By Antilisia Godwin
Kiswahili, which is East Africa’s main lingua franca, has contributed a large number of loan words to East African English, two of which have now entered the Oxford English Dictionary.
Kitu Kidogo and Panya Route are now officially English words.
This is according to the official statement from Anna Silva, of the Oxford University Press (OUP).
Kitu kidogo which was first attested in English in 1993 is money offered or accepted as an inducement or bribe.
In Swahili, Kitu means ‘something, item, or matter’, while Kidogo is the prefixed form of dogo, ‘small, and insignificant.’ Therefore Kitu-Kidogo means ‘Something Small,’ or a ‘Token,’ sometimes ‘Tip,’ but usually in a negative way.
A Panya route, a term hatched in 1980 is a secret path or roundabout route, especially one used for smuggling or illegal aliens crossing into another country.
Originally coined in Sheng, the East African street language that mixes Swahili with English, this loan blend combines the Swahili word Panya ‘Mouse’ (rat or rodent) with the English word route, or passage.
Say the word Rolex in Uganda and the locals will be more likely to think not of a fancy watch, but rather a delicious street food staple.
A Ugandan Rolex (2006) is an omelet and vegetables wrapped in a chapatti, and its unusual name is a playful twist on ‘rolled eggs’.
Two other words in this update come from outside East Africa’s largest Anglophone nations.
Intore which came to life in 1950 signifies a traditional war-themed dance of Rwanda and Burundi, which is accompanied by drumming and is typically performed by male dancers at festivals, weddings, and other special occasions.
Seggae coined in 1990, is a blend of the words sega and reggae, is a style of popular music originating in Mauritius, combining the strong, syncopated beats, percussion instruments, and Creole lyrics of sega and the strongly accentuated offbeat and prominent bass line of reggae.
WHAT IS THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (OED)?
The OED is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language.
It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and usage of 500,000 words and phrases past and present, from across the English-speaking world.
As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings.
You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, sometimes from as far back as the 11th century, and of the language—traced through 3.5 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts, song lyrics, and social media posts.
HOW DOES A WORD QUALIFY FOR INCLUSION IN THE OED?
A word will be considered for inclusion in the OED when we have gathered independent examples from a good variety of sources, and evidence that the word has been in use for a reasonable amount of time.
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