This monograph is the first study of the acquisition of Swahili as a first language. It focuses on the acquisition of inflectional affixes, with a particular emphasis on subject agreement and tense. Other inflectional affixes are also investigated, including object agreement and mood. The study surveys the adult dialect in question, Nairobi Swahili, discussing social, phonological, morphological and syntactic properties. Data, analyses and copious examples are presented of the naturalistic speech of four Swahili speaking children. Index, bib, 241pp, NETHERLANDS. JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING CO.

The Fiomo Liyongo poems reveal all the qualities that constitute a national heroic epic: an origin shrouded in mystery, both of the hero himself and the early epic texts, a dispute of power which is also a dispute of civilisations between the city and the uncultured hinterland. It culminates in betrayal, an oedipal murder and the beatification of Fiomo Liyongo as cultural hero. This is the material from which the Grand Tales of national heroic epics are woven, all over the world and from the beginning of time. BAS#57, 245pp, GERMANY. BAYREUTH A S, 3927510688

A study of the acquisition of a second language within the interlanguage framework. 224pp, GERMANY. BAYREUTH.

As one of the fastest growing languages in Africa the future of Kiswahili seems assured. Its success in East Africa regarding its status as a lingua franca in all levels of society has shown the possibilities of its use as a politically neutral language. This important study examines the language as a tool for both intra and inter ethnic communication, national unity and cultural integration, as well as economic well being and technological advancement in East Africa and the contient as a whole. Refs, xii, 152pp, KENYA. NAIROBI UNIVERSITY PRESS, 9966846352

Africa is a marriage of cultures: African and Asian, Islamic and Euro-Christian. Nowhere is this fusion more evident than in the formation of Swahili, Eastern Africa’s lingua franca, and its cultures. This study addresses the moving frontiers of Swahili literature under the impetus of new waves of globalization in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These momentous changes have generated much theoretical debate on several literary fronts, as Swahili literature continues to undergo transformation in the mill of human creativity. 216pp, USA. OHIO U P.