As Chinedum Art Michael tries to name his newborn daughter, he ponders the reasons Nigerians give their children certain names.
Category: Language
Kiswahili: how a standard version of the east African language was formed – and spread across the world
Kiswahili originated in east Africa, spreading around the continent and the globe. It’s been adopted as a working language at the African Union and there’s a push for it to become Africa’s lingua franca or common language. Morgan J. Robinson is a historian of east Africa with a research focus on language who has published a book on Kiswahili called A Language for the World. We asked Morgan J. Robinson, of Mississippi State University how today’s accepted standard version of Kiswahili came into being.
Animal Farm has been translated into Shona
Tinashe Mushakavanhu from the University of Oxford explains why a group of Zimbabwean writers undertook the task.
PIDGIN ENGLISH IS THE REAL USURPER
As more languages become endangered, Chinedum Art Michael looks at how Nigeria’s indigenous languages could be affected.