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