1887
Volume 10, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2214-3157
  • E-ISSN: 2214-3165

Abstract

Abstract

This contribution focuses on Langila, a language practice or “speech style” that emerged in the first decade after the millenium in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, characterized by lexical creativity and specific phonological manipulative strategies. I analyze Langila speakers’ use of global place names, fashionable brands, and names of institutions, and to some extent specific (manipulated) personal names as pseudo-onomastic references from an anthropological-linguistic perspective, understanding “games with names” (Storch 2019) as a cultural practice that contributes to the novelty factor in specific ways of speaking in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa and in social media. It is crucial for the discussion of “labelling” and “branding” practices in contexts of cultural importance in African languages to consider why and how speakers use, manipulate, and recontextualize semiotic links to names of artefacts, places, and people – and how this changes the onomastic value of these named, unnamed, and renamed concepts in ludic interaction. The paper thus circles around two main research questions: How are “labels” (anthroponyms, toponyms) semantically and in terms of their referential and indexical use changed to creative lifestyle emblems and become part of the everyday lexicon? How are contexts of cultural importance named and (re)labelled by a speaker, drawing from “manipulated” repertoires that involve (partially homophonic) anthroponymic or toponymic references actually intended to mislead or to confuse the hearer? This contribution investigates the role of onomastic references that are used to denote and label central concepts in Langila.

Available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/ijolc.00056.nas
2024-05-03
2024-12-06
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/ijolc.00056.nas.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/ijolc.00056.nas&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Arts.cd – premier portail numérique des arts et culture en RDCongo
    Arts.cd – premier portail numérique des arts et culture en RDCongo 2021 “Langila”, l’hindoubill du lingala parlé à Kinshasa. 15 February 2021by D.M.https://arts.cd/langila-lhindoubil-du-lingala-parle-a-kinshasa/ (accessed15/05/2022).
  2. Dimmendaal, G. J.
    2022a Emerging languages and the creation of new communicative styles. InS. Völkel & N. Nassenstein (eds.), Approaches to language and culture, 77–100. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110726626‑004
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110726626-004 [Google Scholar]
  3. 2022bNurturing language: Anthropological linguistics in an African context. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110726633
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110726633 [Google Scholar]
  4. Gondola, C. D.
    2016Tropical cowboys. Westerns, violence, and masculinity in Kinshasa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Hough, C.
    (ed.) 2016The Oxford handbook of names and naming. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199656431.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199656431.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  6. Hurst-Harosh, E.
    2020 Slang, modernity and identity – global connections in the language of African youth. Talk presented at theInstitutskolloquium des Instituts für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien, JGU Mainz, 4 May 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Hymes, D.
    1964 Introduction: Toward ethnographies of communication. American Anthropologist66 (6). 1–34. 10.1525/aa.1964.66.suppl_3.02a00010
    https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1964.66.suppl_3.02a00010 [Google Scholar]
  8. 1989 Ways of speaking. InR. Bauman & J. Sherzer (eds.), Explorations in the ethnography of speaking, 433–452. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511611810.029
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511611810.029 [Google Scholar]
  9. Manero, D.
    2014Soki Bandal c’est Paris. Kinshasa: 5642658 Records DK.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Meeuwis, M.
    2020A grammatical overview of Lingála: Revised and extended edition. Munich: LINCOM.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Nassenstein, N.
    2014A grammatical study of the youth language Yanké. Munich: LINCOM.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. 2015 The emergence of Langila in Kinshasa (DR Congo). InN. Nassenstein & A. Hollington (eds.), Youth languages in Africa and beyond, 81–98. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9781614518525‑006
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614518525-006 [Google Scholar]
  13. Nassenstein, N. & S. Völkel
    2022 Studying the relationship of language and culture: Scope and directions. InS. Völkel & N. Nassenstein (eds.), Approaches to language and culture, 1–29. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110726626‑001
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110726626-001 [Google Scholar]
  14. Ndlovu, S.
    2022aNaming and othering in Africa. Imagining supremacy and inferiority through language. New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. 2022b Partial homophony and decoy lexicalisation in S’ncamtho and Ndebele Slang. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies40 (2). 135–144. 10.2989/16073614.2022.2034508
    https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2022.2034508 [Google Scholar]
  16. Puzey, G. & L. Kostanski
    (eds.) 2016Names and naming. People, places, perceptions and power. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 10.21832/9781783094929
    https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783094929 [Google Scholar]
  17. Saussure, F. de
    1916Cours de linguistique générale. Ed. byC. Bally & A. Sechehaye, with the assistance ofA. Riedlinger. Lausanne/Paris: Payot.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Sene Mongaba, B.
    2015 The making of Lingala corpus: An under-resourced language and the Internet. Procedia1981. 442–450. 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.464
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.464 [Google Scholar]
  19. Sesep, N’S. B.-N.
    1990Langage, normes et repertoire en milieu urbain africain: L’indoubill. Québec: Centre International de Recherche en Aménagement Linguistique.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Stolz, T. & I. H. Warnke
    (eds.) 2018Vergleichende Kolonialtoponomastik. Strukturen und Funktionen kolonialer Ortsbenennung. Berlin: De Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110608618
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110608618 [Google Scholar]
  21. Storch, A.
    2011Secret manipulations. Language and context in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199768974.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199768974.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  22. 2019 Games with names. Naming practices and deliberate language change. Language Dynamics and Change9 (2), 162–191. 10.1163/22105832‑00902003
    https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-00902003 [Google Scholar]
  23. Van Pelt, F.
    2000 Lingala ya Bayankee: een beschrijving van het Lingala Argot. MA thesis, Universiteit Leiden.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. vom Bruck, G. & B. Bodenhorn
    (eds.) 2006The anthropology of names and naming. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. White, B. W.
    2008Rumba rules: The politics of dance music in Mobutu’s Zaire. Durham: Duke University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Williamson, B.
    2023 Historical geographies of place naming: Colonial practices and beyond. Geography Compass17 (5). e12687. 10.1111/gec3.12687
    https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12687 [Google Scholar]
  27. Wilson, C.
    n.d.Rumours on the Ubangui (Blog). [https://rumoursontheubangui.tumblr.com] (accessed23/10/2023).
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Youxiang, Tu
    2016 Saussure’s Sôme (or Aposème) and Parasôme (or Parasème): Some new reflections. Language and Semiotic Studies2 (3). 48–72. 10.1515/lass‑2016‑020304
    https://doi.org/10.1515/lass-2016-020304 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/ijolc.00056.nas
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/ijolc.00056.nas
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Congo; language manipulation; Lingala; ludic language use; playful names
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error