Youth Language Practices in Africa and Beyond (Contributions to the Sociology of Language [Csl])

Youth languages have increasingly attracted the attention of scholars and students of various disciplines. African youth languages are a vibrant phenomenon with manifold characteristics involving a range of different languages. This book is a first comprehensive study of African youth languages and presents fresh insights into various youth languages, providing linguistic as well as sociolinguistic data and analyses. Acknowledgements Table of contents List of tables, maps and figures Copyrights for reproduced photographs 1 Youth language practices in Africa as creative manifestations of fluid repertoires and markers of speakers’ social identity 2 Youth language practices in Africa: achievements and challenges 3 Sheng: an urban variety of Swahili in Kenya 4 The emergence of Langila in Kinshasa (DR Congo) 5 Identity construction and linguistic manipulation in Randuk 6 Regional varieties and ‘ethnic’ registers of Sheng 7 Yarada K’wank’wa and urban youth identity in Addis Ababa 8 Overview of the tsotsitaals of South Africa; their different base languages and common core lexical items 9 Imvugo y’Umuhanda: youth language practices in Kigali (Rwanda) 10 Sango Godobé: the urban youth language of Bangui (CAR) 11 Some remarks on poetic aspects of Sheng 12 Youth language practices in Zimbabwe 13 The positive-negative phenomenon and phono-semantic matching in Rasta Talk 14 Kindoubil: urban youth languages in Kisangani 15 Linguistic strategies in Luyaaye: word play and conscious language manipulation 16 Conclusion and outlook: taking new directions in the study of youth language practices Language index Author index Subject index

The Contributions to the Sociology of Language series features publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It addresses the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches – theoretical and empirical – supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of scholars interested in language in society from a broad range of disciplines – anthropology, education, history, linguistics, political science, and sociology.

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African youth languages are a vibrant phenomenon with manifold characteristics involving a range of different languages. This book focuses on African youth languages and presents fresh insights into various youth languages, providing linguistic as well as sociolinguistic data and analyses.