The Story of Swahili

The Story of Swahili PDF Author: John M. Mugane
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0896804895
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Swahili was once an obscure dialect of an East African Bantu language. Today more than one hundred million people use it: Swahili is to eastern and central Africa what English is to the world. From its embrace in the 1960s by the black freedom movement in the United States to its adoption in 2004 as the African Union’s official language, Swahili has become a truly international language. How this came about and why, of all African languages, it happened only to Swahili is the story that John M. Mugane sets out to explore. The remarkable adaptability of Swahili has allowed Africans and others to tailor the language to their needs, extending its influence far beyond its place of origin. Its symbolic as well as its practical power has evolved from its status as a language of contact among diverse cultures, even as it embodies the history of communities in eastern and central Africa and throughout the Indian Ocean world. The Story of Swahili calls for a reevaluation of the widespread assumption that cultural superiority, military conquest, and economic dominance determine a language’s prosperity. This sweeping history gives a vibrant, living language its due, highlighting its nimbleness from its beginnings to its place today in the fast-changing world of global communication.

The Story of Swahili

The Story of Swahili PDF Author: John M. Mugane
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0896804895
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Get Book Here

Book Description
Swahili was once an obscure dialect of an East African Bantu language. Today more than one hundred million people use it: Swahili is to eastern and central Africa what English is to the world. From its embrace in the 1960s by the black freedom movement in the United States to its adoption in 2004 as the African Union’s official language, Swahili has become a truly international language. How this came about and why, of all African languages, it happened only to Swahili is the story that John M. Mugane sets out to explore. The remarkable adaptability of Swahili has allowed Africans and others to tailor the language to their needs, extending its influence far beyond its place of origin. Its symbolic as well as its practical power has evolved from its status as a language of contact among diverse cultures, even as it embodies the history of communities in eastern and central Africa and throughout the Indian Ocean world. The Story of Swahili calls for a reevaluation of the widespread assumption that cultural superiority, military conquest, and economic dominance determine a language’s prosperity. This sweeping history gives a vibrant, living language its due, highlighting its nimbleness from its beginnings to its place today in the fast-changing world of global communication.

Language and Politics

Language and Politics PDF Author: William M. O’Barr
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110807130
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description
The Contributions to the Sociology of Language series features publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It addresses the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches - theoretical and empirical - supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of scholars interested in language in society from a broad range of disciplines - anthropology, education, history, linguistics, political science, and sociology. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Natalie Fecher.

Swahili

Swahili PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Swahili philology
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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Book Description


Routledge Revivals: Language in Tanzania (1980)

Routledge Revivals: Language in Tanzania (1980) PDF Author: Edgar C. Polomé
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351391844
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
Originally published in 1980, Language in Tanzania presents a comprehensive overview of the Survey of Language Use and Language Teaching in Eastern Africa. Using extensive research carried out by an interdisciplinary group of international and local scholars, the survey also covers Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. The book represents one of the most in-depth sociolinguistic studies carried out on this region at this time. It provides basic linguistic data necessary to policy-makers, administrators, and educators, and will be of interest to those researching the formulation and execution of language policy.

A Bibliography of Swahili Language and Linguistics

A Bibliography of Swahili Language and Linguistics PDF Author: David Westley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Swahili language
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description


The Power of Babel

The Power of Babel PDF Author: Ali A. Mazrui
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226514284
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Linguists estimate that there are currently nearly 2,000 languages in Africa, a staggering figure that is belied by the relatively few national languages. While African national politics, economics, and law are all conducted primarily in the colonial languages, the cultural life of the majority of citizens is conducted in a bewildering Babel of local and regional dialects, making language itself the center of debates over multiculturalism, gender studies, and social theory. In The Power of Babel, the noted Africanist scholar Ali Mazrui and linguist Alamin Mazrui explore this vast territory of African language. The Power of Babel is one of the first comprehensive studies of the complex linguistic constellations of Africa. It draws on Ali Mazrui's earlier work in its examination of the "triple heritage" of African culture, in which indigenous, Islamic, and Western traditions compete for influence. In bringing the idea of the triple heritage to language, the Mazruis unravel issues of power, culture, and modernity as they are embedded in African linguistic life. The first section of the book takes a global perspective, exploring such issues as the Eurocentrism of much linguistic scholarship on Africa; part two takes an African perspective on a variety of issues from the linguistically disadvantaged position of women in Africa to the relation of language policy and democratic development; the third section presents a set of regional studies, centering on the Swahili language's exemplification of the triple heritage.The Power of Babel unites empirical information with theories of nationalism and pluralism—among others—to offer the richest contextual account of African languages to date.

Cultural Politics of Translation

Cultural Politics of Translation PDF Author: Alamin M. Mazrui
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317233190
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book is the first full-length examination of the cultural politics at work in the act of translation in East Africa, providing close critical analyses of a variety of texts that demonstrate the myriad connections between translation and larger socio-political forces. Looking specifically at texts translated into Swahili, the book builds on the notion that translation is not just a linguistic process, but also a complex interaction between culture, history, and politics, and charts this evolution of the translation process in East Africa from the pre-colonial to colonial to post-colonial periods. It uses textual examples, including the Bible, the Qur’an, and Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth, from five different domains – religious, political, legal, journalistic, and literary – and grounds them in their specific socio-political and historical contexts to highlight the importance of context in the translation process and to unpack the complex relationships between both global and local forces that infuse these translated texts with an identity all their own. This book provides a comprehensive portrait of the multivalent nature of the act of translation in the East African experience and serves as a key resource for students and researchers in translation studies, cultural studies, post-colonial studies, African studies, and comparative literature.

Kiswahili

Kiswahili PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Swahili language
Languages : en
Pages : 802

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Book Description


Word

Word PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language and languages
Languages : en
Pages : 650

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Book Description


Post-Imperial English

Post-Imperial English PDF Author: Andrew W. Conrad
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110872188
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 665

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Book Description
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.