Swahili Loanwords in the Iraqwoid Languages: Morphology and Periodization

The present paper aims to cast a light on the nativization process of Swahili loanwords in Gorwaa and Iraqw. In the specific, this short study will focus on the way Swahili words’ endings and the Iraqwoid suffixes interact with each other. Through the analysis of loanwords from Swahili, which are often themselves loanwords from Arabic or Persian, it is possible to notice three different patterns: full nativization, partial nativization or Fremdwort. This might be explained as the existence of three layers of Swahili influence on Gorwaa and Iraqw, the more recent one still being carried on to the present day. At the end of the paper, I shall present tables that will show these three waves that can be roughly labeled as “first contact”, “colonial period” and “contemporaneity”. The analysis of Swahili loanwords in the Iraqwoid languages under the lenses of both morphology and of sound change allows to draw a tripartite periodization, the last of which, coinciding with the present, shows a massive intrusion of donor language into the receiver languages.