Kivu Swahili Texts and Grammar Notes
Nico Nassenstein & Paulin Baraka Bose
University of Cologne; Bugema University, Kampala
This collection of Kivu Swahili texts provides a first insight into the variety of Kiswahili spoken mainly in the provinces of North and South Kivu, as well as through parts of Maniema, DR Congo. The regiolectal variety is used by approximately 8–10 million speakers on a daily basis and forms part of a range of varieties of Congo Swahili (‘Western Swahili’) that also includes Kisangani Swahili, Katanga/Lubumbashi Swahili and Bunia Swahili.
This monograph includes both a brief morphological description of Kivu Swahili (‘grammar notes’) and a selection of four socio-cultural and historico-political texts that relate to the region and are personal testimonies of Kivu Swahili speakers. One fictional example of orature (‘adisi’) was chosen and added to the collection. All five texts are analyzed, interlinearized, translated and annotated, providing a basis for more in-depth morphosyntactic analysis, and standing as an example of the vivid orature practices of the Swahili-speaking parts of DR Congo.
ISBN 9783862886807. Languages of the World/Text Collections 37. 230pp. 2016.
