Publications

Publication details [#42599]

McIntosh, Janet. 2005. Language essentialism and social hierarchies among Giriama and Swahili. Journal of Pragmatics 37 (12) : 1919–1944.

Publication type

Article in journal

Publication language

English

Keywords

ethnicity | hierarchy | ideology | language status | racism

Language as a subject

Giriama | Swahili

Place, Publisher

Elsevier

Journal WWW

www.sciencedirect.com/web-editions

Annotation

Scholars have widely recognized essentialist discourse as a potentially pernicious means This paper deals with six varieties of language essentialism and social hierarchies among Swahili and Giriama in Malindi on the Kenyan coast. These essentialisms appear crucial to local ethnic politics.