Ethnic community languages in contemporary social media advertisements in Tanzania

Abstract

A speech community’s expectation is to see its language develop. However, such an imaginative prospect may not materialise due to the asymmetrical power dynamics between influential and less influential speech communities. Consequently, less influential societies are forced to depend on the languages of dominant groups for information, education and other endeavours. Thus, their languages become liable to disappearance and/or subsumption. Nevertheless, occasionally, the less influential languages prosper despite competitive multilingual circumstances. This study looked into the way marginalised ethnic community languages flourish in advertisements posted on social media in Tanzania. In partvnicular, it examined the roles served by the ethnic community languages featured in online telecom companies’ advertisements and queries whether their presence promotes language maintenance. Essentially, this article illustrates the practical uses of ethnic community languages in marketing, ethnic identity marking and preserving social ties using data generated through document reviews, textual analysis and WhatsApp voice note methods. Furthermore, the article presents diverse views regarding the possibility that the inclusion of ethnic community languages in advertisements could support language maintenance. In line with the findings, this study suggests that, even with the complications that hamper the growth of ethnic community languages, using them in advertisements could stimulate maintenance and provide another domain of utility.