Speakers
Description
Family plays the most significant role in intergenerational transmission of ethnic or local languages in multilingual contexts, even in contexts where community attitudes happen to be in favor of the regionally or nationally dominant languages (Fang & Yao 2025). This contribution looks into intergenerational multilingual transmission in Kahama, Tanzania, where English and Swahili are official languages co-existing with several ethnic languages. It investigates how multilinguals pick up their individual languages and to which degree their multilingual language skills are a result of language socialization in the home domain (traditional transmission) rather than an outcome of formal education in school. With respect to the role of English, which has been claimed to be gaining influence in Tanzania(Mohr 2018) after years of being confined to only a few domains (Mohr & Ochieng 2017), we will explore whether this is actually reflected in acquisition practices to ascertain if it has gained any space in the family domain to the extent that children can be informally exposed to it right within the home context. The work is based on data collected using the CODILAC questionnaire and interview protocol. A total of 58 online questionnaires were administered and 12 interviews conducted from the 11th September to the 10th of November 2025 in Kahama.
Preliminary findings from the questionnaire indicate that the Kahama micro-ecology is characterized by up 15 languages, namely Swahili, English, Sukuma, Giha, Haya, Hangaza, Sumva, Kurya, Jita, Chagga, Nyakyusa, Luo, Ndali, Maasai and Kimalila. The number of languages in the repertoire of individuals ranges from 2 to 7. On average, an individual has 3 languages in their repertoire. All respondents reported to be speaking Swahili, which qualifies as the most dominant, followed by Sukuma (46), and English (37). A total of 29 respondents reported to be speaking an ethnic community language other than Sukuma, where some were born of intermarried parents but had at least acquaintance with the ethnic languages of both. On language acquisition, the quantitative findings indicate that most respondents (30) learnt Swahili at home and at school while the rest learnt it in school only (23) and in the neighborhoods (4). Of the 37 respondents speaking English,36 reported to have learnt it in school, including those having parents who speak it. Respondents with English-speaking parents did not pick it from home since it was not used for home conversations. The findings suggest that most residents of Kahama acquire Swahili and ethnic languages in the family. Meanwhile, English is not at all transmitted by the family, thus education remains the only path of its transmission.
References
Fang, F & Yao, X. (2025). Intergenerational transmission and multilingual dynamics: exploring language policies in Chaoshan families through a contextual lens, Current Issues in Language Planning, 26 (2), 234-253, DOI:10.1080/14664208.2024.2410517
Mohr, S. (2018). The changing dynamics of language attitudes in Tanzania. Language matters -studies in Languages of Africa 49 (3),105-127
Mohr, S & Ochieng, D. (2017). Language use in everyday life and in education: current attitudes towards English in Tanzania