The Acquisition of Swahili

The Acquisition of Swahili

Author: Kamil Ud Deen

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2005-01-01

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9789027253002

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This monograph is the first study of the acquisition of Swahili as a first language. It focuses on the acquisition of inflectional affixes, with a particular emphasis on subject agreement and tense. Other inflectional affixes are also investigated, including object agreement and mood. The study surveys the adult dialect in question, Nairobi Swahili, discussing social, phonological, morphological and syntactic properties. Data, analyses and copious examples are presented of the naturalistic speech of four Swahili speaking children. The data are tested against six influential theories of child language, and the results show that processing and metrical theories of telegraphic speech fail to account for the observed patterns, while grammatical theories of child language fair significantly better. The data and analyses presented in this book are indispensable for linguists and psychologists interested in the acquisition of inflectional material and other cross-linguistic properties of child language.


Swahili and Sabaki

Swahili and Sabaki

Author: Derek Nurse

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 813

ISBN-13: 0520097750

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The Sabaki languages form a major Bantu subgroup and are spoken by 35 million East Africans in Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and the Comoro Islands. The authors provide a historical/comparative treatment of Swahili (and other Sabaki languages), an account of the relationship of Swahili to Sabaki and to other Bantu languages, and some data on contemporary Sabaki languages. Data sets, appendices, maps, and figures present essential information on phonology, lexical makeup, and tense/aspect morphology. The final chapter is a synthesis describing the linguistic and historical relationship of the Sabaki dialects to each other and to hypothetical proto-stages.


Swahili

Swahili

Author: Wilfred Whiteley

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-12-20

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 1003804853

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Originally published in 1969, this book examines the factors which at different historical periods led people to use one language (Swahili) rather than another, or within a given period, to use a particular language in one set of circumstances. The national language of Tanzania and much of East Africa, Swahili is unique among African languages in its verse literature, which dates back to the 18th Century and was written in the Arabic script. This book traces the remarkable expansion of Swahili, which was linked with the expansion of trace, missionary activities and the establishment of Colonial administrations and the development of education.


Swahili State and Society

Swahili State and Society

Author: Ali AlʼAmin Mazrui

Publisher: East African Publishers

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9789966468239

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This text examines the social and political impact of the Swahili language.


Swahili People and Their Language

Swahili People and Their Language

Author: Dainess Mashiku Maganda

Publisher: Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd

Published: 2014-03-22

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 191223470X

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History is a testament to what happened to a people or a place. It shows how things were and their transformation while explaining why the changes happened. Not only does history allow human beings to trace their trajectory in dealing with specific issues they face in the affairs of making a living, it also highlights movements between people around the world while showing their role in creating systems still in place today. History reveals to us major contributors of the trading systems along the east coast of Africa, documenting the role of the Swahili people and their interactions with different people of the world.The Swahili People and Their Language discusses ways in which the Swahili people came to occupy a prominent position in the world's trading system and how they lost their wealth through their contact with the outside world. The book highlights the strategic position occupied by the Swahili people, their natural resources, their skills and their rich cultural mix and how the contact with the outside world played a major influence that is clearly noticeable to date. The book contributes to the on-going discussion about Africans and their participation in today's development and reminds readers that the creation of the current economic, social and political situation of the Swahili people mirrors the history and positioning of many other formerly independent societies that became colonized nation-states. The authors provide discussions that shade light on critical questions such as: Who are the Swahili people and why are they important? Is there such a thing as a Swahili Civilization? If so, what is it and how does it relate to modern civilization? What place does the Swahili language occupy both in its history and usage on the continent and in the rest of the world?


Pidgins and Creoles beyond Africa-Europe Encounters

Pidgins and Creoles beyond Africa-Europe Encounters

Author: Isabelle Buchstaller

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2014-01-15

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 9027270767

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Most of what we know about pidgin and creole languages is the result of research into contact languages that developed as a consequence of European expansion into Africa and the Caribbean. The narrow focus on European lexifier and West African substrate languages has resulted in insufficient investigation of other contact varieties. Even more perniciously, lesser known and often under-described contact languages have not been taken into consideration when formulating supposedly general tendencies about the linguistic properties of contact languages. This volume aims to give a platform to research on the history, genesis, and typology of a number of non-European language-based contact languages. A more encompassing and diverse data-base will contribute to more accurate and comprehensive inventories of the typological features of contact languages.


Creolization and Pidginization in Contexts of Postcolonial Diversity

Creolization and Pidginization in Contexts of Postcolonial Diversity

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-02-27

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 9004363394

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This book deals with creolization and pidginization of language, culture and identity and makes use of interdisciplinary approaches developed in the study of the latter. Creolization and pidginization are conceptualized and investigated as specific social processes in the course of which new common languages, socio-cultural practices and identifications are developed under distinct social and political conditions and in different historical and local contexts of diversity. The contributions show that creolization and pidginization are important strategies to deal with identity and difference in a world in which diversity is closely linked with inequalities that relate to specific group memberships, colonial legacies and social norms and values.


African American Nationalist Literature of the 1960s

African American Nationalist Literature of the 1960s

Author: Sandra Hollin Flowers

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-09-25

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 1317731352

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Bringing together political theory and literary works, this study recreates the political climate which made the 1960s an unforgettable era for young black Americans. A chapter on "The Many Shades of Black Nationalism," for instance, explains: why black nationalism is known by more than a dozen different names; how events in Africa influenced black nationalism in America; why Malcolm X's death had a greater impact on nationalism than did his life; and how the United States government unwittingly became nationalism's ally. Another chapter explores the bitter feud between the dominant factions of the 1960s-cultural and revolutionary nationalists. This feud erupted in both verbal and armed warfare and generated an abundance of political theory and literary works, much of which is out of circulation but is examined in the study. Nationalist poetry, theater, and fiction are each treated in separate chapters which exemplify the aesthetic and political concerns of this memorable period in American history and letters. Aside from its unique combination of artistic and political works, what makes this book important is the current revival of nationalist sentiment in African American life and arts. Though this revival is closely identified with the nationalism of the 1960s, it lacks the focus of that period. This study explains what gave the nationalism of the 1960s its focus, how that focus was expressed in art forms, and why 1960s nationalism continues to influence the African American identity and will probably do so well into the twenty-first century.