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Digo Language
Digo (''Chidigo'') is a Bantu languages, Bantu language spoken primarily along the East African coast between Mombasa and Tanga, Tanzania, Tanga by the Digo people of Kenya and Tanzania. The ethnic Digo population has been estimated at around 360,000 (Mwalonya et al. 2004), the majority of whom are presumably speakers of the language. All adult speakers of Digo are bilingual in Swahili language, Swahili, East Africa's lingua franca. The two languages are closely related, and Digo also has much vocabulary borrowed from neighbouring Swahili dialects. Classification The classification and sub-classification of Digo provides a good example of the difficulty sometimes faced by linguists in differentiating languages and dialects. Most contemporary authorities follow Nurse and Hinnebusch (1993) in classifying Digo as a dialect of Mijikenda language, Mijikenda, one of the constituent languages of the Sabaki languages, Sabaki group of Northeast Coast Bantu languages, Northeast Coast B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi. Its second-largest and oldest city is Mombasa, a major port city located on Mombasa Island. Other major cities within the country include Kisumu, Nakuru & Eldoret. Going clockwise, Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest (though much of that border includes the disputed Ilemi Triangle), Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, Tanzania to the southwest, and Lake Victoria and Uganda to the west. Kenya's geography, climate and population vary widely. In western, rift valley counties, the landscape includes cold, snow-capped mountaintops (such as Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya) with vast surrounding forests, wildlife and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lingua Franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a First language, native language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages. Linguae francae have developed around the world throughout human history, sometimes for commercial reasons (so-called "trade languages" facilitated trade), but also for cultural, religious, diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities. The term is taken from the medieval Mediterranean Lingua Franca, a Romance languages, Romance-based pidgin language used especially by traders in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bible Translation And Literacy (East Africa)
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. The texts include instructions, stories, poetry, prophecies, and other genres. The collection of materials accepted as part of the Bible by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon. Believers generally consider it to be a product of divine inspiration, but the way they understand what that means and interpret the text varies. The religious texts were compiled by different religious communities into various official collections. The earliest contained the first five books of the Bible, called the Torah in Hebrew and the Pentateuch (meaning 'five books') in Greek. The second-oldest part was a collection of narrative histories and prophecies (the Nevi'im). The third coll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voiced Bilabial Approximant
The voiced bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is B. The official symbol is the Greek letter beta. This letter is also often used to represent the bilabial approximant, though that is more precisely written with a lowering diacritic, that is . That sound may also be transcribed as an advanced labiodental approximant , in which case the diacritic is again frequently omitted, since no contrast is likely. It has been proposed that either a turned , reversed or affricate can be used as a dedicated symbol for the bilabial approximant, but despite occasional usage none of them have gained general acceptance. It is extremely rare for a language to make a phonemic contrast between the voiced bilabial fricative and the bilabial approximant. The Mapos Buang language of New Guinea contains this contrast. Its bilabial approx ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin Script
The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Greek alphabet was altered by the Etruscan civilization, Etruscans, and subsequently their alphabet was altered by the Ancient Romans. Several Latin-script alphabets exist, which differ in graphemes, collation and phonetic values from the classical Latin alphabet. The Latin script is the basis of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), and the 26 most widespread letters are the letters contained in the ISO basic Latin alphabet, which are the same letters as the English alphabet. Latin script is the basis for the largest number of alphabets of any writing system and is the List of writing systems by adoption, most widely adopted writing system in the world. Latin script is used as the standard method of writing the languages of Western and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Language Shift
Language shift, also known as language transfer, language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived to be of higher-status stabilize or spread at the expense of other languages that are perceived—even by their own speakers—to have lower status. An example is the shift from Gaulish to Latin during the time of the Roman Empire. Language assimilation may operate alongside other aspects of cultural assimilation when different cultures meet and merge. Mechanisms Prehistory For prehistory, Forster ''et al''. (2004) and Forster and Renfrew (2011) observe that there is a correlation of language shift with intrusive male Y chromosomes but not necessarily with intrusive female mtDNA. They conclude that technological innovation (the transition from hunting-gathering to farming, or from stone to metal tools) or military prowess (as in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Degere
The Degere are a Mijikenda-speaking group of former hunter-gatherers of Kenya and Tanzania, now settled along the Ramisi, Mwena and Umba rivers, with a few along the coast. They may number no more than a few hundred to at most a few thousand. They are believed to be related to, possibly descended from, the Oromo-speaking Waata. They are variously reported to speak Duruma, Digo, a similar Mijikenda dialect of their own, or to speak Mijikenda with grammatical errors (such as incorrect verb tenses) much as the Waata do when they speak Mijikenda. A former arrow-poison trader reported that when he visited the Degere at Mkoseka in northern Tanzania in 1959, among themselves they spoke their own language, which he said was similar to Waata. He was able, with difficulty, to recall some words and phrases, along with their Waata equivalents, and equated the language with both Waata and the language of the 'Dorobo' hunter-gatherers on the other side of the Usambara Mountains The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Segeju
The Segeju ( Swahili: ''Wasegeju''; Mijikenda: ''Asagidzu'') are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group mostly based in Tanzania's Tanga Region (particularly Mkinga District) and Kenya's Kwale County. Most Segeju reside in the small coastal strip between the Tanzanian city of Tanga and the Kenyan-Tanzanian border. However, some Segeju have migrated to urban areas in other parts of Tanzania or Kenya (e.g. Mombasa), in hopes of better employment opportunities and quality of life. Segeju migration to urban areas often results in severance of community ties, leading to a lack of transmission of important cultural traditions and language. In 2012, the Segeju population was estimated to number fewer than 25,000, with fewer than 7,000 speaking the Segeju language. The Segeju have kinship relations with the Digo people, who are part of the nine tribes of the Mijikenda. Additionally, the Segeju have affines with the nearby Swahili and Shirazi. As a result, many Segeju have adopted the Swah ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shimoni
Shimoni is a port village and tourist destination in Lunga Lunga Constituency, Kwale County. It is in southeastern Kenya near the border with Tanzania and directly across from Wasini Island. General Information This small town is known for its British colonial ruins and slave caves which are the focus of attraction for several community-based projects. In addition, the Shimoni forest, coast, and marine ecosystems are an ever-present attraction. Therefore, it is no surprise that Kenya Wildlife Service's headquarters for the Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Protected Area is located in Shimoni. In certain seasons, the aromatic smell of cloves permeates the evening calls to prayer in the town's two main mosques. Still, Shimoni is a relatively religiously diverse area, with a substantial minority of Christians. Additionally, the villagers are aware of the benefits behind the tourism industry and thus are often very gracious and welcoming to tourists. Many villagers own and operate business ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orthography
An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national and international languages have an established writing system that has undergone substantial standardization, thus exhibiting less dialect variation than the spoken language. These processes can fossilize pronunciation patterns that are no longer routinely observed in speech (e.g. ''would'' and ''should''); they can also reflect deliberate efforts to introduce variability for the sake of national identity, as seen in Noah Webster's efforts to introduce easily noticeable differences between American and British spelling (e.g. ''honor'' and ''honour''). Orthographic norms develop through social and political influence at various levels, such as encounters with print in education, the workplace, and the state. Some nations have established ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rabai Language
Mijikenda is a Bantu dialect cluster spoken along the coast of East Africa, mostly in Kenya, where there are 2.6 million speakers (2019 census) but also in Tanzania, where there are 166,000 speakers. The name ''Mijikenda'' means "the nine settlements" or "the nine communities" and refers to the multiple language communities that make up the group. An older, derogatory term for the group is ''Nyika'' which refers to the "dry and bushy country" along the coast. Varieties The New Updated Guthrie List from 2009 lists the following varieties and Guthrie codes as part of the Mijikenda cluster: * E72 – North Mijikenda (Nyika) ** E72a – Giryama yf** E72b – Kauma ** E73c – Chonyi oh** E73d – Duruma ug** E73e – Rabai ** E73F – Jibana ** E72G – Kambe ** E72H – Ribe * E73-732 – South Mijikenda ** E73 – Digo ig** E731 – Segeju eg** E732 – Degere The Degere are former hunter-gatherers like the Cushitic Waata, and are said to have once spoken a Cushitic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
