SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

Out of the 239 respondents who were interviewed in the survey, 185 (respresenting
77.4%) also claimed to speak other languages and 61.1% of this group said they were
competent speakers of Chichewa. This observation, like in other sociolinguistic surveys
the Center has caried out further shows the strong influence, dominance and widespread
nature of Chichewa as the country’s lingua franca. This finding provides collaborating
evidence indicating that nearly 75% of Malawians are able to speak Chichewa (in
addition to whatever language they may use as their mother tongue).
5.5.2.3 VARIETIES OF CHILOMWE
Although some respondents were able to identify some dialects or varieties of Chilomwe
spoken in their areas, it is interesting to note that 43.1% were not aware of any varieties
of Chilomwe at all. This is particularly striking because other researchers on Chilomwe
have independently noted that the language has more dialects than any other single
Malawian language. One would, therefore, expect its speakers to be aware of them.
Details of responses to the awareness of the existence of varieties are presented in Table
78.
Table 78:
Varieties of Chilomwe Known By Parents/Guardians
Variety
No. of Respondents Aware Percentage
of the Variety
Chithakhwani 23 9.6
Chikhokhola 54 22.6
Chimihavani 35 14.6
Chimarenje 18 7.5
Chimarevoni 1 0.4
Chingulu 1 0.4
Chishirima 1 0.4
Chimanyawa 2 0.8
Chitengwa 1 0.4
Don’t know 103 43.1
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