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Item Structural influence of sheng on Kiswahili language: Text book of African linguistics(Mzumbe University, 2012) Oyugi, Amba TimothyThis book on Sheng is a result of a field study between 2007 and 2010 done to fill the vacuum on Sheng research, especially the role of the new language to improve the standard Kiswahili. University students, language and linguistic researchers in East Africa and beyond will be able to find extra and new materials to augment the current lexicon, phonemes and lexemes necessary to develop the continuously expanding research on Sheng and standard Kiswahili. This is done at a time Kiswahili has been declared one of the working languages of the African Union. On a wider global arena, Kiswahili has found a place in many university campuses as one of the foremost foreign languages in Europe, North America and the Far East. Many African scholars and leaders are campaigning to see the language find official use at the United Nations in future. As such, Kiswahili improvement is a must area of interest to African linguists whose cultures find a great international renown through this native African language. The rapidity of the spread in Sheng word use across East Africa is staggering. For example, the word mos mos- popular in Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu and Kampala- is originally Luo meaning ‘slowly, with less speed’. In Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Mwanza, Arusha, Mbeya and other urban centres in Tanzania, it is pronounced mosi mosi but equally and popularly used. Other popular words in Nairobi Sheng like mgwana, mpointi, karau and shags/ushago, can equally be heard in the speech of many youths in urban areas of Tanzania and Uganda who mix the words in their own versions of Kiswahili. It was difficult to define areas of word use. I leave this task to future researchers in linguistics. After all, this book is about the influence of Sheng on Kiswahili speech and writings now and in the years to come. Admittedly, the field research was done in Nairobi through 2007 and 2008. For the whole of 2009 and part of 2010, it was tested in the youth speech in many urban centres (Morogoro, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Mbeya, Nakuru, Kisumu, Kampala and Tanga), and in the written media especially newspapers, radio, TV and interviews involving the youths picked up words from Kenyan capital and spread them like burning fire across the region. That was why it took three years to compile all the findings, making the author unable to define the area of use. I thought that in doing so I could create more awareness, interest and desire in all those who could want to do the same in future.