratising Afrikaans by using varieties such as Cape Afrikaans as a source to expand the standard variety. The democratisation of Afrikaans entails that varieties like Cape Afrikaans must be destigmatised by introducing it in authoritative spaces such as the education system. In this way, the prestige of the varieties is increased, and it is established as a legitimate form of Afrikaans. It is argued that textbooks possess discursive qualities that offer productive possibilities to promote the restandardisation of Afrikaans by establishing Cape Afrikaans as a legitimate language form. These discursive qualities of textbooks are explored, as well as how textbooks as linguistic resources bring about legitimation.