Empaako 'Praise Names': An historical, sociolinguistic and pragmatic analysis
Loading...
Date
2014
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Study Monographs
Abstract
This paper traces the origin of empaako “praise names” and explicates their sociolinguistic
and pragmatic significance. The 14th (or 15th) century was marked by both political
change in the Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom of Uganda and the genesis of an important sociolinguistic
phenomenon: the introduction of empaako, an idiosyncratic type of personal name in
Runyoro-Rutooro (a language spoken in Uganda) used to show intimacy, endearment, and respect.
The use of empaako emerged following the Biito (an aristocratic Luo clan) conquest of
the Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom. As most typical African personal names have explicit semantic
content, the lexical meaninglessness of empaako in Runyoro-Rutooro indicates that they are
borrowed from Luo (a Nilotic language), in which similar name forms with explicit semantic
content exist. Although empaako are ubiquitous in everyday discourse and carry robust social
import, they are only 12 and this raises the issue of their referential indeterminacy. In this paper,
I examine this issue within the givenness hierarchy framework of Gundel, Hedberg, and
Zacharski (1993).
Description
Keywords
Runyoro-Rutooro, Empaako, Sociolinguistic import, Referential indeterminacy, Luo influence
Citation
Isingoma, B. (2014). EMPAAKO" PRAISE NAMES": AN HISTORICAL, SOCIOLINGUISTIC, AND PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS. African Study Monographs, 35(2), 85-98.
URI
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bebwa-Isingoma-2/publication/329810031_Empaako_'Praise_Names'_An_historical_sociolinguistic_and_pragmatic_analysis/links/5c7fa507458515831f8814ca/Empaako-Praise-Names-An-historical-sociolinguistic-and-pragmatic-analysis.pdf
https://nru.uncst.go.ug/handle/123456789/8813
https://nru.uncst.go.ug/handle/123456789/8813