SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

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indicated that they knew that the variety spoken had a name, 31.4% indicated that they did not know the actual name. 5.8% said that the name of the Chiyao they spoke was Chiyao, whereas 4.9% called it Chiyao Nsanga, ie. hybrid Chiyao. Asked as to whether the respondents knew other varieties of Chiyao, 24% claimed they did whereas 68.8% did not know. On being asked to name other varieties of Chiyao, 17.5% named Mangochi Yao, and 6.4% named Chiyao Nsanga. It should be noted too that 0.1% to 0.9% of the respondents indicated that they knew that other types of Chiyao existed in the country. Respondents were also asked to name the areas where the other types of Chiyao are spoken, 16.5% mentioned Mangochi, 2.7% Zomba, 1.6% Makanjira, 1.3% Namwera, 1.2% Mozambique and 1.0% Mozambique. It should be observed that both Namwera and Makanjira are in Mangochi. The survey also wanted to know whether the accent of Chiyao speaker can be used to determine a person’s place of origin, 75.2% of the respondents indicated that they could indicate locate an individual’s place of origin through the accent. For obvious reasons speakers of Chiyao interviewed knew that the language they spoke is called Chiyao. However, what is of interest are the answers which the same speakers gave when asked about the variety or dialect of the Chiyao they spoke. It should be recalled that 75.4% indicated that they did not know the name of their variety of Chiyao. Despite the fact that 75.4% of the respondents did not know the name of the variety of Chiyao they spoke, 24% said they did. It is also worth observing that 68.8% of the respondents to the same question said they did not know any varieties of Chiyao. The 68.8% perhaps reconfirms the 7.5% who indicated that their Chiyao had no name. It is perhaps difficult to know other people’s dialects when one is not even aware of one’s own. What appears to be the case however is that although many respondents stated that they did not know the name of the variety of the Chiyao they spoke, they were still aware that the language has varieties. Some notable dialectal variations were observed in the use of certain phonemes, that is to say, distinctive speech sounds. For example in Namwera Chiyao where in other dialects 14
there is l and w are repalced by d and b respectively. For instance: l and d Word liso (yesterday/eye) ugali (thick porridge) litaka (soil) Namwera Chiyao diso ugadi ditaka w and b m’wutuche (run) m’wale m’butuche m’bwale Some variations were also observed in the vocabulary. In Salima and Nkhotakota the common word for fingernails is ngose while in Mangochi the word in common usage is ngalawesa. Significant variation was observed in the word used for a group chiwanja, in the survey’s wordlist. The word was not commonly used. Instead, alternatives were used in different areas. In Dedza, Tambala area, the word in common usage was unganya, while in other areas the word often used is the word borrowed from Chichewa gulu. A few old people in Namwera mentioned likuga. Another word which had variations is kuliunde (heaven/sky). In areas such as Mangochi, Dedza, Nkhotakota and Salima the favoured word was kwiinani. Variations were also observed in the use of the second person plural/honorific pronoun “you”. In Machinga wao is used while in Namwera walakwe is commonly used. These variations should be taken into consideration when issues of standardization of orthography and compilation of dictionaries arise. The high percentage of respondents who named Mangochi Chiyao points to the significant fact that Mangochi Chiyao is widely known throughout the Chiyao speaking communities in Malawi. This fact implies that were the Mangochi variety selected for teaching in schools and for use in the print and electronic media, its acceptance will be guaranteed. Following the wide knowledge about Mangochi Chiyao, the next better known variety of the language is Machinga Chiyao. This again points towards the possible acceptability of the variety were it to be a candidate for standardization. 15
Page 1 and 2: SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS OF FOUR M
Page 3 and 4: 4.5.1 TEACHER’S RESPONSES 23 4.5.
Page 5 and 6: A Note from the Director on Socioli
Page 7 and 8: 1 INTRODUCTION The availability of
Page 9 and 10: instance, a mother tongue literacy
Page 11 and 12: level of understanding, whether the
Page 13: In relation to religions affiliatio
Page 17 and 18: the survey that people from outside
Page 19 and 20: Above form 4 1 3 0.5 Other 3 0.3 Th
Page 21 and 22: REASONS GIVEN Easy communication Mo
Page 23 and 24: Chilomwe Chisena Chinkhonde English
Page 25 and 26: 50. It has been observed that those
Page 27 and 28: Chichewa. This has arisen from the
Page 29 and 30: the most crucial informants because
Page 31 and 32: and pressing issues to handle e.g.
Page 33 and 34: Table 13: District Acceptance Of Ch
Page 35 and 36: The figures above clearly indicate
Page 37 and 38: Teachers were also requested to ind
Page 39 and 40: Rumphi 75.0 25.0 Mzimba 84.7 11.1 N
Page 41 and 42: Bay Table 24 shows that English is
Page 43 and 44: preferred language is Chilambia (17
Page 45 and 46: Rumphi 17.3 Pure Tumbuka 6.7 Henga
Page 47 and 48: Pure 1.5 Mmbelwa 1.5 Euthini 1.5 Ka
Page 49 and 50: Chichewa is the most favoured langu
Page 51 and 52: Respondents were also requested to
Page 53 and 54: Table 43: Whether To Be Taught In C
Page 55 and 56: % Resdpondentys District Chichewa C
Page 57 and 58: N/A 19.5 On the corollary question
Page 59 and 60: Table 53 shows that most pupils pre
Page 61 and 62: TRA = Translation NMT = Not mother
Page 63 and 64: Table 60: Language To Be Used In Ne
Page 65 and 66:
Rumphi 41. 4 Mzimba 23. 9 Nkhata Ba
Page 67 and 68:
case for Nkhata Bay is that Chitong
Page 69 and 70:
Table 68 reveals that there is an i
Page 71 and 72:
Chitumbuka, the same cannot be said
Page 73 and 74:
(vii) (viii) To establish whether t
Page 75 and 76:
the villagers would also ask the re
Page 77 and 78:
Chiradzulu 1 0.3 Mozambique 22 6.2
Page 79 and 80:
Undecided 1 0.3 The results present
Page 81 and 82:
There were 19 cases of respondents
Page 83 and 84:
On the question of whether the resp
Page 85 and 86:
Chitakhwani 2 6.9 Chikokhola 2 6.9
Page 87 and 88:
5.5.4.1 SUMMARY Although this categ
Page 89 and 90:
6 CHISENA SURVEY 6.1 BACKGROUND TO
Page 91 and 92:
ii) proficiency in Chisena and othe
Page 93 and 94:
Table 80: Age Groups Age Group Freq
Page 95 and 96:
Age Group Frequency % 09 20 4.9 1
Page 97 and 98:
Tengani 11 2.7 Nsanje 35 8.6 Phodzo
Page 99 and 100:
The majority of the pupils have cle
Page 101 and 102:
6.5.2.3 VARIETIES Asked bout where
Page 103 and 104:
mentioned the Nsanje variety, anoth
Page 105 and 106:
6.5.4 “OTHER” RESPONDENTS’ RE
Page 107 and 108:
grammars and dictionaries. (iv) The
Page 109:
109
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