The Portrayal of Nouns and Figures of Speech in the Expansion of the Standardisation of Swahili Language in Tanzania

Abstract

In this era of science and technology, the standardisation of the Swahili language in Tanzania has been developed due to the emergence of new words in various fields such as health, politics, ICT, and education. This article focuses on the portrayal of nouns and figures of speech in the expansion of Swahili language standardisation. The research in this article is evaluative. The data was collected in the field and libraries, where interviews and text analysis methods were used. The discussion was guided by Einar Haugen’s (1966/1972) theory, concerning standardisation of languages whose main foundation is expansion aimed at broadening the use of language in fields such as education, politics, law, health, science, business, architecture, and sports. The results of this research have shown that language expansion gives language the ability to fill gaps in vocabulary and to eliminate the shortcomings in discussing various activities across all areas of life. It also gives the language the capacity to be used in the relevant contemporary contexts. This means that it allows the language to keep pace with the time, development, and changes in society.