The codeswitching pattern is different in rural Tanzania compared to urban agglomerations around the world. Even in very rural areas people in Tanzania are bilingual in Swahili, the national and local lingua franca, and their own first language. The result of this language contact is understudied and has only lately been focused on. This article proposes quantitative and qualitative results of a study of the Ngoni language in contact with Swahili. The study is based on photo elicitations about traditional artefacts and their use in one semi-urban and one remote rural village in Songea District, Ruvuma Region. Codeswitching is the unmarked choice amid the Ngoni subsistence farmers in the area, even for old persons living in remote villages. The quantitative results are summed in relation to socio-demographic factors. Additionally, possible social and psycholinguistic factors, like triggering, are debated. The results give reason to concern as to the future of Ngoni.