Does Kiswahili have diphthongs: interpreting foreign sounds in African languages

Abstract

Kiswahili, the most widespread language in Eastern and Central Africa, has borrowed very extensively from foreign languages. One of the consequences of this heavy borrowing has been the adoption of diphthong-like sounds which have posed both descriptive and theoretical problems, given that traditionally the Kiswahili phoneme inventory has no complex vowels. In this article the problem is discussed in the light of the phonetic realities of the sounds and the role they play in the phonological system of the language. Several possible interpretations are presented and discussed. Finally, a solution based on the current autosegmental framework, is proposed.