School of Education

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Browsing School of Education by Author "Abel, Gemma Nimilwa"

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    Language shift from Kilongo to Kisukuma: a case of Kasamwa and Lubanga villages
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2019) Abel, Gemma Nimilwa
    Human language are in constant dynamism of growing or dying. This study aimed to investigate language shift among the Kilongo a language spen in Geita region Tanzania. The objectives of the study were: to present the language contact phenomenon in Kasamwa and Lubanga: to find out daily language use among longo speakers: and to describe factors accelerating language shift in the mentioned two villages. The assumption was that, Kilongo speakers are shifting to Kisukuma, the majority language around the Southern zone of Lake Victoria. The Linguistics Divergence-Convergence Theory by Massamba (2007) and the interactionist Sociolinguistic Approach by Fishman(1980) were adopted to guide the study. The study was qualitative in approach utilizing a case study design where 2 villages were selected. It involved a total number of forty four (44) participants: 5 non- school going children: 10 school going children: 8 self- employed youth, 10 formally- employed adult and parents: and 11 elders. These were selected through purpose sampling. The data were collected through observation, interviews and focus group discussion. The study found that, in the two villages, there was a language contact of three main languages: Kisukuma the majority, Kilongo and Kiswahili. In daily communication in both villages. Kisukuma dominated, Kiswahili was found to be reserved for official use while Kilongo was found to be used at family level by mostly children and grandparents. Among long community members, it was found to be used in few occasions like marriages rituals and funeral ceremonies. Factors accelerating shift are: desire for inter-relations, inter linguistic marriage and divorce. Land ownership, scattered population, religion cultural dissociation as well as lack of writing and reading skills. Therefore, it can be concluded that, language shift was progressively taking place from Kilongo to Kisukuma in Kasamwa and Lubanga villages due to inter-related factors. I recommended that, further study should be undertaken on the socio-cultural effect of this shift so as to safeguard values that may be lost.