KIMERU-INFLUENCED MISSPELLINGS AND WRONG LEXICAL CHOICES IN THE KISWAHILI COMPOSITIONS OF THREE SCHOOLS IN MERU COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to investigate the Kimeru-influenced
misspellings and wrong lexical choices in the Kiswahili compositions of
three schools in the Meru County of Kenya, with gender as a variable.
The objectives were to establish which word categories were most
involved in the said misspellings and wrong lexical choices and to
establish whether gender was a determining factor in producing such
language errors. A total sample of 90 students, selected through
stratified random sampling from three schools (i.e. a sub-sample of 30
from each) was used. The 90 participants were required to write a
composition. In relation to misspellings, the results show that quite a
number of Kiswahili words were written the same way they would be
pronounced in Kimeru, while in relation to the wrong lexical choices,
verbs were the most borrowed category (at a rate 62%), with various
other word categories sharing the remaining 38%. It also emerged that
the male students made significantly more wrong lexical choices than
the female ones (62% vs. 38).