Landscape Terms, Place Names And Spatial Language In Àsɔ̀glì Èʋè
Date
2020-09
Authors
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Publisher
University Of Ghana
Abstract
Culture relates with landscape to influence the ways in which different cultural groups represent physical space in their minds and in the grammar of their specific languages. For this reason, this study explores Àsɔ̀glì vocabulary for categorising the physical environment. It also examines their ways of naming different geographical entities. I show that the terms for ‘mountain’ and/or ‘hill’ tó, and other raised ground forms kɔ́(fist, lump, clot, hill), kpó (mound) have a formal relationship with body parts. For example, the relationship between the body part tó (ear) and tó (mountain) is interrogated. Other terms discussed include tɔ̀(river) and terms for plant cover such as àvè (forest) and gbě (bush) and their subcategories. The spatial parts of these entities are described using spatial relation terms which have evolved from body parts and are used also for talking about the location of entities – people and things – in space. Thus, spaces anchored to tɔ̀(river) for instance are described as tɔ̀tó (river edge) lit. river neck, i.e. the edge of the river. I next explore the strategies the Àsɔ̀glì Èʋè use to name specific places and geographic entities. Some names are descriptive of the spaces they occupy, e.g. Hǒ Dòmè (in the midst of Hǒ). Others are extensions of landscape terms, for example, Hlìhà (laterite) and yet others relate to socio-historical events that took place at the referent location, e.g. Àυàtíɖòmé (under the war tree), a location where war took place. I conclude by drawing relations between landscape terms, place names and body parts to reveal Àsɔ̀glì conceptualisations of the physical environment encoded in their language. The findings show how landscape and culture combine to shape Hǒgbè (variety of Èʋèdòmègbè) and Àsɔ̀glì-specific cultural variety of spatial cognition.
Description
PhD. African Studies
Keywords
Spatial Language