Category Archives: LINGUISTICS
Book Review : Language Policy and Planning – Lidicoat
There’s an interesting book review on the Linguist site of ‘Language Policy and Planning‘ by Anthony Liddicoat. There are several papers in the book of interest to Africanists and those interested in literacy. Here’s a couple of excerpts from the review.
Literacy is a central issue to many language planning works. However, there are few studies which focus primarily on literacy as a language planning activity. This volume tries to explore some of the complexities and consequences of literacy in a range of contexts and from a range of perspectives. It brings together a collection of fifteen papers on language planning for literacy in official and vernacular languages and deals with the related issues in first and additional languages in North America, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Pacific.
This volume presents us a complex view of literacy planning, which is not simply a matter of planning a written form of a language, and is also a highly ideological activity relating to the nature and practice of literacy and the power relations which exist within societies. The studies in this volume clearly show that literacy planning is a language policy and planning activity, and not just a sub-category of language-in-education planning.
Ghana : When you learn Akan – whose language do you learn?
Difficulty in defining languages
Anything to do with ‘Akan’ seems popular on this blog. But have you ever thought about what exactly is meant by the term? There is a great article on abibitumikasa.com which appeared as a forum comment by Akyeame-Kwame. It delineates the difficulties in defining languages.
The name ‘Akan’
When you learn Akan – whose language do you learn?
The word ‘Akan’ designates quite different groups of people depending on the period of time at which it was used and on the context in which it was or is being used. Roughly, we can distinguish between its traditional native use, its use as a scientific classificatory term, and its (modern) socio-political use.
AFRICA: Mind your language – a short guide to HIV/AIDS slang
There’s an interesting article on IRIN NEWS about a glossary of the language used in several African countries to refer to HIV/AIDS. (Click the link to access the article)
Many agencies are concerned about how the negative connotations in the language used on the street undermines the efforts to reduce the stigma of the disease. One researcher cited in the article says “Language can neither be separated from our thoughts and feelings, nor from the social context in which it is used,” she said. “Words and images create different conceptual realities of the phenomenon.”
PlusNews is interested to hear from you if you can improve this glossary. Please send your examples, with a brief description of meaning and where the slang is used, to: mail@plusnews.org
Here is the glossary to date:
Angola (Portuguese)
Pisar pisar na min – Contracting HIV is like having “stepped on a landmine”
Bichinho – “Little bug” (the virus)
Kenya (Kikuyu, spoken mainly in central Kenya)
kagunyo – “The worm” (euphemism for HIV)
Nigeria (Hausa, spoken mainly in the north)
Kabari Salama aalaiku – Literally translates as “Excuse me, grave” (reference to AIDS)
Tewo Zamani - Translates as the “sickness of this generation†(another reference to AIDS)
Nigeria (Igbo, spoken mainly in the east)
Ato nai ise - “Five and three” (5 + 3 = 8, and “eight” sounds like “AIDS”)
Oria Obiri na aja ocha - “Sickness that ends in death” (euphemism for AIDS)
Nigeria (Yoruba, spoken mainly in the west)
Eedi – “Curse”
Arun ti ogbogun – “Sickness without cure”
Nigeria (Pidgin, the unofficial lingua franca)
He don carry – “He carries the virus”
Nigeria (English)
HIV - He Intends Victory (acronym of HIV and a phrase popular among born-again Christians)
South Africa (IsiXhosa and IsiZulu)
Udlala ilotto - “Playing the lotto” /ubambe ilotto – “won the lotto” (said of someone suspected of being HIV positive; Lotto is the national lottery)
Unyathele icable – Contracting HIV is like “stepping on a live wire”
South Africa (English)
House in Vereeniging - (Acronym of HIV; “bought a house in Vereeniging”, a town about 50km south of Johannesburg, refers to someone suspected of being HIV positive)
Driving a “Z3″/ “having three kids”/ the “three letters” - All refer to the three letters in the HIV acronym
Tracker - If you are suspected of being HIV positive people say God is tracking you, like the popular southern African service that tracks and recovers stolen vehicles
Tanzania (KiSwahili)
amesimamia msumari – “Standing on a nail”; euphemism for being skinny, or being small enough to fit on a nail’s head, referring to AIDS-related weight loss
kukanyaga miwaya – Contracting HIV is like “stepping on a live wire”
mdudu – “The bug” (refers to HIV)
Uganda (English)
Slim - Euphemism for HIV/AIDS as a result of the associated weight loss; less popular since the advent of ARVs
Uganda (Luganda, spoken mainly in the central region)
Okugwa mubatemu - You have been waylaid by thugs (contracted HIV)
Zambia (Nyanja, spoken mainly in the east and the capital, Lusaka)
Kanayaka – “It has lit up” (refers to a positive reaction from an HIV test)
Ka-onde-onde - “Thing that makes you thinner and thinner” (HIV)
Zambia (Bemba, spoken mainly in the north and Lusaka)
Bamalwele ya akashishi - “Those that suffer from the germ” (HIV-positive people)
Kaleza - “Razor blade” (Refers to a person being thin as a result of AIDS-related weight loss)
Zimbabwe (Shona)
Ari pachirongwa - “He/she is on a (treatment) programme”
Akarohwa nematsoti – “He/she has been beaten by thieves”
Mukondas – Abbreviation of “mukondombera” (epidemic)
Ari kumwa mangai - “He/she is drinking mangai” (mangai is boiled corn seedlings, which represent antiretroviral (ARV) drugs)
Akabatwa – “He/she was caught” (received a positive diagnosis)
Zvirwere zvemazuvano – “The current diseases” (the HIV epidemic)
Akatsika banana – “He/she has stepped on a banana and slipped” (someone who has tested positive and therefore will “fall” or die as a result)
Shuramatongo – “A bad omen for relatives”
Zimbabwe (English)
Red card – Like a football player being sent off, life is over
Go slow - Taken to mean that he/she is now progressing slowly towards death
TB2 – Refers to high rates of HIV and TB co-infection (used to denote AIDS)
RVR – Slang for ARVs, adapted from Mitsubishi’s RVR sports utility vehicle
John the Baptist - When someone has TB, he/she is said to have been baptised by “John the Baptist”, who has come to announce the coming of HIV
FTT – “Failure to thrive” (adapted from the medical phrase, now used to describe HIV-positive children)
Boarding pass - Implies that HIV is a boarding pass to death
Departure lounge – An HIV-infected person is in the departure lounge awaiting death
Sub-Saharan languages and peoples : a bibliographical survey of pre-1920 works
Pre-1920 papers on sub-Saharan languages and peoples
More from Jouni Maho’s papers. This time it is a bibliographical survey of pre-1920 works about sub-Saharan languages and peoples. It’s a pdf file, so you’ll need Adobe Reader.
The present bibliographical survey aims to list works dealing with African languages and/or peoples and which were written, compiled and/or published prior to 1920. This particular version contains a total of 10 189 unique entries.
Free resource: Bantu Online Bibliography
Bantu resource
I’ve been looking through Jouni Maho’s collection of linguistic papers and I came across the Bantu Online Bibliography. It’s a pdf file so you’ll need adobe reader.
I was amazed at the comprehensiveness of it – almost 19,000 entries covering grammars, dictionaries and other linguistic references as well as some unsorted references.
The Bantu Online Bibliography, or BOB for short, is a bibliography with the sole aim of listing any and all works dealing with the sub-Saharan Bantu languages. It aims to be exhaustive with regard to linguistic works, as well as reliable and accurate with regard to bibliographical details. BOB is updated with regular intervals. Note that BOB is a bibliographical survey of research, not an inventory of any existing library or collection.