This thesis provides a comprehensive phonological and morphological description of the KiNgome dialect of Swahili as currently spoken in the Northern Division of Mafia Island District on the south-east coast of Tanzania. Unlike other Swahili dialects, which are succumbing to the encroachment of Standard Swahili (SSW) forms and only found in small pockets of older generation speakers, KiNgome does not face extinction at present. It stands up to be a major means of daily communication among northern inhabitants of Mafia Island. The thesis has two primary goals: The first is to provide a synchronic linguistic description of this undocumented main variety of Mafia Swahili (designated as G43d under Guthrie's classification) at the phonological and morphological levels. The second goal is to examine the KiNgome data in a diachronic perspective by comparing its phonological and morphological systems with the reconstructed Proto-Sabaki (PSA) as proposed by Nurse and Hinnebusch (1993). Where necessary I have referred to a more distant proto-language, namely Common Bantu (CB) as proposed by Guthrie (1969-71) and which we assume to be the earliest common ancestor of the Bantu languages including PSA. Relative to the rest of the Swahili dialects, KiNgome is a conservative dialect, retaining older forms presumably from a proto stage prior to the massive influence of KiUnguja (Ung) and SSW. Most of these forms survived unchanged in KiNgome and nearly so in the surrounding rural non-Unguja Southern Swahili dialects (SD). The study shows that the contemporary KiNgome forms by and large can be linked to PSA and CB: Phonologically, KiNgome has kept more transparent forms of a prenasalised voiced/voiceless series segments than any other Swahili dialect. It has largely preserved stops, both with restricted and unrestricted distribution which link directly to CB proto-segments. However, changes have also been noticed: KiNgome has a 5-vowel system when compared to the PSA/CB 7-vowel system and has undergone fully the Bantu spirantization process. It has lost an earlier tone system. Aspiration is a regular feature of KiNgome. It has no /r/: /l/ distinction; instead it has flap [r]. It also attests certain palatalised consonants in the form of /ky-/ and /ry-/, and there is a palatal /n/ which has derived from /ni-/ that expresses 1sg. A homorganic moraic nasal (N) has resulted from syncopation in classes 1, 3, and 18 where the nominal prefix was /mu-/. In congruence with other Non-Unguja SD, KiNgome displays a full 5-suffix vowel copying (CV) phenomenon and a common VHH process. In addition, it uniquely displays a ku-/ko- prefix VHH determined by verb root vowel. Morphologically, it has retained a simple verbal system characterised by an unmarked perfective/past tense with VC operating in the final vowel suffix. The most significant morphological aspect of the KiNgome nominal system is a clear opposition between classes 11 and 14. It also joins other non-Unguja SD, Comoro and Pokomo in displaying sets of 2sg and 3sg persons which are mainly determined by certain tense/aspect formatives, polarity and finite form (subjunctive). Although I have not subjected KiNgome lexical data to a lexicostatistic analysis, the thesis demonstrates the existence of a set of a peculiar lexical items that are also found in the neighbouring KiMwani, KiEkoti, Makonde, KiMakunduchi and in Old KiUnguja. The results of my field fieldwork largely corroborate Nurse and Hinnebusch's reconstruction of many features of PSA. In some cases, I have proposed a reconsideration of some aspects of their reconstruction in the light of the new data from KiNgome. The case of KiNgome is of interest to the field of Swahili dialectology and Bantu linguistics in general. Undoubtedly, it will offer valuable material for systematic comparison with other Swahili dialects as well as for the contemporary study of Swahili phonology, morphology and lexicon.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-194) / Underpinned by the premise that any text can be studied as a translation provided it is identified as such, this study theoretically uses Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) to investigate English-Swahili healthcare texts. The aim of the study was to: identify, describe and analyse linguistic and cultural aspects in the texts; identify, describe, and analyse translation strategies used in the texts; and describe and analyse the use of illustrations in the texts. The study made use of Kruger and Wallmach’s (1997) analytical framework. The Tertium Comparationis of the study was descriptive terms, cohesive devices, translation strategies, division of texts, illustrations, text titles, and taboo words. On the linguistic aspects, the study’s main findings were: that the English texts use more descriptive terms than the Swahili texts; Swahili texts have a higher frequency use of references because it contains a number of derivational and inflectional morphemes; substitution is sparingly used whereas ellipsis is almost non-existent in Swahili texts in spite of its presence in the source texts; additive and causal conjunctions were the most prevalent in the texts; and inasmuch as there were no significant differences in the use of lexical cohesion in the ST and TT, Swahili texts were found to be more cohesive due to the slightly higher number of lexical items. Regarding the cultural aspects, it was found that translators use euphemism in the translation of words considered taboo and this informed the conclusion that there reigns the euphemism norm in Swahili texts. It equally emerged that strategies used to overcome non-lexicalisation include: use of pure loan words, use of pure loan words preceded by explanation, use of indigenised loan words, use of omission and translation by a more general word. On the other hand, translators used strategies of substitution, use of general words, paraphrasing and cultural substitution to translate words considered taboo. In addition, the study found that illustrations are used in more less the same way both in the ST and TT save for some slight modifications that are done in order to align them with the target culture expectations. Furthermore, the study theoretically effectuated four norms: explicitation norm, explicitness norm, euphemism norm, and illustration norm / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt.et Phil. (Linguistics)