Article published In:
Studies in Language: Online-First Articles

Morphosyntactic retention and innovation in Sheng, a youth language or stylect of Kenya

ORCID logo | University of Essex
ORCID logo | Kenyatta University
ORCID logo | Kenyatta University
ORCID logo | SOAS University of London

This paper examines the morphosyntax of the East African Swahili-based urban youth language or stylect Sheng. Research on urban youth languages has often focused on these varieties as sites of rapid change and linguistic creativity. However, we show that many of the structural features which appear to make Sheng stand out when compared to (Standard) Swahili are widespread across East African Bantu languages. We examine nominal and verbal domains, as well as clausal syntax, and highlight areas in which Sheng exhibits features in common with its contact languages, as well as features which appear to reflect instances of independent innovation. The study shows that Sheng is not a “simplified” version of Swahili which deviates from the grammar of Swahili in a range of ad hoc ways. Rather, the language exhibits features of retention and contact-induced borrowing, as well as systematic changes which are reflective of variation across the Bantu languages.

Keywords: language contact, youth languages, morphosyntax, Sheng, Swahili
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Contact and convergence in Bantu
  • 3.Sheng: A background
  • 4.Features of Sheng morphosyntax: The nominal domain
    • 4.1Noun class assignment and semantics
    • 4.2Nominal agreement
    • 4.3Demonstratives
    • 4.4Locative nouns
    • 4.5Summary of Sheng features in the nominal domain
  • 5.The verbal domain
    • 5.1Tense-aspect-mood distinctions
      • 5.1.1The habitual -ag
      • 5.1.2New tense-aspect-mood markers and distinctions
      • 5.1.3The verbal stem marker ku-
    • 5.2Co-occurrence of object markers
    • 5.3Summary of features of Sheng in the verbal domain
  • 6.Further features of Sheng
    • 6.1Plural addressee marking
    • 6.2Relative clauses
    • 6.3Copula constructions
    • 6.4Post-verbal locative enclitics
    • 6.5Summary of further features of Sheng morphosyntax
  • 7.Summary and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

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

Published online: 6 June 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.22017.gib
References
Abe, Yuko
2009 The use of -ag- in colloquial Swahili in Tanzania: Report of a preliminary survey conducted in 2008. In Yuji Kawaguchi, Makoto Minegishi & Jacques Durand (eds.), Corpus analysis and variation in linguistics, 299–313. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Abdulaziz, Mohamed H. & Ken Osinde
1997 Sheng and Engsh: development of mixed codes among the urban youth in Kenya. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 1251. 43–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ashton, Ethel Ormerod
1947 Swahili grammar (including intonation). 2nd edn. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Barasa, Sandra Nekesa & Maarten Mous
2017 Engsh, a Kenyan middle class youth language parallel to Sheng. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 32(1). 48–74. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beck, Rose Marie
2010 Urban languages in Africa. Africa Spectrum 45 (3). 11–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 Sheng: an urban variety of Swahili in Kenya. In Nico Nassenstein & Andrea Hollington (eds.), Youth language practices in Africa and beyond, 51–79. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bleek, Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel
1862/9 A comparative grammar of South African languages: Part I: Phonology. London: Trübner.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
2008 Sheng: The phonology, morphology and social profile of an urban vernacular. University at Albany/State University of New York. Ph.D. dissertation.
2015 Sheng – what youth languages tell us about language change. Paper presented at the African Urban Youth Languages Conference, Kenyatta University, 11–13 December 2015.
Botne, Robert
2004 Specificity in Lusaamia infinitives. Studies in Language 28(1). 137–164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Caragarajah, Suresh
2011 Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy. Applied Linguistics Review 21. 1–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chimerah, Rocha
1998 Kiswahili: Past, present and future horizons. Nairobi: Nairobi University Press.Google Scholar
De Rooij, Vincent
1995 Shaba Swahili. In Jacques Arends, Pieter Muysken & Norval Smith (eds.), Pidgins and Creoles: An introduction, 179–190. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Devos, Maud & Daniël Van Olmen
2013 Describing and explaining the variation in Bantu imperatives and prohibitives. Studies in Language 37(1). 1–57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ditsele, Thabo & Charles C. Mann
2014 Language contact in African urban settings: The case of Sepitori in Tshwane. South African Journal of African Languages 34(2). 159–165. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dumestre, Gérard
1985 L’argot Bambara: une première approche. Mandenkan 101. 49–61.Google Scholar
Edelsten, Peter & Chiku Lijongwa
2010 A grammatical sketch of Chindamba, a Bantu language (G52) of Tanzania. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Edelsten, Peter, Hannah Gibson, Rozenn Guérois, Gastor Mapunda, Lutz Marten & Julius Taji
2022 Morphosyntactic variation in Bantu: Focus on East Africa. Journal of the Language Association of East Africa 1(1). 1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ferrari, Aurélia
2004 Le sheng: expansion et vernacularisation d’une variété urbaine hybride à Nairobi. In Akinbiyi Akinlabí & Oluseys Adesola (eds.), Proceedings of the 4th World Congress of African Linguistics, New Brunswick 2003, 479–495. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
2009 Emergence de langues urbaines en Afrique: Le cas du Sheng, langue mixte parlée à Nairobi. Louvain: Peeters.Google Scholar
García, Ofelia & Li Wei
2014 Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibson, Hannah
2012 Auxiliary placement in Rangi: A Dynamic Syntax perspective. SOAS University of London. Ph.D. dissertation.
Gibson, Hannah & Lutz Marten
2019 Probing the interaction of language contact and internal innovation: four case studies of morphosyntactic change in Rangi. Studies In African Linguistics 481. 63–92. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibson, Hannah, Guérois, Rozenn & Marten, Lutz
2017 Patterns and developments in the marking of diminutives in Bantu. Nordic Journal of African Studies 26(4). 344–383.Google Scholar
Gibson, Hannah, Gastor Mapunda, Lutz Marten, Sheena Shah & Julius Taji
2020 Variation in double object marking in Swahili. In Nico Nassenstein & Daisuke Shinagawa (eds.), Swahili Forum 26 (Special Issue on Variation in Swahili), 142–165Google Scholar
Githinji, Peter
2006 Bazes and their shibboleths: Lexical variation and Sheng speakers’ identity in Nairobi. Nordic Journal of African Studies 15(4). 443–472.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
2018 Sheng: Rise of a Kenyan Swahili vernacular. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Goyvaerts, Didier L.
1988 Indoubil: A Swahili hybrid in Bukavu (with comments on Indu Bill by K. Kabongo-Mianda). Language in Society 17(2). 231–242. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gunnink, Hilde
2014 The grammatical structure of Sowetan tsotsitaal. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. 32(2). 161–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guthrie, Malcolm
1962 Bantu origins: A tentative new hypothesis. Journal of African Languages 11. 9–21Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael
1976 Anti-Languages. American Anthropologist 791. 570–584. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Derek Nurse
(eds) 2008 A linguistic geography of Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hurst, Ellen
2008 Style, structure and function in Cape Town Tsotsitaal. University of Cape Town Ph.D. dissertation.
Hurst, Ellen & Rajend Mesthrie
2013 ‘When you hang out with the guys they keep you in style’: The case for considering style in descriptions of South African tsotsitaals. Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa 44(1). 3–20. DOI logoGoogle 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
Hurst-Harosh, Ellen
2019 Tsotsitaal and decoloniality. African Studies 78(1). 112–125. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020 Tsotsitaal in South Africa. Style and metaphor in youth language practices. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Jerro, Kyle
2018 Linguistic complexity: A case study from Swahili. In Jason Kandybowicz, Travis Major & Harold Torrence (eds.), The selected proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics: African Linguistics on the Prairie, 3–20. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar
Jespersen, Otto
1917 Negation in English and other languages. Copenhagen: Høst.Google Scholar
Kanana Erastus, Fridah & Hilda Kebeya
2018 Functions of urban and youth language in the New Media: The case of Sheng in Kenya. In Ellen Hurst-Harosh & Fridah Kanana Erastus (eds.), African youth languages: New media, performing arts and sociolinguistic development, 15–52. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kanana Erastus, Fridah & Atemo Christine Nyong’a
2019 Lexical restructuring processes in Sheng among the Matatu crew in Nakuru, Kenya. South African Journal of Languages and Linguistics (SAJAL) 39(1). 42–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kanana Erastus, Fridah & Ellen Hurst-Harosh
2019 Rural and urban metaphors in Sheng (Kenya) and Tsotsitaal (South Africa). In Joseph Schmied & Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju (eds.), African urban youth languages: The rural-urban divide (REAL Studies 11), 35–51. Göttingen: Cuvillier Verlag.Google Scholar
Kießling, Roland & Maarten Mous
2004 Urban youth languages in Africa. Anthropological Linguistics 46(3). 303–341.Google Scholar
Kihore, Yared Magori, David Phineas Bhukanda Massamba & Y. P. Msanjila
2001 Sarufi Maumboya Kiswahili Sanifu (SAMAKISA). Sekondari na Vyuo [Grammar and morphology of Swahili. Secondary schools and university]. Dar es Salaam: Taasisi ya Uchunguziwa Kiswahili, Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar
King’ei, Kitual Geoffrey
2000 Problems of acceptability of Standard Swahili forms by non-Kiunguja native Kiswahili speakers. In Kulikoyela Kahigi, Yared Magori Kihore & Maarten Mous (eds.), Lugha za Tanzania. Languages of Tanzania, 81–88. Leiden: CNWS Publications.Google Scholar
Lüpke, Friederike & Anne Storch
2013 Repertoires and choices in African languages. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maganga, Clement & Thilo C. Schadeberg
1992 Kinyamwezi: Grammar, texts, vocabulary. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Maho, Jouni
1999 A comparative study of Bantu noun classes. Gothenburg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.Google Scholar
Marlo, Michael
2015 On the number of object markers in Bantu languages. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 36(1). 1–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marten, Lutz
1998 Swahili -kwisha: sketching the path of grammaticalization. SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics 81. 141–163.Google Scholar
2002 A lexical treatment for stem markers in Swahili. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 72 (Swahili Forum IX), 87–100.Google Scholar
2013 Linguistic variation, language contact and new comparative Bantu. Inaugural lecture SOAS University of London, 18th April 2013.Google Scholar
2021 Noun classes and plurality in Bantu languages. In Patricia Cabredo Hofherr & Jenny Doetjes (eds.), The Oxford handbook of grammatical number, 539–557. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marten, Lutz & Hannah Gibson
2024 Morphosyntactic borrowing in closely related varieties: ‘False cognates’ in Swahili. In Holly Kennard, Emily Lindsay-Smith, Aditi Lahiri, and Martin Maiden (eds.), Historical Linguistics 2022. Selected papers from the 25th ICHL, Oxford, 1–5 August 2022. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Marten, Lutz & Nancy C. Kula
2012 Object marking and morphosyntactic variation in Bantu. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 30(2). 237–253. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 Benefactive and substitutive applicatives in Bemba. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 35(1). 1–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marten, Lutz, Nancy C. Kula & Nhlanhla Thwala
2007 Parameters of morphosyntactic variation in Bantu. Transactions of the Philological Society 1051. 253–338. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marten, Lutz, Hannah Gibson, Rozenn Guérois & Kyle Jerro
2024 Morphosyntactic variation in Old Swahili. In Hannah Gibson, Rozenn Guérois, Gastor Mapunda & Lutz Marten (eds.), Morphosyntactic variation in East African Bantu languages: Descriptive and comparative approaches, 373–420. Berlin: Language Sciences Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mazrui, Alamin M.
1995 Slang and codeswitching: The case of Sheng in Kenya. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 421. 168–179.Google Scholar
Mazrui, Alamin & Ali Al’Amin Mazrui
1995 Swahili: The political economy of an African language. Nairobi: East African Publishers.Google Scholar
Mbaabu, Ireri & Kipande Nzunga
2003 Sheng-English dictionary: Deciphering East Africa’s underworld language. Dar es Salaam: TUKI.Google Scholar
Meeussen, Achilles E.
1967 Bantu grammatical reconstructions. Africana Linguistica 3, 79–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meeuwis, Michael
2020 A grammatical overview of Lingála. Revised and extended edition. Munich: LINCOM.Google Scholar
Meinhof, Carl
1899 Grundriss einer Lautlehre der Bantusprachen, nebst Anleitung zur Aufnahme von Bantusprachen. Leipzig: Brockhaus.Google Scholar
Möhlig, Wilhelm J. G.
1979 The Bantu Nucleus: Its conditional nature and its pre-historical significance. Stratification in the history of the Bantu languages. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 11. 109–141.Google Scholar
1981 Stratification in the history of the Bantu languages. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 31. 251–316.Google Scholar
Mugane, John M.
2015 The story of Swahili. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
1993 Social motivations for code switching: Evidence from Africa. Oxford: Clarendon Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Namyalo, Saudah
2015 Linguistic strategies in Luyaaye: Word-play and conscious language manipulation. In Nico Nassenstein & Andrea Hollington (eds.), Youth language practices in Africa and beyond, 313–344. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nassenstein, Nico
2015 Kisangani Swahili. Choices and variation in a multilingual urban space. Munich: LINCOM.Google Scholar
Nassenstein, Nico & Paulin Baraka Bose
2020 Morphological features of Kiswahili youth language(s): Evidence from Dar es Salaam, Goma, Lubumbashi and Nairobi. Linguistics Vanguard 6(4) DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nassenstein, Nico & Andrea Hollington
(eds.) 2015 Youth language practices in Africa and beyond. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nsuka Nkutsi, F.
1982 Les structures fondamentales du rélatif dans les langues bantoues. Tervuren: Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale.Google Scholar
Nurse, Derek
2008 Tense and aspect in Bantu. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nurse, Derek & Thomas J. Hinnebush
1993 Swahili and Sabaki. A linguistic history. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ogechi, Nathan Oyori
2005 Trilingual codeswitching in Kenya – Evidence from Ekegusii, Kiswahili, English and Sheng. Universität Hamburg. Ph.D. dissertation.
Petzell, Malin
2008 The Kagulu language of Tanzania: Grammar, texts and vocabulary. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Reuster-Jahn, Uta & Roland Kießling
2006 Lugha ya Mitaani in Tanzania. The poetics and sociology of a young urban style of speaking with a dictionary comprising 1100 words and phrases. Swahili Forum 131. 1–200.Google Scholar
Rugemalira, Josephat
2007 The structure of the Bantu noun phrase. SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics 151. 135–148.Google Scholar
2010 The -ag TAM marker and the boundary between cliticization and inflection in Bantu. Karsten Legère & Christina Thornell (eds.), Bantu languages: Analyses, description and theory, 229–237. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Samper, David
2002 Talking Sheng: The role of a hybrid language in the construction of identity and youth culture in Nairobi, Kenya. University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. dissertation.
Samsom, Ridder & Thilo C. Schadeberg
1994 Kiinimacho cha mahali: Kiambishi tamati cha mahali -ni . Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 371. 127–138.Google Scholar
Schadeberg, Thilo C.
1989 The three relative constructions in Swahili (sanifu). In Marie-Françoise Rombi (ed.), Le swahili et ses limites, 33–40. Paris: Editions Researche sur les Civilisations.Google Scholar
1990 Schon – Noch – Nicht – Mehr: Das Unerwartete als grammatische Kategorie im KiSwahili. Frankfurter Afrikanistische Blätter 21. 1–15.Google Scholar
1992 A sketch of Swahili morphology. 3rd edn. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Sebasoni, Servilien
1967 La préfinale du verbe bantou. Africana Linguistica 31. 122–135. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sesep, N’Sial Bal-Nsien
1990 Langage, normes et repertoire en milieu urbain africain: L’indoubill. Laval University: Centre International de Recherche en Aménagement Linguistique.Google Scholar
Shinagawa, Daisuke
2006 Particularities of Sheng in written texts. Sites 4(1). 119–137.Google Scholar
2007 Notes on the morphosyntactic bias of verbal constituents in Sheng texts. HERSETEC 1(1). 153–171.Google Scholar
2019 The syntactic distribution of relativizers and the development of -enye relative constructions in Sheng. Swahili Forum 261. 122–141.Google Scholar
Slabbert, Sarah & Carol Myers-Scotton
1997 The structure of Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho: code switching and in-group identity in South African townships. Linguistics 35(2). 317–342. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spyropoulos, Mary
1987 Sheng: Some preliminary investigations into a recently emerged Nairobi street language. Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 181. 125–136.Google Scholar
Suma Lee
2011 Hakunaga by Suma Lee (Official Video). [URL]. Last accessed 2/1/2024.
Taji, Julius
2021 Demonstratives in Chiyao: An analysis of their form, distribution and functions. Unpublished manuscript. University of Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar
2024 Demonstratives in Chiyao An analysis of their form, distribution and functions. In Hannah Gibson, Rozenn Guérois, Gastor Mapunda and Lutz Marten (eds.), Morphosyntactic variation in East African Bantu languages: Descriptive and comparative approaches. Language Science Press. Berlin. 17–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van de Velde, Mark
2005 The order of noun and demonstrative in Bantu. In Koen Bostoen and Jacky Maniacky (eds.), Studies in African comparative linguistics with special focus on Bantu and Mande, 425–441. Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa.Google Scholar
Van de Velde, Mark, Koen Bostoen, Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson
(eds.) 2019 The Bantu languages. 2nd edn. London and New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van der Auwera, Johan
2009 The Jespersen Cycles. In Elly van Gelderen (ed.), Cyclical Change, 35–71. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van der Wal, Jenneke
2009 Word order and information structure in Makhuwa-Enahara. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar
Wairungu, Michael
2014 ‘A Language of Many Hats’: The rise of Sheng and other linguistic styles among urban youth in Kenya. University of Virginia Ph.D. dissertation.
Williams, Cen
1994 Arfarniad o Ddulliau Dysgu ac Addysgu yng Nghyd-destun Addysg Uwchradd Ddwyieithog, [An evaluation of teaching and learning methods in the context of bilingual secondary education]. University of Wales, Bangor Ph.D. dissertation.
Wilson, Catherina
2015 Kindoubil: Urban youth languages in Kisangani. In Nico Nassenstein & Andrea Hollington (eds.), Youth language practices in Africa and beyond, 293–312. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar