Resources

Since Sheng is an emerging “language” little has been written in a manner of teaching it. The resources you will find here are, therefore, discussions about Sheng in terms of its relation to its contextual society as well as linguistic scholarship on the language variety.

Abdulaziz, Mohamed H., and Ken Osinde. “Sheng and Engsh: Development of Mixed Codes among the Urban Youth in Kenya.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 1997, no. 125 (January 1, 1997): 43–64.

Angalia, Jane F. “The Growth of Sheng and Its Effect on Media Strategies for Targeting the Youth Market.” American Journal of Communication 1, no. 1 (April 11, 2017): 19–32.

Bosire, Mokaya. “Hybrid Languages: The Case of Sheng.” In Selected Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Vol. 18593, 2006.

———. “What Makes a Sheng Word Unique? Lexical Manipulation in Mixed Languages.” In Selected Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 10. New York: Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 2009.

Dean, Laura. “How the Urban Slang of Nairobi Slums Is Becoming the Language of the People.” Slate Magazine, November 1, 2013.

Githinji, Peter. “Bazes and Their Shibboleths: Lexical Variation and Sheng Speakers’ Identity in Nairobi.” Nordic Journal of African Studies 15, no. 4 (December 31, 2006).

———. “Sheng and Variation: The Construction and Negotiation of Multiple Identities.” PhD diss. Michigan State University, 2006.

Githiora, Chege. “Sheng: Peer Language, Swahili Dialect or Emerging Creole?” Journal of African Cultural Studies 15, no. 2 (2002): 159–81.

———. Sheng: Rise of a Kenyan Swahili Vernacular. Woodbridge, Suffolk: James Currey, 2018.

———. “Sheng: The Expanding Domains of an Urban Youth Vernacular.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 30, no. 2 (May 4, 2018): 105–20.

Kang’ethe-Iraki, Frederick. “Cognitive Efficiency: The Sheng Phenomenon in Kenya.” Pragmatics 14, no. 1 (2004).