SOCIALINGUISTICS SURVEY FOR
KABARASI/KABRAS OF WESTERN KENYA
Jacob Njagi December 2017
1. Introduction The Kabras is one of the about seventeen communities that constitute the Abaluhya community. The others are; Khayo, Banyala (found in Busia), Abanyala ba Ndombi (found in Kakamega), Banyore, Kisa, Marach, Maragoli, Marama, Samia, Tachoni, Tiriki, Isukha, Idakho, Tsotso, Bukusu, Wanga, Songa. According to Kanyoro (1983) the Luhya have not always been referred to as such. Luhya is a much recent coinage. An earlier label was Wakavirondo though still according to some studies like Wagner (1949) this is not an indigenous term as well, but a term used to refer to them by the inhabitants of the Coastal region. According to Wagner, the term was created and spread by the Arab traders who had contact with the Kenyan coast long before the arrival of the Europeans. At the time, the Arabs had used the term to refer to all the inhabitants of the Nyanza province. However much later, Thompson (1884) had found out that there were two distinct language groups living in this area On enquiry and examination, I was able to bring to light the interesting fact that there were two totally distinct languages (among the Wakavirondo)…those of upper Kavirondo speak a dialect so closely allied to Swahili that my men had no difficult in making themselves understood.
These differences were later found out to be Nilotic and Bantu respectively. But it was Wagner who elaborated upon the heterogeneity of the population of what Thompson had referred to as the upper Kavirondo as follows;
From the ethnical, linguistics and political points of view, the Bantu of Kavirondo do not form a homogeneous group, even though they are clearly distinct from the surrounding tribes. The term ‘Kavirondo’, the origin and the etymology of which is still obscure, never appears to have been used by the natives themselves. Nor does there seem to exist any word in the Bantu Kavirondo dialects from which the term ‘Kavirondo’ could possibly have been derived.
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According to Osogo (1966), Itebete (1974) and Kesby (1977) Luhya or the Abaluhya share some degree of linguistics similarities but were never originally grouped as one big family. This grouping was brought about by the European administrators, missionaries and later by the politicians in an attempt to achieve their different goals. It is worth to note that even though they are related to the Abaluhya in Uganda, they were never put under this umbrella. This is perhaps because of the different administrative jurisdiction.
There are seven Bible translations either ongoing or already dedicated and in use among the Luhya community. These are; Luhya Union version, Lubukusu, Lunyore, Oluluhya (Tsotso, Wanga,
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Marama and Kisa), Luloghori, Lukakamega (Isukha, Tiriki and Idakho) and Lutachoni. These Bibles serve the different linguistics demographics in the community.
Kabras/Kabarasi
Since this study is about the Kabras, it is necessary to speak more about them. Kabras also referred to as the Kabarasi is a corruption of the term ABALASI which means shooters or hunters. The Kabras were originally known to be hunters and very sharp shooters. They are made up of seven clans; Abamachina, Abaluu, Abatobo, Abachimalia, Abasilia, Abamutama and Abasoko.
Majority of them live in Kakamega County, mostly in the current Malava constituency, though there are a few of them living in Nandi and Uasin Gishu counties. According to the 2009 census they have a population of 253000 speakers. The language is classified by Guthrie as Niger-Congo, Atlantic- Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, J, Masaba-Luhya (E.32).
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Today they are an agricultural community, growing sugar cane, maize, ground nuts and a host of other crops for commercial and subsistence purposes. They also keep chickens, cattle and a few sheep and goats.
Majority of them ascribe to Christianity as a way of life where a big population are members of Friends Quaker, Roman Catholic, Salvation Army and several Pentecostal and Africa Indigenous Churches.
The Kabras living around Malava are agreeably the ones that speak the most pure language. This is due to the fact that they are the most central and so are just surrounded by fellow Kabras. All the others who bonder Tachoni, Banyala ba Ndombi, Isukha or even the Nandi have their languages affected by borrowing from their neighbours. However, as much as all the Kabras know that some speak a slightly different variety or dialect if you like, unlike in many other communities where they would have names of different groups of people that speak different dialects; whenever we posed this question to them they ended up giving us names of their different clans notwithstanding the fact that these clans are spread across the entire land. After probing them a little further, they would simply say that those who speak a different variety have been influenced by their neighbouring languages. In other words, as much as there may be some variations in the language, they believe they are one homogenous group known as Kabarasi.
2. Research Goals
We went out to Kabras to seek out for the answers for the following issues;
Do Kabras people have a need for a Bible translation into Kabras Language With the many Bibles available in the community, are the people (pastors included) comfortable using any one of them
To find out whether there are dialects in Kabras and if there are any significant differences among them To find out whether there is a central dialect or a more acceptable dialect among the Kabras people To find out whether there are any published materials in the Kabras language
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3. Methodology Wordlist
We elicited a wordlist from each geographical location that boarders a different Luhya community as follows; Kubhasali, East Kabras, Lukume, and Samitsi. We also went ahead to elicit one for the Malava region which is perceived by most Kabras to have the most pure language. We also went further to elicit word list from some other Luhya communities as follows; Banyala ba Ndombi, Banyore, Maragoli, Tsotso and Tachoni.
Wordlists can be used diachronically to reconstruct a proto-language from which the various languages are said to have evolved. This was however not the purpose of this survey. Wordlists can also be used to analyze the synchronic relationship between languages, specifically their degree of lexical similarity. A lexical similarity above 70% indicates the possibility of intercomprehension. (Bergman, 1990:8.1.5) We were not able to find a study indicating the possible lexical similarity, or measuring intelligibility among the Luhya languages. But people that we spoke to prior to the survey would indicate that Kabras would generally understand most of the other Luhya languages owing to their central location. We therefore had to do our own study to find if indeed this assertion was true. We used the 200 item wordlist by (Blair, 1997). We never used the International Phonetic Alphabet for the wordlists and neither did we transcribe tone. An attempt was made at transcribing vowel length, but it was difficult to hear and as a consequence, not a lot of importance should be attached to differences in vowel length as marked in this wordlist. All wordlists were elicited from native speakers who were bilingual in Kiswahili and/ or English. The language of elicitation was usually Swahili but in some cases we would use English.
Recorded Text Test (RTT)
Secondly, we administered recorded texts test (RTT), however we did not administer it as prescribed by Casad: 1987. In our case, we had recorded ordinary stories from among Bukusu, Kabras, Wanga and Tachoni speakers. We would play the story to a Kabras listener without telling them the language from which the story had been recorded and then ask them some comprehensive question. We used this test to establish their level of comprehension for the particular language
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Scripture Passages Test
Thirdly, we had scripture passages from some of the existing Luhya translations. In this we picked Lubukusu, Lunyore, Lukakamega (Isukha, Tiriki and Idakho) and Lutachoni. We used this test on those who could read independently. We gave them anonymous Bible passages to read. After they had read we expected them to identify the language the Bible was in and then would ask them a few comprehension and language attitude questions.
Sociolinguistics Questionnaire
Lastly we administered a questionnaire in all the five geographical regions of Kabras speakers. It was a general questionnaire that targeted adults, both male and female. The main purpose of this questionnaire was to discover the attitudes of the respondents toward Kabras, and the viability of the language in general.
4. Results
Wordlist Results
The results for the six wordlists was as follows;
Dialect Lexical similarity Lexical difference Percentage of out of 200 words out of 200 words lexical similarity 1 Kinyala 186 14 93% 2 Kinyore 177 23 88.5% 3 Kimaragoli 160 40 80% 4 Lubukusu 179 21 89.5% 5 Lutachoni 189 11 94.5% 6 Lutsotso 194 6 97%
Table of lexical similarities with Kabras
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100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 Series1 20 10
0
Kinyala
Kinyore
Kitsotso
Lubukusu
Lutachoni Kimaragoli Kabras Lexical Similarity Chart
Fig. Kabras Lexical Similarity Chart
From the wordlist, it was observed that Kinyala, Lutachoni and Lutsotso have a high level of lexical similarity at 93%, 94.5% and 97% respectively, with Lutsotso as the closest. However Maragoli had the least similarities at 80%. Percentages higher than 85% usually indicate a speech variant that is likely a dialect of the language with which it is being compared. This in effect means that Kinyala, Kinyore, Lubukusu, Lutachoni and Lutsotso are likely to be varieties of the same dialect from a lexical similarity point of view.
We determined this percentage of lexical similarity between each of these linguistic varieties by comparing a set of standardized wordlists and counting those forms that show similarity in both form and meaning. It would be worth noting that in this analysis, words that were found to have some phonetic similarity were considered as similar words. Such that for a word like tomorrow though it appears different in Kabras from Kinyala ‘mutsuli’ and ‘muchuli’ in our analysis they were regarded as a similar word. Look at the table below;
English Kabras Tachoni 1 Body Omuvili Omubili 2 Belly Eyinda Yinda 3 House Eyinzu Yinju 4 Ash Likoshe Likokhe
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5 Honey Obuushi obuukhi
English Kabras Tsotso 1 Fish Eyinyeni Inyeni 2 Snake Inzokha Eyinzukha
English Kabras Bukusu 1 Head Omurwe Kumurwe 2 Elbow Yikhumbo Ekhumbo
English Kabras Kinyala 1 Leg Eshilenje Eshilenge 2 Firewood Olukhwi Ekwi
English Kabras Maragoli 1 Root Omusi Omuri 2 Father Papa Baba
English Kabras Kinyore 1 Water Amatsi Amachi 2 Milk Amaveele Amabele
English Kabras Kinyala 1 Thorn Eliwa Ewa 2 Grass Ovunyasi Owunyasi
Fig 3.
Scripture Passage Test This test was administered largely to pastors and church leaders who, as mentioned earlier, could read independently. We administered this test on 60 respondents from across the community’s geographical regions. The purpose of the test was firstly to determine which of the existing Luhya Bibles was mostly in use in the community and secondly what level of understanding for each of
Page 8 of 31 them. We further on tried to find out which would be their preferred Bible and better still which Bible do they use at the moment.
Which language does the scripture translation belong to? We used this question to establish if the readers could identify the different languages that the passages belonged to. It turned out that of all those that read the Tachoni passage, 40% of them thought it was Kabras while 38.3 thought it was Tachoni as shown in the figure below;
45 40 35 30 25 20 15 Series1 10 5 0 Lutachoni Kabras Other Unknown Language Identity
This in effect implies that the two languages are too similar that that even the native speakers might not easily tell the difference. It was observed that 70% of the readers were able to understand Lutachoni pretty well with the next nearest language in terms of comprehension being Lubukusu translation. It is possible that if there was a pure Tsotso translation, the Kabras would have an even higher percentage of comprehension. At the time of this survey, however, we had not been able to access it for this purpose.
Which scripture translation do you use at the moment? Of the Bibles that are accessible to the Kabras community, we found out that 62.7% use Kiswahili Bible, while 32.8 used English. The third in the line of usage was Maragoli at 16.4% as it is shown in the table below;
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70 60 50 40 30 Series1 20 10 0 Swahili English Maragoli Kinyore Kabras Church Bible Use
It is notable that even though Kabras has a higher lexical similarity with Kinyore than Kimaragoli, Kimaragoli is used more than Kinyore. The reason for this is the fact that Kabras was evangelised by the missionaries from Maragoli through Friend’s Quakers and hence the high use of the Maragoli Bible. Unfortunately, by the time of this survey we had not got a Maragoli Bible to test for their level of comprehension.
Recorded Text Test (RTT)
The number of people who participated in this activity was 34. According to the data analysed it was found that the participants were able to identify Kabras 100% because it is their language. 88% of the participants were able to identify Bukusu, this was highly identified because it is distinct from Kabras. The lowest identified languages were Tachoni and Tsotso, this is because there are some similarity between Tachoni and Kabras, and Tsotso and Kabras. Out of the 34 participants, 9 identified Tachoni as Kabras which gives a percentage of 26% and 11 participants identified Tsotso language as Kabras which gives a percentage of 32%.
The table below indicates the number of participants who identified the languages correctly.
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Language No of participants out of 34 Percentage
Wanga 11 32% Tachoni 8 24% Bukusu 30 88% Tsotso 8 24% Kabras 34 100%
In testing the understanding of the comprehensions from the languages, Kabras recorded the highest level of understanding, it had 100%. Tachoni was second best with 88% which was followed by Tsotso with 59%. Lastly, Wanga and Bukusu both of which had 41%.
The table below show the number of participants and the level of comprehension of the different languages.
Level of % of % of % of % of % of understanding participants participants participants participants participants in Wanga in Kabras in Tachoni in Bukusu in Tsotso High 41% 100% 88% 41% 59% Average 38% 3% 47% 26% Little 15% 3% 12% 3%
In the table above Tachoni was highly understood compared to Wanga, Bukusu and Tsotso.
According to Joe Grimes journal on Personal communication published in Casad, Eugene H. 1987. Scores of 85% to 100% indicate adequate understanding for the use of the same written literature. However scores of 75% to 85% indicate a “yellow light zone” for communication and below 70% would be a certain need for separate translations in each of the languages.
Conclusion and Recommendations
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The Kabras language is closely related to the Tsotso and the Tachoni language. They however have a negative attitude about the Lutachoni which might make it difficult for Kabras to willing want to use their literature. The fact that the Abatsotso Bible translation is combined with Wanga, Marama and Kisa might make its comprehension difficult among the Kabras. The fact that more people prefer using English or Swahili Bibles should not be construed to mean that they are against mother tongue scripture. The fact is, they are the most understood languages accessible to them. Besides, majority of them expressed their desire for the Kabras Bible and mother tongue education books in their lower primary schools.
Most Kabras community members speak Kabras language both at home, in the market place and in other social functions and weddings, circumcision and burial. The children speak the language very fluently and this is the language they use between themselves as they play and even when responding to their parents. This implies that Kabras language does not show any signs of death or shift to any other language.
The Kabras Church, through the pastor’s fellowship had at one point written to the BTL’s National Director requesting BTL to translate the Bible into their language. The same pastors followed the letter with a physical visit. It is in response to this invitation that BTL undertook this study.
The Kabras speaker’s population of 252,761 according to national census of 2009 is very critical and cannot be ignored. And considering that they are a churched community with a church that is interested in Bible translation, their request needs to be taken seriously.
We therefore recommend as follows; 1. That BTL seeks for ways to study and develop Kabarasi language further for documentation purposes. 2. That BTL starts a Bible translation project in Kabarasi. 3. That the project office be locate d at Malava town which is central to the community 4. That BTL works closely with the key denominations in the area namely; Friends Quaker Church, Catholic Church as well as the Pentecostal and Africa Indigenous Churches in the area.
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References Bergman, Ted G., ed. 1990. Survey reference manual. Dallas, Texas: SIL. Blair, Frank, (1997). Survey on a Shoestring: A manual for small-scale language surveys Dallas: The Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington.
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Casad, Eugene H. 1987. Dialect intelligibility testing. Dallas, Texas: SIL. Itebete P.A.N. (1974). Language standardization in Western Kenya, in Whiteley, (ed) 1974:87-114 Kanyoro, Rachel (1983). Unity in Diversity. A linguistic survey of the Abaluhyia of Western Kenya. Wien. Beiträge Zur Afrikanistik Kesby, John (1977). The cultural religions of East Africa. London, Academic Press Osogo, John (1966). History of Abaluyia. Nairobi, OUP Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2017. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 20th Ed. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com. Thompson, Joseph (1884). Through Masai land. London Wagner, Günther, (1949). The Bantu of North Kavirondo. Vol. one, London, OUP. The 2009 Kenya National Housing and Population Census. Kenya Bureau of Statistics.
Nairobi.
Appendix
Word List
Language: ______Alternate Names: ______
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Village: ______Ward: ______Division: ______
District: ______Province: ______Country: __ Kenya ______
Recorded by: ______Date: ______Ed. Level: ______
Speaker(s): ______Home Village: ______Age: _____ Gender: ______
English MT IPA Comments
1. Body (mwili)
2. Head (kichwa)
3. Hair (nywele)
4. Face (uso)
5. Eye (jicho)
6. Ear (sikio)
7. Nose (pua)
8. Mouth (mdomo)
9. Tooth (jino)
10. Tongue (ulimi)
11. Breast (woman’s) (titi)
12. Belly (tumbo)
13. Hand (mkono)
14. Elbow (kisukusuku)
15. Palm (kiganja)
16. Finger (kidole)
17. Nail (ukucha)
18. Leg (mguu)
19. Skin (ngozi)
20. Bone (mfupa)
21. Heart (moyo)
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22. Blood (damu)
23. Urine (mkojo)
24. Saliva (mate)
25. Village (kijiji)
26. House (nyumba)
27. Roof (paa)
28. Door (mlango)
29. Firewood (kuni)
30. Broom (ufagio)
31. Mortar (for grinding spice) (kinu)
32. Pestle (for grinding spice) (mchi wa kutwangia)
33. Hammer (for breaking stone) (nyundo)
34. Knife (for cutting meat) (kisu)
35. Axe (for cutting wood) (shoka)
36. Rope (kamba)
37. Mat (mkeka)
38. Needle (sindano)
39. Cloth (nguo/kitambaa)
40. Ring (gold band) (pete)
41. Sun (jua)
42. Moon (mwezi)
43. Sky (mbingu/mawinguni)
44. Star (nyota)
45. Rain (mvua)
46. Water (maji)
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47. River (mto)
48. Cloud (wingu)
49. Lightning (umeme)
50. Rainbow (upinde wa mvua)
51. Wind (upepo)
52. Stone (fist-sized) (jiwe)
53. Road (barabara)
54. Soil (mchanga)
55. Fire (moto)
56. Smoke (moshi)
57. Ash (jivu)
58. Mud (wet) (tope)
59. Dust (vumbi)
60. Gold (dhahabu)
61. Tree (mti)
62. Leaf (jani)
63. Root (mzizi)
64. Thorn (mwiba)
65. Flower (ua)
66. Fruit (tunda)
67. Mango (embe)
68. Banana (ndizi)
69. Wheat (husked) (ngano)
70. Millet (husked) (mtama)
71. Rice (mpunga/mchele/wali)
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72. Camel (ngamia)
73. Sheep (kondoo)
74. Cat (paka)
75. Chili (whole red dry) (pilipili)
76. Dates (tende)
77. Garlic (kitunguu saumu)
78. Onion (kitunguu)
79. Milk (maziwa)
80. Honey (asali)
81. Grass (nyasi)
82. Oil (cooking) (samli/mafuta ya kupikia)
83. Salt (chumvi)
84. Meat (raw) (nyama mbichi)
85. Pot (chungu)
86. Fish (samaki)
87. Chicken (kuku)
88. Egg (yai)
89. Cow (ng’ombe)
90. Lion (simba)
91. Elephant (ndovu)
92. Horn (pembe)
93. Tail (mkia)
94. Goat (mbuzi)
95. Dog (mbwa)
96. Snake (nyoka)
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97. Monkey (tumbiri)
98. Mosquito (mbu)
99. Crocodile (mamba)
100. Spider (buibui)
101. Name (jina)
102. Man (mwanamume)
103. Woman (mwanamke)
104. Child (mtoto)
105. Father (baba)
106. Mother (mama)
107. Older brother (ndugu mkubwa wa kiume)
108. Younger brother (ndugu mdogo wa kiume)
109. Older sister (dada mkubwa)
110. Younger sister (dada mdogo)
111. Father’s older brother (baba mkubwa)
112. Father’s older sister (shangazi mkubwa)
113. Man (mwanaume)
114. Woman (mwanamke)
115. Boy (mvulana)
116. Girl (msichana)
117. Day (siku)
118. Night (usiku)
119. Morning (asubuhi)
120. Day time (mchana)
121. Evening just before dark (jioni)
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122. Yesterday (jana)
123. Today (leo)
124. Tomorrow (kesho)
125. Week (wiki)
126. Month (mwezi)
127. Year (mwaka)
128. Old (object) kitu kilichozeeka
129. New (object) kitu kipya
130. Good (nzuri)
131. Bad (mbaya)
132. Wet (lowa)
133. Dry (kavu)
134. Long (object) kitu kirefu
135. Short (object) kitu kifupi
136. Hot (water) moto (kama vile kwa maji)
137. Cold (water) baridi (kama vile kwa maji)
138. Right (ndio/sawasawa)
139. Near (karibu)
140. Far (mbali)
141. Big (kubwa)
142. Small (ndogo)
143. Heavy (nzito)
144. Light (mwangaza)
145. Above (juu)
146. Below (chini)
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147. White (nyeupe)
148. Black (nyeusi)
149. Red (nyekundu)
150. One (moja)
151. Two (mbili)
152. Three (tatu)
153. Four (nne)
154. Five (tano)
155. Six (sita)
156. Seven (saba)
157. Eight (nane)
158. Nine (tisa)
159. Ten (kumi)
160. Eleven (kumi na moja)
161. Twelve (kumi na mbili)
162. Twenty (ishirini)
163. One hundred (mia moja)
164. Who? (nani?)
165. What? (nini?)
166. Where? (wapi?)
167. When? (lini?)
168. How many? (ngapi?)
169. What kind? (Aina gani?)
170. This (in hand) hii/hiki
171. That (distant) hiyo
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172. These (in hand) hizi
173. Those (distant) hizo
174. Same (like) sawa/kama
175. Different (other) tofauti
176. Whole (unbroken) nzima
177. Broken (pot) vunjika
178. Few (chache)
179. Many (nyingi)
180. All (yote)
181. Eat (kula)
182. Bite (verb) uma
183. Hunger (njaa)
184. Drink (kunywa)
185. Thirst (kiu)
186. Sleep (lala)
187. Jump (ruka)
188. Sit down (kaa chini)
189. Give (peana)
190. Burn (wood) choma
191. Die (kufa)
192. Kill (ua)
193. Fly (bird)
194. Walk (tembea)
195. Run (kimbia)
196. Go (enda)
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197. Come (njoo)
198. Speak (ongea)
199. Hear (sikia)
200. See (ona)
Scripture Text Questions
1. Which language does the scripture translation belong to (Tachoni – Luke 8: 19-20)?
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2. What is the story about? (Jesus relatives [family members] had come to visit Jesus)
3. What stands out from the passage? (Jesus declares that his family members are those who hear and obey the will of God)
4. Which language does the scripture translation belong to (Lubukusu – Acts 14:8-13)?
5. What did you understand from the passage? (Paul and Barnabas heal a crippled man)
6. What stands out from the passage? (i. The man listened to Paul’s teachings they realised he had faith, ii. He got healed and started walking, iii. People thought Paul and Barnabas were gods)
7. Which language does the scripture translation belong to (Bunyore– Romans 16:17-20)?
8. What did you understand from the passage? (Be careful of those who bring division and teach unbiblical teachings)
9. What stands out from the passage? (i.These false teachers are not godly, ii. the Romans are known to be godly)
10. Which language does the scripture translation belong to (Lukakamega – Ephesians 3: 1-6)?
11. What did you understand from the passage? (i. Paul a prisoner of Christ for preaching, ii. preaches to gentiles, iii. God revealed his plan to him. Iv. Gentiles are equal with Jews in belief and inheritance of the Kingdom) 12. What stands out from the passage? (See above)
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13. Which of the translations do you like the most?
14. Which of the translations did you understand the most? Why?
15. Of the four translations which one is closer to your language? Why?
16. Can people in your language use this translation? Why?
17. Is there a scripture translation in your language?
18. If not for question 17 above, would you prefer to have your own translation? Why?
19. Which scripture translation do you mainly use? Why?
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INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR LOCAL LEADERS AND TEACHERS
1. Can you tell me the number of Kabras speakers in the area? / Census report…[administrative leaders] Je unadhani watu wanao ongea KiKabras ni wangapi katika eneo hili?
2. Can you list the dialects of the Kabras? Je waweza kutaja milango ya Kabras?
3. Which one do you think is the central dialect? (Central dialect) Ni mlango gani ambao waweza kusema wanazungumza KiKabras halisi?
4. Why? Kwanini?
5. Which language do children speak while playing? Watoto huongea lugha gani wakiwa wanacheza? 6. Which language do children speak while replying their parents? Watoto hutumia lugha gani wanapowajibu wazazi wao? 7. Are there schools in the area where Kabras speakers live? Je kuna shule katika eneo wanaloishi watu wanao ongea lugha ya KiKabras? 8. How far apart are the schools? Je kuna umbali gani kutoka shule moja hadi nyingine? 9. Who runs the schools: government/churches/ mosques/private/NGO’s e.t.c Ni akina nani wanaoziendesha hizo shule: serikali/makanisa/misikiti/watu binafsi/Mashirika yasiyo ya kiserikali? 10. Which is the language of instruction at lower levels in primary school? Ni lugha gani inayotumiwa kufundisha watoto katika madarasa ya chini shuleni (darasa la 1 – 3)? 11. Which language do people speak at home? Watu huongea lugha gani wakiwa nyumbani? 12. Which language do people speak in the market? Why? Watu huongea lugha gani wakiwa sokoni? Kwa nini?
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13. Where in Kenya do you think is the original home of the Kabras people? Unadhani ni wapi hapa Kenya ndio makao asili ya Kabras? 14. Is there existing literature in the Kabras language? Je kuna vitabu vilivyoandikwa katika lugha ya KiKabras? 15. If answer to l above is YES what kind of literature is it? Ikiwa jawabu la l hapo juu ni NDIO, ni vitabu vya aina gani? 16. Are there any NGOs/CBOs working in this area? Kuna mashirika yasiyo ya kiserikali (NGO/CBO) yanayofanya kazi katika eneo hili? 17. What are they? Ni mashirika gani? 18. Which towns are easily accessible by road? Have telephone access? Bank? Hospital? Ni miji gani ambayo inaweza kufikiwa kwa barabara? Ina simu? Benki? Hospitali? 19. Which language do people use while conducting: Watu hutumia lugha gani katika: a. Marriages? Ndoa b. Funerals? Mazishi c. Religious ceremonies/functions? Sherehe za kidini d. Circumcision? Tohara
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Pre-RTT Questions for groups
1. Name of village ______
(Jina la kijiji)
2. Date of Interview: ______
(Siku ya kuhojiwa)
3. What do you call your language? ______
(Lugha yako yaitwaje?)
4. What language do you speak in your home now? ______
(Sasa munazungumza lugha gani nyumbani?)
5. Have you ever lived in another place? / Stayed for a long time? Y/N
Mumewahi ishi mahali pengine? Ulikaa mda mrefu?
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Post-RTT Questions for groups
1. What language does the storyteller speak? Mnadhani huyu mtu aliyetoa hadithi hii anaongea lugha gani?
2. Does this man speak the language well? Y/N Je! Huyu mtu anaongea hiyo lugha vizuri? Ndio/La
3. How much of his speech did you understand? A little average very much Mumeelewa kiasi gani cha mambo aliyosema? Kidogo kadiri sana
4. Is your language similar to the language of the speaker? Y/N Mnadhani lugha yenu inafanana na lugha ya msimulizi wa hadithi? Ndio/La 4b. Why? Kwa nini ______
5. Which language do people use while conducting: Marriages? Funerals? Religious ceremonies/functions? Circumcision? Watu hutumia lugha gani wanapoendesha: Ndoa Mazishi Sherehe za kidini Tohara If the ministry of education develops the Kabras language to be used in schools would you allow your children to read it?
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