313:) was a so called "miscellaneous" class. According to Mutonya and Parsons, H. W. Newell said in his guide “to classify all nouns not in one of the other classes as being of this class”. The simplified system of noun classes also lessened the complexity of much of the grammar which arises from the larger set of noun classes, for example, nasal assimilation rules and more complex
280:
Soldiers in the KAR certainly used KiKAR in formal military activities (such as drills or parades), however the degree to which troops used the language to communicate amongst themselves despite the linguistic barriers many of them faced. Mutonya and
Parsons suggest that the use of English by the
336:. Many of the borrowings from English were words relating to military life. In particular, words which described equipment, marksmanship, clothing, and ranks as well as commands and numbers. Some English words were borrowed and restructured to fit more easily we Swahili
260:
The 3rd and 5th
Battalions of the KAR were best known for their extensive use of KiKAR while the officers of the 6th Battalion prided themselves on their command of a more grammatically standard form of Swahili. The Ugandan 4th Battalion relied on the simplified form of
269:, before switching to KiKAR in the 1930s (although they used a form more similar to standard Swahili than the 3rd and 5th Battalions). The 1st and 2nd Battalions, native to
526:
239:
peoples, and also from the fact that the presiding
British officers were unlikely to speak Swahili and certainly did not speak any of the other East-African languages.
250:
The natural tendency for groups of people faced with such a linguistic impasse is to seek a compromise language that breaks existing communication barriers.
223:
of the KAR in the late 1930s, KiKAR was used to tackle the communication problem which arose from the cultural diversity of the recruits who came from such
521:
111:
402:. There were also words loaned from Arabic and Turkish via KiNubi (which some of the members of the KAR would have also spoken), for example,
317:. Further simplification came from the simplification of context-dependent grammatical rules. For example, the process by which plurals and
243:
536:
448:
149:
179:
who served with the 5th battalion and who wrote the guide to help newly seconded officers get a grasp of the language.
531:
145:
293:
pairs and 3 unpaired classes, KiKAR had a reduced set of only four pairs of classes. These noun classes were
164:). Although there were, by design, no native Swahili speakers among the KAR, Swahili still functioned as the
474:
216:, who spoke the language, and thus it could be translated as "the language of the King's African Rifles".
176:
224:
321:
were formed was simplified such that it was less dependent on context and the rules of agreement for
360:. Many words taken directly from Swahili gained a more specifically military meaning, for example,
497:
322:
220:
388:
in KiKAR. Words in KiKAR were also derived from other native
African languages, for example,
489:
183:
171:
Most of the remaining knowledge of KiKAR comes from H. W. Newell's unpublished guide titled
138:
65:
333:
318:
262:
232:
57:
168:, and a simplified version of it served as a military jargon and pidgin for the troops.
255:
Mungai
Mutonya and Timothy H. Parsons, KiKAR: a Swahili variety in Kenya’s colonial army
274:
101:
515:
266:
165:
501:
337:
236:
228:
40:
493:
398:
in KiKAR and likely came from the Maasai word of the same spelling which meant
290:
270:
94:
82:
350:. Sometimes English words were combined with Swahili words in phrases like
309:
where the first three of these were taken from
Swahili and the final pair (
246:
explain the formation of KiKAR as the natural response to such an impasse:
182:
It is not clear if KiKAR is still spoken. Maho (2009) does not list it as
329:
314:
281:
African troops to address their officers was seen as "presumptuous".
161:
157:
141:
68:
153:
203:
413:
403:
389:
375:
361:
351:
341:
131:
27:
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While the native
Swahili spoken at the time utilised 5
332:
took many borrowings from
English and also from other
16:
Swahili pidgin spoken in
British colonial East Africa
475:"KiKAR: a Swahili variety in Kenya's colonial army"
428:which meant "guard" and was borrowed from Turkish.
108:
92:
80:
75:
54:
46:
35:
21:
194:The name KiKAR is formed from the Swahili prefix '
248:
208:meaning "the Swahili Language". In this case,
242:Mungai Mutonya and Timothy H. Parsons of the
8:
482:Journal of African Languages and Linguistics
473:Mutonya, Mungai; Parsons, Timothy H (2004).
423:
219:Before the introduction of Swahili as the
18:
443:
441:
527:Languages attested from the 20th century
173:Notes on Ki-Swahili as Spoken by the KAR
437:
7:
468:
466:
464:
462:
460:
458:
456:
400:'a settlement for warriors or boys'
244:Washington University in St. Louis
14:
522:Swahili-based pidgins and creoles
488:(2). Walter de Gruyter: 111–125.
449:New Updated Guthrie List Online
422:and which came from the KiNubi
212:is the acronym abbreviation of
277:as their language of command.
1:
412:which comes from Arabic and
150:British colonial East Africa
414:
404:
390:
376:
362:
352:
342:
132:
28:
553:
494:10.1515/jall.2004.25.2.111
273:(modern-day Malawi), used
26:
537:East Africa Protectorate
447:Jouni Filip Maho, 2009.
424:
258:
225:ethnolingusitic groups
204:
325:were mostly ignored.
214:King's African Rifles
146:King's African Rifles
358:'to miss a target'
202:', for example in
370:in Swahili meant
221:official language
198:' which denotes '
144:spoken among the
124:
123:
544:
532:Military pidgins
506:
505:
479:
470:
451:
445:
427:
417:
407:
393:
379:
365:
355:
345:
256:
207:
175:. Newell was an
137:) is, or was, a
135:
120:
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104:
85:
60:
50:mid 20th century
31:
19:
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542:
541:
512:
511:
510:
509:
477:
472:
471:
454:
446:
439:
434:
384:in Swahili and
368:'to wring/milk'
334:Bantu languages
287:
263:Sudanese Arabic
257:
254:
200:the language of
192:
129:(also known as
118:
115:
110:
100:
81:
71:
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58:Language family
56:
17:
12:
11:
5:
550:
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540:
539:
534:
529:
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514:
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508:
507:
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340:, for example
323:interrogatives
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76:Language codes
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33:
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442:
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431:
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411:
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401:
397:
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387:
386:'upside-down'
383:
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364:
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166:lingua franca
163:
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38:
34:
30:
25:
20:
485:
481:
420:'guard room'
419:
418:which meant
409:
399:
395:
394:which meant
385:
381:
380:which meant
374:in KiKAR or
371:
367:
366:which meant
357:
356:which meant
347:
338:phonotactics
327:
310:
306:
302:
298:
294:
288:
279:
259:
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241:
218:
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195:
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130:
126:
125:
112:Guthrie code
93:
382:'haphazard'
353:kupiga miss
319:imperatives
41:East Africa
516:Categories
432:References
372:'to press'
328:The KiKAR
291:noun class
396:'village'
377:hivi hivi
348:'bayonet'
275:ChiNyanja
271:Nyasaland
205:kiSwahili
148:(KAR) of
95:Glottolog
83:ISO 639-3
502:54535559
410:'office'
408:meaning
391:manyatta
343:bayoneti
253:—
233:Kalenjin
102:kika1240
39:British
425:karakol
415:korokon
363:kukamua
330:lexicon
315:plurals
303:KI-/VI-
285:Grammar
227:as the
184:extinct
177:officer
139:Swahili
66:Swahili
500:
405:maktab
305:, and
299:M-/MI-
295:M-/WA-
267:KiNubi
235:, and
190:Origin
162:Malawi
158:Uganda
142:pidgin
133:Kikeya
69:pidgin
36:Region
29:Kikeya
498:S2CID
478:(PDF)
311:N-/N-
307:N-/N-
237:Kamba
154:Kenya
127:KiKAR
119:G.40H
22:KiKAR
346:for
490:doi
229:Luo
210:KAR
196:ki-
47:Era
518::
496:.
486:25
484:.
480:.
455:^
440:^
301:,
297:,
265:,
231:,
186:.
160:,
156:,
504:.
492::
152:(
88:–
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