Morphological Integration of Lexical Borrowings from Kiswahili into Chimalaba

Abstract

This paper explores morphological strategies used to integrate lexicalborrowings from Kiswahili into Chimalaba. The data were collected byAmani (2010) from a corpus of 169 lexical borrowings from Kiswahiliinto Chimalaba. The analysis was guided by Assimilation Theory, whichholds that speakers assimilate borrowed words to the morphologicalhabits of their languages. The findings indicate that the speakers of therecipient language do not fully integrate certain borrowed items;instead they adopt them with their foreign features intact. The findingsfurther indicate that new sounds have been introduced into therecipient language, viz. /f/, /z/ and //, as a result of adopting loanwordsfrom Kiswahili. Thus, the integration of Swahili loanwords has inducedsome changes in the structure of Chimalaba.