Names and naming in Papuan languages of New Guinea (original) (raw)
Mabia languages and cultures expressed through personal names
International Journal of Language and Culture, 2023
This paper is a comparative study of names and naming practices among speakers of Dagbani, Kusaal, Likpakpaanl and Sɩsaalɩ. We discuss in detail the ceremonies that accompany the naming of a newborn among speakers of these languages. By using the framework of ethnopragmatics, the study explores the culture-internal dynamics of personal names by comparing the typology of names in the four languages. It draws attention to the fact that personal names are not given randomly but rather influenced by the special circumstances surrounding the birth of the name bearer and also by the advice of a diviner. This study reveals how culture is crafted through language and transmitted from one generation to the other through personal names. It is also observed that speakers of these languages have a common perception or worldview evident in their traditional cultural practices.
Dick van der Meij - Cross-and trans-language morphology The lexicography of Indonesian names
2010
Different form many other name-giving possibilities in the world, in Indonesia parents are free to give their children any name they like. These names, many of which are auspicious in view of the child's future, are often constructed by means of productive morphological procedures. Seven suffixes are followed through history and culture and their possibilities in making new names are explored. The suffixes concern the female -ingsih, -ingrum, -ingtyas, -ingdyah, -astuti, -wati, and the male -wan. Various ins and outs concerning these suffixes are explored and their attachments to various words from various word classes from Indonesian, Javanese and other language revealed. Cross-language name construction leads to trans-language creations that play a possible role in the constitution of Indonesian nation building. The procedures moreover seem to indicate trends away from the inclination to give children Muslim names.
Voprosy Onomastiki, 2019
The present paper deals with the current trends in name-giving among the Buton people, one of indigenous ethnicities of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. The traditional anthroponymic pattern of the Buton is typologically peculiar; it consists of an etymologically obscure element denoting the gender of the person, a marker of the noble status (upon the case), and a gender-neutral given name. Unfortunately, the indigenous given names, as well as the use of the traditional anthroponymic pattern have been in decline for decades, to the extent that they may get obliterated very soon. This study aims to identify (1) the degree of extinction of Buton personal names, (2) the most common borrowed personal names adopted by Buton people, and (3) the reasons of the decay of traditional naming practices as they are comprehended by people themselves. To this aim, a series of in-depth interviews and a quantitative analysis of of? cial data retrieved from the Civil Registry and Population Bureau of the Buton Regency covering the period from 1997 to 2016 were carried out. The study found that the process of extinction of traditional names has drastically accelerated over the last twenty years and, as of today, has reached dangerous level. From 2012 to 2016, of 5,331 newborns, only 28 received traditional names. The interviews show that the Buton people consider traditional names to be inferior, akward, out of date. They increasingly tend to adopt Arabic and Javanese personal names as well as names of Western origin that they regard to be more prestigious. This xenocentric trend in name-giving practices can be explained by the impact of globalization and, as for Arabic names, by the increasing signi? cance of the religious factor.
Names and Naming Principles in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Names, 1981
of personal names are based on the cultural attitude that personal names, as labels, are not supposed to have semantic content-i.e., the encoding of retrievable information in their lexico-grammatical structure. 2 This attitude roughly typifies the European conception of the semantico-cultural significance of personal names and contrasts with widely held views about the subject in several other parts of the world, especially Africa, Asia, Oceania, and aboriginal North America. 3 For example, Goodenough reports that among the Lakalai, an Oceanic community, personal naming practices hinge on two basic principles: (i) fixed sequences of names reflecting one's place in a procreational chain, and (ii) naming children for their sib, or for the place, time of year, weekday, or other event or circumstance associated with their birth. 4 Indeed, since one's II am ordinarily indebted to all the sources cited in this paper, but especially to C. A. Weslager for the Delaware data. For comments on portions of this paper which appeared in earlier versions, I would like to thank John J. Gumperz, Paul Kay, Dell Hymes, and David Parkin. I am also grateful to the Editors of Names and especially to Steve Murray for editorial suggestions. However, responsibility for the analysis and conclusions rests with me. 2See F.
An Account of Intercultural Contact in Nyakyusa Personal Names
2018
The impact of intercultural contact in African societies may be well articulated by examining personal names bestowed to children. The contact between different cultures yields different naming systems, apparent in the trends in personal names of children in the Nyakyusa community in Tanzania. Qualitative analysis of a sample of 220 personal names collected by the author yielded three layers: a layer of names with words and clauses with meaning in Nyakyusa language, another layer of names starting with mwa-which indicates the descent of the family, and yet another layer of nativized English, Swahili and/or Christian names. The findings were consistent with another sample of 786 names of primary school pupils in rural areas, foreign names accounted for about 60 percent of all names outnumbering, by far, the indigene names. It may follow that most parents in the Nyakyusa community opt for foreign names rather than native ones. This paper is a testimony that traditions in the Nyakyusa naming system are diminishing.
A Pragmatic Study of Chinese Naming System in Indonesia: Facts, Internal and External Influences
ELSA, 2021
Chinese ethnics are spread across the world. Indonesia is one of many countries with a number of Chinese inhabitants throughout generations. Chinese-Indonesian are those who also apply the Chinese naming system following their ancestors. The naming system is not only unique in identifying the tribal identity but it may also tell many aspects in it. The Chinese naming system is also used to identify gender, a certain tribal group, generation and hope. Despite the stable system, external and internal influences have affected the consistency of the commitment to obey the standardized pattern. The influences to mention are Western culture, religion, politics and practicality which are triggered by modernity, government and education. This study is to see the current of Chinese naming system in general practice and the reasons why the naming system is slowly abandoned. This study shows that Chinese Indonesians still have the Chinese names even are not used in legal papers. They still hold the traditions and belief despite the influence of politic, education, religions and modernity. The using of Indonesian and Western names instead of Chinese names are gestures of modernity, obedience to Indonesian identity, religion, cultural assimilation and practicality.
A classification of Papuan languages
This paper provides a basic classification of 737 Papuan doculects pertaining to 513 different ISO 639-3 codes, in addition to 9 doculects that have not been assigned ISO 639-3 codes. Ethnologue (Lewis 2009) catalogues 848 non-Austronesian languages of New Guinea. Thus, this paper covers 60% of these languages. The point of the paper is to provide a solid benchmark for the classification of languages in a region which is clearly the most poorly understood in the world. The classification combines two different proposals, one of which is the classification by Harald Hammarström , augmented by personal correspondence , and the other is a classification based on methods of the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP). The former represents a conservative sifting of published evidence for language family affiliations and the latter provides an automated classification based on similarity among 40 lexical items selected for maximal stability. An ASJP tree annotated for Hammarström's families allows for identifying cases where the latter apparently fail to be coherent and should therefore possibly be broken up into smaller units, as well as cases where families should possibly be merged. The resulting classification will be even more conservative than Hammarström's in many cases, but it will also contain proposals for wider relationships not considered supported by Hammarström, including several proposals that have not been made before in the literature.
Voprosy Onomastiki, 2024
This study investigates the meanings of Arabic personal names (PNs) of the Quran words origin among Siompu islanders, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. It focuses on the phenomenon of “bad” names, i.e., names derived from Arabic words and wordgroups with negative meanings. The initial corpus of schoolchildren’s personal names (n = 2,662) was examined. Among 1,173 of the Arabic names, 324 (28%) were found to be “bad” names. Some “bad” names are one-word forms (e.g., Jahilun ‘The fool,’ Majnun ‘A madman,’Khatiun ‘The sinner,’ etc.), while others are two-word formations (e.g., Jabaran Syaqiya ‘Arrogant and unblest,’ Qiratadan Khasirin ‘Despised and hated ape,’ Afakin Asim ‘A sinful liar,’ etc.). Some two-word “bad” names are phrasemes taken from a single Quranic verse, while others are combinations of words from di? erent verses. This trend spread along with the Islamization of the island, the phenomenon being particularly interesting because such names are generally forbidden in Islam. In Siompu, however, giving “bad” names is not intentional as it is in some other cultures, but rather due to the name-givers’ inability to comprehend the meanings of the Arabic words, their lack of knowledge of religious norms, and their misunderstanding of the sacred text used as the source of names. The choice between one-word or two-word names is also based solely on the name-givers’ preferences; no underlying rationale was found during the research. The article provides statistical data and discusses the phenomenon of “bad” names in both regional and broader typological contexts.
Comparing Philippine and Indonesian Naming Systems: Review, Realignment, and Decolonization
Since the Filipinos and the Indonesians descend from the same ancestors and share the early historical and cultural background, this paper compared and contrasted the two countries’ naming systems through their review, realignment, and decolonization for the purpose of heightening their indigenous Malay identity. Using hermeneutical phenomenology, the researcher engaged in the review of related literature and applied the extracted ideas to the existing names in due consideration of the historical facts and evident cultural patterns. Discussions yielded the following results and recommendations: the present names of the two countries have colonial underpinnings; during the pre-colonial periods, these two groups of people had the same mononymic naming system based on the same language parent-stock, but different colonial policies and succession of religious preferences caused their names to evolve; and there are specific slices in the systems that need realignment and decolonization which are posited in the recommendations.