Tove Rosendal

Linguistic markets in Rwanda: language use in advertisements and on signs

Abstract Rwanda has experienced major changes during the last decade due to the genocide in 1994. After the civil war, in addition to establishing political and economical stability, peace and reconciliation, the government was faced with the return of refugees from neighbouring, mostly English-speaking, countries. The new socio-demographic conditions resulted in a change in the official language policy from Rwanda–French bilingualism to Rwanda–French–English trilingualism. During the post-genocide period, therefore, English has been introduced into official domains and has contributed towards a new linguistic situation in Rwanda. This paper investigates how these recent changes are reflected in newspaper advertisements (10 issues of state-owned Imvaho Nshya), 914 shop signs and 221 billboards in Kigali and Butare. The basic assumption of the analysis is that the languages in Rwanda are currently in a competitive position on the linguistic market, affecting not only the use of the national and official language, Rwanda, but also the position of the non African official languages. This competition is an ongoing process, which will necessitate further studies from a macro-sociolinguistic perspective in order to establish the roles and usages of the three official languages of Rwanda.

Is the Tanzanian Ngoni language threatened? A survey of lexical borrowing from Swahili

Tanzanias post-independence language policy has promoted Swahili as a means of achieving national and linguistic unity. This policy has affected the Ngoni language in south-western Tanzania. Today, Swahili has permeated communication all over Tanzania, even in rural and remote areas. This paper discusses lexical borrowing and especially borrowing in the basic vocabulary, which is considered less susceptible to borrowing, to establish the vitality of Ngoni in this bilingual setting. In using a new method where locally produced photos are used for elicitation, and mirroring the data with socio-demographic metadata, the results contribute to the understanding of what borrowing implies regarding the future of the language. Age-related differences were found amongst Ngoni speakers, but the differences in language use attributed to socio-demographic factors were far fewer than expected. Borrowing is solidly established not only among the young in the Ngoni community. Both borrowing and codeswitching (CS) were also frequent in typically rural settings, among subsistence farmers, where Swahili was found to be penetrating deeply into oral communication. Not only gap-filling concepts related to modern life were borrowed from Swahili; even terms used in traditional life, like farming, were borrowed, as well as basic concepts. This indicates that the Ngoni language may be threatened.

BORROWING IN TANZANIAN NGONI LEXICON: SOME SEMANTIC TRENDS IN A LANGUAGE CONTACT SITUATION

ABSTRACT The Tanzanian language Ngoni has interacted for long with Swahili, which is the more prestigious and dominant lingua franca in Tanzania. This language contact situation affects Ngoni, which frequently borrows terms from Swahili, both for concepts which are new to the Ngoni speakers, but also terms which replace existing Ngoni vocabulary. This paper investigates how borrowed words are integrated, based on a framework including semantic generalisation, specialisation and shift. The study is based on fieldwork conducted in the Songea District in the Ruvuma Region of Tanzania, in the three villages of Peramiho, Kilagano and Mhepai. It was found that borrowing was most frequent in the semantic fields ‘modern world’, ‘food and drink’ and ‘clothing and grooming’. Additive borrowing was found to be more frequent than substitutive. Only semantic widening of borrowed terms was attested. However, combined with a tendency of replacement of old Ngoni terms with both Swahili and Ngoni hypernyms, it indicates that speakers’ competence of the language is waning. This loss of competence may additionally be linked to a more general attrition of Ngoni culture and traditions, which may affect language maintenance.

Identity Construction and Norms of Practice among Bilingual Ngoni in Rural Tanzania

ABSTRACT This article investigates identity construction among bilingual Ngoni in rural Tanzania by letting the Ngoni themselves voice their views on their mixing of Swahili and Ngoni. Against the background of a possible language shift, this study focuses on how the symbolic value of language is mediated in the social action of the Ngoni. With an ethnographic approach and by using nexus analysis and ethnolinguistic identity theory as a framework, this article shows that the Ngoni language is the strongest bearer of Ngoni identity. Even though the Ngoni have a monolingual norm, they code-switch. This practice, moulded by history, ideologies and large-scale discourses at the societal level, reflects a hybrid identity, formed by socio-political power structures. The analysis shows that the ethnolinguistic identity of the Ngoni is weak, resulting in unstable bilingualism. Therefore, the findings fuel the discussion of possible future language loss.

Languages in competition in Rwanda: Who is winning on the linguistic market?

Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, far-reaching language policy changes were introduced. Due to the return of many exiled English speakers, English was stipulated as the third official language alongside French and Rwanda (Ikinyarwanda), the latter being the national language, spoken as L1 by 99.4 per cent of the population. This article summarises the use of the three official languages, focusing on the role and position of languages in the current competitive situation which the post-1994 language dispensation has caused. The main issue dealt with here, is whether or not the Rwanda language is affected by the dispensation. The position of each language is analysed with regard to its institutionalised use or status in domains such as administration, education, and mass media. A quantitative method which accounts for percentage distribution (mostly of language use) has been developed and is applied to evaluate the position of the languages.

What are analog bulletin boards used for today? : Analysing media uses, intermediality and technology affordances in Swedish bulletin board messages using a citizen science approach

Analog bulletin boards are omnipresent in Swedish urban areas, yet little systematic knowledge about this communication medium exists. In the shadow of the rapid emergence of digital media the analog bulletin board has received less attention than its digital successors, many of them having incorporated similar functionality with novel technical solutions. In this study we used a citizen science method to collect 1167 messages from bulletin boards around Sweden aided by school children and teachers, with the purpose of shedding new light on what is communicated on the boards, by whom, using what types of technologies and in what way the messages refer to other media. Results show that the most common messages are invitations to events, such as concerts, lectures and sports events, followed by buy-and-sell ads for goods and services. The most frequent sender is an association, for example NGOs, sports associations or religious communities. Almost half of the sampled messages were professionally printed, about forty per cent were made by home printers. Only six per cent of the messages were handwritten, almost exclusively by private persons as senders. Moreover, we show how the analog bulletin board has adapted to recent changes in media technology—a media landscape which is saturated with electronic- and mobile media. Further, the bulletin board still holds a firm place in a media ecology where local communication is in demand, and exists in parallel with electronic media. Close to forty percent of the messages contained hyperlinks to web pages and we found (and removed for anonymization purposes) more than six hundred phone numbers from the dataset.

Speaking of tradition: how the Ngoni talk about value maintenance and change

ABSTRACT This paper presents results from an ethnographically informed study based on focus group discussions where rural Ngoni farmers in the southern highlands of Tanzania voice their ideas about their cultural heritage, with a special focus on attitudes towards Ngoni culture and cultural changes. With a model based on Ehala [2009. “Connecting the Individual and Cultural Level Value Analysis: The Case of Utilitarianism vs. Traditionalism.” Journal of Human Values 15 (2): 107–118; Ehala, Martin. 2010. “Refining the Notion of Ethnolinguistic Vitality.” International Journal of Multilingualism 7 (4): 363–378. doi:10.1080/14790711003637094] this study investigates the relationship between the ideological system of a community and the social system of this community. This in-group perspective contributes to insight into values systems of rituals, taboos and traditions, including a case study of naming traditions. Earlier findings of extensive codeswitching between Swahili and other Tanzanian languages have had a language loss perspective. This study combines this focus with a new framework to investigate the relationship between the competing ideological and social systems. Changing practices have been attested. These seem to be mainly due to asymmetrical power differences and influences caused by modernity, globalisation and especially the nation-state.

Contact-induced language alternation in Tanzanian Ngoni – an empirical study of frequency and patterns

ABSTRACT The codeswitching pattern is different in rural Tanzania compared to urban agglomerations around the world. Even in very rural areas people in Tanzania are bilingual in Swahili, the national and local lingua franca, and their own first language. The result of this language contact is understudied and has only recently been focused on. This paper presents quantitative and qualitative results of a study of the language Ngoni in contact with Swahili. The study is based on photo elicitations about traditional artefacts and their use in one semi-urban and one remote rural village in Songea District, Ruvuma Region. Codeswitching is the unmarked choice among the Ngoni subsistence farmers in the area, even for old persons living in remote villages. The quantitative results are summed in relation to socio-demographic factors. Additionally, possible social and psycholinguistic factors, such as triggering, are discussed. The results give reason to concern regarding the future of Ngoni.