Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wp2c8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-07T11:11:42.193Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Phonological stereotypes and names in Temne*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Julie F. Nemer
Julie F. Nemer
Affiliation:
Linguistics Program, San Jose State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many personal names in Temne (a Mel language spoken in Sierra Leone) are borrowed from other languages, and some contain foreign sounds and sequences which are unpronounceable for Temne speakers when they appear in other words. Contrary to what would be expected within a model of borrowing in which foreign sounds and sequences are modified over time to conform with the borrowers' language, the foreign sounds and sequences which occur in Temne names are stable. This paper treats these exceptions to the Temne phonological System as instances of phonological stereotyping – cases in which sounds and sequences, although they may be exceptions to the core phonology of a language, have acquired expressive meaning. (Linguistic borrowing, phonology, personal names, Sierra Leone)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 1987 , pp. 341 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Henderson, E. J. A. (1951). The phonology of loanwords in some South-east Asian languages. Transactions of the Philological Society: 131–58. Reprinted in F. R. Palmer (ed.), Prosodicanalysis. London: Oxford University Press, 1970. 54–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holden, K. (1976). Assimilation rates of borrowings and phonological productivity. Language 52(1):131–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyman, L. (1970). The role of borrowing in the justification of phonological grammar. Studies in African Linguistics 1:1–48.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations in sociolinguistics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvanie Press.Google Scholar
Innes, G. (1966). A note on Mende and Kono personal names. Sierra Leone Language Review 5:34–38.Google Scholar
Johnson, A. C. (1982). The national language question: The state of the issue in Sierra Leone. Paper presented to the 15th West African Language Congress, Nigeria, April.Google Scholar
Markwei, M. (1966). Naming a child among the Sherbro. Sierra Leone Bulletin of Religion 8(1):1–6.Google Scholar
Nemer, J. F. (1981). Sound pattems and strategies – Loanwords in Judeo-Spanish. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University.Google Scholar
Nemer, J. F., & Mountford, K. W. (1984). The interaction of segmentai and tonal levels, the case of [w] in Temne. Studies in African Linguistics 15(2):107–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sayers, E. F. (1927). Notes on the clan or family names common in the area inhabited by the Temne-speaking people. Sierra Leone Studies 11:14–108.Google Scholar
Zughoul, J. (1978). Lexical interference of English in Eastern Province Saudi Arabia. Anthropological Linguistics 20(5):214–25.Google Scholar