Browsing by Author "Sote, Azimio"

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    Nativization process of Kiswahili borrowed nouns into Shimalila.
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2011) Sote, Azimio
    This is a descriptive study which examines the way Shimalila, spoken in the Sourhern Highlands of Tanzania, nativize Kiswahili borrowed nouns. It identified borrowed nouns from Kiswahili into Shimalila, it described changes on these nouns and it examined impacts of such borrowing into Shimalila lexicon. Data were collected through questionnaire, interviews, focus group discussions and direct field observations. The sample of 70 respondents was selected using simple random, snowball and purposive sampling methods and procedures. The study identified 404 nouns borrowed from Kiswahili into Shimalila. It revealed from these nouns that some of them are used simultaneously with native words some of which are coined through derivation and analogy while others lack native words. The study indicated also the Phonological changes like tone marking, vowel lengthening, epenthesis, prothesis and deletions. It further found morphological changes like augmentation, double prefixation of class I and 2, double locative marking, and use of both native class 4 prefix ma- and Kiswahili class 4 prefix In addition, the study found that some loanwords retain their meanings while others undergo semantic changes such as broadening, narrowing and shifting. Furthermore, the study reveals an influx of Kiswahili words of different semantic fields in Shimalila which led into the introduction of language use styles, expansion of vocabulary, loan translation and double borrowing. Despite the changes brought by loanwords, Shimalila retains its structure. Loan words which violate its rules an adapted in order to fit the native structure. The borrowing process has also enacted the lexicon of Shimalila because borrowed nouns fit in different semantic fields. Without it some foreign concepts or objects could not get their respective terms.