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Odonymic changes in Central Pretoria: Representation, identity and textual construction of place

Abstract Place renaming constitutes a linguistic and highly symbolic change in the Linguistic Landscape (LL) in post-apartheid South Africa. While for opponents toponymic changes hasten the erasure of their heritage and constitute a form of reverse discrimination, for supporters they consolidate transformative processes in a “new” South Africa. In this article, I examine both sides of the argument, taking as a case in point the street renaming in a small area of Pretoria, the administrative seat of the national government. Drawing insights from existing literature in the LL, geosemiotics and geography, notably Scollon and Scollon’s (2003) interpretation of language in the material world, theories about the interrelatedness of language, place, identity, culture and textuality (e.g. Lou 2010; Rose-Redwood et al. 2010), I stand in sympathy with these odonymic changes. Indeed, I argue that they reflect a legitimate remaking of place by conflating components of group identity (ethnic, culture, history, memory) with language (odonyms). Reshaping a new cityscape is an act of restorative justice after a long period of linguistic marginalization of the majority. Being part of language policy, these changes are also seen as politicking in the sense that they involve power struggle. The inclusive policy pursued by the government of the day stands as a fair precaution.