SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Kipemba is one of four varieties of the Zanzibar Swahili cluster, spoken on the Island of Pemba by approximately 500,000 people. Kipemba has been understudied and under-documented for decades, resulting in a substantial shortage of linguistic literature, which aligns with the historical marginalisation of the island and its people. This study contributes to the lacuna in Kipemba scholarship, offering an in-depth, descriptive, and comparative-linguistic study of selected linguistic aspects of the vernacular. The study uses triangulation methods, combining qualitative and quantitative (also employing dialectological and variationist) approaches and semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation methods to collect data. The study finds that Kipemba is spoken with minor linguistic variations across and throughout Pemba. Linguistically, Kipemba differs slightly phonologically, morpho-syntactically, and lexically across eight different zones. The findings also show that distinctive Kipemba speech forms are predominant among the users from the Eastern and Northeastern zones but shrinking in some Western parts of Pemba and among young, educated, urban and well-travelled Kipemba users. The study shows that new linguistic features from neighbouring Swahili varieties, mainly Kiunguja and Standard Swahili, are gradually diffused and accommodated into Kipemba spoken in the Western zones of Pemba. From a comparative linguistic perspective, the structure of Kipemba is essentially distinctive from other Swahili varieties. Different factors, including dialect contact, attitudes, and schooling, feed into the linguistic variation within Kipemba while simultaneously acting to reproduce the variety synchronically. Meanwhile, Kipemba is of considerable cultural value, symbolising identity and attesting to the community's distinctive socio-historical and linguistic experiences. The diffusion and accommodation of new features into Kipemba provide an early indication of dialect levelling, which may lead to the loss of variation in the vernacular. The study calls for urgent documentation and preservation initiatives to save the vernacular at risk of endangerment through levelling