A study of morphophonological processes in “gĩtamanya” ludling among Kiembu speaking youth of Manyatta area, Embu
Abstract
This study attempts to analyze a mixed code known as “Gĩtamanya” that is used by the Kĩembu – speaking youth of Manyatta area in Embu County. The code exhibits some differences from Kĩembu. Similar to other mixed codes or peer languages; Gĩtamanya appears to be used mainly as a marker of identity and maintenance of secrecy as Githiora (2002) observes about Sheng. The objectives of this study were to: investigate some aspects of Gĩtamanya phonology that are related to Kĩembu phonology, to identify and account for morphotactic adjustments on words from Kĩembu , Kiswahili and English in Gĩtamanya through Lexical Phonology Theory; and to examine the linguistic features of Gĩtamanya that make it unique and different from Kĩembu .
The study is based on Lexical Phonology Theory (LP). Lexical Phonology is best suited for this study as Mohanan (1982) claims that:
“Word games and codes such as Pig- Latin operate on lexical representations and that the forms thus created undergo post- lexical rules”.
This study seeks to examine the morphological and phonological treatment accorded the words borrowed from Kĩembu, Kiswahili and English in the process of adopting them into Gĩtamanya.
Publisher
University of Nairobi