Cover not available
Part of
Endangered Languages and Languages in Danger: Issues of documentation, policy, and language rights
Edited by Luna Filipović and Martin Pütz
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 42] 2016
► pp. 335–349

Language transmission and use in a bilingual setting in rural Tanzania

Findings from an in-depth study of Ngoni

| University of Gothenburg

When studying languages in a bi- or multilingual language contact situation, it is necessary to go beyond the schematic evaluations and scales describing language endangerment which have been developed over the last decades. Here the case of the Tanzanian language Ngoni, represented by quantitative sociolinguistic data from fieldwork in a rural area in the Ruvuma Region in Tanzania, shows that a too general assessment can be misleading. In Tanzania it is the African language Swahili, and not the global language English and ongoing globalization, which at present represents the major threat to other African languages and the maintenance of these languages. The study indicates that Ngoni is more at risk than would have been judged from endangerment scales.

Keywords: African language, globalization, language contact, language transmission, maintenance, Ngoni, Swahili, Tanzania
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 3 October 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.42.14ros
References (32)
Abstracts LAUD 2014
36th International LAUD Symposium . March 31–April 3, 2014. Landau: University of Koblenz-Landau.
Austin, P.K
(ed.) 2008 One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered and Lost. Berkeley CA: University of California PressGoogle Scholar
Batibo, H
2005 Language Decline and Death in Africa. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Brenzinger, M
1992 Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference to East Africa. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1998 Endangered Languages in Africa. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
(ed.) 2007 Language Diversity Endangered. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brenzinger, M., Dwyer, A.M., de Graaf, T., Grinevald, C., Krauss, M., Miyaoka, O., Ostler, N., Sakiyama, O., Villalón, M.E., Yamamoto, Y. & Zapeda, O.
(eds) 2003 Language Vitality and Endangerment. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Calvet, L.-J
1987 La guerre des langues et les politiques linguistiques. Paris: Payot.Google Scholar
Crystal, D
2000 Language Death. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dorian, N.C
1982 Language loss and maintenance in language contact situations. In The Loss of Language Skills, L. Lambaret & B. Freed (eds), 44–59. Rowley MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Fishman, J.A
1967 Bilingualism with or without diglossia; diglossia with and without bilingualism. Journal of Social Issues 23: 29–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1970 Sociolinguistics. Rowley MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
1991 Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
2001 Can Threatened Languages Be Saved: Reversing Language Shift, Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Grenoble, L
2011 Language ecology and endangerment. In The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages, P.K. Austin & J. Sallabank (eds), 27–44. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guthrie, M
1948 The Classification of the Bantu Languages. London: OUP for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
1971 Comparative Bantu. Farnborough: Gregg International Publishers.Google Scholar
Legère, K
2007 Vidunda (G38) as an endangered language? Somerville MA: Cascadilla Procedings Project.Google Scholar
Lewis, M.P., Simons, G.F & Fennig, C.D
(eds) 2015 Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 18th edn. Dallas TX: SIL International.Google Scholar
Lewis, M.P. & Simons, G.F
2010 Assessing endangerment: Expanding Fishman’s GIDS. Romanian Review of Linguistics 55(2): 103–120.Google Scholar
Lewis, M.P
2005 Towards a categorization of endangerment of the world’s languages. [URL]
Loh, J. & Harmon, D
2014 Comparing status and trends in linguistic and biological diversity. Abstracts LAUD 2014, 91–93.Google Scholar
LOT
2009 Languages of Tanzania Project. Atlasi ya Lugha za Tanzania. Dar es Salaam: LOT.Google Scholar
Mapunda, G
2013 Ngoni people’s attitudes towards the use of Kingoni in beginner classes. Journal of Linguistics and Language in Education 7(1): 74–92.Google Scholar
Moseley, Ch
2014 Language endangerment and vernacular literacy. Abstracts LAUD 2014, 102–103.Google Scholar
Moseley, Ch. & Nicholas, A
2010 Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.Google Scholar
Muzale, H.R.M. & Rugemalira, J.M
2008 Researching and documenting the languages of Tanzania. Languages, Documentation and Conservation 2(1): 68–108.Google Scholar
Ngonyani, D
2003 A Grammar of Chingoni. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar
Norris, M.J
2010 Canada and Greenland. In Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, C. Moseley (ed.). Paris: UNESCO Publications.Google Scholar
Rosendal, T. & Mapunda, G
2014 Is the Tanzanian Ngoni language threatened? A survey of lexical borrowing from Swahili. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 35(3): 271–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rugemalira, J
2013 The Tanzania experience in language policy and planning. In Language Policy in Africa: Perspectives for Cameroon, P. Akumbu & B. Chiatoh (eds), 62–97. Kansas City KS: Miraclaire Academic Publications.Google Scholar
Tanzania, United Republic of
1997 The Cultural Policy/Sera ya Utamaduni. Dar es Salaam: Mpiga Chapa Mkuu wa Serikali.Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by 3 other publications

Mapunda, Gastor & Tove Rosendal
2021. Imagined Futures and New Technology: Youths’ Language Attitudes in Songea, Tanzania. Language Matters 52:1 ► pp. 92 ff. DOI logo
Rosendal, Tove
2017. Identity Construction and Norms of Practice among Bilingual Ngoni in Rural Tanzania. Language Matters 48:2 ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Rosendal, Tove
2018. Speaking of tradition: how the Ngoni talk about value maintenance and change. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 39:9 ► pp. 776 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.