East African English (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania): morphology and syntax

Abstract

An outline of grammatical features of East African English (EAfE) is even more difficult to produce than that of its phonology, because deviations in grammar occur in much lower frequencies. One reason for this lower frequency is perhaps that grammatical deviations are more stigmatised. Thus. an independent EAfE grammar is even less di stinguishable than an independent phonology or lex.icon. East African tendencie.<; in morphology and syntax can often also be found in other parts of Africa and even beyond, in so-called New Englishes (cf. Hickey 2003), and even in some First Language (LJ) varieties in Britain, America or Australia. Partly at least, English varieties all seem to develop in similar directions in some respects, as for instance in terms of simplification and regularisation. Frequency, consistency, systematicity and the developmental, regional and social distribution over various spoken and written text types are a marter for further research as well as the discovery of implicational hierarchies in freq uency and acceptability.