The Effects of Sheng

Sheng is a generative language that emerged as a result of code mixing. It involves the use of words from different languages in the same sentence, paragraph or an entire communication piece. Most words come from the Swahili and English languages. For example, ‘Before uende home pitia kwangu tu-discuss a few issues kwanza.’
Sometimes sheng just involves the addition of unnecessary syllables to a word. For example, ‘Nipe ma-chapati mbili.’ 

Sheng has far-reaching effects especially at the present time. Its over-use has made it gain popularity and spread very fast especially among people living in urban centers. Some of the areas affected by sheng include the Swahili language, schools, homes and work places as discussed below.

1.      Swahili Language

·         The code has interfered with the poor performance of students in National examinations. Some manifestations of this code can be seen in their class work especially in sentence constructions. For instance;

Sheng – Wenye hawajamanga wakamanga

Kiswahili – Wale ambao hawajakula, wakale.

English – Those who have not eaten can go and do so.

·         It has also been observed by teachers that many students are more fluent with sheng than with the standard Kiswahili or English language.

·         It has created a lot of ambiguity in meanings of original Swahili words. For example, the word ‘mbao’ means pieces of wood. In Sheng, the word can either mean a twenty shilling coin or it can also mean luck.

·         It undermines the rate of growth of Swahili language because most young people now strive to learn more sheng words than Swahili words.

2.      Schools

·         Teachers have complained that the code interferes with formal language learning inside the classroom. This is because students fail to mark the boundaries between Sheng and standard Kiswahili or even English.

·         Creates a huge linguistic disparity between students of the same academic level but from different schools. Urban school students may be used to speaking sheng which may be a mistery to rural school students.

·         Sheng has bridged the social gap between teachers and students. While teachers adhere to their code of ethics in using official language, students admire teachers who can speak sheng in class. Sometimes teachers are forced to use sheng in order to please their students.

3.      Homes

·         It is causing conflict between the youth and parents or adults, and is also creating confusion in the family. Most parents of school going children who have little contact or regular experience with Sheng feel that it is creating a language barrier.

·         It has increased bad behavior in children and lack of respect to their parents. The youths come up with words that are not known to the adults and may use them in the homes to talk ill about their parents even in their presence.

4.      Work Places

·         It has reduced professionalism at work because workers who are addicted to sheng may find themselves using it in official communication with their bosses and managers.

·         Due to its popularity, local TV and Radio stations have also allowed the use of sheng in certain programmes e.g Tahidi High in Citizen TV. This has a linguistic effect on school children and the youth since some of them tend to identify themselves with certain characters in these programmes through the use of this code.