Why are they named after death? Proper names in Gújjolaay Eegimaa

Why are they named after death? Proper names in Gújjolaay Eegimaa

Serge Sagna University of Surrey

[email protected] &

Pr Emmanuel Bassène University of Dakar [email protected]

ELDP is gratefully acknowledged for funding Serge Sagna’s research on this topic (Grant IPF-0141)

The ESRC is gratefully acknowledge for supporting his current research (Grant ES/K0011922/1)

20/05/2013 New data, methods, and approaches to African language documentation-SOAS

Endangered Languages Week 2013 1

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Background

• Two competing views on the semantics of proper names (Valentine et al. 1996: 12)

• ‘The descriptive theory of reference’

– Names describe characteristics of an individual

• ‘The theory of direct reference’

– Proper names have no internal semantics- their meaning is confined to external reference



Background

• Anthropological research on naming practices include investigations of e.g. name giving time and continuity of the use of name given from childhood (e.g. Journet 1990, vom Bruck & Bodenhorn 2006)

• Our analysis focusses on name giving practices among Gújjolaay Eegimaa speakers (Eegimaa is an Atlantic, Niger-Congo language spoken in Southern Senegal)



Outline • We analyse different types of proper names in

Eegimaa

• We discuss baby names and name changing by adults

• We investigate birth ritual names

• We look at indices of language contact as indicated by birth ritual names



Data collection

• Native speaker introspection from both co-authors

• Traditional songs – Funeral dirge songs – Popular songs – Initiation songs

• Libation rituals • Interviews on traditional names and kinship • Over 1800 names (Incl. Bassène’s >1600 &

Sagna’s >300-500 names)



Geographical location

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Endangered Languages Week 2013

Mof-Ávvi (Eegimaa homeland)



Baby naming

• Babies are not given names as soon as they are born

• All babies are called Jiñappu ‘the little…’ until they are big enough to be given names

• If a child is given a name s/he is anrchored in society (Valentine et al. 1996: 15).

• Two main reasons for not giving names early: – High rate of infant mortality & uncertainties about

which child will survive

– Names of dead people are strongly avoided

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New data, methods, and approaches to African language documentation-SOAS


Baby naming

• For ‘ordinary’ babies, names are generally given (by one of the parents) when babies begin to build a personality

– E.g. Crawling, walking, uttering their first words etc.

• The name is given generally by a group of women when the baby’s mother has done her ‘birth giving ritual’ for e.g. the ‘spirit’ babies.



Examples of traditional baby names

• ‘Nonsense names’ • The meaning of the root cannot be traced

(in the rest of the hand-out, names in blue are Eegimaa names)

1. Díban Áre

Simaero Alenda

Ñátato Háresa

Bábo Abbaa



Examples of traditional baby names

• Names describing physical appearance or characteristics 2a. A-mi-ga-at ‘The one with a thin leg’ CL1-thin-CL9-leg Á-tuay ‘The white one’ CL1-white

• Some of these names are nicknames used jokingly, but end

up remaining the only name 2b. Ja-hojo-ma ‘The one that is this ugly’ CL11-be.ugly-DEM Ba-bú-hoji ‘That ugliness’ DEM-CL5-ugly



Examples of traditional baby names (cont.)

• Some baby names describe aspect of the character of the child (also joking names)

3a. A-lejeh-en ‘the trivialiser’ CL1-trivialise-CAUS A-bej-ul ‘s/he spreads her lips’ CL1-fill-REV A-jah ‘The intelligent one’ CL1-intelligent • Others are homonyms between adults and children or children from a lineage.

They use the diminutive singular prefix ju-/ji-. 3b. Jú-tom ‘the little Áttom (from the Bassène lineage)’ Ji-ssaña ‘The little Assaña (from the Saña lineage)’ Ji-tendeŋ ‘The little Atendeŋ (from the Tendeng lineage)’



Symbolic ritual baby names

• Birth ritual names - Gaññalen - are given to: – children who are believed to reincarnate but

refuse to stay alive; they are born from the same mother, and live and die when they want

– these are called uññil úila ‘flying children’ or ‘travellers’; similar to the Ogbanje children in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart.

– children who are born from mothers who struggle with miscarriages, or whose children die young for various reasons (see below).



Causes of mortality

• Children also die because:

• They are victim of witchcraft

• An abandoned shrine punishing the family

• Maltreatment in the world of totems reflected

in the new born



Symbolic ritual baby names (cont.)

• Most ritual baby names in our database are from Mof-Ávvi and in Eegimaa.

4a. Çet-ulo ‘s/he died coming (to life)’

die-VEN

Píb-ulo ‘screams are heard (because she is dying)’

scream-VEN

Gu-baj-ut-i ‘they do not have you (not for long term)’

2PL-have-NEG-2SG.OBJ

A-jja-kkay ‘He has left’

CL1-go-leave

A-kkalen-jay-i ‘you mistreat your mother’

CL1-mistreat-mother-2SG.POSS



Symbolic ritual baby names from other places

4b. A-jaŋa ‘A girl’ CL1-girl ka-bunt-a (Habutta) ‘the deceiver’ ka(CL)-deceive-AGT A-yoken (Ayokken) ‘He tires’ CL1-tire Ji-laañ-ulo (Ji-lañ-ulo) ‘We are back’ 1PL.EXCL-return-VEN E-ket-úu-bo (Ekketubo) ‘To die coming CL3-die-VEN-there from there’ A-manter (Amatter) ‘He causes doubt’ CL1-maybe Ket-u-gay (Çet-u-gay) ‘Die (repeatedly) till die-2SG-tire you are exhausted’



Changing names

• Name changes used to be common among Eegimaa speakers

• Most radical changes take place when a person dies - their namesakes change their names

– Those names are simply abandoned in the community

• When a person is enthroned a king, they also change name

e.g. from Ñátato to Áfilejo



Changing names

• An individual can decide to change their name later in life: – Possibly because they did not like their it

Ba-bú-hoji ‘That ugliness’ → Salasite (Fr. Celestin)

– Or because they want to highlight aspects of their personality as an adult e.g. strength or wealth in livestock etc.

A-kkay-il ‘he surpasses them CL1-surpass-3PL.OBJ

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Changing names (cont.) - wealth

• Names describing wealth generally refer to cattle - si-be ‘cows’. • They are generally composed of a verbal root which takes the

plural prefix su-/si- as an anaphoric subject marker.

5. Sí-il-en-e ‘they (are so many that) they make (birds) fly’ CL4-fly-CAUS-CPL Su-kkob-e-bbag ‘they dent a bucket (while drinking)’ CL4-dent-CL3-bucket Sí-pimbor-e ‘they face each other’ CL4-face.RECP-CPL Si-ito-ulo ‘they have stood up to come’ CL4-stand-VEN Su-op-i-bo ‘their horns are tied there’ CL4-tie.horns-pass-there Si-mmen-n-aw ‘they are many with you’ CL4-be.many-with-you



Name changing: birth giving ritual names

• Women who undergo the Gaññalen ritual change their names – Because they have a recurrence of miscarriages

– Or they children die young

• They take new names to hide their identity from ‘spirits’, ‘witches’ or entities responsible for the death of their babies

• The meaning of their new names explain their struggles

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The Gaññalen ritual

• Three types of Gaññalen practices: – A pregnant woman seeks protection at a women’s

shrine from a different district, village or area out of Mof-Ávvi (The area where Eegimaa is spoken)

– A woman gives birth and then lives with her child to a different place to save it from malefic supernatural forces till it is less vulnerable

– A woman gives birth and then takes her child to a different place. The child stays there for up to two years or more and then brought back home



Birth giving ritual names

6a.

A-kkakkanor ‘she manages’

CL1-manage

Ké-ro-bia ‘why go there? (maternity)’

Go-inside-for.what

Fu-ann-e ‘It (womb) has put (the baby) down’

CL7-descend-CPL



Birth giving ritual names from other places (cont.)

6b. Far-u-gay-e (Jk) ‘Womb, you are tired’ womb-2SG-tire-CPL A-boñ-ka-woken (JF) ‘she sends to keep (child)’

CL-1-send-Ka(CL)-hold

A-kkam-bo-ñaa (JF) ‘she does it there for nothing’

CL1-do-there-just E-belem-bo (GB) ‘throw (it) over there’ CL3-throw-there Ala-muta (MDk) ‘leave it to God’ God-catch Waf-u-le-bo (BYT) ‘there is nothing there (maternity)’ thing-CL6-not.be-there

• Village names in black are those of Mof-Ávvi (the Eegimaa homeland).

• The other colours and the arrows show the neighbouring communities and the names that come from their languages (see slides below).



Ritual names and language contact

• Jóola Kaasa (JK) speakers give ritual names in their language (brown area)

• Jóola Fógny speakers ((JF) the main lingua Franca among Jóola languages) also give ritual names in their language (red area)

• Baïnounk speakers who are not immediate neighbours with Eegimaa speakers give names in Jóola Fógny (red area)



Ritual names and language contact

• Mandinka (MDK)people give names in Mandinka (orange area)

• Baïnounk Gubëeher (GB)who are neighbours of Eegimaa speakers, give names in Eegimaa (purple area)

• Bayot & Kuhiŋe (BYT) speakers who are immediate neighbours of Eegimaa people and who are usually fluent in Eegimaa also give ritual names in Eegimaa (Green area)



Mothers’ & children’s ritual names compared

Mothers’ names

Wafulebo ‘there is nothing there’

Epipiro ‘it (death) has been there

for a long’

Kérobia ‘why go there?

Fumaccore ‘It (womb) is mixed up’

Kajukkeria ‘To look for (…?)’

Ebelembo ‘throw over there’

Children’s name

Gubajuti ‘They do not have you’ (BYT)

Habutta ‘the deceiver’

Amatter ‘He causes doubt’

Ajakkay ‘he has left’

Jilañulo ‘we are back’ (JF)

Jiçefullun ‘she dies in Fullun (GB)’



Evidence of contact



Summary of ritual names

• Why are babies given symbolic ‘death’ name?

–Mind games?

• An attempt to ridicule the reincarnated ‘spirit’ children who mistreat their mothers by dying and then coming back again.

• A way of challenging those children and discouraging them from dying again



General summary

• Documenting Eegimaa proper names is not just collecting a list of names

• Proper names give an insight into the speakers’ traditional religion and aspects of their kinship and social organisation

• Such a documentation also gives evidence of contact between Eegimaa people and their neighbours



Abbreviations

AGT = Agentive

CAUS = Causative

CL = Class marker

CPL = Completive

DEM = Demonstrative

EXCL = Exclusive

FR = French

GB = Gubëeher

JF = Jóola fogny

JK = Jóola Kaasa

MDK = Mandinka

NEG = Negative

OBJ = Object

PL = Plural

POSS = Possessive

RECP= Reciprocal

REV = Reversative

SG = Singular

VEN = Venitive

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Wafulebo ‘there is nothing there’ in 2009



References African Languages Map: http://www.nationsonline.org/maps/African_language_map.png . 20 February, 2013. Journet, O. (1990). La personne au risque du nom. In J. Clerget (Ed.), Le nom et la nomination: source, sens et pouvoir. Toulouse: Erès. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Senegal and The Gambia (language Map). https://www.ethnologue.com/map/SNGM. 20 February, 2013. Valentine, T., Brennen, T., & Brédart, S. (1996). The cognitive psychology of proper names: on the importance of being ernest. London, New York: Routledge. vom Bruck, G., & Bodenhorn, B. (2006). The anthropology of names and naming. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.



http://www.nationsonline.org/maps/African_language_map.png



https://www.ethnologue.com/map/SNGM

Why are they named after death? Proper names in Gújjolaay Eegimaa

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