Linguistic innovations in a multilingual digital advertising context in Tanzania: a translanguaging perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores linguistic innovations from commercial banks’ digital ads in Tanzania. Using translanguaging theory in analysis, this study unravels various linguistic innovations employed by advertisers in a bid to persuade potential clients. Data for this study were screen-captured from the banks’ Facebook accounts by using Microsoft’s Snip & Sketch app. A thorough analysis of 90 ads was accomplished through document review. The findings institute several linguistic innovations such as the use of multiple languages. Some of them extend beyond the advertising policy. Others are code-switching, adoption of foreign words, slang and idiomatic expressions, blending, truncation, vowel lengthening and denominalisation. These findings bring to surface dramatic linguistic transformations in physical and virtual advertising spaces from mid-2000s to early 2022 in Tanzania. It is contended that the prospect of digital advertising vis-à-vis linguistic innovations in Tanzania is projected to thrive further as long as advertisers tally with global advertising trends and linguistic dynamics.