In their own language, the Alagwa people call themselves Alagwa and their language Alagwase. They are known throughout Tanzania, however, by their Swahili name of Wasi and their language Chasi. When speaking Swahili, they also use these names.
SIL Tanzania’s Language Assessment team surveyed the Alagwa language in 1995. Considering the data collected at that time, it is evident that the language is vital and viable. There seems no danger of the community shifting away from its own language to the country’s official Swahili in the near future. Many Alagwa speak both languages. Swahili is used in school, population centers of mixed languages, and with outsiders. Alagwa is used in all other domains.
The Alagwa people have deep pride in their language, and expect it to endure. This strong attitude creates a unity for the people as a whole, and draws them together as a unique people group. At the same time, the people seem to respect the national language, Swahili, because of the freedom of mobility it allows. They appreciate its advantage as a means of wider communication and national identity, and they do value it as such. However, since it is a vastly different language from their own, Alagwa speakers (especially women) are likely to fall out of practice unless they live in a very mixed community or go on to secondary school.
Two teams started work among the Alagwa people, but work has been temporarily suspended due to lack of personnel. Please pray that this project will be assigned new personnel and be reactivated. The language is very closely related to Burunge, so it is envisioned that after initial linguistics is done, translation could be facilitated through adaptation from Burunge.