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Welcome to the Linguistic Identities in Africa page

Linguistic Identities in Africa presents the research we conduct on how identity is construted and conveyed through language(s) on the African continent and beyond.

As our logo illustrates, we conceive of Africa as a continent characterised by migration, as indicated by the 'footprints' transgressing the continent, and by transnational speech communities, as indicated by the coloured boarder-crossing areas.

At present, our research focusses on two areas: South Africa and Kenya. For both countries, we aim at describing current processes of language contact and language change. In South Africa this includes a description of how the forms of English traditionally spoken by the different ethnicities in the country currently influence each other. As regards Kenya, our present focus is on forms of language which involve a mixing of Swahili and English, and which have emerged over the last decades and are rapidly spreading throughout the country.

In the near future, we intend to include diasporic Africa in our analyses, i.e. we will embark on research into African speech communities in Germany.

Please use the links above to read more.

This site is currently under re-development. Please come back soon to visit those links which are not yet active.

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