Original Research

Die sosio-historiese en sosio-linguistiese aspekte van die leksikale veranderings van die 1936- en 2001-psalmomdigtings

S. van Helden, A. E. Coetzee
In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi | Vol 40, No 2 | a340 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v40i2.340 | © 2006 S. van Helden, A. E. Coetzee | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 30 July 2006 | Published: 30 July 2006

About the author(s)

S. van Helden, Departement Afrikaans, Universiteit van Johannesburg, South Africa
A. E. Coetzee, Departement Afrikaans, Universiteit van Johannesburg, South Africa

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Abstract

The socio-historical and socio-linguistic aspects of changes in the lexicon of the 1936 and 2001 rhyming of psalms
The singing of the psalms is historically associated with the accuracy of meaning transmitted by Scripture by means of user- friendly language usage. The renewing of an aging language is important for subsequent generations to facilitate meaningful interpretative singing of the psalms. By elimination of the large amount of archaic lexical expressions of the 1936 rhyme from the 2001 version, a clear movement in the reformative religious register of Afrikaans was achieved. The 2001 rhyme accelerates the process of elimination of such archaic and inaccessible words from the register. The movement of inaccessible words and the availability of Afrikaans synonyms to facilitate an effective transfer of meaning in such a new rhyme, were tested according to three social variables. Simplification is the most prominent linguistic force that manifests itself in the 2001 rhyming of the psalms. The psalmographer has used a totally new approach by using a selection of techniques in the 2001 rhyme. Observing the presence of intense change in the most conservative register of a language, that of religion, emphasises the intensity of the social and linguistic powers at work in Afrikaans.

Keywords

Accuracy Of Meaning; Change In Language; Religious Register; Rhyme Of The Psalms; Transmission

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