LOANWORD ALLOCATION in KINYARWANDA - University of South Africa

199 Pages·2010·0.92 MB·English

LOANWORD ALLOCATION in KINYARWANDA
by
KAYIGEMA Lwaboshi Jacques
STUDENT NUMBER: 3487-533-6
submitted in accordance with the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

in the subject

AFRICAN LANGUAGES

at the

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

SUPERVISOR: POF D E MUTASA

CO-SUPERVISOR: PROF P A MULAUDZI

JUNE 2010
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LOANWORD ALLOCATION in KINYARWANDA
by
KAYIGEMA Lwaboshi Jacques
STUDENT NUMBER: 3487-533-6
submitted in accordance with the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

in the subject

AFRICAN LANGUAGES

at the

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

SUPERVISOR: POF D E MUTASA

CO-SUPERVISOR: PROF P A MULAUDZI

JUNE 2010
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DECLARATION

I declare that Loanword Allocation in Kinyarwanda is my own work and that all the
sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by
means of complete references.

Signature: ……………………………………

Date: June 2010

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My highest regard and gratitude are addressed to the Almighty God who has
sustained my life and given me good health throughout my MA research programme.

To my beloved wife, Nyirahabimana Athalie, and my dearest children, without whom I
could not have achieved this work, I dedicate this long and time consuming work.

May my supervisor, Professor Dave Mutasa, and my co-supervisor, Professor PA
Mulaudzi, who advised me in various ways during the writing of my dissertation, find
the warmest and everlasting thanks.

Last but not least, may UNISA, which funded my MA studies, accept my sincere
gratitude from the bottom of my heart for the financial assistance and books from
UNISA library it has provided me.

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ABSTRACT

Kinyarwanda, like many other languages in contact, has adapted foreign words to
meet the needs of its daily life vocabulary and activity. In addition to the lexical need
filling, Kinyarwanda borrowed foreign words not only out of need for foreign words but
also for prestige.

This thesis is based on two hypotheses: Kinyarwanda has borrowed foreign words
out of need in various areas; loanwords have been allocated to Kinyarwanda noun
class system.

This work has discussed and analysed how French and English loanwords have
been allocated to key areas of influence and the nominal class system of
Kinyarwanda.

The data were collected from various sources, including publications, conversation,
newspapers, Bible literature, school text books, commercial posters, hoardings.

The study has analysed loanwords from French/English deceptive cognates in a
bilingual context. This is a challenging task for other researchers who will have to
deal with the complexity of deceptive cognate loanwords.
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Abbreviations and Symbols

DL : Donor Language
DL1 : Donor Language 1
DL2 : Donor Language 2
L1 : Language 1
L2 : Language 2
TL1 : Target Language 1
TL2 : Target Language 2
RL1 : Recipient Language 1
RL2 : Recipeint Language 2
CC : Consonant Consonant sequence
CVC : Consonant Vowel Consonant sequence
VCV : Vowel Consonant Vowel sequence
Cl : Nominal Class
DRC : Democratic Republic of Congo
D61 : Code for Kinyarwanda (by Malcolm Guthrie)
J61 : Code for Kinyarwanda (by the Group of Tervuren, Belgium)
JD61 : Combined Classification (Guthrie and Tervuren)
- : used to separate morphemes
→ : becomes, is realized as
∕ : or (used alternately)
φ : nothing, zero
vs : versus

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Loanword Occurrence .......................................................................... 65
Table 3.1 Nominal Classes and Concord Prefixes ............................................... 69
Table 3.2 Allocation of loanwords to noun classes ............................................... 89
Table 4.1 Frequently used doublets ................................................................... 157

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ................................................................................................................. iii
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................... iv
Abstract ....................................................................................................................... v

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Sociolinguistic Background ............................................................................... 1
1.2 Problem statement ............................................................................................ 8
1.3 Aim of study ...................................................................................................... 9
1.4 Research Question ........................................................................................... 9
1.5 Scope of Study ............................................................................................... 10
1.6 Research methods .......................................................................................... 10
1.6.1 Quantitative method ........................................................................... 10
1.6.2 Qualitative method ............................................................................. 11
1.7 Literature Review ............................................................................................ 12
1.8 Theoretical framework .................................................................................... 21
1.8.1 The associativeness theory ................................................................ 21
1.8.2 The fostering theory ........................................................................... 24
1.8.3 The sifting theory ................................................................................ 25
1.8.4 The allocation theory .......................................................................... 26

CHAPTER 2
ALLOCATION OF LOANWORDS TO KEY AREAS ................................................ 33
2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 33
2.2 Narrative survey .............................................................................................. 34
2.2.1 Criteria for allocating loanwords to noun classes ............................... 35
2.3 Areas of influence ........................................................................................... 39
2.3.1 Agriculture and livestock .................................................................... 43
2.3.2 Building .............................................................................................. 45
2.3.3 Calendar and telling the time.............................................................. 46
2.3.4 Clothing .............................................................................................. 48
2.3.5 Commerce and counting .................................................................... 49
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2.3.6 Education ........................................................................................... 50
2.3.7 Employment and professions ............................................................. 52
2.3.7 Foodstuff and cooking ........................................................................ 53
2.3.8 Health ................................................................................................. 54
2.3.9 Household .......................................................................................... 55
2.3.9 Military and police .............................................................................. 56
2.3.10 Music .................................................................................................. 57
2.3.11 Politics and administration ................................................................. 57
2.3.12 Religion .............................................................................................. 59
2.3.13 Sports and games .............................................................................. 60
2.3.14 Technology......................................................................................... 61
2.3.15 Toponyms and anthroponyms ............................................................ 62
2.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 66

CHAPTER 3
ALLOCATION OF LOANWORDS TO THE NOUN CLASS ..................................... 67
3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 67
3.2 Some Aspects of Nominal Morphology in Kinyarwanda ................................. 67
3.2.1 The Noun ........................................................................................... 68
3.2.2 The Augment ...................................................................................... 70
3.2.2.1 Kinds of augment: .............................................................................. 71
3.2.3 Nominal derivation ............................................................................. 79
3.2.4 Morphology versus syntax ................................................................. 84
3.3 Peculiarities of Loanword Allocation to the Noun Class .................................. 86
3.3.1 Assignment of Loanwords to Nominal Classes .................................. 86
3.3.2 Morphological aspects of loanwords .................................................. 98
3.3.2.1 Addition .............................................................................................. 98
3.3.2.2 Deletion ............................................................................................ 100
3.3.2.3 Derivation ......................................................................................... 102
3.3.2.4 Reduplication ................................................................................... 103
3.3.2.5 Morphological changes of French loanwords ................................... 104
3.3.2.6 Morphological changes of English loanwords .................................. 106
3.3.2.7 Translingual borrowings ................................................................... 108
3.3.3 Semantic aspects of loanwords ........................................................ 112
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3.3.3.1 Extension ......................................................................................... 113
3.3.3.2 Deviation .......................................................................................... 113
3.3.3.3 Restriction ........................................................................................ 114
3.3.3.4 Independent formations through anecdotes ..................................... 122
3.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 125

CHAPTER 4
THE COMPLEXITY OF LOANWORDS FROM DECEPTIVE COGNATES ............ 126
4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 126
4.2 Loanwords from Deceptive Cognates in French and English ....................... 131
4.3 Contextualisation .......................................................................................... 133
4.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 158

CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION, FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................... 160
5.1 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 160
5.2 Findings ........................................................................................................ 161
5.3 Recommendations ........................................................................................ 163

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 165

APPENDIX .............................................................................................................. 170

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