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Assignment number: 04
Assignment heading: Forms of address, greeting and
gesture
Name and Surname: Khutso Mamabolo
Student number: 62983105
Group number: 83T
Name of department and University: Department of African
language, Unisa
Course code: AFL1501 (Language through an African lens)
Name of instructor: Dr JO Nene
Name of TA: Mrs Amelia Walker
Due date: 24/06/2021 2
Task 1: Introduction
Your Observation 15
Forms of greeting - uncomfortable? 0
Task 1: Student Total - 15
Task 2: Body
Four terms of address & Setting 9
Whom are you addressing 4
Give the term in the original language 6
Translation and Meaning 12
Formal address. 5
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Task 2: Student Total - 36
Task 3
Appropriate address: Lecturer, TA,
Students 8
Does your form of address change -
feelings 5
Task 3: Student Total - 13
Conclusion 3
Student: Conclusion Total 3
Technical Aspects 3
Technical Aspects: Student Total - 3
Student Assignment Total: 70

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Task 1
Introduction

I am currently in Soshanguve, a township north of Pretoria, Gauteng, a multicultural

and multilingual city with Sotho, Shangaan, Nguni, and Venda cultures. Soshanguve
is a formal township, and the date of the observation was June 15, 2021, so I
decided to walk around the streets of Soshanguve with the mandate of greeting
everyone I met in order to learn a little about their languages and how they greet
each other on a daily basis. Currently employed at the Soshanguve Crossing
Medical Center. I commute to work by taking public transportation. As I walk past the
taxi rank, I hear two male taxi drivers greeting each other in Sepedi and Venda. To
continue their conversation, they switched to Sepitori (a mix of Tswana and
influences from Tsotsitaal, Afrikaans, and other Bantu languages from the region).
During my observations, I had the pleasure of passing by a taxi rank and conversing
with the taxi drivers. Many of them speak different languages and come from
different cultures, but when they get together, they speak the same language,
Sepitori (a mix of Tswana and influences from Tsotsitaal, Afrikaans, and other Bantu
languages from the region), and greet each other with the words mei chomie, which
translates to hello in English. One of the drivers purchased an energy drink from a
woman selling it at the taxi rank before returning to the other drivers. When I saw
him, he raised his hand as if he wanted to beat someone with it, then the friend
raised his hand as well, and they clasped their hands together, saying "otherwise?"
which translates as "How are you, my brother?""Ei ku rough Mfana," his friend said in
response. This means that things aren't looking good boy. These are conversations
with taxi drivers who work together at Soshanguve crossing taxi rank, their
conversation was informal because they are friends, and they speak in an informal
and friendly manner. This is because they are unprepared for this discussion and I

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believe it’s something they do every time they meet. When taxi drivers are at the
rank, they may use a social distance because they are afraid of their rank managers,
who are constantly reminding them of the social distance between them and their
clients, who are people who use public transportation.
Despite wearing musk, these two Wiseman colleagues shook and clapped hands as
colleagues, indicating that they did not use social distance. This is an informal
observation, and it is part of my daily life because I use public transportation the
majority of the time, even though I don't always use informal language. I'll use it with
my friends from time to time.
This method of address is nothing new to me, nor is it suspicious, because we use it
every day. As a result, even though we have to change it occasionally due to Covid
19, I am comfortable with this type of address. We must do whatever our
government instructs us to do in order to prevent the spread of Covid 19, especially
since we work in public places.

Task 2
Body

FIRST FORM OF ADDRESS

MY CULTURAL FORM OF ADDRESS

The most important and effective way to reach out to a person is to greet him/her in
his/her own language. In true Northern Sotho tradition greeting is a very important
procedure. It is a structured encounter and it is considered ill-mannered not to greet
either a friend or a stranger in passing. Ubuntu (humanity towards others) plays a
prominent role in the African culture. It is therefore not sufficient to merely say
Dumelang! “Means hello” You should also take the time to enquire about the other
person’s well-being. Dumêlang! can be used at any time of the day or night. It is
literally a command, which is given to someone to ‘agree’, in other words to answer
the greeting. The singular form, viz. Dumêla! is nowadays regarded as too
commanding and impolite, and therefore the plural form Dumêlang! Is preferred even
when one person is addressed. Le kae? “Means how” are you is actually a plural
form, which indicates that you are inquiring about the person and his/her family
members. It is also an indication of respect. It literally means ‘Where are you?’. The
reply Re gôna ‘We are here’, means ‘We are fine’. Who greets first? The person who
arrives somewhere is supposed to greet those present first -status or seniority does
not play a role. Should it happen that two people arrive at the same place
simultaneously, e.g. if they meet in town, it does not matter who greets first. Forms of
address: When greeting a person older than yourself (more or less your parents’

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age), tate 'father' would be used for a man and mma 'mother' for a woman. For
greetings of people of your grandparents’ age rakgolo, 'grandfather', and koko
‘grandmother’ are used as forms of address. Greeting someone of your own age you
would address her as sesi, 'sister', and buti, 'brother' for the male counterpart or
kgaetšedi specifically to address the opposite gender. Saying goodbye: The person
leaving first should be the first to say goodbye. It would be impolite of the other
person(s) to terminate the conversation first. When saying goodbye to one person
you would say Sepela gabotse (‘Go well’) or Šala gabotse (‘Stay/remain well’). When
saying goodbye to more than one person, Sepelang gabotse or Šalang gabotse
would be used. You can also end the conversation by merely saying Gabotse! “stay
well”

SEOCOND FORM OF ADDRESS

I overheard an English address. The neighborhood at this address is one of Durban's

neighborhoods. Mr. Dlamini led us through the meeting, and the speaker referred to
that person as the counselor. Before leaving the stage, the speaker addressed Mr.
Dlamini, the counselor. Around 15:00pm, the meeting took place in Durban's Inanda
Suburb. They begin by shaking hands and greeting each other, and then the speaker
exits the stage to allow the counselor to begin his speech. They greet each other
formally with their hands. The counselor then greets us as community members,
everyone in the room, and addresses the community about the purpose of the
meeting.

THIRD FORM OF ADDRESS

This is an informal form of address in which I met with a university friend of mine at
her shake (informal settlement). I visited her on the first of June 2021 during the day
at around 12 p.m. because it was too hot in the morning. When I entered her shake,
she began by greeting me. "Hello miss, are you feeling the cold? are you busy
traveling outside with
4 it is too cold outside?" I replied, "I feel the cold and I see how it
is cold outside but it is a must for me to come recheck you Sikhokho sami." Sikhokho
sami is a Zulu expression that means "my best friend." You can use this form of
address as formal addressing with a formal greeting, such as good day miss Nsele,
and I can respond by saying good day my friend instead of Sikhokho sami, and I can
also use her name instead of saying my friend.

FORTH FORM OF ADDRESS

ZULU CULTURE

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There are a lot of forms of addressing people that we use in my culture. It depends
on who we are addressing and whether we are addressing that person in a formal or
informal setting.The way we address the elderly differs from how we address the
young.I'll begin by demonstrating how we address the Zuulu man who leads the
community in Zuulu cultural beliefs and community meetings.This type of address is
taking place in my community early on Wednesday at around 10:00 a.m. We always
have community meetings called 'imbizo,' where community members gather and
discuss the community's needs, problems with the community, and how they can
overcome those problems.The person who has the power to do all this is called
‘Induna yenkosi'. Induna yenkosi means the superior of a chief. Induna yenkosi is in
charge of collecting all memorandums from the community and delivering them to
the chief or the counselor, depending on whether the counselor has electric
problems or not.

If the leader of the community is about to deliver a speech, first of all, one of the
community men, called ‘iphoyosa lenduna', introduces the induna before he starts
his speech by talking with the community. Iphoyisa Lenduna refers to the police
chief.Iphoyisa Leduna starts by saying "sanibonani mphakathi, njengamanje
sekuyisikhathi sendlunkulu. Ngakeyondlela ngizodedela umntwana oyisithunywa
sasendlunkulu ukuba athule udaba lwakhe. Umntwana ngu Nduna u Mnumzane
Nsele. Ngibonge Ithuba. Ingamgawe Mntwana (Nsimbinu) (translation: Good
morning, good people; now is the time to give the Prince of the tribe, Mr. Nsele, the
opportunity to deliver his speech (Nsele clan 'Nsimbili') to you. I thank you.

This form of address expresses respect for the person in charge of the
community.Despite the fact that we use these traditions in our community, we
respect them and address them in accordance with their ranks.Since we have a
chief, Induna and Iphoyisa Lenduna, all these are men's things. According to our
cultural beliefs, a woman is not permitted to lead community meetings or any other
meetings involving a man. This is a formal form of address; we address meetings
where our leaders are present out of respect for our leaders.There is no informal way
to address Induna yenkosi; they are always addressed formally as princes, followed
by their names and surnames.

Task 3

To begin, I'd like to state that the form of address cannot be changed based on how
you feel. Yes, the days have changed. Sometimes you send an email when you are
happy, and sometimes you send an email when you are angry, but the person who
receives your email does not want to see your emotions; instead, he or she wants to
know why you sent the email. As a result, the emotion I am experiencing at the time
has no bearing on how I address the recipient of my email.

The first thing I remember is that my lecturers and teacher's aides are not my friends,
and they are sometimes older than me. There are professionals first and foremost. I
couldn't send the email to the lecturer and the T.A just to double-check it. Every

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email I send them is important, and I expect them to respond as soon as they read it.
When I send an email about a lecture or teacher assistance, I only consider the day,
which must be a weekday between Monday and Friday, and the time, which must be
between 08:00 am and 16:30 pm. Even if I send the email well before this time, I
always expect them to see it during working hours; I simply give up and respect them
after hours because I know they have families and lives outside of work; they do not
work 24 hours a day.

Another thing I keep in mind is that the lecturer does not receive 5my emails; he only
receives a large number of emails per day and must respond to all of them, so I
schedule time for myself for seven days of feedback expectations. Despite the fact
that I am constantly checking my email, before I send an email to the lecturer, I
check the grammar to see if it is formal and if the punctuation marks are correctly
used. I had an unanticipated thought, and I didn't expect to talk during the lecture; I
just asked a specific question, along with a student number and an e-mail address. I
do this because I expect the lecturer to respond to my questions directly, rather than
asking me another question and expecting me to respond to an email again.

The email I sent to my classmates It's a little different from the email I sent about the
lecture and the teacher's assistance. I am unable to include phone numbers for my
students because it is not required. I am unable to include phone numbers for my
students because they are not required. Even though we are peers, grammar is
important when discussing academic topics, unlike when discussing a language. I
simply write the subject, greet him or her by name, and then proceed to the
questions. I can include my name, module code, and email address if necessary.

CONCLUSION

My conclusion begins with the introduction, continues through the body, and
concludes with the forms of address and the formats for sending email addresses.
I've learned a lot of things, such as how to address people in formal and informal
ways, and how to use formal and informal language when speaking with different
people. I've learned the value of double-checking grammar when writing emails for
lectures, teacher assistance, and students, as well as the value of using punctuation
marks to ensure that the recipient understands them. If you send an email to ask a
question, for example, you must include the question marks at the end of your
question. I never notice any cultural differences in addressing people when I address
them in their various cultures. Above all, I learned the value of respecting one's own
culture.

References

www.formsofadress/greeting. WWW.wikipedia.addressingpeoplewiththeirrank.
Northern Sotho Theme, Greetings and Courtesies, https://www.unisa.ac.za> PDF.
Pretoria Sotho, https://en.m.wikipedia.org > wiki. Pretoria Language Dictionary,
https://www.lollybook.com

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Academic Honesty Declaration:

1. I know that plagiarism means taking and using the ideas, writings, works or
inventions of another as if they were one’s own. I know that plagiarism not only
includes verbatim copying, but also the extensive use of another person’s ideas
without proper acknowledgement (which includes the proper use of quotation marks).
I know that plagiarism covers the use of material found in textual sources and from the
Internet.

2. I acknowledge and understand that plagiarism is wrong.

3. I understand that my research proposal must be accurately referenced.

4. This research proposal is my own work. I acknowledge that copying someone else’s
research, or part of it, is wrong, and that submitting identical work to others constitutes
a form of plagiarism.

5. I have not allowed, nor will I in the future allow, anyone to copy my work with the
intention of passing it off as their own work.

6. I confirm that I have read and understood UNISA’s Policy for Copyright and
Plagiarism

Full Name…Khutso…Mamabolo………………………………………

Student No: ...62983105.........................................

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 RESULTS
Total = 70 / 100 (70%)
 COMMENTS
1 Please double check some of your paragraphs and the comments.
2 Task 1: Introduction Your Observation 15 Forms of greeting - uncomfortable? 0 Task 1: Student
Total - 15 Task 2: Body Four terms of address & Setting 9 Whom are you addressing 4 Give the
term in the original language 6 Translation and Meaning 12 Formal address. 5 Task 2: Student
Total - 36 Task 3 Appropriate address: Lecturer, TA, Students 8 Does your form of address change -
feelings 5 Task 3: Student Total - 13 Conclusion 3 Student: Conclusion Total 3 Technical Aspects 3
Technical Aspects: Student Total - 3 Student Assignment Total: 70

3 No index page
4 ???
5 You are contradicting yourself???