Lexical Variation And Change In The Northern Dialect Of Gĩkũyũ Language

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate lexical variation and change in the Northern dialect of Gikuyu language. The study was guided by three objectives which sought to: identify the types of lexical variation and change in the Northern dialect of the Gĩkũyũ language; establish the factors responsible for lexical variation and change in the Northern dialect of Gĩkũyũ language and lastly to investigate the consequences of lexical variation and change in the Northern dialect of Gĩkũyũ language. The study was guided by the variationist theory proposed by Labov (1972). The target population consisted of all the speakers of the Northern dialect of Gĩkũyũ language living in Northern Murang’a in Murang’a County. The study used non probability sampling in the selection of the sample. A sample of 40 respondents who comprised of 20 respondents aged between 15 and 25 years and 20 respondents who were aged 65 years and above was selected. The study was carried out using descriptive survey research design. Data was collected using interviews. There were two sets of interviews for the two categories of respondents. Data analysis was done in line with the variationist theoretical framework. In data analysis, words in the data were transcribed orthographically and phonetically and thereafter presented in tables where patterns were observed. Findings revealed that there were several types of lexical variation in Northern dialect of Gĩkũyũ language. The types included geographical variation, social variation, contextual variation, onomasiological variation and semasiological variation. Findings also revealed that various factors were responsible for the variation and change in the Northern dialect of Gĩkũyũ language. These factors included word loss, borrowing, loan translations, and modernization and schooling. Findings on the consequences of lexical variation and change in this dialect revealed that the variation and change had resulted to communication breakdown between the old and the young speakers of the dialect. The lexical variation and change had also resulted to change in the syllable structure of words, replacement of one word with a phrase, vocabulary expansion and lastly extinction of lexical items.