This chapter investigates what differentiates Standard isiXhosa, often referred to by speakers as 'deep isiXhosa', from other urban varieties of the language, including Tsotsitaal. It focuses on how the standard variety has an established status, although it is seldom strictly adhered to; dialects and lexical borrowing being some of the key historical drivers of variation in the grammar and vocabulary of the language. Contemporary deviation from the standard is exemplified in the chapter, which draws from research into the speech of the national isiXhosa radio station’s announcers and listeners and into the way young isiXhosa speakers use the language. The data show a flux in the concordial system of isiXhosa, a proliferation of English loanwords and ludic inclusions of Sesotho and Tsotsitaal.

In this chapter, using historical records and academic commentaries and research, we trace language contact in Cape Town from as far back as 400 CE. We detail how people indigenous to the area, as well as migrants from the rest of Africa and abroad, adapted their speech for social, political and economic reasons, with the result that Dutch, and later Afrikaans and English, gained prominence. After this diachronic account, we focus on two contemporary speech communities in Cape Town, and through interviews and participant observations confirm that while English is considered a prestige language and the key to future success, people still speak vernacular varieties of their own languages and of English. Examination of the linguistic landscape of the city in a number of research articles shows that English (some of it non-standard) is used far more widely in signage than African languages, which are used primarily for stylistic and affective reasons. Finally, we use research into hip-hop and rap performances in the city to argue that in this domain of music, local languages and mixed codes are preferred over English.