Abstract:
Language change is inevitable, continuous and natural. Languages are constantly
changing and there are various reasons as to why languages change. Some of the factors
that lead to language change are language contact and language accommodation.
Language contact is a crucial factor that plays a role in language change. Language
contact refers to a scenario where two or more languages are in contact. Whenever people
who speak different languages come into contact, there is a natural inclination to seek
ways to minimize communication barriers. For instance, in language contact, people tend
to compromise between their forms of language use through language accommodation.
This process of language accommodation occurs when individuals adopt commonly
selected linguistic elements from the other language they are in contact with so as to ease
communication. 771e paper discusses language contact between Mwingi dialect of
Kikamba (LAKlMWl) and Kithara. The paper postulates that when speakers of Mwingi
dialect are in contact with the speakers of Kithara, both speakers try to speak in a way
that conforms less to their own language and more to the language they belive their
interlocutor speaks. In this way they accommodate their partner. The paper shows that
there has been widespread and intense language contact and language accommodation
among the speakers of Mwingi dialect of Kikamba and speakers of Kiiharaka language
over the years that have lead to language variation and change of the two languages.
However, the present paper analyses change of the Mwingi dialect of Kikamba in order to
show how this contact has contributed to the variation between LAKlMWl (Lahaja ya
Kikamba ya Mwingi) and other Kikamba dialects.
