Women and Kaaps

This article asks the question: How have women contributed to the maintenance of Kaaps? It takes as its point of departure the term kombuistaal (kitchen language) as the forerunner of Kaaps, a stigmatised variety of Afrikaans. Using a historical sociolinguistic perspective, this article argues that women’s historical contribution to the development of Kaaps has been underplayed. In foregrounding this erasure, this article contends that those same gendered roles and enforced labour in particular and often invisible spaces of cultural reproduction contributed to the survival of this language. With a focus on language change and maintenance of Kaaps through a gendered lens, this study highlights the contributions of Kaaps speakers who, by virtue of their gendered social positioning, became inextricably linked to a language which has been historically associated with the space of the kitchen.