temperature terms across 14 african languages henrike firsching university of bayreuth

Temperature Terms

across 14 African Languages

Henrike Firsching

University of Bayreuth

March 19th 2010Stockholm

H. FirschingTemperature Terms across 14 African Languages

1. MethodologyLanguage sample

Interviews with speakers of 14 African languages: Niger-Congo: Igbo, Yoruba (Benue-Congo)

Swahili, Luyia, Fe’fe’, Ngwo (Bantu)

Moba (Gur)

Ewe, Baoulé (Kwa)

Bambara (Mande) Afroasiatic: Hausa, Kilba (Chadic) Nilosaharan: Kalenjin, Luo (Nilotic)



1. MethodologyQuestionnaire

1. Temperature terms

2. Table with entities from different domains of use:Food/liquids (e.g. porridge immediately after

preparation, drinking water)

Body-parts (e.g. head when feverish)

Environment (e.g. room with air conditioning)

Surfaces (e.g. cloth when ironing it)

Household (e.g. refrigerator, fire)

Weather/climate (e.g. snow, sun)

3. Experiencer-based/personal-feeling temperature

4. Metaphorical use of temperature terms



2. Questions

How many different temperature terms do the languages have?

How are the terms organized on the temperature scale? 1 very low temperature cold

2 low temperature cool 3 medium temperature lukewarm 4 high temperaturewarm 5 very high temperature hot

In which domains of use can the terms be used? Are the systems of temperature terms in different

languages structured in a similar way?



3. The number of temperature terms

Number of

temperature terms

Languages

2 Igbo, Kilba

3 Hausa, Yoruba

4 Luo, Luyia, Moba, Swahili

5 Bambara, Kalenjin

6 Ewe, Fe’fe’

7 Baoulé, Ngwo



3. The number of basic temperature terms

Criteria:

salient, generally known, native/nativized, morphologically simple, primarily used for this domain, not-too-restricted in application, not subsumed under other terms (Plank 2003:1; Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2007:6)

Number of basic temperature terms

Languages

2 Ewe, Fe’fe’, Igbo, Kilba, Luyia, Moba

3 Bambara, Baoulé, Hausa, Kalenjin, Luo, Ngwo, Swahili, Yoruba



4. The temperature scale

IGBO KILBA BAMBARA

1 shishi‘u suma /

2 oyi nene

3

kwakwau kalan /

4 oku goni / funteni

5

Group I




EWE BAOULE MOBA SWAHILI

1 fa / ar / song / baridi

2 aviv tsh / fll wad

3 gbl / y palopalo balg fufutende

4 zozo / lo / njr / ton joto /

5 fionfion awunjee moto

LUO LUYIA YORUBA HAUSA

1 ngich / ovunyivu tutu sanyii

2 koyo / imboo

3 mor-mor sivilile lowooro umii

4

5 mor-mor / liet sino oluya gbona zaafii

Group II a

Group II b




KALENJIN NGWO FE’FE’

1 kaitit yii / dju / efo fo /

2 dju / efo nii

3 lebleb zebe nii

ndop

4 burgei / lalang nom ndop / ntshe

5 lale twon / feh tu / mbesi

Group III



5. Domains of use Category I: Igbo, Kilba, Yoruba

IGBO KILBA YORUBA

experiencer, food, liquids, body-parts, environment,

weather, wind, surfaces, ice/snow, fire/sun

1 shishi’u tutu

2 oyi

3

lowooro

4 oku kwakwau

5 gbona



5. Domains of use Category II: Luyia, Bambara, Kalenjin, Hausa

LUYIA BAMBARA

experiencer food, liquids, body-parts, environment, wind, ice/ snow, fire, surfaces

experiencer food, liquids, body-parts, environment, wind, ice/ snow, fire, surfaces

1 imboo ovunyivu nn suma

2

3 sivilile sivilile

4 funteni kalan /

5 sino oluya sino oluya goni



5. Domains of use Category III: Moba, Swahili, Luo

MOBA SWAHILI

experiencer liquids, body-parts, surfaces

food, sun/fire, environment, weather/wind, ice/snow

experiencer, environment, weather, sun

food, body-parts, wind, fire

liquids, surfaces

1 wad sng baridi

2 sng baridi baridi

3 balg fufutende

4 ton ton ton joto moto moto

5



5. Domains of use Category IV: Baoulé

BAOULÉ

experiencer environment, sun, weather/wind

body-parts food, liquids, surfaces, ice/ snow, fire

1 tsh /

2 ar fll tsh fll

3 palopalo

4 awunjee lo lo lo / njr

5



5. Domains of use Category V: Ewe, Ngwo

NGWO

experiencer food, body-parts

liquids, ice/snow

weather, sun, environment

surfaces, fire

1 efo dju yii dju

2 dju dju

3

nom nom

zebe

nom

4 nom twon

5 twon twon twon twon / feh



5. Domains of use Category VI: Fe’fe’

FE’FE’

experiencer food liquids weather, environment

fire, ice/ snow, surfaces

sun

1

2 fo nii nii nii / fo nii

3

ndop

4 ndop ndop ndop ndop ndop ndop / ntshe

5 tu mbesi mbesi / tu mbesi



6. Conclusions 6.1 Does the number of temperature terms in a language allow conclusions about the position of the terms on the temperature scale?

Languages with two basic temperature terms: low – high (Ewe, Fe’fe’, Igbo, Kilba,

Luyia, Moba)

Languages with three basic temperature terms: a) low – high – very high (Hausa, Luo, Ngwo, Yoruba) b) low – low – high (Baoulé)

c) low – high – high (Bambara, Kalenjin, Swahili)



6. Conclusions6.2 Terms for very low and very high temperature

If terms for extreme temperature are used in a language, they are likely to describe extremely high and not extremely low temperature.

Very low temperature: yii (Ngwo)

Very high temperature: liet (Luo)

sino oluyia (Luyia)

gbona (Yoruba)

zaafii (Hausa)

lale (Kalenjin)

twon/feh (Ngwo)

tu/mbesi (Fe’fe’)



6. Conclusions6.3 Restrictions to domains of use

Liquids: If a term for medium temperature is used in a language,

it is used for liquids Experiencer-based:

8 of 14 languages have a separate set of terms for experiencer-based temperature

In 6 languages one of the temperature terms is used exclusively for experiencer-based temperature

temperature terms across 14 african languages henrike firsching university of bayreuth

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