The Lexicographical Challenge to Kiswahili as Meta-language: Adoption and Incorporation of Specialised Terminology into Linguistic Scholarship

Abstract

The study, inquiry and scholarship in Kiswahili Language and Literature in East Africa, and elsewhere, continues to develop rapidly. Two disparate strands of scholarly interest, one linguistic, and the other literary, seem to proliferate. And as the Linguistics of Kiswahili grows, the challenge of the choice and expansion of a concomitant meta-language with which to describe and explain the facts of the language, becomes a matter of concern. How can the academic centres or universities in East Africa possibly establish standard Kiswahili linguistic terms, just like the European languages were able to develop cognate terminologies? Without well entrenched language policies, and without early focus on linguistic scholarship, there has not been an oversight authority, at least in Kenya, to formalise and control the development of referential terms. The result has been a repertoire of multiple terms coined by individual scholars, who continue to use them rather casually. Since most of these terms are premised on hitherto known "Eurocentric" concepts and lexicon, with Kiswahili morphological customisation applied in diflerent ways, there is need for authentic conventional terms, or, at least, home-grown procedure for the establishment of vocabulary. This paper is focussed on this challenge: It is the authors’ intention to draw the attention of Kiswahili scholars to /he seriousness of /he issue, and to suggest a way forward out of this quagmire. First, the growing importance 0fKiswahili as an international language is highlighted, and then the evolution of Linguistics as a sub-discipline within Kiswahili Studies, with its attendant problem of the proliferation of terminologies, is addressed. Finally, suggestions on how the problem could be confronted are given.