The Interplay of Languaging, Identity, and Culture on TikTok: A South African Perspective
DOI:
10.70211/ltsm.3026-7196.790Published:
2026-11-12Downloads
Abstract
This study investigates how South African TikTok creators mobilise multilingual and multimodal resources to negotiate language, culture, and belonging. It employs ethnographically informed qualitative digital discourse analysis of a purposively assembled corpus of 228 TikTok videos collected between April 2023 and July 2026, with selected audience comments examined alongside video content. Using Visual-Verbal Video Analysis, the study considers spoken language, captions, performance, cultural artefacts, and observable audience responses. The cases address cross-racial Afrikaans use, code-switching and accent ideologies, intergenerational language transmission, and mixed-heritage affiliations. They show how digital performances may challenge established linguistic boundaries while also attracting judgements about language ownership and authenticity. Because selection was platform-mediated and purposive, findings describe situated meaning-making rather than the prevalence of social attitudes or causal educational effects. The study contributes to digital sociolinguistics by relating linguistic repertoires and cultural histories to platform affordances and public evaluations of identity.
Keywords:
Multilingualism TikTok Identity Digital Ethnography Translanguaging South Africa SociolinguisticsReferences
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