View source for Engsh

{{Short description|Cant from the rich neighbourhoods of Nairobi, Kenya}}
'''Engsh''' is a [[Cant (language)|cant]] in [[Kenya]] whose base language is [[English language|English]] that includes borrowings from spoken urban Kenyan [[Swahili language|Swahili]].{{sfn|Dorleijn|Mous|Nortier|2015|p=174}}

While [[Sheng slang|Sheng]], a mostly Swahili-based [[African Urban Youth Language|AUYL]],<ref name=kiessling>{{cite journal |title=Urban Youth Languages in Africa |first1=Roland |last1=Kiessling |first2=Maarten |last2=Mous |journal=[[Anthropological Linguistics (journal)|Anthropological Linguistics]] |year=2004 |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=303-41 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30028964}}</ref> is rooted in the poor eastern neighborhoods of Nairobi (where it has become a mother tongue),<ref name=heath/> Engsh is English-based<ref name=kiessling/><ref name=heath/> and is spoken in the more affluent [[Westlands, Nairobi|Westlands]] area.<ref name=heath/> It is "a youth register that keeps tabs on American slang and rap music", and sufficiently different from Sheng to be treated separately, according to linguist Erik Kioko.<ref name=heath>{{cite journal |title=Reviewed Work(s): ''Youth Language Practices in African and Beyond'' by Nico Nassenstein and Andrea Hollington |first=Jeffrey |last=Heath |journal=[[Anthropological Linguistics (journal)|Anthropological Linguistics]] |year=2016 |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=215-16 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26350403}}</ref>

{{cn-span|
In the past, there was no distinction made between Sheng and Engsh, but the youth speakers of both languages noticed their inability to understand each other properly, as the languages had evolved differently primarily due to the different economic backgrounds. Nevertheless, there are still many similarities between Sheng and Engsh, but Engsh is unique enough to stand as a cant of its own.
|date=March 2025}}

==See also==
* [[Kenyan English]]
* [[Sheng slang]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|editor1-last=Nortier|editor1-first=Jacomine|editor2-last=Svendsen|editor2-first=Bente A.|title=Language, Youth and Identity in the 21st Century|date=March 2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781107016989|author1-first=Margreet|author1-last=Dorleijn|author2-first=Maarten|author2-last=Mous|author3-first=Jacomine|author3-last=Nortier|chapter=Urban youth speech styles in Kenya and the Netherlands}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
*{{cite journal|journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language|issue=125|date=January 1997|title=Sheng and Engsh: development of mixed codes among the urban youth in Kenya|author1-first=Mohamed H.|author1-last=Abdulaziz|author2-first=Ken|author2-last=Osined|doi=10.1515/ijsl.1997.125.43}}
*Barasa, Sandra Nekesa, and Maarten Mous. "Engsh, a Kenyan middle class youth language parallel to Sheng." ''Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages'' 32, no. 1 (2017): 48-74.
*Kaviti, Lillian. "From Stigma to Status-Sheng and Engsh in Kenya's Linguistic and Literary Space." ''Matatu'' 46 (2015): 223ff.
*Mous, Maarten, and Sandra Barasa. "Kenya: Sheng and Engsh." In ''Urban Contact Dialects and Language Change'', pp.&nbsp;105–124. Routledge, 2022.

==External links==


{{Kenya topics}}{{Languages of Kenya}}
[[Category:Swahili-based pidgins and creoles]]
[[Category:Languages of Kenya]]
[[Category:Cant languages]]
[[Category:African Urban Youth Languages]]

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