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Why Sheng will take Kiswahili to the dustbin

Sheng in matatus
 Sheng has largely been associated with the matatu culture  Photo: Edward Kiplimo

A recent survey indicates that most Kenyans would rather be addressed using ‘Christian’ names such as Joseph, Michael, Mary, Chris and so on. Others, especially in urban centres, use sheng names such as Timo (Timothy), Saimo (Simon), Jose (Joseph), Onyi (Onyango), Odhis (Odhiambo), Karis (Kariuki) or Kang’es (Kang’ethe).

Few people, especially intellectuals, prefer African names, probably as a protest statement. Almost all of them had Christian names that they abandoned later. A good example is James Ngugi who transited to Ngugi wa Thiong’o.

It would appear like ethnic names have been on the decline for a while, probably due to religion and the unwillingness to be identified with an ethnic community, since a name can place someone on the ethnic map of Kenya. This became apparent after the post-election violence of 2008.

Another survey conducted among university students in Nairobi indicated that most of them considered themselves Kenyans or citizens of the world. Few indicated their ethnic identity. Again, this could be symptomatic of a changing Kenya where ethnic labels, names and languages are on the decline.

If urbanisation continues to rise at a rate of five per cent in Kenya and given the global trends of urbanisation, then ethnic languages may disappear in the next 30 years or so. In most likelihood, languages that will survive are those that individuals deem profitable or strategic to learn.

These are the languages leading to employment, education, entertainment and empowerment. Again, looking at the current trends of urbanisation and globalisation, it looks like sheng and English will be the two survivors in Kenya in the next generation.

This is good news considering that Kenya, a country plagued by evils of tribalism, needs a unifying language, a language everyone aspires to speak and one that is fun. That language, good people, is sheng. Though it has not been officially acknowledged, the rapid growth of sheng is such that Kiswahili already appears to be suffering marginalisation. If you don’t believe this, just look at the advertising industry and count how many adverts are being done in Kiswahili sanifu. If your promotion is not in a catchy sheng phrase, like kwachua mamili, chances are that it will not gain traction.

So why study Kiswahili sanifu up to university level, only to go to the job environment and find millions of shillings being poured into adverts done in sheng? Today, Coca Cola, a global beverage giant, is going the sheng way by labelling their drinks with sheng names. This gives you an indication of the language of the future.

Still, language purists catch fire every time sheng is mentioned. They blame sheng for the poor performance of languages, including mother tongues. How come a language that is picked in the streets (sheng) threatens established languages (Kiswahilli and English) that are taught up to university level? What some of our language purists do not understand is that there is intense interest in sheng within universities in the West. They are studying it up to PhD level and becoming ‘sheng experts’ while we continue hating on this language.

 

More often than not, language purists operate without the benefit of history. They see a fallen leaf and jump into conclusion without looking up to see the tree it came from. They do not understand that words have a history, if not histories. Fortunately, languages do not pay much attention to them.

As organic vectors of dynamic cultures, languages change over time, age and sometimes die. They do not live in glass vases for humans to contemplate, cajole and preserve. Of the 7,000 odd human languages, more than half will not survive the 21st century. This is due, in part, to the changing world of global politics, rapid urbanisation, technology, lack of genuine language policies, and education.

Some languages have evolved from a protolanguage or common ancestor - French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese emerged from Latin. French appeared in 847 AD in the Strasbourg Oaths, looking very much like sheng in relation to Kiswahili. The simplification, or adulteration of Latin, gave birth to old French, and the evolution has never ceased. Modern French is very different from its ancestral form. Latin language purists of yore would turn in their graves were they to be told that French, which they considered a bastard language, is now an official language, while Latin is dead.

And did you know that in the olden days in England, English was a language spoken by peasants. People of class spoke French. Today, English is the unofficial language of the world. To date, the emblem on the English coat of arms is in French.

Successful languages like English have borrowed extensively from other languages. In fact, words like jembe, panga, and safari are today legitimate English words. Kiswahili too has borrowed heavily from Arabic, English, Persian, Gujarati, etc. The birth of sheng appears to be contemporaneous with urbanisation, especially in Nairobi.

Its form is parasitical on Kiswahili, but with a tendency to simplify the syntax. The lexicon is made up of words from Kiswahili, English, Arabic and local languages, mainly Dholuo and Gikuyu. Examples include: Kunyora (to pee) from Ekegusii’s gusinyora. Kudishi (to eat) from English ‘dish’. Ashu/Ashara (Sh10) from Arabic Ashra. Obako (Kibaki) from Dholuo morphology of words beginning and ending with letter ‘O.’ Ngiri (Sh1,000) from Gikuyu ngiri.

Frederick Kang’ethe Iraki is a professor of French, an educational consultant and a Knight of Academic Palm (A Napoleonic title given by the French).

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