Peter Karanja - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Sociolinguistics with a bias in African Languages...Kiswahili
less
Uploads
Papers by Peter Karanja
This study is an investigation of the sociolinguistic status of Kiamu and Kimvita dialects of Kis... more This study is an investigation of the sociolinguistic status of Kiamu and Kimvita dialects of Kiswahili language in Kenya. The assumption is that the dialects are threatened with death due to various factors such as the onslaught of Kiswahili, Sheng, and English. The position held is that it would not be desirable for the dialects die because they are vital linguistic, historical and socio-cultural reservoirs of the Swahili Speech Community. Kiswahili is a lingua franca in Eastern and Central Africa and is spoken by over 80 million people and is the national Language of Kenya and Tanzania. It has over 15 dialects including the standard Kiswahili. It is also one of the official languages of the African Union. Kiswahili experts rely heavily on Kiswahili dialects for its development of terminology. At the same time, given that dialects are “sub-cultures” of the language family they belong, the development of Kiswahili cannot be complete without the development of its dialects. Their vitality is, therefore, crucial. Yet, using a language attitude and use survey; individual and focus group interviews; and participant observations, this study reveals that the dialects are threatened.
ijhssnet.com
This paper examines politeness in the context of politics during question time discussions of the... more This paper examines politeness in the context of politics during question time discussions of the Kenyan Parliament; politeness is an attempt by the speaker to linguistically show he cares about the others feelings. Question time is a highly aggressive ...
Many commentators of Kiswahili language always indicate that Kiswahili has many dialects. Some sa... more Many commentators of Kiswahili language always indicate that Kiswahili has many dialects. Some say that Kiswahili has over 15 dialects. However, very few studies have been done to ascertain whether these dialects are still spoken, especially in the face of the onslaught of standard Kiswahili and other dominant languages in the Kiswahili speaking areas such as English and other local languages. By focusing on two Kiswahili dialects (Kiamu and Kimvita) and using a quantitative language use and attitude analysis, this paper observes that Kiswahili dialects are threatened with extinction not only, ironically, by the onslaught of standard Kiswahili, but also from other dominant languages such as English and emerging social dialects such as Sheng. This paper investigates the possibility that speakers of Kiswahili dialects may be shifting to standard Kiswahili and other dominant and emerging languages such as English and Sheng leading to possible death of the dialects. Using Fishman's Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale, Landweer's Indicators of Ethnolinguistic Vitality and UNESCO's Language Vitality and Endangerment Assessment Guidelines, this paper investigates the vitality of Kiamu and Kimvita dialects of Kiswahili in Kenya and arrives at the conclusion that Kiamu and Kimvita dialects and, by extension, other Kiswahili dialects in Kenya are critically endangered and are likely to die in the near future. Assumptions can also be made that some of them are already dead.
The paper concerns itself with the problems facing interpreters in the Pentecostal church sermons... more The paper concerns itself with the problems facing interpreters in the Pentecostal church sermons. The sermons are preached in English and consecutively interpreted into Kamba. Interpreting is viewed as a communicative event which occurs during cross-cultural communication when two interlocutors do not share a language. The major goal of interpreting is that a message makes the same impact on the target audience as was intended by the speaker in the source language (Angelelli, 2000). Given that interpreting is a major communication skill, the paper examines the problems that the interpreters face in the process of achieving this goal. The problems were analysed using Krashen’s (1985) Input Hypothesis and Monitor Model Hypothesis. A descriptive research design was used to obtain information from a sample population. Purposive sampling was used to select five churches that used consecutive interpreting, in which the sermons were preached in English and interpreted to Kamba. The five i...
This study is an investigation of the sociolinguistic status of Kiamu and Kimvita dialects of Kis... more This study is an investigation of the sociolinguistic status of Kiamu and Kimvita dialects of Kiswahili language in Kenya. The assumption is that the dialects are threatened with death due to various factors such as the onslaught of Kiswahili, Sheng, and English. The position held is that it would not be desirable for the dialects die because they are vital linguistic, historical and socio-cultural reservoirs of the Swahili Speech Community. Kiswahili is a lingua franca in Eastern and Central Africa and is spoken by over 80 million people and is the national Language of Kenya and Tanzania. It has over 15 dialects including the standard Kiswahili. It is also one of the official languages of the African Union. Kiswahili experts rely heavily on Kiswahili dialects for its development of terminology. At the same time, given that dialects are “sub-cultures” of the language family they belong, the development of Kiswahili cannot be complete without the development of its dialects. Their vitality is, therefore, crucial. Yet, using a language attitude and use survey; individual and focus group interviews; and participant observations, this study reveals that the dialects are threatened.
ijhssnet.com
This paper examines politeness in the context of politics during question time discussions of the... more This paper examines politeness in the context of politics during question time discussions of the Kenyan Parliament; politeness is an attempt by the speaker to linguistically show he cares about the others feelings. Question time is a highly aggressive ...
Many commentators of Kiswahili language always indicate that Kiswahili has many dialects. Some sa... more Many commentators of Kiswahili language always indicate that Kiswahili has many dialects. Some say that Kiswahili has over 15 dialects. However, very few studies have been done to ascertain whether these dialects are still spoken, especially in the face of the onslaught of standard Kiswahili and other dominant languages in the Kiswahili speaking areas such as English and other local languages. By focusing on two Kiswahili dialects (Kiamu and Kimvita) and using a quantitative language use and attitude analysis, this paper observes that Kiswahili dialects are threatened with extinction not only, ironically, by the onslaught of standard Kiswahili, but also from other dominant languages such as English and emerging social dialects such as Sheng. This paper investigates the possibility that speakers of Kiswahili dialects may be shifting to standard Kiswahili and other dominant and emerging languages such as English and Sheng leading to possible death of the dialects. Using Fishman's Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale, Landweer's Indicators of Ethnolinguistic Vitality and UNESCO's Language Vitality and Endangerment Assessment Guidelines, this paper investigates the vitality of Kiamu and Kimvita dialects of Kiswahili in Kenya and arrives at the conclusion that Kiamu and Kimvita dialects and, by extension, other Kiswahili dialects in Kenya are critically endangered and are likely to die in the near future. Assumptions can also be made that some of them are already dead.
The paper concerns itself with the problems facing interpreters in the Pentecostal church sermons... more The paper concerns itself with the problems facing interpreters in the Pentecostal church sermons. The sermons are preached in English and consecutively interpreted into Kamba. Interpreting is viewed as a communicative event which occurs during cross-cultural communication when two interlocutors do not share a language. The major goal of interpreting is that a message makes the same impact on the target audience as was intended by the speaker in the source language (Angelelli, 2000). Given that interpreting is a major communication skill, the paper examines the problems that the interpreters face in the process of achieving this goal. The problems were analysed using Krashen’s (1985) Input Hypothesis and Monitor Model Hypothesis. A descriptive research design was used to obtain information from a sample population. Purposive sampling was used to select five churches that used consecutive interpreting, in which the sermons were preached in English and interpreted to Kamba. The five i...