A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the award of the "Licence en Langue et Littérature Anglaises"

Résumé,

Burundi is surrounded by three countries whose populations speak mainly two languages : Rwanda in the north and northwest, DRC in the west and Tanzania in the south and southeast. Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili, their respective language are spoken on the borders that Burundi shares with the named countries. Kinyarwanda and Kirundi on one hand are mutually intelligible at a high degree to the extent that it has been ambiguous to some linguists to call them languages' or dialects of the same language. Their intelligibility influences the normal phenomenon of borrowing which usually happens between any languages when they come into contact. On the other hand, Kiswahili is among the Bantu languages and has the same ancestors with Kirundi and Kinyarwanda. This also facilitates the transfer of some lexical or grammatical patterns to Kirundi in a conscious or unconscious manner.

Among language or dialects of one language, the transfer of words is inevitably accompanied by the transfer of culture which could bring about language loss and cultural impairment. This inspired us to conduct a research on the topic "A study of the Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili impact on Kirundi spoken in Burundian Border Provinces" and find objectuvely what is the impact that the contact of Kirundi with Kinyarwand and Kiswahili on Burundians living the border provinces. A set of solutions ont the issue have consequantly been proposed.

The results of the research showed a great influence of the two languages (Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili) on Kirundi and the risk of language defacement and cultural loss in the areas of research. This may systematically affect all the rest of the country where our language and culture which make our identity woul be replaced by foreign ones.