Imperial grammar.pdf - Roger Blench

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Roger Blench: Imperial grammar and grassroots categories Circulation draft 6.2 Respect language The notion of a hierarchically-structured lexicon and grammar which reflects vertical authority relations in society is familiar from East and Southeast Asia; Photo 2 . The Fon of Bafut Japanese and Javanese are well-known examples. But a specialised lexicon reflecting vertical power relations seems to have been little studied in Africa. A well-known case is the Yemsa of southwest Ethiopia, described as having informal, respect and royal registers (Lamberti 1993). Western Nilotic languages, for example Anywa and Shilluk have royal registers, where there is simple word substitution using the existing lexicon, ‘clouds’ substituting for ‘eyes’ for example (Reh 1996: 163). Closer to West Africa, Storch (forthcoming) describes the royal speech registers of the Jukun of Wukari, where royal language, honorific language and ordinary daily speech all contrast. In this case, the registers seem to consist of poetic phrases with equivalent meanings, rather than lexical substitutions for individual items. In the Cameroun Grassfields, some chiefdoms have developed a replacement lexicon for particular strata of society. This is most highly developed in Bafut, where there are potentially four speech strata. Although small in geographical extent, these chiefdoms are characterised by elaborate political hierarchies, a highly distinctive material culture and a great diversity of languages (Knöpfli 2008). The Bafut social hierarchy may be broadly described as consisting of both ascribed and achieved levels, with a hereditary royal family and a nobility composed of wealthy and powerful individuals. Bafut society is also interpenetrated by secret societies at every level, mostly organised around masquerade dances. Table 16 shows the levels of authority in the Bafut social hierarchy; Table 16. Bafut social hierarchy Title Gloss Mfò Fon Ŋ̀ kùm Nobility Àtaŋtso Village Head Tanɨkurɨ Village leader The replacement terms used to the Àtaŋtso and Tanɨkurɨ are very limited and are anyway merged, which creates a potential four-way distinction. Table 17 shows the respect terminology for objects and places; ̄ ̀ ̀ ̀ ̀ ̄ ̀ ̀ Table 17. Bafut respect terminology for objects and places English Ordinary term Fon Noble Chief calabash f̀təə̀, dàà, bà’à 12 ká’á chair/stool àlə̀ŋ àbə̀r̄ compound ǹdùgə̀ ǹtɔ̀’ɔ̀ ǹdùgə̀/ ābɛɛ ābɛɛ cup ǹdo᷆ŋ āno᷆ door àbà’à àbù’ù àbù’ù dress àtʃə̀’ə̀ ǹⱱì food àtʃūgə̀/àtʃú’ù àkɔɔ ndʒòò grave ǹsjɛ̀ nfùm A number of common body parts also have a replacement vocabulary. There is no evidence for similar words relating to princes, chiefs etc. Table 18 shows the respect terminology for body parts; 12 All names for different kinds of calabash, i.e. their proper names 14
̃ ́ ̀ ̃ ̃ ́ ̃ ̂ ̀ ̀ ̂ ́ ́ ́ ̀ Roger Blench: Imperial grammar and grassroots categories Circulation draft Table 18. Respect terminology for body parts English O sg. O pl. Fon sg. Fon pl. ear àto᷆ŋnə̀ m̀rə᷆dʒwòrə̀ eye nlı́’ì mí’ì btamfɛɛ foot àkòrə̀ ǹtʃā’à hand àbo᷆ head àtu᷆ àyóó mouth ǹtʃù ŋ̀gə̀ neck ǹtɔ̄ ŋ àmì nose ǹlʉı àlùmsə̄ This vocabulary exists for other Grassfields chiefdoms but is apparently less-developed. Ntumgia (2003) give examples of royal vocabulary in the Limbum language spoken near Nkambe. In his description of Chufie’ culture, Nkweti (1987) refers to the existence of a respect vocabulary and it proved possible to collect some examples of this in January 2010, shown in Table 19 13 . ́ ̀ ̀ ̌ ̀ ́ ̀ ̀ ̀ ́̃ ̃ ̀ ́ ̃ ̀ ̌ ̀ ́ ̀ ̃ ́ ̀ ̀ ́ ́ ̀ ́ ̀ ́ ̀ Table 19. Chufie’ respect terms Gloss Commoner Royal Literal translation head tùò ŋjɔ ŋgwo thing of the village eyes líì sg. mɛ̃ ́ŋ pl. pã ́j ho ntʃỗ stars belly pỗ ŋkıæ ŋgwo village drum bed kṍŋ pə̀gə fuò/ canoe of Fon/ kɔ́ŋ ŋgɥɛ bed of leopard courtyard sə́sɛɛ̃ tətáŋ water ŋkı mbwa cf. Ngwo mwa, house ǹdə́gæ̀ ǹdʒá’à jɯ̀ ’ɯ́ side of place ill wuɔ mbıæ ntu’à fish hook of palace dead kwɯ̂ múó pjɛ̂ lost fire yes əə m̀ bɛɛ no ŋgá ŋgɯə None of the actual terms encoded show any similarity with Bafut, and they all appear to be metaphorical expressions, except perhaps for ‘yes’ and ‘no’. 7. Methods The deep ocean The topics above hint at the diversity of verbal behaviour, but the object of this discussion is to emphasis that speech is like the deep ocean, we have hardly begun to document what is out there. Much is yet to be discovered and many languages need to be reinvestigated from these new perspectives. The question is then how to research this. To understand all the resources of speech, no one method will produce an ideal result. Standard elicitation practice will virtually ensure that much of the material described here is missed. Texts (even of natural conversation) will also not produce the complete mix since certain types of word have a habit of not turning up in texts (think how much we recognise in our own language which we would never say). Such a method might be called ‘unstructured elicitation’, which depends on a closer collaboration with informants than is often the case. The object is to try and establish as many categories as possible of potential words/expressions/verbal forms/sociolinguistic situations. And to encourage your co-worker to think of more as well as coming up with types of word or structure you hadn't thought of. Only some people can do this, and it is hard to determine who they are in advance. 13 Thanks to Cameron Hamm and Clifford Mba, who drew our attention to this vocabulary and helped us collect this material. 15
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