A study of morphophonological processes in “gĩtamanya” ludling among Kiembu speaking youth of Manyatta area, Embu

Abstract

This study attempts to analyze a mixed code known as “Gĩtamanya” that is used by the Kĩembu – speaking youth of Manyatta area in Embu County. The code exhibits some differences from Kĩembu. Similar to other mixed codes or peer languages; Gĩtamanya appears to be used mainly as a marker of identity and maintenance of secrecy as Githiora (2002) observes about Sheng. The objectives of this study were to: investigate some aspects of Gĩtamanya phonology that are related to Kĩembu phonology, to identify and account for morphotactic adjustments on words from Kĩembu , Kiswahili and English in Gĩtamanya through Lexical Phonology Theory; and to examine the linguistic features of Gĩtamanya that make it unique and different from Kĩembu . The study is based on Lexical Phonology Theory (LP). Lexical Phonology is best suited for this study as Mohanan (1982) claims that: “Word games and codes such as Pig- Latin operate on lexical representations and that the forms thus created undergo post- lexical rules”. This study seeks to examine the morphological and phonological treatment accorded the words borrowed from Kĩembu, Kiswahili and English in the process of adopting them into Gĩtamanya.