LLP: Quentin Williams (University of the Western Cape) ‘In search of Kaaps: from slavery to linguistic citizenship futures’.

Dear all,

You are warmly invited to join us on Thurs 24 May, 4pm British Standard Time for the final talk in the Language, Literature and Politics Research Group’s ‘The Critical Citizen?’ series. This week we will be welcoming Quentin Williams (University of the Western Cape) to discuss ‘In search of Kaaps: from slavery to linguistic citizenship futures’. Please share with anyone who may be interested and register via Eventbrite.

In search of Kaaps: from slavery to linguistic citizenship futures

Thursday 25 May 2023, 16:00 – 17:00 BST

Online

Speakers: Quentin Williams

Kaaps is a latter-day language influenced by Khoe and San languages, creole Portuguese, Bazaar Malay, Kaaps-Dutch, Arabic and English. Its creole origins begin in the 1700s at the Cape Colony where travellers would hear the language of the enslaved informally used in the kitchen, on the streets, on farms and religious gatherings, and would often describe them as uttering ‘peculiar noises’ (Shell, 1994). In this talk, Quentin argues that the slave, creole biography of Kaaps involved the transformation of peculiar noises into a coherent description of its linguistic system that today require our attention in order to chart the linguistic citizenship futures of the speakers. More details and register via Eventbrite.