Core vocabulary and frequently-used words between Dholuo and Ekegusii languages of Kenya

This study focused on establishing if core vocabulary (also known as basic vocabulary) and frequently-used words can be borrowed in linguistic contact situations. The languages studied were Dholuo and EkeGusii. The two languages have no phylogenetic relationship. Dholuo is a Nilotic language and EkeGusii belongs to the Bantu family of languages. The two linguistic communities have been contiguous for possibly more than 400 hundred years. In such contact situations, borrowing of linguistic items across the two languages is inevitable. The linguistic items which are susceptible to borrowing in contact situations are those which belong to the peripheral vocabulary. However, core vocabulary are those which belong to certain domains which accompany linguistic communities independently of their specific environments. Such vocabulary tend to resist borrowing because they do not fulfil the reasons for borrowing which are spelt out in the literature. The objective of the study was to establish if core vocabulary and frequently-used words have been borrowed as a result of contact between the Luo and the Abagusii. The research used a qualitative research approach. A questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument in which the respondents gave a translation of the words into EkeGusii. The questionnaire had a list of words which fall within the domains of core vocabulary. There were 96 respondents who were EkeGusii speakers who were purposively sampled.  The sample size was arrived at by data saturation formula which takes a mean of 12 respondents in qualitative research. They were expected to translate each of the words in the list into EkeGusii. The sample size is a microcosm of the entire speakers of EkeGusii. The words were compared with the Dholuo equivalents for similarity in form, pronunciation and meaning. The study used the Linguistic Interference Theory. The theory considers borrowing as interference with the recipient language as it introduces foreign linguistic items and other linguistic features. The linguistic items were analysed in relation to \the phonemic inventories and phonemic properties of the two languages. The findings proved that there is borrowing of a number of core vocabulary and frequently-used words between the two linguistic communities. The findings, however, did not establish why the core vocabulary and the frequently-used words would be borrowed by a speech community which has the said words in their basic lexicon already. The finding is critical considering the assertion in the literature that the words under study are resistant to borrowing. Further study is recommended to establish why a linguistic community would borrow words which it already has and are in active everyday use.