Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: sociolinguistics and English around the world
- 1 The UK and the USA
- 2 Ireland
- 3 Urban and rural varieties of Hiberno-English
- 4 Sociolinguistic variation and methodology: after as a Dublin variable
- 5 The interpretation of social constraints on variation in Belfast English
- 6 Canada
- 7 Phonological variation and recent language change in St John's English
- 8 Sociophonetic variation in Vancouver
- 9 Social differentiation in Ottawa English
- 10 New Zealand
- 11 Social constraints on the phonology of New Zealand English
- 12 Maori English: a New Zealand myth?
- 13 Sporting formulae in New Zealand English: two models of male solidarity
- 14 Australia
- 15 /æ/ and /a:/ in Australian English
- 16 Variation in subject–verb agreement in Inner Sydney English
- 17 Australian Creole English: the effect of cultural knowledge on language and memory
- 18 South Asia
- 19 Final consonant cluster simplification in a variety of Indian English
- 20 Patterns of language use in a bilingual setting in India
- 21 Speech acts in an indigenised variety: sociocultural values and language variation
- 22 Southeast Asia and Hongkong
- 23 Stylistic shifts in the English of the Philippine print media
- 24 Variation in Malaysian English: the pragmatics of languages in contact
- 25 Social and linguistic constraints on variation in the use of two grammatical variables in Singapore English
- 26 East Africa (Tanzania and Kenya)
- 27 The politics of the English language in Kenya and Tanzania
- 28 National and subnational features in Kenyan English
- 29 Southern Africa
- 30 Sources and consequences of miscommunication in Afrikaans English – South African English encounters
- 31 Syntactic variation in South African Indian English: the relative clause
- 32 The social significance of language use and language choice in a Zambian urban setting: an empirical study of three neighbourhoods in Lusaka
- 33 West Africa
- 34 The pronoun system in Nigerian Pidgin: a preliminary study
- 35 The sociolinguistics of prepositional usage in Nigerian English
- 36 Social and linguistic constraints on plural marking in Liberian English
- 37 The Caribbean
- 38 Standardisation in a creole continuum situation: the Guyana case
- 39 Gender roles and linguistic variation in the Belizean Creole community
- 40 Sociolinguistic variation in Cane Walk: a quantitative case study
- 41 The Pacific
- 42 Watching girls pass by in Tok Pisin
- 43 Sociolinguistic variation and language attitudes in Hawaii
- 44 Variation in Fiji English
- Index of topics
- Index of place names
27 - The politics of the English language in Kenya and Tanzania
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: sociolinguistics and English around the world
- 1 The UK and the USA
- 2 Ireland
- 3 Urban and rural varieties of Hiberno-English
- 4 Sociolinguistic variation and methodology: after as a Dublin variable
- 5 The interpretation of social constraints on variation in Belfast English
- 6 Canada
- 7 Phonological variation and recent language change in St John's English
- 8 Sociophonetic variation in Vancouver
- 9 Social differentiation in Ottawa English
- 10 New Zealand
- 11 Social constraints on the phonology of New Zealand English
- 12 Maori English: a New Zealand myth?
- 13 Sporting formulae in New Zealand English: two models of male solidarity
- 14 Australia
- 15 /æ/ and /a:/ in Australian English
- 16 Variation in subject–verb agreement in Inner Sydney English
- 17 Australian Creole English: the effect of cultural knowledge on language and memory
- 18 South Asia
- 19 Final consonant cluster simplification in a variety of Indian English
- 20 Patterns of language use in a bilingual setting in India
- 21 Speech acts in an indigenised variety: sociocultural values and language variation
- 22 Southeast Asia and Hongkong
- 23 Stylistic shifts in the English of the Philippine print media
- 24 Variation in Malaysian English: the pragmatics of languages in contact
- 25 Social and linguistic constraints on variation in the use of two grammatical variables in Singapore English
- 26 East Africa (Tanzania and Kenya)
- 27 The politics of the English language in Kenya and Tanzania
- 28 National and subnational features in Kenyan English
- 29 Southern Africa
- 30 Sources and consequences of miscommunication in Afrikaans English – South African English encounters
- 31 Syntactic variation in South African Indian English: the relative clause
- 32 The social significance of language use and language choice in a Zambian urban setting: an empirical study of three neighbourhoods in Lusaka
- 33 West Africa
- 34 The pronoun system in Nigerian Pidgin: a preliminary study
- 35 The sociolinguistics of prepositional usage in Nigerian English
- 36 Social and linguistic constraints on plural marking in Liberian English
- 37 The Caribbean
- 38 Standardisation in a creole continuum situation: the Guyana case
- 39 Gender roles and linguistic variation in the Belizean Creole community
- 40 Sociolinguistic variation in Cane Walk: a quantitative case study
- 41 The Pacific
- 42 Watching girls pass by in Tok Pisin
- 43 Sociolinguistic variation and language attitudes in Hawaii
- 44 Variation in Fiji English
- Index of topics
- Index of place names
Summary
Introduction
In a previous publication, (Angogo and Hancock 1980) we traced the history of the English language in Africa and established that there were specific phonological and idiomatic features which distinguished East African English from West African English. In another publication (Hancock and Angogo 1982) we took a detailed look at the so-called Anglophone Eastern Africa, and attempted to give a sociolinguistic description of speakers of East African English. We proposed a breakdown of four varieties of English registers in East Africa. This paper continues along similar lines. My focus will be on the politics of the English language in Kenya and Tanzania. In other words, the question that the paper seeks to explore is whether different political systems necessarily cause differences in the variety of language use. To put it another way, is the English spoken in Tanzania different from that spoken in Kenya because the two countries have pursued different political systems?
Background
Kenya and Tanzania share a common border. They also share a history of British colonisation and the introduction of the English language (Hancock and Angogo 1982: 309). Alongside English, Kiswahili is the lingua franca of both countries. The politics and the use of the one language is inseparably linked to those of the other. Following independence, Kenya and Tanzania each adopted politics and language policies which differed radically from each other. Language, like choice of an economic system, was based on the country's politics.
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- English around the WorldSociolinguistic Perspectives, pp. 402 - 419Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991
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