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

RESUME,

Linguistics confirm that there is no pure language at all.It is in this light that the researcher was intersted in conducting a study on the influence of Giha on Kirundi spoken at Giharo.The research aims at checking how Giha influences Kirundi spoken at the area of th estudy on lexical and phonological level.Two questions were raised.As the research area (Giharo commune) was large,only certain hills where Giha influence on Kirundi was more expected were chosen.As far as the selection of informants is concerned,the researcher followed Gillieron's criteria of selecting the subjects,in which sex,age,educational and occupational status have to be taken into account.A questionnaire and tape-recorder were used as instruments of data collection.As the findings reveal it,the people from Giharo shift to Giha.Thus,the lexicon and the phonology of Giha influence the lexicon and the phonology of existing Kirundi in that area.Some recommandations were directedto various people.For instance,to the users of dialects,they should be proud of the dialect they speak and not give enough room to influence of other dialect or foreign languages.They should not laugh at each other because of one's peculiar speech.