| Abstrakt: |
A detailed examination of the manner in which hlonepha, as concretized in the linguistic behaviour of those married women who observe it, is applied. The name of a woman's father‐in‐law is never mentioned by her, and she must also avoid all words related to it either in a purely phonetical manner, or morpho‐phonemically. Such relationship is based on sounds occurring in the radical of the name, and the radical of any given word. Various other relatives‐in‐law are also accorded this mark of respect, there being, however, local differences in detail as regards the in‐laws who fall under this category. What difficulties a hlonepha‐ing woman may experience in her attempt to avoid the taboo words, and how she overcomes these difficulties; to what extent hlonepha terms are universal or are restricted to certain localities, and the reasons for such distribution; how a hlonepha‐ing woman adjusts herself to a new linguistic environment—these are among the questions considered here. A comprehensive list of hlonepha words is given as much for illustration as for the reason that many (if not most) of these terms have gained universality and permanence, becoming a part of the language. Others are synonyms in current use. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
