Mpahlwa, Matthew Xola2026-06-122026-06-122025https://hdl.handle.net/10566/24415This thesis investigates interpreter-mediated communication in criminal court proceedings involving isiXhosa-speaking participants in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Although the Constitution of South Africa recognises eleven official languages, English remains the dominant language of record in the judiciary, creating structural communicative inequalities for speakers of indigenous languages. Situated at the intersection of Forensic Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, and Language Policy Studies, the study draws on theoretical perspectives from linguistic imperialism, language ideology, and interactional sociolinguistics to examine how institutional language practices shape courtroom discourse and legal meaning-making. Particular attention is given to the role of court interpreters as active participants in legal interaction rather than neutral transmitters of speech. Using a qualitative discourse-analytic methodology, the research analyses a corpus of interpretermediated courtroom interactions alongside lawyer–client consultations prior to trial. The findings demonstrate that interpreters play a constitutive role in the co-construction of legal discourse. Through processes such as interpretive reformulation, code-switching, and dialectal negotiation, interpreters shape how testimony is represented within the evidential record. In several instances, shifts in interpretation modify the pragmatic force of legal questioning and witness responses, thereby influencing the evidential weight of statements and the perceived agency of accused persons. The thesis makes three principal contributions to knowledge. First, it provides one of the few empirical discourse-based studies of isiXhosa–English courtroom interpretation, addressing a significant gap in scholarship on language practices in African legal contexts. Second, it advances theoretical debates in forensic linguistics by demonstrating how interpreter mediation functions as a site where institutional language ideologies and power relations become embedded in legal discourse. Third, the study extends sociolinguistic understandings of multilingual institutional communication by showing how dialectal variation and language hierarchies interact with legal procedure to shape access to justice. By foregrounding the linguistic dimensions of legal participation, the research highlights how the continued dominance of English in the judiciary contributes to communicative asymmetries that may disadvantage indigenous language speakers. In doing so, the thesis contributes to broader debates on language rights, linguistic inequality, and equitable access to justice in multilingual postcolonial societies, while offering empirical insights that have implications for interpreter training, courtroom practice, and language policy in the South African legal system.enForensic linguisticslinguistic imperialismsociolinguistic dynamicscode-switchingisiXhosa regional dialects or varietiesThesis