The thrust of this paper lies on semantic changes associated with additive and substitutive borrowing in Bantu-speaking communities in Tanzania. Due to contact of languages, semantic differences of the terms related to architectural structures emanate. Apart from data from a few elderly native speakers, research was carried out with the help of undergraduate students of linguistics. Further linguistic materials analysed herein come from dictionaries and lexicons. Although retention of the proto- Bantu words are apparent, findings indicate that cases of additive borrowing are obvious for new concepts associated with new architectural structures. The additive Swahili names incorporated into Tanzanian Bantu tend to designate specific concepts associated with modern (contemporary) architectural senses such as mulango ‘modern door’ vs. luigi ‘traditional entranceway’. Cases of substitutive borrowing are rare, as demonstrated by the Swahili word dirisha ‘window’ which replaces chitonono in Chimakonde, echihúru in Runyambo, ilituulo in Kinyakyusa etc.Keywords: Architectural Terms, Additive Borrowing, Onomastics, Semantic Changes, Substitutive Borrowing, Tanzanian Bantu

The main contribution of this article revolves around the choice of address forms as a mechanism to express politeness in an institutionalised setting in African context. To achieve this goal, I worked with spoken texts which enabled to unravel three issues. First, maternal forms of address in Nyakyusa reveal a dichotomy of male-female distinction, which adopts the male-oriented terms when the general population is referred to. Terms of masculine status are preferred in addressing the general public. In this case both male and female members of the community are addressed by male-oriented kin terms. Second, since utility of address forms primarily involves selection of kinship terms, their choice is a strategy employed to express politeness in face-to-face conversations. The extensions and incorporation of kinship terms in the forms of address is a testimony that the Nyakyusa people manoeuvres terms to express politeness. Lastly, Nyakyusa people have adjusted their kin system. This is obvious with such terms as usangasi (< Swahili: shangazi ‘father’s sister’), ugwifi (< Swahili: wifi ‘brother’s wife’) and abalongosi (< Swahili: viongozi ‘leaders’). In this regard, findings show that the lexicon for the traditional leadership is slightly disrupted by the introduction of the modern system of government.

An investigation of the linguistic landscape in urban Africa is a welcome contribution to make in that multilingualism presents fascinating results. To satisfy this demand, the current paper investigates the patterns of language use in billboards in a small township of Orkesumet in northern Tanzania. Data demonstrates that the state of Kiswahili and English bilingualism is apparently open for religiously, privately and publicly owned institutions such as schools, churches, public offices, and accommodation facilities. Such bilingual billboards do not make use of hybrid language because there were no tokens of Kiswahili-English, Maasai-English and Kiswahili-Maasai recorded in the area. The main mechanism used to attract customers is through the selection of fontcolour and font-size. The large font in black colour is preferred for names of firms, while red colour is opted for items sold and/or services rendered.

Social and linguistic contacts of the Hadzabe speaking people with the Sukuma people in Maswa District (now Meatu District) in northern Tanzania have been under-reported in the existing literature, whereas the Hadzabe of eastern Tanzania have been researched in depth. Specialists have documented that in western Tanzania, the material culture of the Hadzabe differs significantly from what is found among their counterparts in the eastern region; so too the regional differences between their adaptations of kinship terms have been well documented. However, patterns of linguistic adaptation in the naming of plants and crops have yet to be analysed. Findings from Sungu Village in Meatu District reveal the significant influence of the Sukuma in the Hadzabe lexicon of plants and crops. It is understandable why the names of cultivated crops among the Hadzabe would demonstrate the Sukuma influence, since the Sukuma farmers introduced farming amongst the Hadzabe foragers. But it is unclear why the Hadzabe should have borrowed Sukuma names for wild plants as well, since the Hadzabe have depended upon their local biodiversity throughout their existence in the region, as has been documented for several decades now. We argue that despite their recency, communities which dominate through their sheer population density, such as the Sukuma, tend to influence the deeper lexicon of smaller communities like Hadzabe.

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