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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 298

Part of Session 123: Non-standard and youth varieties in urban Africa (Other abstracts in this session)

Is it Sheng or Engsh? The ignored variety is alive and clicking

Authors: Barasa, Sandra (1); Mous, Maarten (2)
Submitted by: Barasa, Sandra (Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands, The)

Kenya is a multilingual community with more than 40 languages which are spoken actively. Among these, English and Swahili are the official languages while the rest are vernacular languages. The country also possesses Sheng and Engsh as the youth codes or varieties.

There is a noticeable gap in the research between Sheng and Engsh in that whereas there have been several publications on Sheng e.g. Osinde 1986; Spyropoulos 1987; Kembo-Sure 1992; Myers-Scotton 1993; Mazrui 1995; Samper 2002; Kießling & Mous 2004; Ogechi 2004;  Rudd 2005 and Bosire 2006, hardly any research has been done on Engsh yet its widespread presence is evidenced by its use in media e.g. Radio stations like KISS FM and Homeboyz FM,  music, and technologically mediated communication for example in SMS, Email, Facebook and other Social Network Sites.  This paper sets out to contribute in bridging this gap by brainstorming on the general Engsh phenomenon, examining its characteristics, features and functions vis-à-vis Sheng.