Sheng and Engsh in Kenya's Public Spaces and Media (original) (raw)

This chapter discusses the role of the media in the development in Kenya of Sheng (showing largely African language syntax with salient English lexis) and Engsh (showing the reverse, i.e. largely the syntax of English and lexis from several African languages) in Kenya. While African urban youth languages may start as antilanguages of the streets, many develop a much wider speech community due to their gradual spread from the street and the informal transport environment into song lyrics and thus the radio, and into comic strips and cartoons and thus the printed press. The use of these two youth language varieties in these media has the additional effect of making them acceptable for a larger part of the society, as a style of youth and modernity and rendering this style fit for advertisement and use on television, in soap operas. This development is illustrated with Sheng and Engsh. Keywords: Sheng, Engsh, urban youth, street language, new media, style shift, modernity, matatu, Kenyan English, Swahili