Kisetla
| Settler Swahili | |
|---|---|
| Settla | |
| Kisetla | |
| Region | Zambia, Kenya |
|
Native speakers
|
None |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | sett1235 |
G40C |
|
Settla (Kisetla), or Settler Swahili, is a Swahili pidgin mainly spoken in large European settlements in Kenya and Zambia. It is used mainly by native English speaking European colonists for communication with the native Swahili speakers.
British colonization in the region—largely in what is now Kenya and Zambia—created a complex relationship between English and the native languages of the countries where Settla is spoken.
Settla appears to have a similar vowel system as compared to standard Swahili.
Settla contains a different and more reduced set of consonants than standard Swahili.
Notes:
A thorough investigation into the morphology of Settla has not occurred, but there are some general patterns that hold true.
Settla features a noun class system that differs from standard Swahili, which like most Bantu languages contains a rich noun class system. Since most Settla speakers are native speakers of English, which lacks a complex noun class system, Settla appears to also have a less complex noun class system than standard Swahili. Although there needs to be more research on the specifics, it can be concluded that the speakers of Settla do not disregard this system, but their patterns do most certainly differ from standard Swahili.
In Settla:
Numeral adjectives and certain adverbial forms do not always show concordial agreement like in standard Swahili.
Swahili is an agglutinative language, which gives rise to a complex structure for verbs in the form of affixes. Unlike standard Swahili, Settla verbs do not feature any negative, subject marking, relative pronoun marking, or object marking affixes. However, Settla can still convey these aspects by using other words and not verb-bound affixes.
For example, if one looks at personal pronoun subject marking in standard Swahili, one would find that these subject affixes are required for the verb. In Settla, in a form that perhaps mimics English, these affixes are absent and replaced by outside personal pronoun nouns, which only rarely occurs in standard Swahili. The personal pronouns of Settla are as follow:
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