Swahili’s Currents Spread to a Remote Area: Data from primary schools in Vidunda ward (Central Tanzania)

no abstrac

Trilingual Ng’hwele-Swahili-English and Swahili-Ng’hwele-English wordlist

This trilingual wordlist Ngh’wele-Swahili-English originates from material that was developed by and used in the project “Language Use and Language Teaching in Eastern Africa” during the early seventies

Book Review: Bukenkango Rukwangali-English. English-Rukwangali Dictionary

Book Title: Bukenkango Rukwangali-English. English-Rukwangali DictionaryBook Authors: J.K. Kloppers, D. Nakare & L.M. Isala (Compilers)1st edition 1994, ii + 164pp. ISBN 0-86848-878-X. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan

Language endangerment in Tanzania: identifying and maintaining endangered languages

This article summarizes the linguistic situation in Tanzania with regard to languages spoken by small ethnic groups of approximately 20,000 people (as last indicated in the 1967 population census). Based on on-going fieldwork and library research, approximately 20 up-country languages (L1s) are identified as highly endangered. All languages spoken in the hinterland of the Indian Ocean coast also fall into the same category, as inter-generational language transmission is interrupted there to a large extent. In this area as well as up-country, Swahili (L2), as the medium of instruction in primary schools, has a strong impact on the younger generation’s L1 competency and proficiency. The exclusion of L1 from most formal domains, where L2 plays a prominent role both as the national and co-official language, has another detrimental effect on L1 maintenance, which is no longer guaranteed. No experience of how to stop the massive shift away from L1s is available. In the foreseeable future a number of the current highly endangered languages will become extinct. Hence, documenting these languages is an urgent priority.S.Afr.J.Afr.Lang., 2006,

Swahili vs. English in Tanzania and the political discourse

Tanzania is one of those few African countries that have been praised for their focus on an endoglossic language policy. This policy puts emphasis on the promotion of national languages (i.e. those of African origin) with regard to status and corpus empowerment. In the case of Tanzania, Swahili has been playing the role of a language of wider distribution or lingua franca with a broad social basis for many years. It is supra-ethnic in its function, thus facilitating the verbal interaction of people regardless of their ethno-linguistic origin

Linguistic identity in and out of Africa

The paper discusses at least two approaches to determine linguistic identity. In so doing, particular attention is paid to the preparation and implementation of UNESCO’s IYIL (International Year of Indigenous Languages) 2019 initiative. As known, given UNESCO’s international prestige, institutions and speech communities felt stimulated by this IYIL2019 initiative. As a consequence, their focus was on dealing with those national languages of their countries which in a linguistic hierarchy are not in a top position (like e.g. English, French, Spanish and more), but are rated somehow less important by their speakers or officials. It turned out in the data analysis process for this paper that UNESCO’s conceptualization deficits have hampered a productive grassroots response such as evidenced in Namibia. With regard to the development and dissemination of a unified identity concept worldwide a prominent African colleague points out that in Europe, North America, China, in many African countries south of the Equator, etc. own umbrella terms are well established. This implies that UNESCO’s identity related activities have not so far much contributed to feasible changes

Letter to the UN, IYIL 2019

Open Letter to the UN, IYIL 201