A sociolinguistic survey of the Nyiha and Nyika language communities in Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi (original) (raw)
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The promotion of Kiswahili is one of the main goals of the policies of the East African Community. However, only a limited amount of research has been conducted on the perception and application of the language outside of the traditionally Kiswahili-speaking countries of Tanzania and Kenya. Especially in Uganda, the third largest country of the region, there is a lack of understanding for the role of the language in public communication. This article presents data on the use of Kiswahili in everyday communication and discusses the language attitudes and language ideologies of the people in Northern Uganda’s largest city. It shows that, despite generally positive attitudes towards the language, there is little to no use for it in public communication. The results of the study, combined with perceived negative attitudes from other parts of the country towards the implemented policies, question the effectiveness of the proposed measures for promoting Kiswahili within the present parame...
Journal of Language Survey Reports, 2023
This report describes a sociolinguistic and extensibility survey conducted from 2016–2018 among the Yawo people of Mozambique. The Yawo are a primarily homogeneous people group living predominantly in southern Malawi, northwestern Mozambique, and southern Tanzania. The initial phase of the survey began in 2016 and involved determining the locations of Yawo communities in Niassa Province before commencing the survey proper in 2017. Ciyawo is the name of the language that Yawo people speak. (ISO code [yao]). The survey’s primary purpose was to determine whether Ciyawo written materials developed in Malawi would be adequate for use in Mozambique. The survey was conducted utilising three instruments: wordlist elicitation with both phonological and lexicostatistical analyses, recorded text testing (retelling method) of new Malawian Ciyawo Bible narratives, and sociolinguistic questionnaires in the form of interviews in the Ciyawo language. During the research, it was discovered that Ciyawo in Mozambique is distinct from that spoken in Malawi (and Tanzania) in terms of phonological and lexical differences. It was also found that Mozambicans generally do not understand Malawian Ciyawo adequately enough to use Malawian literary materials, including the Bible. Although there is general mutual intelligibility, the survey results indicated the presence of Ciyawo variants between countries and regions. Furthermore, the results of the questionnaires show that Mozambicans desire the development of specifically Mozambican Ciyawo literature. This is especially emphasised in the common idea that the Yawo people originate from Mozambique, and so it is important that Mozambican Ciyawo is appropriately represented. Although the primary purpose of this survey relates to whether Malawian Ciyawo literary materials are suitable for Mozambicans, the results of the wordlists, recorded text tests, and sociolinguistic questionnaires are helpful to anyone wishing to understand the sociolinguistic situation of Ciyawo in Mozambique. This includes government departments and non-governmental organisations looking to develop curricula or development programs among Yawo communities (particularly in Mozambique). https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/97250
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