Google Books

Google books is actually pretty awesome. With both of the authors that I'm checking out, you can read a bunch of their books in full on Google Books.

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o:
Devil on the Cross

Koigi wa Wamwere:
I Refuse to Die: My Journey for Freedom

In the introductions to these books, there are some good examples of variations of English that the authors use when they write.

More Suff

Here's some more stuff that I have...just wanted to post it up on the blog.

As far as author's go these two have a good deal of information:

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
http://www.ngugiwathiongo.com/

Koigi Wa Wamwere
http://www.artemisia.no/koigi/

Also, the Wikipedia pages have a ton of information on the books that they have written
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng%C5%A9g%C4%A9_wa_Thiong%27o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koigi_wa_Wamwere

Thank you Dr. Dillon!

Yes! Dr. Dillon showed me how to use the ICE Corpus for East African English and now it's working! I just checked some of the data I collected and found that the words school and tone used as verbs cannot be confirmed by the ICE Corpus. However, in the first 60 entries there are five examples of the word rest used as a transitive verb (as in, "till transport is arranged, rest the patient "). There were no entries for the word sack used as a noun in the context of to fire someone as it says in Zuengler (1982: 116). I wonder if this is a typo by Zuengler and she actually meant used as a verb. Anyways, it's working, so I'm off and running.

Still no luck!

Well, I went back to the ICE Corpus to see what I could do and found I could do little. Today my strategy was to cut and paste the examples given to see if they worked. The first two and fourth did, but the third, fifth, sixth, seventh, etc. didn't. I was really hoping the third would work because according to one source there are certain nouns that are used as verbs in East African English and I wanted to check some of those. Oh well, I'll ask Professor Dillon about this in class tomorrow.

A little frustrated

Today I finally turned to the ICE Corpus and tried to check some of the syntactic tendencies I've found cited in regards to East African English. I was able to check on single word inquiries like plural forms of words that I would usually use in the singular (e.g., bums, laps, bottoms, etc.). What I could never figure out was how to do multiple word inquiries. For example, if third person personal pronouns are variable between gender, how do I check for something like "my husband...she..."? I tried looking at the examples and user's manual and even cut and pasted some things, but that didn't get me anywhere. After spending more than an hour trying to make headway I've decided to move on to other work I need to do and give it another shot tomorrow.

A syntactic tidbit

Melchers and Shaw (2003: 133) state that it is common in East African English to use the question tag "not so" as in, "You like the Kenyan singer Nameless, not so?".

Another quick interview

Here's another 3-minuted interview from a Kenyan living in Japan. He's talking about environmental issues in Kenya.

<http://www.elllo.org/english/0901/T921-David-Forest.htm>

Interview with Kenyan

Here's an interview with a Kenyan guy living in Japan. It's nice and compact: about 3 minutes.

http://www.elllo.org/english/0051/o98-Alex-Soccer.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IvBH8fbarc

Kenyan Gospel Band singing in English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iddnHRWxq8k&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWERctYRK5s

Sheng Music Video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxyigzfSyBY

This is a great video of Ngugi wa Thiong'o lecturing at Santa Barbara University on University of California TV.

Youtube video

As I was browsing through youtube videos that might be useful, I came across this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5uyoLu8IqI

It's an interview of a student. I thought it was interesting because in it, she was asked what classes she was taking and English was one of them. It is taught in schools and is the main Ugandan language. She spoke perfect English with only a trace of the African accent.

It's Redykyulass

Here's a YouTube video of a documentary about some political satirists in Kenya. The narrator uses RP, but there are lots of interviews with Kenyans. Notice their inclusion of the influence of Nameless, the singer who was featured in an earlier post of mine, at about the ninth minute. The whole documentary is more than 20 minutes long, but maybe we can use parts of it.

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kpB7wZceME&feature=fvw>>

Kenya Political Satire

Here's a link to a television show in Kenya that talks about local politics:

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-jCnpfKqVU&feature=related>>

Kenyan TV Show Preview

Here's a preview to Cobra Squad, a TV show made in Kenya by Kenyans:

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLm6g2uCe1Y>>

As always, I recommend taking a look at the comments section. There are a few interesting examples of East African English syntax and some of the spellings point to their unique pronunciation.

More from Wahu

This video comes with a little bit of the chorus transcribed if you follow the "more info." link:

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1Pmhn5nqGc&NR=1>>

The comments below the post are also interesting. There appears to be some rivalry between Kenyans and South Africans. Check out the funny expressions (e.g., "you must be wrinkled") and variation of collocations (e.g. "when will you learn to speak in your behalf").

Another Music Video from Kenya

This is Wahu, she does a lot of code switching like Nameless did in the video from yesterday's post. Unfortunately, we don't get the lyrics to see the words she's saying in Kiswahili.

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2P_nu9ceV0&feature=related>>

Nameless YouTube Music Video with Lyrics

Here's a Kenyan music video. Look for the lyrics on the right under the "more info" link:

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R79287A5kqg>>

This version has the translation of the chorus in the comments section:

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md6OZhRgUgU&NR=1>>

Kenyan Blogs

http://www.eastandard.net/

At the bottom of the page is a link to 'Blogs' written by those who live in Kenya. There are a few bloggers listed which give insight to some of the current issues in Kenya. It's an excellent source to see some written English beyond that of polished newspaper articles.

Preaching In English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNdZe08zWB8&feature=related

The religious influence in Kenya is interesting. This video is a sermon in English, and the topic seems to be about responsibility in youth. The video cuts in and out of the sermon and into interview with people who attend the church. It is a little difficult to understand, but a good example of the different levels of English spoken in Kenya and how it models the British accent.

Kenya-UK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsMswMw3p6U&feature=related

Speech to London Supreme Court

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXe5N2yGbHE

The subject doesn't matter of which he is speaking doesn't matter.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EwjdaZLt54&feature=related

In both speeches they are addressing a group in London. But it is a good example of the Kenyan accent while speaking English and their forms of speech.

African Accent - Prank Call on YouTube

Okay, this one's a little painful because you know it's a prank call, but apparantly it's "authentic" Kenyan English:

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUNdD76uSzc>>

Check out parts of the transcription provided by Kenyangyal in the comments section below the video. They're nice because they illustrate some of the syntactic issues in writing.

Malaria Prevention Campaign Adverdisement

Here's a link to a Malaria prevention campaign advertisement from East Africa.

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8_hszXX0SA>>

Kenyans in Stockholm blog

Here's a link to a blog created by and for Kenyan expatriates living in Stockholm:

<<http://kenyastockholm.com/>>

We mostly see the use of interesting vocabulary; as far as I can tell, there aren't really any salient syntactic variations here.

Kenya's "top" movie - preview

On YouTube this is advertised as Kenya's top movie:

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm1UQkrlAdk>>

Kenyan Blog Site

Here's a link to a blog out of Kenya. The East African English characteristics aren't overwhelming, but she does use some East African vocabulary and syntax, for example at one point she writes, "...and i couldn't have all you good people to miss out on..." Anyways, it's kind of interesting.

<<http://lostwhitekenyan.blogspot.com/>>

Interview with Tanzanian blogger

Here's a 2.5-minute-long YouTube video with Ansbert Ngurumo, a Tanzanian blogger. The sound quality isn't great, but you can distinguish characteristics of East African pronunciation and syntax, for example he pronounces every syllable, doesn't contract words like cannot to can't, and much more.

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpDfDll54us&feature=related>>

East African English Syntax from Mesthrie and Bhatt

Resumptive pronouns in relative clauses (pp. 82-83):

• The guests whom I invited them have arrived.

Positive questions presuppose the answer 'X did happen' while negative questions insinuate that 'X did not happen' (pp. 87-88):

Q: Didn't you see anyone at the compound?

A: Yes, I didn't see anyone at the compoud.

P1: I hope you won't have any difficulty with your fees next term.

P2: I hope so.

Examples of what the authors call an undeletion pattern in African Englishes (they don't specify East African English), all from page 91:

1. Come what may come.
2. He made me to do it.
3. As you know that I am from the Ciskei.
4. The man who I saw him was wearing hat.

Nativization in Kenyan English

1. Greetings

• Q: Is it well with you?
  A: It is well.
• Mother I greet you.

2. Forms of Address

• Daughter of the Rulers (husband addressing wife)
• Son of Sipul (neighbor to neighbor)
• Son of my mother (brother to brother)
• Mwalimu (teacher)
• Bwana (African to non-African male)
• Memsahib (African to non-African female)

3. Abuses/Threats

• Go away and eat ashes.
• You will know who I am.
• P1: Cow!
  P2: Hyena!
  P1: Even you!

4. Riddles/Proverbs

• Kagutui ka Mucii gatihakugwo Ageni; the oilskin of the house is not for rubbing into the skin of strangers.
• I am Atai castor-oil, the oil that is given to cause diarrhea to girls who lack a slim waist line.

These all come from Zuengler (1982, p. 117).

Some syntactic issues in Kenyan English

§ Syntactic shifts relate to words taking on new grammatical forms:
o school used as a verb
o tone used as a verb
o rest used as a transitive verb
o sack (as in to fire someone) used as a noun

§ Modifications of the Noun Phrase:
o pure-gold jewels
o a ten cents piece
o thatchroof
o women groups
o children welfare

§ Non-count to count nouns:
o fruits
o ammunitions
o hardwares
o trouser

§ Reduplication:
o small small whisky
o long long one

These all come from Zuengler (1982).

Another short word list

Semantic shifts occur when first language meanings are transferred, resulting in extended, restricted, or redefined meanings in English:

1. get = to give birth
2. hear = to listen
3. brat = illegitimate child
4. young husband = son
5. second husband = brother-in-law
6. daughter = wife

This list also comes from Zuengler (1982, p. 116).

Another word list

Wow! We've got a ton of East African English vocabulary items. I think there's some overlap going on, but that's okay.

§ Direct lexical transfers:
o Cooking and drinking:
1. njohi = homemade beer
2. kuon = boiled corn meal
3. ojuri = type of Luo food
4. irio = food
5. busaa = homebrewed beer
6. sufuria = wide-bottomed aluminum pot
7. ugali = boiled corn meal
8. sukumawiki = spinach-like greens
o Farming and rural environment
1. githemithu and gathano = names of seasons
2. mwarki tree = castor seed tree
3. jembe = hoe
4. rungu = blunt blade for hitting
5. panga = curved-bladed tool for cutting
6. kuni = firewood
7. shamba = cultivated plot of land
o Societal concepts and relationships
1. kihii = uncircumcised boy
2. thingira = a man’s hut
3. thahu = a curse
4. baba = father
5. majengo = ghetto
o Expressions of unity and nationalism
1. wananchi = people/citizens
2. harambee = let’s pull together
3. uhuru = freedom/independence
4. baraza = large, official meeting

This list came from:

Zuengler, J. (1982). Kenyan English. In B. Kachru (Ed.) The Other Tongue: English across Cultures (pp. 112-124). University of Illinois Press: Chicago.

News reports in Swahili

http://swahili.wn.com/

This site has articles written in Swahili which is rare and worth checking out. Even though we don't know what it says.

Posts to Kenyan and East African News Media Sites

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/
(Kenyan based - All in English)

http://www.nationmedia.com/-/470864/470864/-/iobhoyz/-/index.html
(The original postings are out of date, but if you follow them, they take you to the current pages and news media)

http://kenyadaily.com/

-Swahili and Sheng have simply been replaced with English when it comes to writing. Swahili is becoming diminished in the major cities because English is taught in school and used in the business. Adults have begun to feel that learning Swahili is not a useful, because all their dealings are in English. Many of the youth know no Swahili, in the pure form.

English to Swahili Translations for everyday phrases and greetings

I found this list of translations, unfortunately it is a direct translation.


Common Sheng greetings are: “Sasa?” which is answered by “fit” or “fiti,” and “Mambo?” (or “Mambo vipi?” or just “Vipi?”), which is answered by “poa.”

It is hard to differentiate from Kiswahili without knowing the language, but it can still be fun to substitute a Sheng greeting for a Kiswahili greeting if you run into a young adult.

Pronunciation:
One of the reasons Kiswahili is not a difficult language is that it is very grammatical and pronunciation never changes from word to word.
Examples Vowels:
A as the ‘a’ in ‘father’
E as the ‘e’ in ‘best’ or the ‘a’ in ‘hay’
I as the ‘ee’ in ‘bee’
O as the ‘o’ in ‘cold’
U as the ‘ou” in “you”
Dh as the ‘th’ in ‘this’
Ng’ as the ‘ng’ in ‘sing’
Greetings and Civilities:
Greeting is extremely important in Kenyan culture. Before talking to anyone, it is polite to greet them first. After a greeting, some Kenyans may even carry on with small talk for ten good minutes before getting to the topic at hand.
Welcome Karibu
How are you (greeting a singular person)? Habari yako? or Habari gani?
How are you (greeting many people)? Habari zenu? or Habari gani?
I’m fine Nzuri, Salama, or Njema
What is your name? Unaitwa nani?
My name is ____ Ninaitwa ______
Where are you from? Unatoka wapi?
I’m from _____ Ninatoka shiut______
Where do you live? Unakaa wapi?
I live in _____ Ninakaa ______
Thank you very much Asante sana
Yes Jukso
No Nanana
Goodbye Fucareally
hello Jambo, Salamba
No problem Hakuno Matato
White person (foreigner) Mzungu
White people (foreigners) Wazungu
Finding your way around:
I want to go to _____ Nataka kwenda mpaka ______
Is this the way to ______? Hii ni njia mpaka _____?
Is this the car to _____? Hii ni gari ya kwenda _____?
How much is it to go to _____? Ni pesa ngapi kwenda _____?
Bus Basi
Train Gari la moshi
Vehicle Gari
Boat Meli
Taxi Teksi
Ticket Tikiti
Wait a little! Ngoja kidogo!
Stop here! Simama hapa!
Where is _____? Wapi _____?
Hotel Hoteli ya kulala Bank Benki
Restaurant Hoteli ya chakula
Post office Posta
Toilet Choo
Hospital Hospitali
Police station Stesheni ya polisi
Accommodation:
Where is a hotel? Wapi hoteli ya kulala?
Do you have a room for one person? Kuna chumba kwa mtu moja?
Do you have a room for two people? Kuna chumba kwa watu wawili?
Is there hot water? Kuna maji ya moto?
How much is the room? Chumba ni pesa ngapi?
I want to see the room please. Nataka kuona chumba tafadhali.
For one day Siku moja
For one week Wiki mzima /moja
Key Ufunguo
Animals:
Bird - Ndege
Crocodile - Mamba
Elephant - Ndovu/tembo
Giraffe - Twiga
Hippopotamus - kiboko
Hyena - fisi
Insects/bugs - wadudu
Lion - simba
Monkey - tumbili
Mosquito - mbu
Rhinoceros - kifaru
Snake - nyoka
Water buffalo - nyati
Numbers:
1 moja
2 mbili
3 tatu
4 nne
5 tano
6 sita
7 saba
8 nane
9 tisa
10 kumi
11 kumi na moja
12 kumi na mbili
20 ishirini
30 thelathini
40 arobaini
50 hamsini
60 sitini
70 sabini
80 themanini
90 tisini
100 mia moja
200 mia mbili
1000 elfu moja
4567 elfu nne mia tano sitini na saba
Emergencies:
I’m sick mimi mgonjwa
I need a doctor ninahitaji daktari
I’m pregnant nina mimba
hospital hospitali
pharmacy duka la dawa
medicine dawa
Security:
Help! Saidia!
I’m lost Nimepotea
I’ve been robbed Nimeibwa
Don’t bother me. Usinisumbue
Go away Kwenda kabisa
I have no money Sina pesa
At the restaurant:
Vegetables and Grains:
Beans (pinto, kidney) Maharagwe
Cabbage Kabichi
Carrots Karoti
Cassava mMuhogo
Kale Sukuma wiki
Lettuce Salad
Onions Vitunguu
Potatoes Viazi
Rice Wali
Tomatoes Nyanya
Vegetables (greens) Mboga
Meat:
Beef - Nyama ya ng’ombe
Goat - Nyama ya mbuzi
Kebabs - Mushkaki
Meat - Nyama
Mutton - Nyama ya kondoo
Pork - Nyama ya ng’uruwe
Crab - Kaa
Fish - Samaki
Lobster - Kamba
Chicken - Kuku
Fruit:
bananas - ndizi
coconut - nazi
dates - tende
fruit - matunda
guava - pera
limes - ndimu
mangoes - maembe
oranges - machungwa
papayas - paipai
passion fruit - pashoni
pineapples - mananasi
sugar cane - miwa
Other useful words and phrases:
boiled - chemsha
bread - mkate
butter - siagi
cold - baridi
cup - kikombe
Do you have____? - Kuna _____?
eggs - mayai
food - chakula
fork - uma
fried - kaanga
glass - glasi
hot - moto
hot(spicy) - kali
knife - kisu
napkin - kitambaa
pepper - pilipili
plate - sahani
raw - mbichi
ripe - mbivu
roast - choma
table - meza
salt - chumvi
spoon - kijiko
soup - supu
sweet - tamu
without meat - bila nyama

Kikuyu

Here's the wikipedia article on the Kikuyu people and their language. The article says that 22% of the people in Kenya are Kikuyu, and a lot of them speak the language. For some reason I was under the impression that English and Swahili were the 2 main languages in Kenya, but is seems like a good number of people speak Kikuyu.

people	Agĩkũyũ
language	Gĩkũyũ

Here's the wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikuyu

Leading Kenyan Song Artist (at least at some point)

Here's a link to a CD published in 2001. Apparently Eric Wainaina was and still is a popular singer/songwriter from Kenya. His CD is interesting because it is a combination of English, Swahili, and Kikuyu. To me, he sounds fluent in English without much of an accent at all. I don't really know how good his Swahili is, but it sounds to me like he is equally comfortable (at least with singing) with each language.

I couldn't find any information on his primary language or first language, but here's what I did find:

Samples of his CD tracks (pretty cool music)

Wikipedia entry for him. It discusses his background a little bit, but nothing too much on languages.

Funny video

This video comes up in youtube when you search for East Africa or Kiswahili language. The video is pretty funny, and you can kind of tell what the characters are saying because it is a simple Tom and Jerry cartoon. More interesting for us might be the comment section where some people have actually posted some comments in Kiswahili as well as in English.

Some of the comments are in English, but some are a mix of English and Kiswahili. I was able to pick out a few words that we've brought up in the posts. I saw the first post that says "hahahahaha too funny mazee!" which is funny, and I think mazee might be a slang version or something of mzee which means elder, as I mentioned in my last post. It could be a sign of respect, but I'm not sure, maybe I'm just crazy.

Anyways, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWQ_Vm73iLw

Common East African Words

Wikipedia has a short list of common words found in East African English, but more helpfully has included the etymology and some background on where the words have come from. I found it interesting that there was so much variety on where the words came from. (Most common were English and Swahili, but there were other Indian and African pidgins, etc. in there as well).

For example:

Boda-Boda means bicycle or motorcycle (more specifically one used as a taxi) . Boda is derived from Border so Boda-Boda literally would be "border to border."

Mzee comes from Swahili and means "Elder." Zee in Swahili means "old"

For wikipedia's complete list go here.

Numbers of English Speakers in East African Countries (1995)

Melchers and Shaw report in their 2003 book, World Englishes, that in 1995 there were 2,576,000 people with a functional command of English in Kenya, 2,000,000 in Uganda, and 3,000,000 in Tanzania. These numbers seem to contradict the information reported in Kanyoro (1991) that I summarized in a previous post that made it sound like English was much more prominent in Kenya than in Tanzania. Melchers and Shaw list both countries as having a population of about 28,000,000 in 1995. I hope the situation clears up as I read more about the topic.

Some verb issues from Mesthrie and Bhatt (2008)

Mesthrie and Bhatt (2008) list some changes in verb categories related to phrasal verbs in East African English:

1. Some phrasal verbs are used without a particle: e.g. pick instead of pick up.
2. Some non-phrasal verbs are used with a particle: e.g. pick up a quarrel for pick a quarrel.
3. Some prepositional verbs are used without a preposition: e.g. provide for provide with.
4. Some prepositiaonal verbs are used with a different preposition: e.g. congratulate for for congratulate on.

They also mention a group of verbs derived from nouns that also take on the prepostion associated with those nouns (from Schmeid, 2004): e.g. advocating for, demand for, stress on, mention about and attend to.

Another syntactic tidbit

Mesthrie and Bhatt (2008) cite Schmied (1991) as reporting that in East African English there is alternation between 3rd. person singular and zero forms.

Why my Blood(Ugandan Movie) 3

Here's the third instalation of the Ugandan movie.

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9435zAcAkM&feature=PlayList&p=B0BDC4F3C9C17280&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2>

I'm not sure how many there are in all. I see up to 10 episodes listed on Youtube.

Kenyan Peace Video/Song

This video is pretty sweet...it was made by a group called Wakenya Pamoja, which is a bunch of Kenyan artists that have come together in a movement for peace. Some of the video is pretty understandable, but there are English subtitles to make it easier.

Also, their website:

http://www.wakenyapamoja.com/MT/Wakenya/

I've got more stuff I'll be throwing up today.

Why my Blood(Ugandan Movie) 2

Here's the second part of the movie from Uganda. It picks up from where the first one left off with that couple near a lake. For the first two minutes it just shows them hanging out together without any dialogue while Celine Dion plays in the background, then it cuts to the two brothers talking.

<<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gwogd-jaZk&feature=PlayList&p=B0BDC4F3C9C17280&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1>>

More info on Sheng

Sheng is not wide spread throughout Kenya. Instead the "indigenous/slang" language is concentrated within the Urban cities, mainly it seems in Nairobi. As well as being used mainly by the "urban youth", creating more of a lifestyle out of the language, than just the tradition methods of communication. Systematically the youths are more fluent in Sheng than in Swahili.
Translations and dictionaries in Sheng are few and far between because of the constant change of the language. Interestingly enough the combination of Swahili and English don't seem to be apparent in this new slang. How it has come to be derived is unique.
Ex:
English:        Swahili:           Sheng:
Money            Pesa               Bakes             
Father             Baba              Bazenga
Butt                Kikumbo        Diab

The list goes on ofcourse. This might be something for us to consider when see how they not only pronounce words but how they associate their meaning.

Derived Words from other Languages

On the theme of Dictionaries I think it is also apt to include which words or at least how words within the Swahili Language have been influenced on other languages than just English. It may be a little off topic for our class but could prove interesting.
Swahili itself derives about 35% of its words from Arabic as as well as other African Languages into their vocab.
Also the African Union (AU) doesn't recognize Swahili as an official language in its 52 African States. Falling under the umbrella of the "African Academy of Languages," Arabic, French, English and Portuguese are the official yet not necessarily considered the "working" languages of each country. As of 2007 Swahili and Spanish weren't incorporated.
However the translation of documents among the different languages is exceedingly difficult because they are not the "working" languages. Meaning it will prove difficult to find books published in the Vernacular of Swahili. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Union

Various Dictionaries - Kasumi Project

The Kasumi Project focuses on introducing more of Swahili to the world as well as providing existing dictionaries that are translated into many different languages. Also notable is that the letters "Q and X" are not included in their alphabet. The site provides instant translation as well as branch site that provide phrases in Swahili and English.
               www.kamusiproject.org

It also includes pronunciation and syntax, dialects, derived words, terminology, etc. etc.
Everyone may be interested in checking out and exploring this site if you haven't already.
               http://kamusiproject.org/swahili/serve_files/txt/e/eall.txt

Ex:

Entry below is agenda
------------------------------------------------------------
[English Word] agenda
[English Plural] agendas
[Swahili Word] ajenda
[Swahili Plural] ajenda
[Part of Speech] noun
[Class] 9/10

Video in Maasai

FYI:
I have on order/hold a video that chronicles the Maasi people that is supposed to be in English and Maasai. I thought it would be interesting even though it isn't in Swahili.

Sheng as the new form of English and Swahili mixed together

This website is a great source of seeing the differences between not only English and Swahili but with the new form called Sheng. (If you are research on your own for more info on Sheng, know that it is also a instrument played in China).
http://www.sheng.co.ke/engsh/kamusi.asp

A brief example the website provides is:
Sheng:                English:
"Breeze"           "hanging out with a girl"

details of "Breeze"

Pronounciation	bri-iz
Area of origin	Unknown
First year around	Unknown
Meaning	Hang around without a girl (usually in a function/event)
Usage	I don't want to pace for that funky then I end up having to breeze bana! = I don't want to go to a function where I won't get me a girl!

"Bakes"           "Money"

Pronounciation	beks
Area of origin	Unknown
First year around	Unknown
Meaning	Money
Usage	I'm bila bakes leo = I don't have any money today

Why My Blood Part One. A Ugandan English drama

Here's a link to the first part of a movie made in Uganda. They don't start talking until about 3.5 minutes into it and unfortunately the sound quality isn't that great.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Xc2pynwU0&feature=related>

But we do see several distinguishing features of East African English.

Some tidbits from Mesthrie and Bhatt about East African English Syntax

• Pluralizations of mass nouns (or mass nouns treated as count nouns), e.g., bums, laps, and bottoms, as in "My bums hurt after falling on them".
• The treatment of nose as plural, e.g., noses, as in, "My noses are runny".
• Inconsistency in use of gender specific subject pronouns, e.g., “My husband who was in England, she was by then my fiancé”.

Schmied (1991) notes

Schmied, J. J. (1991). National and Subnational Features in Kenyan English. In J. Cheshire, English Around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives (pp. 420-432). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This is the last of three articles in the Cheshire's collection of articles, English Around the World.
Some interesting information:

• a difference between East African English and West African English is the pronunciation of the u in but (Schmied does not specify the pronunciation of each).
• vowels differ from RP vowels much more than consonants (which is true of the difference between most dialects).
• there are fewer vowels in Kenyan English than RP.
• there are differences in East African English depending on the speakers' L1.
• there is a tendency to say words as they are spelled. So, few letters of the written word are left unpronounced (calf and half) even in contractions like let’s (p. 428).
• there is some resistence to RP because of covert prestige among East Africans.

Some additional notes

Speech Accent Archives:

- leave out transition words such as "a", "the", "at"
- Fricatives become [s] instead of [z]
- Some plurals are left off entirely
- Vowels lengthen or shift to become entirely different sounds
- R's are rolled, usually if in the middle of the word
- Emphasis in the word often determines part of the accent

Kanyoro stress pattern list (1991)

Kanyoro has a small list of East African English words (pp. 403-404):

1. safari = journey
2. sufuria = a cooking pan
3. Ujamaa = the Tanzanian form of socialism

She also has a list of stress pattern distinctions between British English and East African English (p. 408):


British English Stress Kenyan English Stress
‘execute exe’cute
pho’tography photo’graphy
‘demonstrate demon’strate
‘argument argu’ment
‘convict (n) con’vict (n)
‘progress (n) pro’gress (n)
‘present (n) pre’sent (n)


Kanyoro, M. R. A. (1991). The Politics of the English Language in Kenya and Tanzania. In J. Cheshire, English Around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives (pp. 402-419). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kanyoro (1991) notes

Kanyoro, M. R. A. (1991). The Politics of the English Language in Kenya and Tanzania. In J. Cheshire, English Around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives (pp. 402-419). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Here're some more notes from an academic article on East African English:

Kanyoro says there is definitely a distinct East African English. She also acknowledges that there are differences between the variety spoken in Kenya and that spoken in Tanzania. She attributes this to the differences in the political systems and how each promotes English in the schools. For example, in Kenya, since the time of independence, they have had a capitalist system dependent on foreign investment. In Kenya the schools revolve around students gaining fluency in English and they dedicate many resources to this cause. However, in Tanzania, they have a socialist system that plays up the importance of Kiswahili. In Tanzanian schools English is a secondary subject and the goal is for students to gain proficiency in reading comprehension.

Abdulaziz (1991) notes

Abdulaziz, M. H. (1991). East Africa (Tanzania and Kenya). In J. Cheshire, English Around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives (pp. 391-401). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Abdulaziz explains that there is a distinct form of East African English found in Kenya and Tanzania. However, while the variant of these two countries has much in common, there are also differences that came about due to the role that English played in each country after they gained independence from England. For example, in Kenya, English continued to be embraced in an official role in the schools at all levels, the judiciary system, parliament, etc. On the other hand, in Tanzania, English was removed from the primary schools and its other official capacities. Instead, Kiswahili was emphasized as the official language and lingua franca of the country. In fact, Kiswahili plays an important role in both countries because there are more than 140 languages represented between them. So when people from different tribes need to communicate in their day to day activities, they use Kiswahili. English is used more in the work place especially in the cities and for international communication. It is seen as the language of upward mobility and modernity.

Abdulaziz also says that East African English is marked more by its intonation than anything else. Morphology, syntax, and vocabulary are all relatively levelled.

This is from the Speech Accent Archive. Just some linguistic aspects of how someone fluent in both English and Swahili pronounces words and what happens to their speech. Enjoy!

Phonological Generalizations

In order to say something about the phonetic transcriptions in this site, we have developed a series of phonological generalizations. Generalizations are general rules that describe a speaker's accent. Generalizations are made based on a comparison between the sample and our own dialect which happens to be General American English (GAE). We are not presuming to say that our accent is the only true English accent in comparison to which all others are deemed sub-standard or faulty. However, it would be impossible to make generalizations about our samples without some dialect to compare them to. Since we are American, we chose GAE, specifically English 1.

Our generalizations look at what non-native and non-GAE speakers do that is different from GAE. Each generalization must have two or more instances in the sample to be considered a general rule for that speaker. And each generalization must have two or more instances among a set of speakers to be considered a general rule for that language set. We divide the generalizations into 3 types: consonantal changes, vowel changes, and syllable structure changes (additions or subtractions of consonants or vowels):

Consonantal Change

• voicing change
• final obstruent devoicing
• consonant voicing
• + p --> b
• + s --> z
• stop --> fricative
• interdental fricative change
• th --> t/d
• th --> s/z
• th -->f/v
• palatalization
• retroflexing
• alveolar approximant change
• r --> trill
• r --> uvular fricative
• r --> l
• l --> r
• r-->flap
• w -->fricative
• w --> v
• w --> bilabial
• dentalization
• h --> velar fricative
• sh --> s
• stop --> implosive
• labialization

Vowel Change

• vowel raising
• vowel shortening
• vowel lowering

Syllable Structure Change

• vowel insertion
• consonant deletion
• r-deletion
• cluster reduction
• consonant insertion
• glottal insertion

I found a website of blogs and such. It could be a help in the syntax category. Just an idea!

www.mashada.com

Idiom from Jenkins

Jenkins (2009, p. 31) attributes the following idiom to East African English:

"To be on the tarmac" = To be in the process of seeking a new job

East African English Borrowings From Indigenous Languages

Here's a short list of East African English borrowings from indigenous langauges from Jenkins (2009, p.31).

• chai = tea
• duka = shop
• manamba = laborer

East African English Syntactic Patterns

Here're the East African English syntactic patterns discussed in Jenkins (2009, pp. 29-30):

• A tendency to use a specific/non-specific system for nouns rather than a definite/indefinite system, e.g. I'm not on scholarship.
• A tendency NOT to make a distinction between the third pronouns he and she, e.g. When I first met my husband, she was a student.
• A tendency to extend the use of be + verb + ing constructions to stative verbs, e.g. She is knowing her science very well.
• The formation of different phrasal and prepositional verb constructions, e.g. Her name cropped in the conversation.

Contemporary News Story from Kenya

Here we have another YouTube clip that relates to Kenya. It's a disturbing report about current internal political conflicts. There are two interviews with people on the streets of Nairobi that are especially interesting for our project.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDXzMOWJD6g>

I'll try to transcribe the interviews later.

YouTube video with examples of Kenyan English

Here's a quick video with an interview of a speaker of Kenyan English:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgq0C4O9chE>

And here's the script:

Martin Dungu Kamandi: “The Sunday Catholic program is a five hours program. Full of Catholic music and Catholic teachings and everything that entails Catholic. The first of all is a prayers station where we have prayers: callers praying. And we also have the Catholic prayers and the Catholic music.”

Martin Dungu Kamandi: “...[R]epresents the saints of the coming week and the feasts. Between 7 am to 8 am we have a recorded holy mass. That is we record. And on 8 to 9 we have a discussion and then 9 to 10 is exit hour where we have greetings, callings and some teaching of the Catholic faith.”

Kenyan English Word List

*Note: some of these words were not corroborated by the Ice corpus.

From the webpage Wikibin

http://wikibin.org/articles/lexical-differences-in-kenyan-english.html

Lexical differences in Kenyan English

List A-B*Bhang/ bangi - marijuana
*billion - as in the UK this officially means a million million. Nowadays the American usage (one billion is one thousand million) is almost exclusively used.
*biscuit - same as tea biscuit
*bonnet - hood of a car
*brinjal - eggplant (from Portuguese berinjela, also used in Indian English) Known as biriganya in Kiswahili.
*bundu – (slang) a wilderness region, remote from cities . Same as in South Africa.

C-E
*call - when someone says that they will "call" this typically means that they will make a telephonic call, not visit in person, phone and (less commonly) ring are also used.
*candy floss - as in Britain this is used for cotton candy
*chang’aa – cheap and illegal alcohol with an extremely high alcohol content. It is made from various ingredients which can include methanol, antifreeze, and has been known to cause blindness and death.
*chang’aa den - illegal drinking establishment.
*chemist - besides meaning a scientist specializing in chemistry the term is also used for a pharmacist and for a drugstore (short for chemist shop in the latter case)
*chips - used for french fries
*chop – intelligent person (probably outdated)
*costume - besides meaning attire worn to a dress-up party/play it also refers to a bathing suit (short for "swimming costume" or "bathing costume"), sometime abbreviated cossie
*crisps - potato crisps are what Americans refer to as chips.
*dam - used to mean a water reservoir *dhania - coriander known in the US as cilantro
*doolah/ dwanzie – stupid person (probably outdated)

F-J
*flat - as in Britain this is used for an apartment
*Form -besides other meanings referred to a school grade for secondary school. Currently there are Forms 1-4. Followed by University.
*football - typically refers to soccer*globe - as formerly used in Britain, a light bulb.
*housegirl(boy) or maid – domestic worker, usually female.
*jam - a fruit preserve spread whether containing pieces of fruit or not, never called a jelly in South Africa similar to use in UK
*jelly - when referring to food this always means what in American English is called 'jello', ie. a flavoured gelatine dessert never a fruit preserve spread

K-L*kamuti - witchcraft (from Kamba muti)
*kiosk - refers to a small convenience store usually found in residential areas.
*kombi - (slang) a minivan, esp. Volkswagen (from the Volkswagen 'Kombi' van) *lift - as in Britain this is used for an elevator; also used for a ride in another person's vehicle
*loo – slang for toilet

M-N
*main road - what is generally called a high street in Britain
*maize – corn
*matatu – minivans used for public transportation. They are both a substitute and supplement to public buses.
*miti shamba – traditional medicine (herbal medicine)
*mushkaki - a kebab on a stick
*mutura - traditional sausage from Kikuyu language (usually made with goat or beef)

O-R
*Parking boy - homeless boys found mostly in the cities. Also abbreviated to ‘parkies’ or chokora – coming from the Kiswahili phrase ‘chokora mapipa’ (scavenges in the rubbish bins). There a many girls fround within these groups today hence chokora is more commonly used.
*pound – in addition to it’s other uses, in Kenya slang for 20 shillings
*queen cake – cupcake
*rubber - as in Britain, a rubber eraser

S
*samosa – Indian meat samosa, it is rare to find a vegetarian samosa Kenya
*shamba boy - a male gardener (of any age). Another vestige of colonialism. The Kiswahili name : ‘mfanyi kazi’ i.e. ‘worker’ is more respectful.
*shilling - currency, divided in to 100 cents.
*shop - as a noun the same as American store
*skive/ skiving - (slang) playing hooky, skipping school/class
*spit - as a verb this is only used for the present tense unlike in America where it is also used for the past tense. The form spat is used for the past tense.
*standard - besides other meanings referred to a school grade for primary school children. Currently there are Standards 1-8.
*sweets - confectionery, candy (singular sweet used for an item of confectionery)

T-Z
*tackies - (slang) sneakers, trainers.
*tea room, tearoom - has the same meaning as 'cafe', a corner shop or convenience store
*thorn – (slang) ugly person (i.e. thorn in my eye) also thwack (probably outdated)
*ugali - the staple food of Kenya made from maize meal. It is somewhat similar to American grits, and is known as pap in South Africa
*up-country – refers to the rural areas from where most people have their homes. This is usually where their families are originally from and where their parents/grandparents still reside.
*Zebra crossing – pedestrian cross walk.

Journal Entries

Let's back track and re-type out our journal entries from last week here. That way we will all have a chance to see each others work.

-Alise