Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
Vol. 32:1 (2017) ► pp.48–74

Engsh, a Kenyan middle class youth language parallel to Sheng

| Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| Leiden University, The Netherlands

Youth ‘languages’ are an important topic of research in the domain of linguistic change through language contact because the change is rapid and observable and also because the social dimension of change is inevitably present. Engsh, as a youth language in Kenya expresses not only modernity and Kenyan identity but also, the status of being educated, and it differs in this respect from Sheng, the dominant Kenyan youth language. The element of Engsh that expresses this aspect most directly is the use of a grammatical system from English whereas Sheng uses Swahili. In lexicon, Engsh draws upon Sheng and urban English slang. This is a first extensive description of Engsh. The social function of Engsh is interesting in that class is expressed in it, which is not often reported in African urban youth codes. Also the fact that Engsh is a non-exclusive register, which expands through its use in (social) media and most of all in computer mediated communication.

Keywords: Engsh, Sheng, Kenya, youth culture, urban language, social class, anti-language, style
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Engsh data
  • 3.The basic structure of Engsh
  • 4.Kenyan English and Engsh
  • 5.Grammatical and phonological features of Engsh
  • 6.Engsh Lexicon
  • 7.Engsh and society
  • 8.Interdependency of Engsh and Sheng
  • 9.Mixing Sheng and Engsh and the concept of ‘language’
  • 10.Engsh as an outcome of language contact
  • 11.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 23 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.32.1.02bar
References
Abdulaziz, Mohamed
1991 East Africa (Tanzania and Kenya). In Jenny Cheshire (ed.), English around the world: Sociolinguistic perspectives, 391–401. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Abdulaziz, Mohamed & Kenneth Osinde
1997 Sheng’ and Engsh: Development of mixed code among the urban youth in Kenya. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 1251. 43–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aycard, Pierre
2008 “Speak as you Want to Speak: Just be Free” A linguistic anthropological monograph of first-language Iscamtho-speaking youth in White City, Soweto. Leiden: Leiden University MA thesis.Google Scholar
Bakker, Peter
2003 Pidgin inflectional morphology and its implications for creole morphology. In Geert Booij & Jaap van Marle (eds.), Yearbook of morphology, 3–33. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Barasa, Sandra
2010 Language, mobile phones and internet: A Study of SMS texting, Email, IM and SNS chats in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) in Kenya. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar
Beck, Rose Marie
2010 Urban languages in Africa. Africa Spectrum 45(3). 11–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blommaert, Jan & Ben Rampton
2012 Language and superdiversity. MMG Working Paper 12-05, Göttingen.Google Scholar
Bosire, Mokaya
2006 Hybrid languages: The case of Sheng. In Olaoba F. Arasanyin & Michael A. Pemberton (eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 185–193. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Dorleijn, Margreet & Jacomine Nortier
2009 Code-switching and the internet. In Barbara Bullock & Almeida Jacqueline Toribio (eds.), Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-switching, 127–142. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckert, Penelope
2000 Linguistic variation as social practice. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ferrari, Aurélia
2009 Emergence de langues urbaines en Afrique: Le cas du sheng, langue mixte parlée à Nairobi (Kenya). Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar
Githinji, Peter
2009 Sheng, styleshifting and construction of multifaceted identities; discursive practices in the social negotiation of meaning. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM verlag Dr. Müller.Google Scholar
Githiora, Chege
2002 Sheng: Peer language, Swahili dialect or emerging creole. Journal of African Cultural Studies 15(2). 159–181. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goyvaerts, Didier
1988 Indoubil: A Swahili hybrid in Bukavu. Language in Society 17(2). 231–242. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hebdige, Dick
1984 Subculture: The meaning of style. New York: Methuen. Google Scholar
Hurst, Ellen
2009 Tsotsitaal, global culture and local style: Identity and recontextualisation in twenty‐first century South African townships. Social Dynamics 35(2). 244–257. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kembo-Sure, Edward
1992 The coming of Sheng. English Today. 26–28.Google Scholar
Kießling, Roland & Maarten Mous
2004 Urban youth languages in Africa. Anthropological Linguistics 46(3). 303–341.Google Scholar
King’ei, Kitula
2001 Language and identity; the challenge of Sheng in Kenya. Paper presented at the Association of Third World Studies Conference , September 17-19, 2001. Njoro: Egerton University, Kenya.
Kouadio N’Guessan, Jérémie
1992 Le Nouchi Abidjanais, naissance d’un argot ou mode linguistique passagère? Cahiers Ivoiriens de Recherche Linguistique 301. 141–60.Google Scholar
Lüpke, Friederike
2013 Multilingualism on the ground. In Friederike Lüpke & Anne Storch (eds.), Repertoires and Choices in African Languages (Language Contact and Bilingualism, 5), 13–76. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mazrui, Alamin
1995 Slang and code-switching: the case of Sheng in Kenya. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 421. 168–179.Google Scholar
Mubila, Maurice, Mohamed-Safouane Ben Aissa under the supervision of Charles Leyeka Lufumpa
2011 The middle of the pyramid: Dynamics of the middle class in Africa. Market Brief African Development Bank April 20, 2011 ([URL]).Google Scholar
Mutiga, Jayne
2013 Effects of language spread on a people’ phenomenology: The case of Sheng’ in Kenya. Journal of Language, Technology & Entrepreneurship in Africa 4(1). 1–15.Google Scholar
Mwangi, Serah
2003 Prepositions in Kenyan English: A corpus-based study in lexico-grammatical variation. Aachen: Shaker.Google Scholar
Myers-Scotton, Carol
2000 Comparing verbs in Swahili/English codeswitching with other data sets. In Kulikoyela Kahigi, Yared Kihore & Maarten Mous (eds.), Lugha za Tanzania, 203–214. Leiden: CNWS publicationsGoogle Scholar
Nassenstein, Nico
2011 The Lingala – based youth language Yanké. MA thesis, University of Cologne.Google Scholar
2014 A grammatical study of the youth language Yanké (LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 90). Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Ogechi, Nathan
2005 On lexicalization in Sheng. Nordic Journal of African Studies 14(3). 334–355.Google Scholar
2008 Sheng as a youth identity marker: Reality or misconception. In Kimani Njogu (ed.), Culture, performance & identity. Paths of communication in Kenya, 75–92. Nairobi: Twaweza Communications.Google Scholar
Osinde, Kenneth
1986 Sheng; An investigation into the social and structural aspects of an evolving language. Nairobi: University of Nairobi BA dissertationGoogle Scholar
Rudd, Philip
2008 Sheng: The mixed language of Nairobi. Muncie, Indiana: Ball State University PhD Thesis.Google Scholar
Samper, David
2002 Talking Sheng: The role of a hybrid language in the construction of identity and youth culture in Nairobi, Kenya. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania PhD Thesis.Google Scholar
Schmied, Josef
2006 East African Englishes. In Braj Kachru, Yamuna Kachru, & Cecil L. Nelson (eds.), Handbook of World Englishes, 188-202. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sebba, Mark
2003 Spelling rebellion. In Jannis Androutsopoulos & Alexandra Georgakopoulou (eds.), Discourse construction of youth identities (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 110), 151–172. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, Norval
1995 An annotated list of creoles, pidgins, and mixed languages. In Jacques Arends, Pieter Muysken & Norval Smith (eds.), Pidgins and creoles: An introduction, 331–374. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spyropoulos, Mary
1987 Sheng: Some preliminary investigations into a recently emerged Nairobi street language. Journal of Anthropological Society of Oxford 18(1). 125–136.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 5 other publications

Wendy Ayres-Bennett & John Bellamy
2021. The Cambridge Handbook of Language Standardization, DOI logo
Lüpke, Friederike
2021. Standardization in Highly Multilingual National Contexts. In The Cambridge Handbook of Language Standardization, ► pp. 139 ff. DOI logo
Mous, Maarten & Sandra Barasa
2021. Sheng and Engsh in Kenya’s Public Spaces and Media. In Youth Language Practices and Urban Language Contact in Africa, ► pp. 141 ff. DOI logo
Reyes, Angela
2021. Postcolonial Semiotics. Annual Review of Anthropology 50:1 ► pp. 291 ff. DOI logo
Reyes, Angela
2023. Postcolonial Semiotics. In A New Companion to Linguistic Anthropology, ► pp. 107 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 april 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.