The Development and Use of Economic Terminology and Content on Indigenous Radio in the Context of Multilingualism in South Africa

South Africa is a multilingual society where English remains the dominant language in education, commerce, and society. The black majority population remains largely excluded from these spheres since they primarily speak indigenous African languages. Radio plays an important linguistic and comprehending role in connecting indigenous language speakers to economic activity and the economy more generally. This chapter examines the composition of radio content, the process used to create radio content, and the strategies used to formulate economic terminology in an indigenous language, all of which improve accessibility to radio listeners who are not English natives. Using Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), interviews, and publicly available podcasts, the chapter explores the processes and strategies that current affairs and economic news radio anchors and producers implement to accommodate their audiences linguistically. The chapter also thematically analyses current affairs and economics podcasts broadcast in isiZulu and English using a self-developed framework. Findings suggest that economic terminology development is a creative process that involves the organic building of vocabulary using African proverbs, sayings, and lived experiences. The chapter recommends that strategies be formulated to improve and enhance the cohesion and communication between linguists, economists, and economic journalists, and terminology related to the households, environment, and heterodox economics.