linguistics: language, society, and paleoculture: essays by edgar c. polomé. anwar s. dil

2
LINGUISTICS 153 the term colored for ‘‘Afro-Americans” is not always intentionally abusive, especially as it is used by such groups as the NAACP. One can also have questions about the orga- nization of the list. The ethnic epithets are listed first alphabetically and second, by date of oc- currence. Allen does not, however, provide any hierarchical, taxonomic classification. This leads to some annoying duplications. For exam- ple, a common cover term for East Europeans was Bohunk. Allen gives a separate citation of this term for Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, and Russians. In addition, his speculations often lack historical awareness. For example, Allen suggests the change in pronunciation from Hunky to Honky was a distinctly American Black process. However, I remember that refugees, following 1945, were often referred to as Honkies, pronounced with the complex vocalic nucleus /ah/. This last example points out some of the difficulties with research depen- dent solely on published materials. Usage needs to be checked with living informants whenever possible. Nevertheless, I found the list of ethnic “slurs” painfully enlightening and his section on folk etymologies informative. But Allen’s basic quantitative theorem about a correlation be- tween number of slurs and a group’s contact and conflict appears trivial. In addition, his failure to use the techniques of ethnographic semantics makes his lexicon not very useful to anthropologists. Language, Society, and Paleoculture: Essays by Edgar C. Polome. Anwar S. Dil, ed. Stan- ford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1982. xiii + 387 pp. $20.00 (cloth). Salikoko Mufwene University of Georgia In spite of some secondary shortcomings, this book covers satisfactorily the areas of linguistics specified in and entailed by its title, namely, sociology of language and language planning, language contact and pidgins/creoles , historica1 linguistics, and language and culture. Anybody working in any of these areas will undoubtedly find this book informative, particularly in regard to the major vernaculars of Tanzania and Zaire and in regard to the cultures of Indo- European as well as Bantu prehistories. The choice of the papers and the very good structure of the book (four major parts internally orga- nized chronologically) also highlight the devel- opment of Polome’s hypotheses, showing how consistently insightful he has been over the last 20 years. Part 1, “Sociolinguistics,” could have been titled more transparently “Sociology of Language in Zaire and Tanzania.” It takes about half the book (pp. 1-188). Polome discusses here the colonial language policies in Zaire (then the Congo), the current language policy in Tanzania, the regional and social distributions of the vernaculars in both coun- tries, the histories of the vernaculars, and the particular positions of Swahili in relation to their rivals. He also reexamines (in retrospect and critically) the language surveys he con- ducted in Tanzania with C. P. Hill and David Barton in 1969-70, and he points out some of their problems and shortcomings, for example, those pertaining to the definition of the goals of the surveys, the nature of the questions to ask, the cooperation of the government, the distri- bution of the questionnaires, and the processing of the collected data. The two chapters (5 and 8) that focus on these surveys include useful ad- vice for potential field-workers, in particular regarding the evaluation of the social functions of the different languages, the contexts of their usages, the natures of individual multilingual- isms (e.g., the specific distribution of languages in the repertoire of each individual multi- lingual). The two chapters of Part 2, “Swahili” (pp. 189-235), describe structural features of this language in Tanzania (where it conforms with the normal structures of Bantu languages) and in Zaire (where it was pidginized-in particular in Shaba/Katanga- and is creolizing). Polome shows, through the results of Tanzanian lan- guage planning, that Swahili is capable of adapt- ing itself to the demands of its new sociocul- tural functions: since its promotion to the status of official language (hence, the medium of education) its vocabulary has been steadily ex- panding and deliberately “de-anglicized.” In the other chapter of Part 2. “Lubumbashi Swahili” Polome presents justifications for treat- ing this language as a creole and he also high- lights the nature of the linguistic continuum in Lubumbashi. Part 3, “Creolization” (pp. 237-284). takes over the theoretical issues arising from “Lubum- bashi Swahili.” In particular, Polome points out that pidginization/creolization does not result necessarily from the contact of genetically unrelated languages (such as in the New

Upload: salikoko-mufwene

Post on 06-Aug-2016

216 views

Category:

Documents


2 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Linguistics: Language, Society, and Paleoculture: Essays by Edgar C. Polomé. Anwar S. Dil

LINGUISTICS 153

the term colored for ‘‘Afro-Americans” is not always intentionally abusive, especially as it is used by such groups as the NAACP.

One can also have questions about the orga- nization of the list. The ethnic epithets are listed first alphabetically and second, by date of oc- currence. Allen does not, however, provide any hierarchical, taxonomic classification. This leads to some annoying duplications. For exam- ple, a common cover term for East Europeans was Bohunk. Allen gives a separate citation of this term for Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, and Russians. In addition, his speculations often lack historical awareness. For example, Allen suggests the change in pronunciation from Hunky to Honky was a distinctly American Black process. However, I remember that refugees, following 1945, were often referred to as Honkies, pronounced with the complex vocalic nucleus /ah/. This last example points out some of the difficulties with research depen- dent solely on published materials. Usage needs to be checked with living informants whenever possible.

Nevertheless, I found the list of ethnic “slurs” painfully enlightening and his section on folk etymologies informative. But Allen’s basic quantitative theorem about a correlation be- tween number of slurs and a group’s contact and conflict appears trivial. In addition, his failure to use the techniques of ethnographic semantics makes his lexicon not very useful to anthropologists.

Language, Society, and Paleoculture: Essays by Edgar C . Polome. Anwar S . Dil, ed. Stan- ford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1982. xiii + 387 pp. $20.00 (cloth).

Salikoko Mufwene University of Georgia

In spite of some secondary shortcomings, this book covers satisfactorily the areas of linguistics specified in and entailed by its title, namely, sociology of language and language planning, language contact and pidgins/creoles , historic a1 linguistics, and language and culture. Anybody working in any of these areas will undoubtedly find this book informative, particularly in regard to the major vernaculars of Tanzania and Zaire and in regard to the cultures of Indo- European as well as Bantu prehistories. The choice of the papers and the very good structure of the book (four major parts internally orga-

nized chronologically) also highlight the devel- opment of Polome’s hypotheses, showing how consistently insightful he has been over the last 20 years.

Part 1, “Sociolinguistics,” could have been titled more transparently “Sociology of Language in Zaire and Tanzania.” It takes about half the book (pp. 1-188). Polome discusses here the colonial language policies in Zaire (then the Congo), the current language policy in Tanzania, the regional and social distributions of the vernaculars in both coun- tries, the histories of the vernaculars, and the particular positions of Swahili in relation to their rivals. He also reexamines (in retrospect and critically) the language surveys he con- ducted in Tanzania with C. P. Hill and David Barton in 1969-70, and he points out some of their problems and shortcomings, for example, those pertaining to the definition of the goals of the surveys, the nature of the questions to ask, the cooperation of the government, the distri- bution of the questionnaires, and the processing of the collected data. The two chapters (5 and 8) that focus on these surveys include useful ad- vice for potential field-workers, in particular regarding the evaluation of the social functions of the different languages, the contexts of their usages, the natures of individual multilingual- isms (e.g., the specific distribution of languages in the repertoire of each individual multi- lingual).

The two chapters of Part 2, “Swahili” (pp. 189-235), describe structural features of this language in Tanzania (where it conforms with the normal structures of Bantu languages) and in Zaire (where it was pidginized-in particular in Shaba/Katanga- and is creolizing). Polome shows, through the results of Tanzanian lan- guage planning, that Swahili is capable of adapt- ing itself to the demands of its new sociocul- tural functions: since its promotion to the status of official language (hence, the medium of education) its vocabulary has been steadily ex- panding and deliberately “de-anglicized.” In the other chapter of Part 2. “Lubumbashi Swahili” Polome presents justifications for treat- ing this language as a creole and he also high- lights the nature of the linguistic continuum in Lubumbashi.

Part 3, “Creolization” (pp. 237-284). takes over the theoretical issues arising from “Lubum- bashi Swahili.” In particular, Polome points out that pidginization/creolization does not result necessarily from the contact of genetically unrelated languages (such as in the New

Page 2: Linguistics: Language, Society, and Paleoculture: Essays by Edgar C. Polomé. Anwar S. Dil

154 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [ 86, 19841

World), and he calls for a more operational definition of this historical phenomenon, which should not be exclusively based on “simplifica- tion.” He has insightful words of caution here for those historical linguists who tend to explain (all) cases of “simple structure” (e.g., in Modem English, French, and Hittite) through pidgini- zation/creolization. While French is more con- ceivably the result of pidginization/creolization of Latin, the case of English is disputable and that of Hittite involves archaic structures (in- herited from Proto-Indo-European) rather than simplification.

Part 4, “Language, Paleoculture and Reli- gion” (pp. 285-364), is perhaps the most dif- ficult part of the book for those who do neither comparative/historical linguistics nor (seman- tic) field theory. It is in fact a continuation of its German/European philological tradition, show- ing in particular how linguistic knowledge can help formulate some hypotheses about the religious beliefs, social structures, and other cultural aspects of prehistoric (and other early) times. In the case of Indo-European cultures Polome suggests that archeological finds may be of particular help to philologists too.

Unfortunately, Language, Society, and Paleoculture contains a few flaws too, which both the author and the editor could have easily avoided. Though the historical values of the papers have been preserved in reprinting them in the original forms, no effort seems to have been made to point out that some of the names in Part 1 (e.g., Katanga. Elizabethville, and Congo) have now changed, which affects the in- formation value of the book. Some of the readers may not know that when Polomt speaks in a subsequent chapter or his postscript of Shaba, Lubumbashi, and Zaire (respectively), he is still talking about the same entities only under different names.

Considering the prominence given to the book through the publication series, it is also disappointing that Polomt has shown little in- terest in updating some of the issues of his early papers. For example, 20 years after the original publication of “Cultural Languages and Con- tact Vernaculars” (1963). he could have added a note on the current situation of the distribu- tion of the vernaculars in Zaire and their roles in education. He could have also included a note on his prediction (p. 6) that Kituba would disappear from Kasai/Zaire with the last vestiges of Belgian colonial rule. (The language has survived to date.) After all, he has had at least one graduate student from Zaire and Kasai

(1975-80) who participated in the first “Congres national des linguistes du Zaire” (1974) and who wrote a dissertation on sociology of language in Zaire.

Polomt has also taken no trouble to either adopt a uniform spelling of Tshiluba/Ciluba (pp. 17 versus 22) or indicate that these corre- spond respectively to the francophone versus anglophone spellings of the same language. In a different vein, his use of phrases such as “pro- moting the development of African cultural languages” (p. 27), “molding Ciluba into a cultural language” (p. SO), and “refined con- cepts of modern civilization” (p. 27; emphases added) are rather anachronistic with the ideo- logical orient ations of contemporary linguistics.

Finally, the only cross-references in the book appear at the end in the “Bibliography of Edgar C. Polome’s Works” (pp. 369-387). This is deplorable because the author often refers to his other papers in the book, and the reader has to either rely on memory or double-check the table of contents to see if the paper is included in this collection. Less crucial, perhaps, is the lack of an index. Dil definitely decided to make things as easy as possible for himself. Fortunately, the readers of this review know, I am sure, that the wealth of information Language, Society, and Paleoculture contains outweighs all the short- comings I have covered here and a few others that I consider minor or have simply overlooked.

Allegories of the Wilderness: Ethics and Am- biguity in Kuranko Narratives. Michael Jackson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982. xi + 324 pp. $30.00 (cloth).

William P. Murphy University of New Mexico

Jackson brings ethnographic thoroughness and literary sensitivity (he is a poet as well as an anthropologist) to this study of folktales col- lected from the Kuranko of Sierra Leone. Since the Kuranko belong to the Mande subfamily of Niger-Congo languages, this study has im- mediate ethnographic relevance to the Mande peoples of West Africa in general. Of the 230 narratives collected, 38 are translated in full and many others are integrated in summary form throughout the general discussion. One text is presented in the appendix in an inter- linear Kuranko-English translation.

The main theme of the study is that Kuranko