Digo language
Encyclopedia
Digo is a Bantu
language spoken primarily along the East African coast between Mombasa
and Tanga
by the Digo people of Kenya
and Tanzania
. The ethnic Digo population has been estimated at around 360,000 (Mwalonya et al. 2004), the majority of whom are presumably speakers of the language. All adult speakers of Digo are bilingual in Swahili
, East Africa's lingua franca
. The two languages are closely related, and Digo also has a lot of vocabulary borrowed from neighbouring Swahili dialects.
, one of the constituent languages of the Sabaki
group of Northeast Coast Bantu. The Mijikenda dialects are indeed mutually intelligible, though they are conventionally treated as separate languages. Digo is a member of the southern Mijikenda sub-group, and is most closely related to its neighbours Duruma and Rabai. It is, however, felt by speakers to be sufficiently different from other Mijikenda dialects to deserve its own orthography
and literature.
Tsw’aka was once thought to have been a local variety of the Vumba dialect of Swahili, but is now considered to be a variety of Digo in the process of shifting to Vumba. Some assimilated Segeju
and Degere are also said to speak their own separate varieties of Digo, presumably as a consequence of language shift
(Nurse & Walsh 1992).
, with additional combinations of letters representing some of the sounds that are distinctive to Digo (e.g. 'ph' for the voiced bilabial fricative
or approximant). This has been developed further by the Digo Language and Literacy Project of Bible Translation and Literacy (East Africa). The project has produced basic literacy materials (listed in the Ethnologue) and published a Digo-English-Swahili Dictionary using the new orthography (Mwalonya et al. 2004). All of these materials are based on the Northern Digo dialect spoken in Kenya.
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
language spoken primarily along the East African coast between Mombasa
Mombasa
Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya. Lying next to the Indian Ocean, it has a major port and an international airport. The city also serves as the centre of the coastal tourism industry....
and Tanga
Tanga, Tanzania
Tanga is both the name of the most northerly seaport city of Tanzania, and the surrounding Tanga Region. It is the Regional Headquarters of the region.With a population of 243,580 in 2002, Tanga is one of the largest cities in the country...
by the Digo people of Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
. The ethnic Digo population has been estimated at around 360,000 (Mwalonya et al. 2004), the majority of whom are presumably speakers of the language. All adult speakers of Digo are bilingual in Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
, East Africa's lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
. The two languages are closely related, and Digo also has a lot of vocabulary borrowed from neighbouring Swahili dialects.
Classification
The classification and sub-classification of Digo provides a good example of the difficulty sometimes faced by linguists in differentiating languages and dialects. Most contemporary authorities follow Nurse and Hinnebusch (1993) in classifying Digo as a dialect of MijikendaMijikenda language
Mijikenda is a Bantu dialect cluster of Kenya, with about 100,000 speakers in Tanzania. The five dialects, mutually intelligible, are: Chichonyi, Chidigo, Chiduruma, Kigiryama, Kisegeju....
, one of the constituent languages of the Sabaki
Sabaki languages
The Sabaki languages are the Bantu languages of the Central East African coast that include Swahili, named for the Sabaki River. The other languages are Ilwana and Pokomo on the Tana River in Kenya, and Mijikenda. Ethnologue considers Mijikenda to be five languages, and Swahili-Comorian to be eight...
group of Northeast Coast Bantu. The Mijikenda dialects are indeed mutually intelligible, though they are conventionally treated as separate languages. Digo is a member of the southern Mijikenda sub-group, and is most closely related to its neighbours Duruma and Rabai. It is, however, felt by speakers to be sufficiently different from other Mijikenda dialects to deserve its own orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
and literature.
Dialects
Digo speakers recognise in turn a number of named varieties or dialects of their language. These are:- Chinondo (Northern Digo), spoken along the south Kenya coast between Likoni (south Mombasa) and Msambweni (Hinnebusch 1973);
- Ungu (or Lungu, Southern Digo), spoken on the coastal strip south of Msambweni and across the border into northern Tanzania (Hinnebusch 1973);
- Ts’imba, spoken in the Shimba Hills of Kenya between Vuga in the east and Ng’onzini in the west (Walsh 2006); and
- Tsw’aka (or Chw’aka), spoken in and around the village of the same name on the ShimoniShimoniShimoni is a port in south eastern Kenya near to the border with Tanzania.This small town is known for its Swahili ruins and slave caves which are the focus of attraction for a community based project which sustains teachers salaries and health causes. In the 1890s it was once the centre of the...
Peninsula of Kenya (Möhlig 1992, Nurse & Walsh 1992).
Tsw’aka was once thought to have been a local variety of the Vumba dialect of Swahili, but is now considered to be a variety of Digo in the process of shifting to Vumba. Some assimilated Segeju
Segeju
The Segeju are an ethnic and linguistic group based on the northeast coast of Tanzania, between Tanga and the Kenyan border. The people are historically related to the Dhaiso. In 2003 the Segeju population was estimated to number fewer than 15,000, with fewer than 7,000 speaking the Segeju...
and Degere are also said to speak their own separate varieties of Digo, presumably as a consequence of language shift
Language shift
Language shift, sometimes referred to as language transfer or language replacement or assimilation, is the progressive process whereby a speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. The rate of assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue who speak...
(Nurse & Walsh 1992).
Orthography and literature
Digo speakers usually write their language using an orthography based on the modified Roman alphabet that is used for standardSwahiliSwahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
, with additional combinations of letters representing some of the sounds that are distinctive to Digo (e.g. 'ph' for the voiced bilabial fricative
Voiced bilabial fricative
-See also:* List of phonetics topics...
or approximant). This has been developed further by the Digo Language and Literacy Project of Bible Translation and Literacy (East Africa). The project has produced basic literacy materials (listed in the Ethnologue) and published a Digo-English-Swahili Dictionary using the new orthography (Mwalonya et al. 2004). All of these materials are based on the Northern Digo dialect spoken in Kenya.