학술논문: 도시 청년 언어의 진화 :케냐 ‘쉥’과 대중문화의 촉매적 상호작용

Abstract

This study analyzes the interaction between Sheng, the urban youth language of Nairobi, and popular culture, and explores the linguistic and social transformations that emerge from this process. Sheng originated in the 1970s among young people in Nairobi’s informal settlements as a hybrid language based on Swahili and English, incorporating diverse ethnic vocabularies and neologisms, and has since spread rapidly. Focusing on the impact of youth popular culture, this study examines how Sheng has undergone processes of both “evolution” and “fragmentation.” The findings show that popular culture particularly hip hop and Gengetone functioned not only as channels of linguistic diffusion but also as platforms enabling youth communities to generate new expressions that reflect their local experiences and cultural practices. The convergence of local artists and social media further reinforced neighborhood-specific variants and accelerated their circulation beyond local contexts. Consequently, Sheng has developed into both a medium for constructing hybrid youth identities and a fragmented linguistic phenomenon shaped by locality and group affiliation.
These results demonstrate that Sheng embodies the dual processes of integration and fragmentation within the social and cultural practices of Kenyan youth. Moreover, Sheng transcends conventional linguistic and cultural boundaries, creating new spaces for popular culture, and pointing to the expanding possibilities of youth cultural expression.

저자: 권영승(HK연구교수)