Sheng: Rise of a Kenyan Swahili Vernacular

Frontcover
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
	A note on Sheng orthography
1 Sheng as Kenyan Swahili
	Folk theories of Sheng
	Dialects and vernaculars
	‘Urban youth languages’
	Is Sheng a pidgin or a creole?
	Kinubi: a creole language of Kenya
	Other African creoles: Sango, Lingala and Nigerian Pidgin English
	Swahili as a macrolanguage
	So, what is Sheng?
	‘Kenyanese’: a continuum of speech codes
2 An overview of language in Kenya: power vs solidarity
	Swahili and nationalism
	Language and state identity: Kenya vs Tanzania
	The policy of language in education
3 Nairobi: a linguistic mosaic and crucible of Sheng
	The colonial city
	The sociolinguistic context
	Attitudes towards Sheng and other languages
	Vernacular Swahilis
	The experiment
	Teenage attitudes towards languages
	Adult attitudes towards Sheng and Kenyan Swahili
	Observations
	Summary
4 ‘Kenyan Swahili’: complex and multifaceted
	Grammatical features of Kenyan Swahili
	Analogical change
	Habitual tense -anga
	Rule extension: plural suffix -ni
	Diminutive ka- and augmentative ki-
	Phonology
	-enye relative pronoun
	Noun classification
	Locatives -ni and -ko
	Contact influences on Kenyan Swahili
	Dholuo
	Gikuyu
	Gikuyu slang in Sheng
5 Features of Sheng
	Phonological innovations
	Lexical borrowing
	Meaning shift
	Polysemy
	Synonymy
	Transpositions (Pig Latin)
	Sheng verbs
	Narratives of local experience
	Analysis of Sheng narratives
	Grammar in Sheng narratives
	Content of Sheng narratives
	Summary
6 Expanded domains and global influences
	The Nairobian newspaper
	Sheng in social media
	GoSheng
	Sheng and the jua kali economy
	Sheng and corporate advertising
	Sheng in rural areas and schools
	Sheng and the diaspora (majuu): transatlantic influences
	Sheng in reggae
	Jamaicanisms in Sheng
	(Ma-)Babi
	‘Big Up’
7 Sheng in Practice
	‘Kuna Sheng’ lyrics by Jua Cali
	Ghetto Radio FM: ‘The official Sheng station’
	Bonoko Deh
	Shujaaz
8 Conclusion: The Rise of a Swahili Vernacular
	The Sheng generation
	Language attitudes
	Sheng in education and the question of vernacular instruction
	Is Sheng the real McCoy?
Appendix: The Nairobian, ‘Landlord Anakunyima Hao’
Sheng glossary
Bibliography
Index