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Title: | Lexical innovation in Tanzania's political discourse |
Author: | Ngonyani, D.S. |
Year: | 2006 |
Periodical: | Kiswahili (ISSN 0856-048X) |
Volume: | 69 |
Pages: | 1-21 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs. |
Geographic terms: | Tanzania East Africa |
Subjects: | Swahili language political terminology language Language and languages--Political aspects Swahili language--Lexicology |
Abstract: | Metaphors perform strategic functions in the consolidation of group solidarity, in persuasion, or in the justification or (de)legitimization of choices. In Tanzania Kiswahili performed the symbolic function of a national language, but also supplied the framework with which to conceptualize social reality. Swahili political terminology reveals two periods, the ujamaa period and the post-ujamaa period. The two periods exhibit significant lexical changes that are based on different sets of metaphors. The ujamaa phase (1967-1986) was characterized by metaphors based on indigenous African experience, such as 'the nation is an African family', 'the nation is a person' and 'the capitalist is a beast'. Post-ujamaa metaphors reflect the collapse of the socialist experiment and embrace the vocabulary of the free market economy. Two basic metaphors of this period are 'economics is a game' and 'the nation is a beggar'. Julius Nyerere's 'Ujamaa' (1968) provides the source of the lexicon of the first period, while the current dominant lexicon is derived from newspapers and the speeches of President Mkapa. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |