Tuesday, November 3, 2009

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.

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