Some Effects of English Loanword Adaptation into SiLozi

Abstract

This study under linguistics, sought to examine the Morphophonological effects of the English loanword adaptation into SiLozi a lingua franca of the Western province of Zambia which is a media of instruction in grades one to three for systematisation. Like many African languages, SiLozi does not have the potential to give equivalents to words of English origin unless through borrowing. Schools being the pivot of development, there was an inconsistency in the same education system concerning the adaptation of English loanwords. The study was carried out in selected primary schools of Mongu district in Zambia. The data were collected with the use of voice recorders during on-going lessons for grades one to three in Creative and Technology Studies, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and in SiLozi subjects in order to capture all English loanwords used in the SiLozi medium of instruction. The main results revealed that feature changing, deletion, insertion and metathesis phonological rules were applied on the English terms in order to nativise them.