The Last Kick of a Dying Horse: Preserving Ethnic Identity in Shisukuma Greeting System

Abstract

The phenomenon of language shift is common in situations where there is a demographic or status imbalance between ethnic groups. Usually the speakers of the disadvantaged languages will progressively shift to the more socio-economically or politically privileged languages. Such language shift will involve identity shift in its various forms. This paper examines the patterns and processes of language shift based on a study carried out in Tanzania in which the traditional greeting systems in Kiswahili, the national language of Tanzania, and Shisukuma, a minority Tanzanian language, were investigated. The main purpose of the study was to find evidence that would support the claim that ethnonymic identity is the last form of identity to be lost when speakers of one language are shifting to another language. The study revealed that ethno-linguistic groups, like Basukuma (Shisukuma speakers), have put in place a complex greeting system as a strategy to preserve their ethnonymic identity, embedded in their traditional clan system. This system has made it possible for the Shisukuma speakers to identify their origins and parentage. However, many Basukuma are no longer keen to know the origin or parentage of the people around them, particularly the younger generation.

Keywords: language domination, language shift, autonymic identity, ethnonymic entity