Rajend Mesthrie
Prof. Rajend Mesthrie – B. Paed. (Durban-Westville), B.A. Hons (UNISA), B.A. Hons (UCT), M.A. (Texas), PhD (UCT)
National Research Foundation Research Chair (Language, Migration & Social Change)
Honorary life executive member - Linguistics Society of Southern Africa
President - International Congress of Linguists (ICL20), Cape Town 2018 (http://icl20capetown.com/)
For further information: http://rajendmesthrie.com/
Recent Publications
Among Prof. Mesthrie’s publications are Language in South Africa (2002, ed.), World Englishes (with Rakesh Bhatt, 2008), Introducing Sociolinguistics (with Joan Swan, Ana Deumert and William Leap, 2nd ed. 2009), A Dictionary of South African Indian English (2010), A Handbook of Sociolinguistics (2103, ed.), and the more “popular” book, Eish, but is it English?: celebrating the South African variety (arising from a series of interviews with journalist Jeanne Hromnik, 2013).
Recent article: Mesthrie, R. 2017. Class, gender, and substrate erasure in sociolinguistic change: A sociophonetic study of schwa in deracializing South African English. Language, 93(2), pp.314-346.
Interests and Current Research Projects
General Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Socio-historical Linguistics, Language Contact & Variation, South African Englishes, Indian diaspora.
Consultation Times
By appointment.
Contact Details
Office: Room A3, AC Jordan Building
Telephone: +27 (0)21 650 5236
Email: rajend.mesthrie@uct.ac.za