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Studies in African Languages and Cultures
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This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 2545-2134 - ISSN (Online) 2657-4187
Published by Warsaw University Press

[1 journal]

Greeting and saying farewell in two Bantu languages: Swahili and Zulu
- Authors: Beata Wójtowicz, Lionel Posthumus
  Pages: 9 - 29
  Abstract: The article discusses greetings and farewells of a typical conversation in two Bantu languages: Swahili and Zulu. The conversation usually comprises the greeting followed by the enquiry about each other’s well-being, the actual conversation, and then the parting farewell. The article outlines the importance of nonverbal, sociolinguistic, and situational factors of the salutation. The objectives of the paper are to explore the feasibility of considering the salutation in Bantu languages as being uniform, to determine some common trends in the salutation, and to discuss the aspects that may have an impact on the form of the salutation, in languages in general and in Swahili and Zulu in particular.
  PubDate: 2021-11-29
  DOI: 10.32690/SALC55.1
Laughter interjections in Xhosa
- Authors: Alexander Andrason
  Pages: 31 - 71
  Abstract: The present paper analyzes the system of laughter-based interjections (L-INTJs) in Xhosa. By drawing on corpus and fieldwork evidence, the author concludes the following: the systems of L-INTJs consists of five types of constructions built around the segments ha, he, ho, hi, and yha, the satellites te and ti, as well as a number of replicative templates. The pattern hVhVhV with a short vowel is the most productive. Other replicative patterns, patterns involving (extra‑)long vowels, and the pattern tVhV are less productive. Overall, L-INTJs are the canonical members of the interjective category. The presence and range of uses of L-INTJs result from the interjectionalization of laughter-based onomatopoeias or the onomatopoeization of non-laughter-related interjections.
  PubDate: 2021-11-29
  DOI: 10.32690/SALC55.2
A critical analysis of Baubawan Burmi, kassasaɓarmu ce kan zaɓar jagora
by Aminu Ladan Abubakar (ALA)
- Authors: Shuaibu Hassan
  Pages: 73 - 86
  Abstract: This paper explores understanding of literature as a medium through which poets address issues in order to reach their audience with a message of service to the community or the society more broadly. Poets engage the society through their literary composition by using the language that pleases and, through entertainment, they try to put across ideas of bringing a change. The analysis focuses on 21st century Hausa poetry of Aminu Ladan Abubakar (ALA) to portray how his poem, Baubawan Burmi, Kasassaɓarmu Ce Kan Zaɓar Jagora ‘Our mistake in choosing a leader’ entertains, enlightens, and educates electorates of Northern Nigeria and beyond about the nature of leadership and the mistakes committed when electing public office holders.
  PubDate: 2021-11-29
  DOI: 10.32690/SALC55.3
Discourse strategies of handling denials in police – suspect
interaction in Ibadan, Nigeria
- Authors: Adesina Bukunmi Sunday, Temidayo Akinrinlola
  Pages: 87 - 109
  Abstract: Studies on police interrogation have examined interrogating police officers’ (IPOs’) deployment of power abuse in gleaning confessional statements from suspects. However, studies on how IPOs handle denials during interrogation has not been given adequate attention. Therefore, this study investigates discourse strategies of handling denials in police-suspect interaction in Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria. Spencer-Oatey’s rapport management theory served as theoretical anchor. Recorded police interrogation sessions at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) Ìyágankú, Ibadan constituted the data. Four cases (assault, stealing, Internet fraud and robbery) were sampled, owing to their robust manifestation of facial, sociality and interactional cues between IPOs and suspects. While suspects adopt empathic and explanatory forms of denial to threaten IPOs’ goals, IPOs engage lexical, discursive and paralinguistic choices to negotiate discursive acts of appealing to suspects’ needs, constructing testimonies against suspects, emphasising suspects’ rights and engaging detention and investigation to threaten the face, sociality rights and goals of suspects.
  PubDate: 2021-11-29
  DOI: 10.32690/SALC55.4
Contextualizing Universal Theory of Acronym Formation in Kiswahili
acronyms
- Authors: Saul S. Bichwa
  Pages: 111 - 138
  Abstract: In controlling and managing knowledge there is need of a tool that ensures such management. Theories, principles and rules are the right tools for knowledge management (cf. Mkude 2008: 158). There has been so far only one theory known to the present researcher, which is UTAF (Zahariev 2004). This study evaluates the applicability of Universal Theory of Acronym Formation (UTAF) to Bantu languages drawing data from Kiswahili since the UTAF was developed based on European, Asian and Middle East languages[1]and, hence, in real sense, its founder did not include any acronymic data from any African or Bantu languages. The theory was developed in 2004 by Zahariev arguing that, it is the first theory accounting for acronyms and for all human languages. To my knowledge, this claim has never been tested with any of Bantu languages, which this study intends to look after. Testing this theory in Kiswahili, a Bantu language, will stimulate further insightful studies on acronyms in other Bantu languages.
  [1] European languages involved are English, Spanish, French, German, Finnish, Italian, Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, Bulgarian and Romanian; Middle East languages involved are Hebrew, Arabic and Farsi; Asian languages involved are Chinese and Japanese.
  PubDate: 2021-11-29
  DOI: 10.32690/SALC55.5
African elements (Africanisms) in modern American English
- Authors: Elnara Putayeva
  Pages: 139 - 157
  Abstract: The article deals with the influence of words of African origin on the formation of American English [AE] word stock. It provides new interpretation of Africanisms and shows the significance of this part of vocabulary in determining the characteristics of the American culture. The investigation is based on the existing sources (mainly lexicographic works) and is aimed at their new structural and functional analysis. As a result of the research, it became clear that most of the words of African origin were introduced to English spoken in America in the 17th century and some in the 18th and 19th centuries. The number of words and expressions from African languages that were introduced was closely related to African Americans’ way of living, their spiritual believes, rituals and attitudes and various objects used by them such as weapons. The word stock of the English language was enriched due to the assimilation of loanwords from languages of Africans living in America. A significant contribution to AE is the great amount of words naming animals, fruit, foodstuff, names of states, rivers and lakes, cities and towns.
  PubDate: 2021-11-29
  DOI: 10.32690/SALC55.6
The role of lethuelas/sangomas in Lesotho. “Traditional” beliefs,
spiritual professions and Christianity among the Basotho
- Authors: Agnieszka Podolecka
  Pages: 159 - 184
  Abstract: This article investigates the place of lehuelas/sangomas in Basotho society, their vocation, work and relationship with Christian churches. Lethuelas, also called sangomas or shamans, are healers, diviners and/or mediums. Thanks to the country’s mountainous isolation, their vocation and work can be observed in its most primal and unspoilt version, passed down for generations without much influence of outside shamanic traditions or New Age forms of shamanism encountered in other Southern African countries. The article includes the data gathered during the field studies conducted in Lesotho in March 2013 and January 2019 in four regions: the capital city of Maseru (250 000 inhabitants), the Nazaretha/Roma region, the villages and tiny settlements in the western part of the Maloti Mountains, and the Butha-Buthe district in the north of the country.
  PubDate: 2021-11-29
  DOI: 10.32690/SALC55.7

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