Is the Tanzanian Ngoni Language Threatened? A Survey of Lexical Borrowing from Swahili

Autor/inn/en	Rosendal, Tove; Mapunda, Gastor
Titel	Is the Tanzanian Ngoni Language Threatened? A Survey of Lexical Borrowing from Swahili
Quelle	In: Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 35 (2014) 3, S.271-288 (18 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0143-4632
DOI	10.1080/01434632.2013.864659
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; African Languages; Language Skill Attrition; Language Maintenance; Language Usage; Linguistic Borrowing; Code Switching (Language); Bilingualism; Oral Language; Vocabulary; Research; Tanzania + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Africa; Language; Languages; Afrika; Sprachen; Afrikanische Sprache; Sprachverfall; Sprachpflege; Sprachgebrauch; Lehnwort; Bilingualismus; Oral interpretation; Mündlicher Sprachgebrauch; Wortschatz; Forschung; Tansania
Abstract	Tanzania's post-independence language policy has promoted Swahili as a means of achieving national and linguistic unity. This policy has affected the Ngoni language in south-western Tanzania. Today, Swahili has permeated communication all over Tanzania, even in rural and remote areas. This paper discusses lexical borrowing and especially borrowing in the basic vocabulary, which is considered less susceptible to borrowing, to establish the vitality of Ngoni in this bilingual setting. In using a new method where locally produced photos are used for elicitation, and mirroring the data with socio-demographic metadata, the results contribute to the understanding of what borrowing implies regarding the future of the language. Age-related differences were found amongst Ngoni speakers, but the differences in language use attributed to socio-demographic factors were far fewer than expected. Borrowing is solidly established not only among the young in the Ngoni community. Both borrowing and codeswitching (CS) were also frequent in typically rural settings, among subsistence farmers, where Swahili was found to be penetrating deeply into oral communication. Not only gap-filling concepts related to modern life were borrowed from Swahili; even terms used in traditional life, like farming, were borrowed, as well as basic concepts. This indicates that the Ngoni language may be threatened. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10