A study of semantic change in Kiswahili colloquial speech spoken in Dar es Salaam

The research is about a study of semantic change in Kiswahili colloquial speech spoken in Dar es Salaam. The general objective of the study is to describe how semantic change takes place in the colloquial Kiswahili. The study addresses three specific objectives which are; first, it describes the semantic features of both mainstream and colloquial lexical items, second, it describes how semantic change takes place in Kiswahili colloquial speech and lastly the study provides the motives behind the increased use of Kiswahili colloquial speech in Dar es Salaam. To accomplish the above objectives, fifty two lexical items are used in the study. Through documentary review, natural observation, questionnaire and focus group interviews participants of the study provide data for the study. The participants of the study are categorized into five social occupational groups each consisting four participants who are sampled using snowball method. Data is analyzed using the BFA propounded by Lipka (1994) and the NSM propounded by Wierzbicka (1994) semantic features frameworks. The results of the study indicate that the new colloquial Kiswahili lexical items have acquired new set of semantic featured as compared with the mainstream semantic set of features. The study also identifies five ways that show how semantic change takes place in colloquial Swahili, among them transfer of semantic features through perceived similarity and broadening of semantic features. Finally the study has identified three motives behind the increased use of colloquial Kiswahili in the society, among them lack of perfect vocabularies in mainstream language.