In most African countries, and indeed other parts of the world, multilingualism is the rule rather than the exception. One could, for example, investigate in which domain each of the languages in a multilingual situation is used. It is also possible to study in linguistic terms the influence of one language on another. One may also wish to examine what is known as code switching, i.e. the use of more than one language in speech.

Uandishi kuhusu ushahidi wa maingiliano katika Bahari ya Hindi katika karne ya 18 na 19 umechukua sura mpya mara baada ya washairi mashuhuri wa Kiswahili kugusia masuala ya utamaduni wa manukato au tarabizuna katika kazi zao. Washairi hao kama vile Liyongo, Mwanakupona, Sikujua, Himidi, Abdalla na wengineo wamegusia suala la manukato kama sehemu ya utamaduni uliokopwa kutoka Asia-Arabuni au Umangani hadi pwani ya Afrika ya Mashariki. Ni kwa nini suala la manukato linatumika kama kigezo cha kuathiriana kitamaduni baina ya Wahindi, Waarabu na Waswahili? Makala haya yanajenga hoja kuwa motifu ya manukato ni mojawapo ya kielelezo cha maingiliano ya kitamaduni baina ya wadau wa Bahari ya Hindi katika kazi hizo za sanaa. Makala yanatoa fursa ya kuliangalia swala la manukato linavyoibua mfumo wa kijamii na suala zima la usawa wa kijinsia, osmolojia, mahusiano ya ndoa, utambulisho na sanaa ya mapambo. / Writing about the evidence of the Western Indian Ocean connections in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have taken a new turn following manifestation of the perfumery customs in the works of Liyongo, Mwanakupona, Sikujua, Himidi, Abdalla and others who are classical celebratory Swahili poets and yet they have evoked the perfumery trope in their works as part of the adapted oriental customs in the Swahili coastal littoral. Why is the perfumery trope used as an emblematic entity of influence and contact between Asia, Arabs and African Swahili? This article argues that the motif of perfume in those Swahili poems represents the study of cultural hybridity around the Western Indian Ocean rim. This study gives opportunity for scholars to examine how the perfumery trope symbolizes social issues, osmology (power and marginality), marital relations, identity, and ornamentation customs.

This study embarks on a survey of students’ attitudes towards Kiswahili studies at the University of Ghana. Although Swahili is said to be one of the world’s globalized languages in terms of its status as an academic discipline, as an African language, it is studied in relatively few non-East African countries. The University of Ghana is one of the few African universities, which has had Kiswahili as a course of study for over fifty years. Over this period, each year a number of students graduate with combined majors in Kiswahili and other courses. Against a background of perceived negative attitudes towards the study of Kiswahili at the University, the main objective of the study was to investigate the attitudes of students of Kiswahili at various levels (second to final year) towards Kiswahili studies, with the aim of uncovering (1) the key factors that determine these attitudes, (2) changes in their attitudes and perceptions if any, and factors that necessitated the change of attitudes from negative to positive and (3) the overall impression of these students about the study of Kiswahili at the University of Ghana and its importance to their future careers. The survey was conducted by administering a 32-item instrument with a target number of 100 students. The result of the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data showed that most students had negative attitudes towards the course prior to their enrolment due to a lack of knowledge about it. However, subsequent to enrolment and studying for some time, these attitudes changed to positive.

Some proverbs, idioms, nominal compounds, and slogans duplicate in form and meaning between several languages. An example of these between German and English is Liebe auf den ersten Blick and “love at first sight” (Flippo, 2009), whereas, an example between Kiswahili and English is uchaguzi ulio huru na haki and “free and fair election.” Duplication of these strings of words between languages that are as different in descent and typology as Kiswahili and English is irregular. On this ground, Kiswahili academies and a number of experts of Kiswahili assumed – prior to the present study – that the Kiswahili versions of the expressions are the derivatives from their English congruent counterparts. The assumption nonetheless lacked empirical evidence and also discounted other potential causes of the phenomenon, i.e. analogical extension, nativism and cognitive metaphoricalization (Makkai, 1972; Land, 1974; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980b; Ruhlen, 1987; Lakoff, 1987; Gleitman and Newport, 1995). Out of this background, we assumed an academic obligation of empirically investigating what causes this formal and semantic duplication of strings of words (multiword expressions) between English and Kiswahili to a degree beyond chance expectations. In this endeavour, we employed checklist to 24, interview to 43, online questionnaire to 102, translation test to 47 and translationality test to 8 respondents. Online questionnaire respondents were from 21 regions of Tanzania, whereas, those of the rest of the tools were from Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Pwani, Lindi, Dodoma and Kigoma. Complementarily, we analysed the Chemnitz Corpus of Swahili (CCS), the Helsinki Swahili Corpus (HSC), and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) for clues on the sources and trends of expressions exhibiting this characteristic between Kiswahili and English. Furthermore, we reviewed the Bible, dictionaries, encyclopaedia, books, articles, expressions lists, wikis, and phrase books in pursuit of etymologies, and histories of concepts underlying the focus expressions. Our analysis shows that most of the Kiswahili versions of the focus expressions are the function of loan translation and rendition from English. We found that economic, political and technological changes, mostly induced by liberalization policy of the 1990s in Tanzania, created lexical gaps in Kiswahili that needed to be filled. We discovered that Kiswahili, among other means, fill such gaps through loan translation and loan rendition of English phrases. Prototypical examples of notions whose English labels Kiswahili has translated word for word are such as “human rights”, “free and fair election”, “the World Cup” and “multiparty democracy”. We can conclude that Kiswahili finds it easier and economical to translate the existing English labels for imported notions rather than innovating original labels for the concepts. Even so, our analysis revealed that a few of the Kiswahili duplicate multiword expressions might be a function of nativism, cognitive metaphoricalization and analogy phenomena. We, for instance, observed that formulation of figurative meanings follow more or less similar pattern across human languages – the secondary meanings deriving from source domains. As long as the source domains are common in many human\'s environment, we found it plausible for certain multiword expressions to spontaneously duplicate between several human languages. Academically, our study has demonstrated how multiword expressions, which duplicate between several languages, can be studied using primary data, corpora, documentary review and observation. In particular, the study has designed a framework for studying sources of the expressions and even terminologies for describing the phenomenon. What\'s more, the study has collected a number of expressions that duplicate between Kiswahili and English languages, which other researchers can use in similar studies.

Some proverbs, idioms, nominal compounds, and slogans duplicate in form and meaning between several languages. An example of these between German and English is Liebe auf den ersten Blick and “love at first sight” (Flippo, 2009), whereas, an example between Kiswahili and English is uchaguzi ulio huru na haki and “free and fair election.” Duplication of these strings of words between languages that are as different in descent and typology as Kiswahili and English is irregular. On this ground, Kiswahili academies and a number of experts of Kiswahili assumed – prior to the present study – that the Kiswahili versions of the expressions are the derivatives from their English congruent counterparts. The assumption nonetheless lacked empirical evidence and also discounted other potential causes of the phenomenon, i.e. analogical extension, nativism and cognitive metaphoricalization (Makkai, 1972; Land, 1974; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980b; Ruhlen, 1987; Lakoff, 1987; Gleitman and Newport, 1995). Out of this background, we assumed an academic obligation of empirically investigating what causes this formal and semantic duplication of strings of words (multiword expressions) between English and Kiswahili to a degree beyond chance expectations. In this endeavour, we employed checklist to 24, interview to 43, online questionnaire to 102, translation test to 47 and translationality test to 8 respondents. Online questionnaire respondents were from 21 regions of Tanzania, whereas, those of the rest of the tools were from Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Pwani, Lindi, Dodoma and Kigoma. Complementarily, we analysed the Chemnitz Corpus of Swahili (CCS), the Helsinki Swahili Corpus (HSC), and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) for clues on the sources and trends of expressions exhibiting this characteristic between Kiswahili and English. Furthermore, we reviewed the Bible, dictionaries, encyclopaedia, books, articles, expressions lists, wikis, and phrase books in pursuit of etymologies, and histories of concepts underlying the focus expressions. Our analysis shows that most of the Kiswahili versions of the focus expressions are the function of loan translation and rendition from English. We found that economic, political and technological changes, mostly induced by liberalization policy of the 1990s in Tanzania, created lexical gaps in Kiswahili that needed to be filled. We discovered that Kiswahili, among other means, fill such gaps through loan translation and loan rendition of English phrases. Prototypical examples of notions whose English labels Kiswahili has translated word for word are such as “human rights”, “free and fair election”, “the World Cup” and “multiparty democracy”. We can conclude that Kiswahili finds it easier and economical to translate the existing English labels for imported notions rather than innovating original labels for the concepts. Even so, our analysis revealed that a few of the Kiswahili duplicate multiword expressions might be a function of nativism, cognitive metaphoricalization and analogy phenomena. We, for instance, observed that formulation of figurative meanings follow more or less similar pattern across human languages – the secondary meanings deriving from source domains. As long as the source domains are common in many human\'s environment, we found it plausible for certain multiword expressions to spontaneously duplicate between several human languages. Academically, our study has demonstrated how multiword expressions, which duplicate between several languages, can be studied using primary data, corpora, documentary review and observation. In particular, the study has designed a framework for studying sources of the expressions and even terminologies for describing the phenomenon. What\'s more, the study has collected a number of expressions that duplicate between Kiswahili and English languages, which other researchers can use in similar studies.

Watu wa pwani ya Afrika Mashariki wanaojumuisha vikundi vingi wana historia ndefu ya mitagusano na makundi mengine yakiwemo ya bara na wageni kutoka sehemu mbalimbali za ulimwengu. Mitagusano hiyo ya wapwani na wengine pamoja na athari zake ni mojawapo ya maudhui makuu ambayo Rocha Chimerah anashughulikia katika kazi zake zote. Makala hii inachanganua maudhui na vipengele vya fani vya kazi za mwandishi huyu ili kubainisha jinsi anavyoshughulikia suala lililotajwa hapo juu. Katika kufanya hivyo, makala inatathmini uhalisi wa kijamii na kihistoria unavyowakilishwa na kazi za Chimerah. Japo kazi zote za Chimerah zitarejelewa, zile za karibuni zaidi zitapewa kipaumbele.

Wataalamu mbalimbali wamefafanua dhana ya hadithi fupikwa namna mbalimbali. Kipera hiki cha fasihi andishi ni zao la athari za kimagharibi. Hadithi za fasihi simulizi zimerutubisha hadithi fupi zinazoendeleza majukumu ya tangu jadi ya kuelimisha, kuongoza, kuonya na kuburudisha. Hadithi fupi ya kisasa ina sifa za matumizi ya lugha ya nathari, masimulizi mafupi aghalabu ya tukio moja, mhusika mkuu mmoja au wahusika wachache, msuko sahili na hatimaye mshikamano na umoja wa mawazo na mtindo. Katika makala haya, tunachambua hadithi teule za Kiswahili kuhusu nafasi na ujitambuzi wa wanawake. Kachukua Hatua Nyingine ya Kyallo Wadi Wamitila inajadili hatua ambazo mwanamke anafaa azichukue ili ajikwamue na utumwa wa ndoa zinazompa mwanamume uwezo wote. Nayo Ngome ya Nafsi ya Clara Momanyi inaonyesha hatua anazochukua mtoto msichana kujikomboa dhidi ya mila na desturi zinazomnyima utambulisho wa kibinafsi na kijinsia. Wasia wa Baba ya Ahmad Kipacha inaonyesha jinsi utamaduni na mafundisho chanya ya dini kuwa njia mwafaka za kujengea utambulisho wa mwanamke. Hatimaye Usia wa Mama ya Fatima Salamah inaonyesha mtoto msichana akijihami kupitia utamaduni na mafundisho chanya ya dini dhidi ya ushawishi hasi wa mamake.

The study investigates the interface between the variables - language attitude and language use in a development context, and attempts to determine the contribution of language to Rwanda's post-conflict development, reconstruction and reconciliation. It examines the language attitudes and language use patterns of 53 students from Rwanda's public universities focusing on how students, who are all Rwandan citizens, view the role of Kinyarwanda, French, English and Kiswahili languages in twelve core areas of post-conflict development. Although post-conflict development is socio-economic, previous historical and political factors affecting Rwanda's violent past play a role as new forms of linguistic categorization - Anglophone and Francophone - emerge which may be used to camouflage previous ethnic categorizations that have had disastrous effects in Rwanda. Further, social categorizations laden with salient features of linguistic identity may influence the implementation of the post-conflict development programmes, and also affect the pace and pattern of reconciliation in Rwanda. Conclusions are based on eclectic sources: quantitative, qualitative, historical and participatory, with patterns of analysis established from secondary and historical data. The study is also grounded in the Communication Accommodation Theory that rests on issues of divergence and convergence during interaction where emerging language identities dovetail with language attitudes and language use, resulting in an interface that influences the implementation of Rwanda's post-conflict development programmes. Additionally, it is argued that the African languages such as Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili, should be considered as vehicles for Rwanda's post-conflict development, although Kinyarwanda, the home language, has in the past really not served an intranational unifying function. On the other hand, Kiswahili, unlike Kinyarwanda, has no divisive myths and identities that would inhibit post-conflict development; it is an important language in the East and Central African region where post-conflict Rwanda will play a positive and active role, and would be a language to be positively developed. / African Languages / D.Litt et Phil. (African Languages)

The study investigates the interface between the variables - language attitude and language use in a development context, and attempts to determine the contribution of language to Rwanda's post-conflict development, reconstruction and reconciliation. It examines the language attitudes and language use patterns of 53 students from Rwanda's public universities focusing on how students, who are all Rwandan citizens, view the role of Kinyarwanda, French, English and Kiswahili languages in twelve core areas of post-conflict development. Although post-conflict development is socio-economic, previous historical and political factors affecting Rwanda's violent past play a role as new forms of linguistic categorization - Anglophone and Francophone - emerge which may be used to camouflage previous ethnic categorizations that have had disastrous effects in Rwanda. Further, social categorizations laden with salient features of linguistic identity may influence the implementation of the post-conflict development programmes, and also affect the pace and pattern of reconciliation in Rwanda. Conclusions are based on eclectic sources: quantitative, qualitative, historical and participatory, with patterns of analysis established from secondary and historical data. The study is also grounded in the Communication Accommodation Theory that rests on issues of divergence and convergence during interaction where emerging language identities dovetail with language attitudes and language use, resulting in an interface that influences the implementation of Rwanda's post-conflict development programmes. Additionally, it is argued that the African languages such as Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili, should be considered as vehicles for Rwanda's post-conflict development, although Kinyarwanda, the home language, has in the past really not served an intranational unifying function. On the other hand, Kiswahili, unlike Kinyarwanda, has no divisive myths and identities that would inhibit post-conflict development; it is an important language in the East and Central African region where post-conflict Rwanda will play a positive and active role, and would be a language to be positively developed. / African Languages / D.Litt et Phil. (African Languages)

The study is an in-depth examination of code-switching in the Logoli speech community in the cosmopolitan Kangemi informal settlement area on the outskirts of the city of Nairobi. The aim of the study is to investigate the sociolinguistic and structural developments that result from urban language contact settings such as Kangemi. The main objective is to identify and illustrate the social motivations that influence the tendency of the Logoli speakers to alternate codes between Lulogoli, Kiswahili and English in the course of their routine conversations as well as the structural patterns that emerge in the process of code-switching. Various methodological techniques were used in the gathering of data, including questionnaire surveys, oral interviews, tape recordings and ethnographic participant-observation techniques are highlighted. Extracts from the corpus were analysed within a theoretical framework based on two models, namely the Markedness Model and the Matrix Language Frame Model, both developed by Myers-Scotton. The study identified and interpreted, within the Markedness Model framework, the key social variables that determine code-switching behaviour among the Logoli speech community. These include age, education, status and the various social domains of interaction. In the light of these factors, the researcher was able to explain the tendency to switch codes in different settings and confirm the study’s assumption that urban-based social factors largely determine the motivations for and the patterns of code-switching. This lead to the conclusion that code-switching is not a random phenomenon but a strategy and a negotiation process that aims at maximizing benefits from interaction. Structural features of the corpus were also identified and analysed within the Matrix Language Frame Model. The assumptions of the model were tested and found to be supported by numerous examples from the data. A number of recommendations were made for further research on minority languages in Kenya and the need for language policy in Kenya to be formulated to take these language groups into consideration. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Sociolinguistics)