Towards Koineization of Kiswahili
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Date
2021-08
Authors
Muhati, Likuyani Erick
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
The standard Kiswahili variety is a compulsory and examinable subject in Kenyan schools. Excelling in national examinations in Kiswahili, therefore, unlocks lucrative opportunities while failure entails missed opportunities for advancement. As a neutral code, standard Kiswahili is also considered the legally unifying national as well as official language. However, standard Kiswahili still remains virtually theoretical in Kenya. The spoken koine Kiswahili varieties, which often reveal the ethnicity of the speaker, are the more commonly used varieties in all the forty seven counties of the republic. This notwithstanding, there are scanty studies that have investigated koineization in Kiswahili. This sociolinguistic study hopes to contribute to the literature in this field. It is from this background that the study examined morphosyntactic change in the koine variety of Kiswahili spoken in the Luyia speaking Western Region of Kenya. The study adopted an eclectic approach with regards to theories whereby the four objectives were handled by three different theories. Thus, objectives one and two were guided by the Generative Morphological Theory (Hyman & Katamba, 2005), objectives three and four were guided by two theories: the Labovian Language Variation Theory (Labov, 2010) and the Social Psychological Theory (Giles & Billings, 2004). The first objective of the study sought to identify and describe the salient morphosyntactic features of koine Kiswahili variety in the Luyia speaking Western Region of Kenya while the second objective sought to establish how morphosyntactic features of the koine Kiswahili variety reflect the structure of their superstrate and their substrate languages. Qualitative linguistic descriptions were employed to examine change in the use of both nominal and verbal prefixes in the morphosyntactic structure of koine Kiswahili. The three linguistic variables that were examined reveal that the dominant Luyia language system prefixes have been transferred by Luyias into their spoken Kiswahili variety, thus, influencing its koineization. The diminutive prefixes {KHA-RU} are proposed as stereotypes of this variety of Kiswahili which is spoken by native Luyias. Fourteen other prefixes are proposed as indicators of the Kenyan regional nonstandard Kiswahili varieties. They include the other diminutive prefixes {KA-TU} and {KI-TU}, the augmentative prefixes {KU/GU-MI} and {LI-MA}, and the animate noun class prefixes {I-ZI}, [I-MA} and {MU-MA}. These results were complemented by quantitative analyses of the patterns of morphological change to meet requirements of objectives three and four. The third objective sought to find out the effects of sex and age of speakers on koineization of Kiswahili in the Luyia speaking Western Region of Kenya while objective four employed psychological information to determine the prevailing attitudes by native Luyias in the Luyia speaking Western Region towards both the standard and koine Kiswahili varieties. Thus, three morphosyntactic variables were correlated with social variables to find out the effects of sex, age and speaker attitudes on koineization of Kiswahili. Descriptive statistical analyses show that the Kiswahili variety spoken in this region is consisitently tilted in favour of koine Kiswahili with sex, age and speaker attitudes influencing morphosyntactic variation. Middle-aged male speakers were observed to use more of the simplified and disrupted animate noun class prefixes and the koine Kiswahili diminutive prefixes while middle-aged female speakers use more of the koine Kiswahili augmentative prefixes. Independent samples of the t-test revealed that the simplified and disrupted animate noun class prefixes and the koine Kiswahili diminutive prefixes were highly significant while the koine Kiswahili augmentative prefixes showed no statistically significant difference between the sexes. Speakers from two youthful age cohorts had the highest overall occurrence of koine Kiswahili variants in their speech while speakers from the middle-aged cohort showed average use of koine Kiswahili variants in their speech. Speakers from the older age cohort had a relatively higher incidence of koine Kiswahili variants than those from the middle-aged cohort. The comparison of the number of koine Kiswahili variants by age using the One Way ANOVA revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the mean scores of all the prefixes of the three linguistic variables across the four age speaker cohorts. Middle-aged male cohort speakers and the youthful age cohort speakers showed negative attitudes towards standard Kiswahili while middle-aged female cohort speakers rated it positively. The youthful age cohort speakers showed positive attitude towards koine Kiswahili while middle-aged female cohort speakers and the older age cohort speakers showed some ambivalence in their attitudes towards koine Kiswahili.
Description
A thesis submitted to the school of humanities and social sciences in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of doctor of philosophy in English and linguistics of Kenyatta University. August, 2021.