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Part of
World Englishes in their Local Multilingual Ecologies
Edited by Peter Siemund, Gardy Stein and Manuela Vida-Mannl
[Hamburg Studies on Linguistic Diversity 9] 2025
► pp. 231–257

Chapter 11
The Zanzibari tourist space as a multilingual language ecology

 | Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyTrondheim
Across East Africa, English is used extensively in urban areas, especially in official domains, while Kiswahili serves as intranational lingua franca, and local autochthonous languages are employed in less formal communication. However, it has been shown that due to globalization, English can be an important part of local multilingual language practices in less urban areas as well. This emphasizes the fact that language practices need to be analyzed locally to assess language ecologies. This chapter discusses a relatively under-researched East African region, i.e., Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago Zanzibar, regarding the use of English. The analysis focuses on tourist spaces on Unguja island. English has been discussed as the default choice and an important commodity in these spaces, especially for Zanzibari hosts. Based on ethnographic data (i.e., observations, questionnaires, and interviews), this chapter situates English in its multilingual ecology by analyzing language repertoires, greetings, and subsequent interactions between tourists and hosts. Practical reasons and the enactment of social roles, especially in higher end establishments, emerge as reasons for English being the default choice in tourist spaces in general. This is in contrast to the use of Kiswahili and a simplified, pidginized version of it called ‘Hakuna Matata Swahili’, which is used in a tokenistic fashion, mostly in greetings in open spaces, to authenticate less expensive establishments and the Zanzibari tourist space. Altogether, the chapter demonstrates that, while English is used more widely in Zanzibar than in mainland Tanzania, it remains lingua franca-reminiscent, a ‘multilingua franca’ in a highly multilingual ecology.
Keywords: communicative interaction, English as multilingua franca, Kiswahili, Tanzania, tourism, Zanzibar
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Multilingual language ecologies in Tanzania
    • 2.1Language policies and use in Tanzania
    • 2.2Tourism and language use in Tanzania
  • 3.Methods and data
    • 3.1Locations of data collection
    • 3.2Interviews
    • 3.3Questionnaires
  • 4.Language practices and attitudes in the multilingual language ecology of touristic Zanzibar
    • 4.1Linguistic repertoires and language choices
    • 4.2Greetings
    • 4.3Interaction beyond greetings
    • 4.4Zanzibari English(es)?
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Transcription conventions
  • Author queries
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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