SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Contemporary African multilingualism is changing the languages and identities of urban communities. Sheng is a non-standard form of Kenyan Swahili closely associated with Nairobi’s urban youth, and it continues to evolve. Sheng involves much code-mixing within a Swahili matrix, placing it on a continuum of Kenyan ways of speaking. The code is also an outcome of language dynamics of a socially stratified, multilingual society in search of a modern identity. Research shows that the code has expanded its roles by moving into mainstream domains of use such as media, politics, and corporate advertising. It has also spread into peri-urban and rural Kenya as a result of the population dynamics, changed infrastructure and communications. This marks a step across an important threshold in its capacity to alter Kenya’s linguistic landscape in significant ways as it changes from a youth language into an urban vernacular.