| Kenya |
Sport
And Agriculture |
Kenya-Languages
The
official languages of Kenya are English
and Swahili. English is the language
of big business, higher education
and government. Most bills presented
to the National Assembly, for example,
are drafted in English. Swahili, a
Bantu language, is almost universal
in small-scale trade and the media
and schools through primary education.
It is closely connected with urban
life and with certain occupations.
Television broadcasts and print materials
are in Swahili and English.[1] Radio
broadcasts may be heard in Swahili,
English, and various African languages.
There
is considerable variation in spoken
Swahili since seven dialects and three
sub-dialects are spoken in the country.
The standard spoken Swahili is usually
considered the dialect of Zanzibar.
In rural areas, Swahili is usually
encountered only in radio and television
broadcasts, local Asian shops, or
in Swahili newspapers. In rural schools,
children are taught in their local
language, but are given instruction
in Swahili as well as English. Swahili
developed as a common coastal language
as early as the thirteenth century
and has been greatly influenced by
Arabic. It easily incorporates foreign
words (primarily from Arabic, Hindi,
Persian, and English) and consequently
has been considered the most flexible
of all languages in East Africa.
Swahili's
flexibility is also evident in a new
urban "language" that is
spoken in Kenya's cities, especially
in Nairobi. Swahili, English, and
other ethnic languages are combined
into a new language called Sheng.
Sheng uses the grammar and syntax
of Swahili, but incorporates other
languages, mainly English. It is a
language associated with Kenya's urban
youth. Each group, whether they are
Matatu operators, schoolmates, parking
boys, football teams, or neighbors,
will have a style of Sheng with a
distinct vocabulary. The historical
data shows that Sheng was developed
by the poor, marginalized people of
Nairobi's slums and informal sector.
But it did not remain there. It has
moved upwards in the social structure
of Kenyan society where speaking Sheng
has become a mark of cosmopolitan
"coolness."Educated men
and women, secondary school students,
and an increasing number of city residents
are speaking Sheng in the marketplace,
in the streets, and even at home.
Here
is one example of a greeting sequence
in Sheng:
Q:
SasaNow (How are you now?)
A:
Fit sanaVery fit (Notice the use of
the English word fit)
Q:
Story[English] (What is your story?
Or What's
new?)
A:
Mob or bestiMany or best (Mob means
"many stories"
and
besti, which uses the English word
"best," means my stories
are good or I have good news)
And
this next example shows the density
of language mixing. It is a conversation
between two friends:
Mike:
Aa maze John ninje maze hukinishow
ati ulikuwa unaishio movie? Milikuchekicheki
hulu na huku lekini sikujua ulikrosigi
weikya.
John:
Wee la Mike usiworry sikuwe na chope
lekani nilione man mwingini we kwengu
nikomkolic man hate akacough kasomething.
(Wambugu 1994:4).
Translation
Mike:
Aa my man, John, how is it, man, you
didn't tell me that you were to be
at the movie? I looked for you here
and there but I didn't know where
you were.
John:
Oh, no, Mike, don't worry. I didn't
have any money; but I saw another
friend from my place [and] I hit him
up until he coughed up something [money].
By
examining closely the construction
of some of the above words, the level
and sophistication of mixing will
become apparent.This example is rather
dense for even simple Swahili words
such as Mzee (honorific term used
when referring to elders) changes
to Maze without mixing with English
and is used in referring to a youth.
Hukinishow is an English verb embedded
in Swahili verb construction. Show
is the English verb "show",
but in this usage the meaning of "show"
has been shifted to "to tell."Milikuchekicheki
also contains an English verb within
standard Swahili verb usage. The verb
in this case is "check"
and also shifted in meaning to "looking
for you," or "checking out
for you." The English word "check"
is Swahilized by adding an "i"
at the end. Akacoughmenas to "cough
up" some money. In kasomething,-kaappears
to be present for alliteration. Over
30 distinct languages and dialect
clusters are spoken in Kenya. They
may be grouped into three categories:
Bantu, Cushitic, and Nilotic/ Paranilotic.
Bantu is spoken by 65% of the population,
Cushitic by 4%, and Nilotic/Paranilotic
by 31%. Each of these groups can further
be broken into a number of dialect
clusters. In addition to being Kenya's
predominant language group, Bantu
languages are spoken throughout central,
southern, and western Africa. Kenya's
Bantu speakers are commonly divided
into three groups: western (Luhya,
Kisii, and Kuria), central (Kikuyu,
Kamba, Meru, Embu, Tharaka, and Mbere),
and coastal (Mijikenda, Taveta, Bajun,
Pokomo, Taita, and Swahili). Cushitic
speakers, except for the Gosha and
some hunting groups, are pastoralists
who speak Somali or Galla. Cushitic
languages belong to the Afro-Asiatic
language family spoken in northern
Africa and the Middle East. Luo is
the only Nilotic language spoken in
Kenya. Nilotic languages, which are
also spoken in Sudan, Uganda, and
Tanzania, are members of the Nilo-Saharan
language family. Paranilotic languages
are divided into three groups: Teso
(Iteso, Turkana), Masai (Masai, Samburu,
Njemps), and Kalenjin (Nandi, Kipsigis,
Elgeyo, Sabaot, Marakwet, Tugen, Terik,
Pokot).
Asians
who have immigrated to Kenya speak
a variety of Indian languages including
Punjabi, Gujarati, and Konkani.
For
further reading:
Abdulaziz,
Mohamed H. 1991. East Africa (Tanzania
and Kenya). In English Around the
World:
Sociolinguistic
Perspectives edited by Jenny Cheshire.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
"Sheng"
1985. The Standard [Nairobi], 30 August
1985, pp. 17-18.
Spyropoulos,
Mary. 1987. Sheng: Some Preliminary
Investigations into a Recently Emerged
Nairobi
Street Language. Journal of the Anthropological
Society of Oxford. 18(1): 125-136.
Whiteley,
Wilfred. 1969. Swahili: The Rise of
a National Language. London: Methuen
and Co. Ltd.
Whiteley,
Wilfred, ed. 1974. Language in Kenya.
Nairobi, Kenya: Oxford University
Press.
Resources researched
by
Abdelaziz Marhoum, & David A. Samper
|
