Language use in Monduli, Tanzania

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Language use in Monduli, Tanzania
Author:	Drolc, Uschi
Year:	1998
Periodical:	Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere: Schriftenreihe des Kölner Instituts für Afrikanistik
Issue:	54
Pages:	29-45
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Tanzania
Subjects:	Maasai Swahili language usage
Abstract:	The town of Monduli in northern Tanzania is host to a multilingual population that uses Swahili for interethnic communication. In the surrounding countryside live two groups of Maa speakers, the pastoralist Kisongo Maasai and the agriculturalist Arusha. In 1992-1994 the author conducted a sociolinguistic survey based on questionnaires in order to ascertain the different languages spoken in Monduli, the frequency of use of Swahili or Maa, the attitude towards Maa and Swahili, the prestige of the two languages, and the relationship between language use, ethnic identity, and sociological factors such as sex, age, and school education. Amongst others she found that there were statistically significant differences in the language behaviour of the two Maa-speaking ethnic groups. Of the Kisongo, 80-90 percent still used only Maa in their families. Of the Arusha, only 60-70 percent did so. App., bibliogr., notes, sum.