Sociolinguistics: Past, Present and Future Perspectives 9798886970265

Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1
The Phonology of Argentine Spanish
Abstract
Introduction
The Inventory of Phonemes
Consonants
Vowels
Distinctive Features
Phonological Rules
Consonant Phonemes
Vowel Phonemes
Phonemic Contrast Neutralizations
Stress
Regional Variations
Syllable Structure
Admissible Syllables
Resyllabification
Conclusion
Acknowlegments
References
Chapter 2
Duabͻ ‘Grievance Imprecation’ in Ghanaian Party Politics
Abstract
Introduction
The Akan Language
Background
The Concept of Duabͻ, ‘Grievance Imprecation’
Etymology of Duabͻ
Theoretical Framework and Literature Review
Language Ideology
The Speech Act Theory (SAT)
Some Common Instances of Grievance Imprecation (Duabͻ) in Ghana and Related Literature
About the Two Major Political Parties in Ghana
Media, Political Discourse and Duabͻ in Ghana
Methodology
Results and Discussion
Themes in Duabͻ
Duabͻ as a Strategy for Maintaining Social Power and Achieving Political Aims
Excerpt 1
Tekyiman South NDC Youth Curse EC and NPP on 30th June, 2020-Techiman (Source: YouTube)
Excerpt 2
NDC Youth Rain Curses On Kennedy Agyapong over Accusations against Ato Forson - October 28, 2020 (Source: https://www.youtube. com/results?search_query=ndc+youth+cursed +kennedy+ agyapong+ for+false+accusation)
Duabͻ as a Force for Vengeance
Excerpt 3
Excerpt 4
Duabͻ as a Force for Justice
Duabͻ for Personal Sentiment
Tone/Mood
Diction
Literary Devices
Personification
Repetition and Parallelism
Simile
Address Forms and Vocatives
Conclusion
References
Chapter 3
The Mechanism of Tourist Signage
Abstract
Introduction
Tourist Signage
Receiving Channels
Indoor and Outdoor Signage
Transliteration
Plural Naming
Dual Standard
Interpretation
Selected Vocabulary
Fact versus Entertainment
Negligence of Translation
Manufacturing Model
Initial Setting
Structural Reform
Strategy
Budgeting
Unified Official Naming
Manufacturing Process
Conclusion
References
Biographical Sketch
Chapter 4
The Idea of a Golden Throne in Ancient Iranian Tradition
Abstract
Acknowledgment
References
Biographical Sketch
Chapter 5
The Semantics of the Expression m-ḫt mni=f in the Book of the Dead Spell 17
Abstract
Acknowledgment
References
Biographical Sketch
Index
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Sociolinguistics Past, Present and Future Perspectives

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Jakobsen, Marcus K., editor. Title: Sociolinguistics : past, present and future perspectives / Marcus K. Jakobsen (editor). Description: New York : Nova Science Publishers, [2022] | Series: Languages and linguistics | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2022024263 (print) | LCCN 2022024264 (ebook) | ISBN 9798886970180 (paperback) | ISBN 9798886970265 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Sociolinguistics. | LCGFT: Essays. Classification: LCC P40 .S5656 2022 (print) | LCC P40 (ebook) | DDC 306.44--dc23/eng/20220617 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022024263 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022024264

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York

Contents

Preface

.......................................................................................... vii

Chapter 1

The Phonology of Argentine Spanish...............................1 Germán Coloma

Chapter 2

Duabͻ ‘Grievance Imprecation’ in Ghanaian Party Politics ..............................................33 Kofi Agyekum and Catherine Ekua Mensah

Chapter 3

The Mechanism of Tourist Signage................................59 Kazuyoshi Takeuchi

Chapter 4

The Idea of a Golden Throne in Ancient Iranian Tradition ..........................................87 H. Vertiienko

Chapter 5

The Semantics of the Expression m-ḫt mni=f in the Book of the Dead Spell 17 ...................................105 Mykola Tarasenko

Index

.........................................................................................121

Preface

Sociolinguistics refers to the study of language in relation to social factors, including differences of regional, class, and occupational dialect, gender differences, and bilingualism. Each of the five chapters of this book presents a unique perspective of the some of the various applications of sociolinguistics around the world. Chapter One describes the phonology of Spanish as it is spoken in Argentina, including a section on syllable structure. Chapter Two analyzes duabͻ, an Akan verbal taboo, and examines the factors that allow this taboo to be broken or used openly in Ghanaian party politics. Chapter Three explores the sociolinguistics of tourist signage, including the causes of inconsistencies and inaccurate information. Chapter Four deals with the history of the idea of a golden throne in Iranian religious tradition. Lastly, Chapter Five focuses on the meaning of a verb used in the title of Spell 17 of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. Chapter 1 - This chapter describes the phonology of Spanish as it is spoken in Argentina. After considering the inventory of phonemes (both consonants and vowels) and their main allophones and phonological rules (including phoneme neutralizations and the use of stress as a distinctive element), there is a description of the most important variations of pronunciation in the different geographic regions of the country. The chapter also includes a section about syllable structure, which deals with the admissible combinations of the different phonemes, and with some issues concerning resyllabification (when words are pronounced in the context of connected speech). Chapter 2 - This paper discusses duabͻ ‘grievance imprecation’ in Ghanaian party politics from the Akan sociocultural perspective. It considers duabͻ as an Akan verbal taboo and examines the factors that allow this verbal taboo to be broken or used openly in party politics. An empirical data for the study is from traditional prayer text videos which contain elements of duabͻ taken from YouTube. The paper analyses duabͻ within the framework of Language Ideology and Speech Act, which reveal a people’s beliefs and worldview about their language and culture that explains the justification as

viii

Marcus K. Jakobsen

well as the rationale behind a people’s action. It is argued that people cannot disentangle themselves from their traditional religious beliefs and cultural perception, worldview and their social structures irrespective of where and when they find themselves. The spiritual forces of nature involved in imprecation are believed to be impartial and quick in their judgments. Duabͻ has become a ‘spiritual judge’ that Ghanaian politicians deem effective so much so that they resort to it for justice, revenge, peace, equity, harm, spite, self-defense, proof of innocence and a show of anger. Chapter 3 - In tourism, people who provide tourist information are categorized as being on the supply side, and tourists who receive such information are regarded as being on the demand side. The supply side consists of locals and outside entrepreneurs who both conduct business with tourists at tourist sites. The tourist phenomenon, generated by demand and supply sides, has an effective structure of “get-rich-quick schemes” which can bring profits through the acquisition of foreign currencies with minimum investment, unlike international trade businesses which rely on long-term manufacturing and sales activities based on necessary upfront investment. The supply side consequently provides tourist information to encourage potential tourists to travel to their disseminations. In so doing, the dissemination of tourist information must be carefully planned to match the various needs of tourists both culturally or linguistically. The author introduces several touristic inconsistencies commonly observed in the field of signage, through which the supply side provides information to promote their tourist destinations, and then extracts the possible causes of the inconsistencies, which are attributed to annual budgets, official naming, and cultural mismatches, based on transliteration or interpretation. The causes of these inconsistencies lie in the gap between a self-centered attitude of the supply side and an optimal solution for providing tourist information. Chapter 4 - In the Achaemenid period the idea of throne (gāθu-) in the Otherworld was probably first written on a monument of Xerxes at Persepolis (XPf, §4.32–33). The motive of the male god Vahu Manah sitting on the “throne made of gold” (gātuuō zaranaiiō.kərətō) in the Otherworld is preserved in the Avestan Vīdēvdād 19.31 (refrain Aogəmadaēcā §12). Yasht 15 is an example of another god, Vayu, who has many gold attributes (a throne is not mentioned) (Yt 15.57), but his worshippers prayed to him “on a golden throne” (zaranaēne paiti gātuuō) (Yt 15.2 and the following refrains). Middle Persian texts say that not only gods but also the souls of the righteous have golden thrones in the afterlife (Ardā Wīrāz-nāmag 9; 11, 15). The same idea may already be represented in Vīdēvdād 19.32, but the translation is debatable.

Preface

ix

In Iranian Zoroastrian sources there are no images or descriptions of female deities on a golden throne. By contrast, in the beliefs of nomadic Iranianspeaking peoples and their descendants a female deity is associated with a golden throne. The goddess of the Otherworld in the Ossetian Nart epic was seated on the “golden chair” (сыгъзæрин къела). Scythian iconography contains the image of a goddess with a mirror who is depicted as sitting on a specific throne type that is represented on a number of gold attachments to clothes. The presence of decorative silver and gold elements of thrones both in the early Scythian burial complexes and in the later Sarmatian ones indicates that the throne was connected with funerary rites. Images of the goddess’s throne in the material culture of Iranian-speaking nomads (relief from the “Senior” Tryokhbratny barrow, Pazyryk carpet, crypt of Anfesterios, etc.) have a red (=gold) color. These features attest to the motif of a golden Otherworld throne of the archaic goddess, reminiscences of which survived in the image of the Zoroastrian psychopompus goddess Daēnā whose throne was “rented” by Vahu Manah. Chapter 5 - The article considers the semantics of the expression m-ḫt mni=f – “after he moored,” which is used in the title of Spell 17 in the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. The verb mni can be literally translated as “to moor” and “to arrive at the port,” “to moor a ship/boat.” In a metaphorical sense, this verb replaced the word “to die,” although the consonant verb in the literal sense of “to die” is also known. According to some Egyptologists, mni as “to moor” and mni as “to die” are two different words that were just consonants. The article will show that this is one and the same verb, which, depending on the context, had either the direct meaning “to moor” or the metaphorical meaning “to die.” At the same time, the metaphorical meaning endowed this lexeme with a special semantic meaning that would be reconstructed on the basis of the Egyptian ideas of the nature of death.

Chapter 1

The Phonology of Argentine Spanish Germán Coloma CEMA University, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract This chapter describes the phonology of Spanish as it is spoken in Argentina. After considering the inventory of phonemes (both consonants and vowels) and their main allophones and phonological rules (including phoneme neutralizations and the use of stress as a distinctive element), there is a description of the most important variations of pronunciation in the different geographic regions of the country. The chapter also includes a section about syllable structure, which deals with the admissible combinations of the different phonemes, and with some issues concerning resyllabification (when words are pronounced in the context of connected speech).

Keywords: phonology, resyllabification.

Spanish,

Argentina,

phonemes,

variation,

Introduction Spanish (Indo-European, Romance) is one of the languages spoken by a larger number of people in the world. The 24th edition of Ethnologue (Eberhard, Simons & Fennig, 2021) estimates that the number of native speakers of Spanish is around 471 million people, and that the total number of speakers is 

Corresponding Author’s Email: [email protected].

In: Sociolinguistics Editor: Marcus K. Jakobsen ISBN: 979-8-88697-018-0 © 2022 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

2

Germán Coloma

around 543 million people (once we include some additional 72 million second-language speakers). Spanish is also a relatively ‘unified language’, in the sense that it presents a high degree of intelligibility between its different geographic varieties, with relatively few variations in morphology and syntax. The main differences between the varieties of Spanish spoken around the world, however, appear in some lexical items and in the phonology of the language. In this chapter we will describe the phonology of one of those varieties, namely the one spoken in Argentina, which is a South American country whose population is around 46 million people (and more than 90% of them speak Spanish as their first language). Our focus will be put in the speech of the Buenos Aires area, which is the main economic, political and cultural center of the country, but we will also include some observations regarding phonological variations that occur in other parts of Argentina, especially in the Northern and Western regions. The main variety described here is also very close to the one used in the Republic of Uruguay, and because of that it can also be referred to as ‘River Plate Spanish.’1 The outline of this chapter is as follows. In the first section we will describe the inventory of phonemes of Argentine Spanish, and their main distinctive features. In the second section we will analyze the phonological rules that define the pronunciation of those phonemes, their possible neutralizations, and the rules governing stress. In the third section we will focus on the main regional variations in the phonology of Spanish within Argentina, and in the fourth section we will deal with issues concerning syllable structure (and resyllabification, when words are pronounced in the context of connected speech).

The Inventory of Phonemes Consonants The consonant phoneme inventory of standard Argentine Spanish is described on Table 1. It consists of 17 phonemes that are articulated in four different places (labial, dental, palatal and velar), using seven different manners of articulation. Most of those phonemes, however, are represented by sounds that are relatively common cross-linguistically. 1

This expression has to do with the name of the river that divides Argentina and Uruguay, known as ‘Río de la Plata’ in Spanish and sometimes translated into English as ‘River Plate’. See Hualde (2005), pp. 23-31.

The Phonology of Argentine Spanish

3

Table 1. Consonant phonemes of Argentine Spanish Manner/Place of articulation Voiceless plosive Voiceless fricative Voiced obstruent Nasal Tap Trill Lateral

Labial p f b m

Dental t s d n ɾ r l

Palatal tʃ ʃ

Velar k x ɡ

ɲ

Argentine Spanish possesses a series of four voiceless plosives (/p/, /t/, /tʃ/ and /k/) and four voiceless fricatives (/f/, /s/, /ʃ/ and /x/), and it also has a third series of ‘voiced obstruents’ (/b/, /d/, and /ɡ/), that can either be pronounced as plosives ([b], [d], [ɡ]) or fricatives ([β], [ð], [ɣ]). These consonants can even be pronounced as approximants (see Hualde, 2005: pp 138–143), i.e., as continuant consonants without friction, but from a functional or phonological point of view they are always obstruents rather than sonorants (see Real Academia Española, 2011: pp 142-162). The sonorant consonant phonemes of Argentine Spanish, conversely, are a series of three nasal sounds (/m/, /n/ and /ɲ/), plus three ‘liquid sounds’ (/ɾ/, /r/ and /l/). The nasal velar sound [ŋ] also exists in this variety of Spanish, but only as an allophone of /n/ when that phoneme is used immediately before another velar phoneme. The following words, taken from Coloma (2018: pp 244), are examples of the pronunciation of all the consonant phonemes of Argentine Spanish: p f b m t s d n ɾ r l tʃ ʃ

pala ['pala] “spade” fama ['fama] “fame” bala ['bala] “bullet” mapa ['mapa] “map” tapa ['tapa] “lid” sala ['sala] “room” dama ['dama] “lady” napa ['napa] “water table” para ['paɾa] “for” parra ['para] “grapevine” lata ['lata] “tin” chapa ['tʃapa] “metal sheet” llama ['ʃama] “flame”

β

pava ['paβa] “kettle”

h ð ŋ

pasta ['pahta] “paste” nada ['naða] “nothing” manga ['maŋɡa] “sleeve”

4

Germán Coloma

ɲ k x ɡ

ñata ['ɲata] “pug nose” cama ['kama] “bed” jarra ['xara] “jug” garra ['ɡara] “claw”

ɣ

maga ['maɣa] “magician”

Although the phonological distinctions between places of articulation are limited to four main positions (defined in Table 1 as labial, dental, palatal and velar), the typical articulation of some consonant phonemes is somewhat more specific. For example, /p/, /b/ and /m/ are generally articulated as bilabial sounds, while /f/ is typically labiodental. Correspondingly, /t/, /d/ and /s/ are generally alveodental, while /n/, /l/, /ɾ/ and /r/ are typically alveolar. Finally, /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ are postalveolar, while /ɲ/ is properly palatal. The phoneme /tʃ/ is also characterized by an affricate pronunciation, which involves the use of a plosive element [t] plus a fricative element [ʃ]. In Spanish, moreover, all plosive phonemes are unaspirated, and some authors prefer to use the word ‘occlusive’ instead of ‘plosive’ for them (see, for example, Monroy & Hernández, 2105). This has to do with the idea that the most characteristic element of these consonants is their occlusion phase rather than their explosion phase. The characteristics mentioned thus far are almost universal in all Spanish varieties spoken around the world. Argentine Spanish, however, also possesses some features that are typical of Latin American accents, as opposed to European accents. One of them is the absence of the interdental voiceless fricative phoneme /θ/, which in River Plate Spanish (and Latin American Spanish, in general) has merged with /s/. This phenomenon is known as ‘seseo’ in the Hispanic language literature (see, for example, Penny, 2004: pp 118-120, 142-143). Another characteristic of Argentine Spanish, shared with most Latin American accents, is the pronunciation of [s] as a laminal fricative (instead of an apical or apico-dorsal fricative, which are the most common European Spanish pronunciations). The phoneme /s/ also possesses a glottal allophone [h] in Argentine Spanish, which is used in some specific contexts. This feature is relatively common in many varieties of Spanish (e.g., Andalusian, Caribbean, Chilean, etc.) and is known as ‘/s/-aspiration’. On the other hand, in Argentine Spanish, [h] is never an allophone of /x/ (as is the case in other accents such as Central American, Colombian and Caribbean Spanish). A last important allophone that is commonly heard in Argentine Spanish is the voiced postalveolar fricative sound [ʒ], which is used as a variant for the

The Phonology of Argentine Spanish

5

phoneme /ʃ/.2 In fact, [ʒ] used to be the most common pronunciation for that phoneme during the first half of the 20th century, and it has been gradually replaced by [ʃ] since then. In other varieties of Spanish, however, this phoneme is pronounced as a voiced non-assibilated palatal fricative [ʝ], as a voiced plosive [ɟ] or affricate palatal [ɟʝ], or even as a palatal glide [j].3 Nowadays, the dominant pronunciation in the Buenos Aires area seems to be [ʃ] (see Rohena-Madrazo, 2015: pp 312-313), although there is also an important fraction of the population that uses [ʒ] instead of [ʃ]. This is even more noticeable in other regions of Argentina (for example, in the region of Patagonia, which is in the extreme South), where [ʒ] seems to be more common than [ʃ] (Fontanella, 2004: pp 214).

Vowels Like most Spanish varieties, Argentine Spanish has only five vowel phonemes (see Table 2), which may appear in both stressed and unstressed syllables. The front and central vowels (/i/, /e/ and /a/) are unrounded, while the back ones (/u/ and /o/) are typically rounded. No relevant distinction exists between higher and lower articulations for any of those phonemes, as it does occur in some areas of Southern Spain (see, for example, Monroy & Hernández, 2015, and Herrero & Hajek, 2020). Table 2. Vowel phonemes of Argentine Spanish Manner/Place of articulation Closed Mid Open

Front i e

Central

Back u o

a

The most important variants for the Argentine Spanish vowels are the palatal glide [j] (for the phoneme /i/) and the labiovelar glide [w] (for the phoneme /u/). Those glides can also be written as [i̯ ] and [u̯] (Hualde, 2005: pp 54–55). Some authors (e.g., Martínez, Fernández & Carrera, 2003; Monroy 2

In some relatively old descriptions of Buenos Aires Spanish (e.g., Fontanella, 1987, pp 144150), /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are analyzed as different phonemes. In those descriptions, the phoneme /ʒ/ is used for most words written with either ‘y’ or ‘ll’ (e.g., yerno ['ʒeɾno] “son-in-law”, lluvia ['ʒuβja] “rain”) while /ʃ/ is used for some loanwords (e.g., shock ['ʃok], champagne [ʃam'pan]). 3 See, for example, Martínez, Fernández & Carrera (2003) and Herrero & Hajek (2020).

6

Germán Coloma

& Hernández, 2015; Herrero & Hajek, 2020) use [j] and [w] when those sounds appear before a syllabic nucleus, and [i̯ ] and [u̯] when they appear after a syllabic nucleus. This is related to the idea that pre-nuclear glides are considered to be ‘semiconsonants’, while post-nuclear glides are ‘semivowels.’ The phonemes /e/ and /o/ also admit the use of the glides [e̯ ] and [o̯] as allophones, in some word-internal diphthongs and in situations where there is ‘synalepha’ (i.e., when the last syllable of a word and the first syllable of the following word are pronounced as if they were a single syllable). The following examples, taken from Coloma (2018: pp 247), can illustrate the pronunciation of the vowel phonemes of Argentine Spanish: a e i o u

aso ['aso] “I roast” eso ['eso] “that” hizo ['iso] “he/she did” oso ['oso] “bear” uso ['uso] “usage”

e̯ j o̯ w

ese avión ['ese̯ a 'βjon] “that aircraft” hielo ['jelo] “ice” lago azul ['laɣo̯a 'sul] “blue lake” huevo ['weβo] “egg”

In Spanish, vowels can be partially nasalized when they are in contact with nasal consonants, but there is no phonemic contrast between oral and nasal vowels. In particular, for Buenos Aires Spanish, it has been estimated that nasalization is more probable if the vowel phoneme is /o/, if it is surrounded by two nasal consonants, and if it is located in the last syllable of an utterance (Bongiovanni, 2021a: pp 5-6).

Distinctive Features Spanish phonemes, both consonants and vowels, can also be described using a set of distinctive features that allows to distinguish each phoneme from every other phoneme. In its prescriptive grammar, the Spanish Academy of Language (Real Academia Española, 2011: pp 9-14) uses 13 distinctive features to characterize the phonemes of the Spanish language. Some of those features, however, are redundant to describe those phonemes, in particular for the varieties of Spanish that do not make a distinction between /s/ and /θ/. In Coloma (2017: pp 70-74), we proposed a scheme in which we only need 9 distinctive features to characterize Latin American Spanish varieties. For the case of Buenos Aires Spanish, those features are the ones that appear on Table 3.

Feature/Phoneme ±consonant ±sonorant ±voiced ±high ±front ±coronal ±continuant ±nasal ±lateral

a + + + + ± -

e + + + + + ± -

i + + + + + + ± -

o + + + ± -

u + + + + ± -

p + + + -

t + + + + -

tʃ + + + k + + -

f + + + + -

s + + + + + -

ʃ + ± + + + x + + + -

b + + + + ± -

d + + + + + ± -

ɡ + + + ± -

Table 3. Distinctive features of Argentine Spanish phonemes m + + + + + + + -

n + + + + + + + + -

ɲ + + + + + + + -

ɾ + + + + + + -

r + + + + + + + -

l + + + + + + + +

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As we can see, the distinctive features used to describe the Argentine Spanish phonemes are [±consonant], [±sonorant], [±voiced], [±high], [±front], [±coronal], [±continuant], [±nasal] and [±lateral]. The first of those features allows us to separate the five vowel phonemes (which are all [-consonant]) from the consonant phonemes (which are all [+consonant]). Besides, the Spanish vowels are all [+sonorant], [+voiced] and [+continuant]. The three features that allow vowel phonemes to be distinguished from each other are [±high], [±front] and [±coronal]. While the phoneme /a/ is [high], [-front] and [+coronal], /e/ is [-high], [+front] and [+coronal]. Correspondingly, /i/ is [+high], [+front] and [+coronal], while /o/ is [-high], [front] and [-coronal]. Finally, /u/ is [+high], [-front] and [-coronal]. The features [±front] and [±coronal] are also useful to classify consonants according to their place of articulation. While labial phonemes (/p/, /f/, /b/ and /m/) are all [+front] and [-coronal], dental phonemes (/t/, /s/, /d/, /n/, /ɾ/, /r/ and /l/) are [+front] and [+coronal]. In a similar fashion, palatal phonemes (/tʃ/, /ʃ/ and /ɲ/) are all [-front] and [+coronal], while velar phonemes (/k/, /x/ and /ɡ/) are [-front] and [-coronal]. The remaining features allow us to distinguish between consonants that are articulated in the same position. While the obstruent consonants /p/, /t/, /tʃ/, /k/, /f/, /s/, /ʃ/, /x/, /b/, /d/ and /ɡ/ are all [-sonorant], the sonorant consonants /m/, /n/, /ɲ/, /ɾ/, /r/ and /l/ are, by definition, [+sonorant]. This last group of consonants is also [+voiced], together with the three voiced obstruents /b/, /d/ and /ɡ/. Conversely, the voiceless consonants /p/, /t/, /tʃ/, /k/, /f/, /s/ and /x/ are all [-voiced]. The feature [±continuant] makes it possible to distinguish between voiceless plosives /p/, /t/, /tʃ/ and /k/ (which are all [-continuant]) and voiceless fricatives /f/, /s/, /ʃ/, /x/ (which are [+continuant]). It is also the one that separates the alveolar tap /ɾ/ (which is [-continuant]) from the alveolar trill /r/ (which is [+continuant]). This last distinction is very characteristic of Spanish (and relatively rare in other languages). Note that Table 3 also shows three cases in which the feature [±continuant] is not relevant to describe a consonant phoneme. These correspond to the voiced obstruents /b/, /d/ and /ɡ/, which can either be pronounced as [b], [d] and [ɡ] (i.e., as [-continuant]) or as [β], [ð], [ɣ] (i.e., as [+continuant]). Another case of irrelevance of a feature to characterize a consonant phoneme in Argentine Spanish occurs with [±voiced] when applied to the phoneme /ʃ/. As we have already mentioned, that phoneme is

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pronounced as [ʃ] by some speakers (i.e., [-voiced]), while others pronounce it as [ʒ] (i.e., [+voiced]). The last set of features that are useful to describe consonant phonemes is the one formed by [±nasal] and [±lateral]. The first of those features adopts the ‘+’ value for the case of /m/, /n/ and /ɲ/, and the ‘-’ value for all the other consonants. The five vowel phonemes can also be pronounced with a certain degree of nasalization, but that is not a relevant feature to characterize Spanish vowels (and that is why we have written a ‘±’ sign in the cells that correspond to those phonemes). Finally, the feature [±lateral] is useful to describe the lateral consonant /l/ (which, by definition, is [+lateral]), and to distinguish it from all the other phonemes (which are [-lateral]).

Phonological Rules Consonant Phonemes As we have seen in the previous section, there are several cases in which the Spanish consonant phonemes are pronounced using different allophones in different situations. This allows to establish some phonological rules concerning the expected pronunciation of those phonemes. In River Plate Spanish, the most important rules are the ones related to the voiced obstruent consonants (/b/, /d/ and /ɡ/), the alveodental voiceless fricative (/s/) and the alveolar nasal consonant (/n/). As we have already mentioned, the voiced obstruents are sometimes pronounced as voiced plosives ([b], [d], [ɡ]) and sometimes pronounced as voiced continuants ([β], [ð], [ɣ]), using a fricative or approximant articulation. The plosive articulation is generally used when those phonemes appear after a pause (for example, at the beginning of a sentence) or after a nasal consonant, and sometimes (in the case of the phoneme /d/) after a lateral consonant. The second option, correspondingly, is used elsewhere. Examples of these phonological rules are the following: /b/ →

Buen día [bwen 'dia] “Good morning” → [b] after pause envase [em'base] “container” → [b] after nasal el vaso [el 'βaso] “the glass” → [β] after lateral abajo [a'βaxo] “below” → [β] between vowels los brazos [loh 'βɾasos] “the arms” → [β] elsewhere

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/d/ →

Dios mío ['djoh 'mio] “Oh, my God” → [d] after pause un deseo [un de'seo] “a wish” → [d] after nasal el deseo [el de'seo] “the desire” → [d] after lateral la desea [la ðe'sea] “he wants her” → [ð] between vowels las drogas [lah 'ðɾoɣas] “the drugs” → [ð] elsewhere

/ɡ/ →

Gracias ['ɡɾasjas] “Thank you” → [ɡ] after pause angosto [aŋ'ɡohto] “narrow” → [ɡ] after nasal el gasto [el 'ɣahto] “the expense” → [ɣ] after lateral agosto [a'ɣohto] “August” → [ɣ] between vowels los granos [loh 'ɣɾanos] “the grains” → [ɣ] elsewhere

These rules, however, admit some degree of variation, especially in what concerns the phoneme /d/. That phoneme is sometimes omitted in informal or rapid speech, and that essentially occurs when it appears at the end of a word (and, occasionally, between vowels). So an additional ‘sociolinguistic rule’ can be stated in that case, which implies examples like these: /d/ → la mitad [la mi'tað] “one half” → la mitad [la mi'ta] “one half” →

[ð] in formal speech [Ø] in informal speech

Another phoneme that exhibits a good deal of variation in Argentine Spanish is /s/, which is typically pronounced as [h] when it appears before a consonant (and after a vowel), and [s] elsewhere. So good examples of this rule can be the following: /s/ →

¡Salud! [sa'luð] “Cheers!” → paso ['paso] “step” → pasto ['pahto] “grass” →

[s] after pause [s] between vowels [h] before a consonant and after a vowel transporte [tɾans'poɾte] “transport”→[s] between consonants perros ['peros] “dogs” → [s] elsewhere

This rule of pronunciation for the phoneme /s/, however, also admits some changes depending on the context. In informal speech, it is common that complex codas, such as the one in the first syllable of “transporte”, become simplified, and in that situation the phoneme /s/ ends up appearing before a

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consonant and after a vowel. That implies that its pronunciation in that case can also be [h], as shown here: /s/ → transporte [tɾans'poɾte] “transport” → [s] in formal speech transporte [tɾah'poɾte] “transport” → [h] in informal speech Moreover, when the phoneme /s/ is in coda at the end of a word, and the following word begins with a vowel, it is also possible that its sound be omitted in informal speech, so we can also write the following examples: /s/ → Vamos a ver ['bamosa 'βeɾ] “Let’s see” → [s] in formal speech Vamos a ver ['bamo̯a 'βeɾ] “Let’s see” → [Ø] in informal speech 1 The nasal phoneme /n/, finally, also has a particular behavior depending on the context in which it is produced. If it appears before a vowel or before a pause, then it is always pronounced as [n]. When it appears before a consonant, conversely, it takes the same point of articulation of that consonant. Examples of the application of this rule are the following: /n/ →

en parte [em 'paɾte] “partly” → [m] before labials enjuague [eŋ'xwaɣe] “rinse” → [ŋ] before velars entero [en'teɾo] “whole” → [n] before other consonants enano [e'nano] “dwarf” → [n] before vowels edición [eði'sjon] “edition” → [n] elsewhere

Vowel Phonemes As we have mentioned before, vowel phonemes can also have different pronunciations. Except for the phoneme /a/ (whose only relevant allophone in River Plate Spanish is the open central sound [a]), all the other vowels can either be pronounced as ‘full vowels’ ([i], [u], [e], [o]) or as glides ([j], [w], [e̯ ], [o̯]). For /i/ and /u/, the use of one or the other allophone is relatively clear: 1

A third alternative (['bamoha 'βeɾ]) is also possible here. This implies the use of [h] instead of [s] or [Ø]. That option, however, is not so common in Buenos Aires Spanish, but is more likely in the speech of people from other areas of Argentina (see, for example, Rojas, 2004, pp 170-171).

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we must use [i] and [u] when the vowel is the nucleus of a syllable, and [j] and [w] elsewhere. This is equivalent to say that glides must be used in diphthongs or triphthongs in which /i/ or /u/ are not the main vowels, and full vowels must be used in all the other situations.2 To understand this rule, the following examples may be of some help: /i/ →

baile ['bajle] “dance” → piano ['pjano] “piano” → fuimos ['fwimos] “we went”→ risa ['risa] mirar [mi'ɾaɾ]

/u/ →

[j] in falling diphthongs [j] in rising diphthongs [i] in diphthongs where /i/ is the nucleus “laughter” → [i] in stressed syllables “to look at” → [i] elsewhere

jaula ['xawla] “cage” → cuatro ['kwatɾo] “four” → viuda ['bjuða] “widow” → ruta ['ruta] jugar [xu'ɣaɾ]

“road” → “to play” →

[w] in falling diphthongs [w] in rising diphthongs [u] in diphthongs where /u/ is the nucleus [u] in stressed syllables [u] elsewhere

The mid vowels /e/ and /o/ can also be pronounced as glides in some circumstances.3 This occurs, for example, if both vowels are adjacent, and none of them is stressed. In that case, the first vowel is typically pronounced as a glide in Argentine Spanish, as seen here: /e/ → teología [te̯ olo'xia] “theology” → [e̯ ] in rising diphthongs /o/ → coherencia [ko̯e'ɾensja] “coherence” → [o̯] in rising diphthongs The same phenomenon occurs if either /e/ or /o/ show up immediately before /a/, and none of those vowels is stressed, as these examples show: /e/ → realidad [re̯ ali'ðað] “reality” → /o/ → coacción [ko̯ak'sjon] “coercion” →

[e̯ ] in rising diphthongs [o̯] in rising diphthongs

Finally, /e/ and /o/ can also be pronounced as glides when they appear immediately after /a/, as occurs in the following cases: 2 3

For a more complete explanation of this, see Kaisse (2020). For a more complete analysis of this phenomenon, see Colantoni & Hualde (2016).

The Phonology of Argentine Spanish

/e/ → aerosol [ae̯ ɾo'sol] “spray” → /o/ → ahogado [ao̯'ɣaðo] “drowned” →

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[e̯ ] in falling diphthongs [o̯] in falling diphthongs

In all the above mentioned examples with /e/ and /o/, however, glides are optional, since it is perfectly possible to pronounce all those words using full vowels instead of glides (e.g., [teolo'xia], [koe'ɾensja], [reali'ðað], [koak'sjon], [aeɾo'sol], [ao'ɣaðo]). If that is the case, the corresponding diphthongs disappear and are replaced by hiatuses (i.e., by constructions in which each vowel is in a different syllable). Full vowels, additionally, are obligatory in all the remaining cases. For example: /e/ →

cuerda ['kweɾða] “string”→ pena penal

/o/ →

['pena] “sorrow” → [pe'nal] “prison” →

[e] in diphthongs where /e/ is the nucleus [e] in stressed syllables [e] elsewhere

androide [an'dɾojðe] “android” → [o] in diphthongs where /o/ is the nucleus bota ['bota] “boot” → [o] in stressed syllables votar [bo'taɾ] “to vote” → [o] elsewhere

Phonemic Contrast Neutralizations The basic property of a phoneme to exist as an independent entity is its capacity to contrast with other phonemes in order to express different meaningful language utterances. In Spanish, for example, we say that the tap /ɾ/ and the trill /r/ are two different phonemes because we can find some ‘minimal pairs’ (like pera ['peɾa] “pear” and perra ['pera] “bitch”) in which changing the sound from [ɾ] to [r] changes the meaning of a word. Phonemic contrasts, however, do not necessarily work in every possible context, and the opposition between /ɾ/ and /r/ in Spanish is a good example of this, since it only operates when those sounds show up between vowels in word-internal positions. In all the other contexts, the phonemic contrast between /ɾ/ and /r/ is said to be ‘neutralized’, because only one of those phonemes can appear, or because changing one sound for the other does not change the meaning of the utterance that we want to produce.

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In the case of the phonemes /ɾ/ and /r/, this lack of contrast in most positions is used by the official Spanish orthography to prescribe that we only distinguish between the representations of those phonemes when they appear between vowels word-internally, and in those cases we have to use the letter “r” to represent the phoneme /ɾ/ and the diagraph “rr” to represent the phoneme /r/ (see Real Academia Española, 2012: pp 17-31). In all the other situations we must simply use the letter “r”, because there is no possible phonemic contrast between /ɾ/ and /r/ and it is therefore unnecessary to specify which phoneme should be used.4 This rule can be further clarified through the following examples: Word-initial position Syllable-initial position after consonant Syllable-final position Word-final position Second element of a complex onset Syllable-initial position after vowel

→ →

/r/ → rojo ['roxo] “red” /r/ → enredo [en'reðo] “tangle”

→ → →

/ɾ/ → arma ['aɾma] “weapon” /ɾ/ → comer [ko'meɾ] “to eat” /ɾ/ → broma ['bɾoma] “joke”

→

/ɾ/ or /r/ → caro ['kaɾo] “expensive” → carro ['karo] “carriage”

Vowel phonemes, on the contrary, are always contrastive in Spanish, so we cannot find any situation in which vowel phoneme contrasts are neutralized (at least in formal speech). Nevertheless, other consonants besides /ɾ/ and /r/ show instances of neutralization in certain positions, such as the nasal phonemes /m/ and /n/. These phonemes are contrastive in onset positions, both at the beginning of a word and within a word, as can be illustrated in the following examples: /m/ or /n/ → → Syllable-initial position → /m/ or /n/ → word-internally → Word-initial position

→

mudo ['muðo] “mute” nudo ['nuðo] “knot” rama ['rama] “branch” rana ['rana] “frog”

However, when /m/ or /n/ are in coda positions, and the following syllable begins with a consonant, their contrast is neutralized and its pronunciation is 4

For a more complete explanation of this, see Torres-Tamarit (2020), pp 19-21.

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governed by the place of articulation of the following phoneme. So if the next consonant is a labial one, then both phonemes are pronounced as [m]; if it is a velar one, then they are pronounced as [ŋ]; and if it is a dental or a palatal consonant, they are pronounced as [n]. To understand this, the following examples may be useful: Before labial → [m] → → Before velal → [ŋ] → → Before other → [n] → consonants →

álbum blanco ['alβum 'blaŋko] “white album” avión blanco [a'βjom 'blaŋko] “white aircraft” álbum grande ['alβuŋ 'ɡɾande] “big album” avión grande [a'βjoŋ 'ɡɾande] “big aircraft” álbum doble ['alβun 'doβle] “double album” avión doble [a'βjon 'doβle] “double aircraft”

The opposition between /m/ and /n/, notwithstanding, is restored if those phonemes appear before a pause, or before a word that begins with a vowel. Therefore, in spite that they are in coda, /m/ and /n/ are contrastive in the following examples: Before pause → /m/ or /n/

→ →

Llegó el álbum. [ʃe'ɣo el 'alβum] “The album arrived” Llegó el avión. [ʃe'ɣo el a'βjon] “The aircraft arrived”

Before vowel → /m/ or /n/ → álbum azul ['alβum a'sul] “blue album” → avión azul [a'βjon a'sul] “blue aircraft” Argentine Spanish is also noticeable for an additional neutralization of nasal contrasts, which is the one that occurs between /ɲ/ and the combination /ni/ (see Bongiovanni, 2021b). This neutralization does not affect all speakers, but it is clearly perceptible in a large fraction of the Argentine population when those phonemes appear in the onset of a syllable before /a/, /e/, /o/ or /u/. An instance of this can be seen in the contrast between huraño [u'ɾaɲo] “unsociable” and uranio [u'ɾanjo] “uranium”, which for many people can both be pronounced either as [u'ɾaɲo] or [u'ɾanjo]. This has led some authors (for example, Colantoni & Hualde, 2013) to propose an analysis of the Argentine Spanish phonology in which /ɲ/ is no longer a phoneme. Nevertheless, the opposition between /ɲ/ and /n/ still seems to be strong when those phonemes appear before /i/. Therefore, in words such as albañil [alβa'ɲil] “builder”, it is

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not possible to use [nj] instead of [ɲ], while in words such as juvenil [xuβe'nil] “youthful”, it is not possible to use [ɲ] instead of [n] or [ni]. A last group of phoneme contrast neutralizations is the one between voiceless plosives and voiced obstruents. These happen in the (relatively rare) instances where those sounds are in coda in word-internal positions. In those cases, neutralizations occur between /p/ and /b/, between /t/ and /d/, and between /k/ and /ɡ/.5 Examples or those processes are the ones that affect the following words: /p/ and /b/ /t/ and /d/ /k/ and /ɡ/

→ → → → → →

colapso [ko'lapso] or [ko'laβso] “collapse” absurdo [aβ'suɾðo] or [ap'suɾðo] “absurd” logaritmo[loɣa'ɾitmo] or [loɣa'ɾiðmo] “logarithm” admirar [aðmi'ɾaɾ] or [atmi'ɾaɾ] “to admire” anécdota [a'nekðota]or[a'neɣðota] “anecdote” amígdala [a'miɣðala] or [a'mikðala] “tonsil”

Stress Lexical stress is distinctive in Spanish, and it can fall in the last syllable of a word (e.g., poder [po·'ðeɾ] “power”), in the penultimate syllable (e.g., poderoso [po·ðe·'ɾo·so] “powerful”) or in the antepenultimate syllable (e.g., político [po·'li·ti·ko] “politician”). In the first of those cases, the word is said to be ‘oxytone’ (palabra aguda), while in the second case is said to be ‘paroxytone’ (palabra grave), and in the third one is said to be ‘proparoxytone’ (palabra esdrújula). It can also occur that a word has no stress, in which case it is said to be ‘unstressed’. This is generally the case for particles such as prepositions, conjunctions, articles and some pronouns, when they are used in connected speech. For example, in the phrase el perro de la mujer [el 'pero ðe la mu'xeɾ] “the woman’s dog”, the nouns perro ['pero] “dog” and mujer [mu'xeɾ] “woman” are stressed, but the articles el and la, and the preposition de are unstressed. 5

The grammar of the Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española, 2011: pp 153-155) also mentions cases of possible neutralizations between many consonant phonemes at the same time (e.g., absoluto “absolute”, which could either be pronounced as [aβso'luto], [apso'luto], [atso'luto], [aðso'luto], [akso'luto], [aɣso'luto], [afso'luto] or [axso'luto]). Most of those alternatives, however, are uncommon in Argentine Spanish.

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In Spanish, it is relatively common to find two-way contrasts between words that only differ in the position of the stressed syllable. For example, revolver [re·βol·'βeɾ] “to stir” is an oxytone word (whose stress falls in the last syllable), while revólver [re·'βol·βeɾ] “gun” is a paroxytone word (whose only phonological difference with revolver is the fact that its stress falls in the penultimate syllable). This kind of shift in the position of the stressed syllable is very productive in Spanish, especially in verb conjugations (see Roca, 2020). Most verbs have instances in which shifting the stress from one syllable to another is useful to change person and/or tense, as can be seen in the following examples: canta ['kan·ta] “he/she sings” vs. cantá [kan·'ta] “sing! (you)” cante ['kan·te] “(that) I/he/she sing(s)” vs. canté [kan·'te] “I sang” canto ['kan·to] “I sing” vs. cantó [kan·'to] “he/she sang” Spanish also possesses some contrasts between three words that have the same phonemes in the exact same order, and they only differ in the syllable that bears the stress. An example of these three-way contrasts is término ['teɾ·mi·no] “end” vs. termino [teɾ·'mi·no] “I end” vs. terminó [teɾ·mi·'no] “he/she ended”. These contrasts typically occur in cases of words of the same semantic field that are used for different functions (e.g., a noun and two forms of a related verb). When there are possible doubts about the position of the stressed syllable in a word, the official Spanish orthography (Real Academia Española, 2012: pp 36-58) prescribes the use of an accent mark (´). That mark is written just above the vowel that acts as nucleus of the stressed syllable. The Spanish orthography, however, also has some rules to avoid unnecessary stress marking, which are basically the following: Oxytone words are typically marked if their last letter is “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u”, “n” or “s”, and not marked otherwise (e.g., revés [re·'βes] “reverse” vs. rever [re·'βeɾ] “to review”). b. Paroxytone words are typically marked if their last letter is not “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u”, “n” or “s”, and not marked otherwise (e.g., hábil ['a·βil] “skilled” vs. aves ['a·βes] “birds”). c. Proparoxytone words are always marked (e.g., módulo ['mo·ðu·lo] “module”, déficit ['de·fi·sit] “shortage”). a.

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d. Obligatory hiatuses are marked when they can be confused with diphthongs (e.g., países [pa·'i·ses] “countries” vs. paisajes [paj·'sa·xes] “landscapes”). e. Words with a single syllable are typically not marked, regardless of the fact that they are unstressed or stressed (e.g., con pan [kom 'pan] “with bread”).6 When a verb form is augmented with enclitic pronouns, it is also possible that the stress falls in a syllable that appears before the antepenultimate one of the newly formed words. Words like that are known as ‘preproparoxytone words’ (palabras sobresdrújulas), and the official Spanish orthography prescribes that all of them must bear an accent mark in the nuclear vowel of the stressed syllable of the original verb form. Examples of this kind could be trayéndomelo [tɾa·'ʃen·do·me·lo] “bringing it to me”, tráiganselos ['tɾaj·ɣan·se·los] “bring them to him/her”, etc. One general rule about these constructions is that the stress can never fall in an enclitic pronoun, and that is basically the cause why some of those words become preproparoxytone ones. In Argentine Spanish, however, there is a tendency to stress enclitic pronouns in some situations. This never occurs if the verb form plus the enclitic pronoun becomes a paroxytone word, but it typically holds if it becomes proparoxytone or preproparoxytone (which is more probable in cases of two consecutive enclitic pronouns). Some examples could be the following: “leave it (you singular)” “leave it to me (you singular)” déjenlo ['de·xen·lo] or [de·xen·'lo] “leave it (you plural)” déjenmelo ['de·xen·me·lo] or [de·xen·me·'lo] “leave it to me (you plural)” dejalo [de·'xa·lo] dejámelo [de·'xa·me·lo] or [de·xa·me·'lo]

Note that for the word dejalo, which is paroxytone, the only admissible pronunciation is the one expected by the official orthography (i.e., [de·'xa·lo]). When the verb form becomes proparoxytone (e.g., dejámelo, déjenlo) or preproparoxytone (e.g., déjenmelo), Argentine Spanish pronunciation has the 6

This rule has some exceptions in a few cases where there are two words with the same phonemes, and one of them is stressed while the other one is not (e.g., sí ['si] “yes” vs. si [si] “if”). In those cases, the stressed word may bear a mark, which is known in the Hispanic literature as a ‘diacritical accent mark’ (acento diacrítico).

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alternative of shifting the stress towards the last syllable of the word, that therefore becomes ‘de facto oxytone’. That alternative implies that the last enclitic pronoun (in this case, lo) is stressed, and this seems to be a dominant tendency among Argentinians (see Colantoni & Cuervo, 2013).

Regional Variations In the description of the inventory of phonemes and the phonological rules that we made in the previous sections, we have focused on the variety of Spanish spoken in the city of Buenos Aires. That variety can be considered representative of the pronunciation used in the whole South-Eastern area of Argentina, which is formed by the Pampean region (i.e., the provinces of Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos, Santa Fe, La Pampa and the Southern part of Córdoba) and the Patagonian region (i.e., the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego). The rest of the country exhibits several differences in the articulation of some phonemes, and can be divided into three additional dialect areas (see Figure 1), which are the North West, the North East, and the West (Coloma, 2018: pp 245-246). The first of those areas encompasses the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán, Catamarca, La Rioja and the Northern part of Córdoba, while the second one is made up of the provinces of Misiones, Corrientes, Chaco and Formosa (which are in the frontier with Paraguay). The Western region, finally, encompasses the provinces of San Juan, Mendoza and San Luis (which are closer to Chile). The main phonetic difference between the accents of the two abovementioned Northern regions (North East and North West) and the accent of the Buenos Aires area is the assibilation and fricativization of the phoneme /r/ (Colantoni, 2006: pp 92-93). In those places, that phoneme is typically pronounced as a voiced alveolo-palatal fricative [ʑ], instead of a trill [r]. This fricativization, however, does not extend to the pronunciation of /ɾ/, which is generically preserved as an alveolar tap [ɾ] in the whole Argentine territory. The different articulation of the phoneme /r/ in Northern Argentina, which has probably been influenced by contact with Quechua and Guarani during several centuries, does not affect the rules stated above concerning the distinction and/or neutralization between /r/ and /ɾ/. We can therefore observe the use of the fricative sound [ʑ] in word-initial positions and in syllable-initial positions after consonants (e.g., rojo ['ʑoxo] “red”, enredo [en'ʑeðo] “tangle”),

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the use of [ɾ] in codas and as the second element of complex onsets (e.g., arma ['aɾma] “weapon”, comer [ko'meɾ] “to eat”, broma ['bɾoma] “joke”), and the opposition of both sounds in word-internal positions between vowels (e.g., caro ['kaɾo] “expensive” vs. carro ['kaʑo] “carriage”).

Figure 1. Argentine Spanish dialect areas.

In the North East, moreover, many people also use the lateral palatal sound [ʎ] as an additional phoneme, for words written with the diagraph “ll”. That pronunciation has a long tradition in the Spanish language, but it has rapidly disappeared during the 20th century in many places in which it was common at the beginning of that century (e.g., Northern Spain, Central

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Colombia, etc.). Nowadays it is still widespread in Paraguay, and in some parts of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador (Real Academia Española, 2011: pp 226–227). In Northeastern Argentina, speakers that use the phoneme /ʎ/ typically pronounce the phoneme /ʃ/ as a voiced postalveolar affricate [dʒ], and they distinguish between words such as haya ['adʒa] “there is” and halla ['aʎa] “he/she finds”. But the phoneme /ʎ/ also seems to be changing its pronunciation in the North East, shifting from a lateral towards a nonassibilated fricative pronunciation [ʝ] (Colantoni, 2006: pp 91-92). So while for most people there is still a distinction between the phonemes /ʃ/ and /ʎ/, that distinction can be realized as a contrast between [dʒ] and [ʝ] (e.g., haya ['adʒa] vs. halla ['aʝa]). The non-assibilated voiced palatal fricative [ʝ] is also pervasive in the Western region, where it is the standard pronunciation for the phoneme /ʃ/. In that region there is no opposition between /ʃ/ and /ʎ/, so words like haya and halla are both pronounced ['aʝa]. That pronunciation can also be found in the North West, although in that area there is considerable variation between [ʝ] and [ʒ] as realizations for the phoneme /ʃ/ (Rojas, 2004: pp 170-171). So a word like yuyo “weed”, which in the South East of Argentina is pronounced either as ['ʃuʃo] or ['ʒuʒo], in the West is pronounced as ['ʝuʝo], and in the North West is pronounced either as ['ʝuʝo] or as ['ʒuʒo]. Another variation that has been reported for the Western area (see, e.g., Gurlekian, Colantoni & Torres, 2001) is the use of a palatal voiceless fricative [ç] as an allophone of /x/, when that phoneme appears before /e/ or /i/ (e.g., ají [a'çi] “pepper”). That feature is also common in Chilean Spanish (Real Academia Española, 2011: pp 194-195).

Syllable Structure Admissible Syllables The World Atlas of Language Structures (Dryer & Haspelmath, 2013, chapter 12) classifies Spanish as a language with a ‘moderately complex syllable structure’. This implies that syllables can have complex onsets or codas, but limited to few combinations of sounds. It also implies that the number of phonemes that can fit in a single syllable is relatively small, and that syllables with long onsets or codas, such as the ones found in numerous English words (e.g., “screen”, “worlds”, “sprints”), are not possible in Spanish.

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Nevertheless, the grammar of the Spanish Academy of Language (Real Academia Española, 2011: pp 293-298) mentions that Spanish has 23 different types of syllables, which range from a minimum of 1 phoneme to a maximum of 5 phonemes. The simplest type is formed by a single vowel (V), while the most complex types are the ones that also include consonants (C) and/or glides (G), in combinations such as CCVCC (e.g., transmisión [tɾans·mi·'sjon] “broadcasting”), CCVGC (e.g., claustro ['klaws·tɾo] “cloister”) and CCGVC (e.g., triángulo ['tɾjaŋ·ɡu·lo] “triangle”).7 In spite of all those possibilities, the idea that Spanish has a relatively simple syllable structure comes more from a ‘statistical fact’ than from an absolute rule. Indeed, most syllables used in Spanish words are just formed by a consonant plus a vowel (CV), and the possibility of complex onsets and codas is limited by a set of ‘phonotactic constraints’ that greatly reduce the number of admissible syllables (see Colina, 2020). Actually, it has been estimated that 57.45% of the syllables in Spanish texts have a CV structure (Arias Rodríguez, 2016: pp 29), and that the total number of different admissible syllables is 11,642 (Coloma, 2017: pp 29). This is a very large number if we compare it with languages with ‘simple syllable structures’ (such as the Papuan language Koiari, that only has 70 admissible syllables) but it is much smaller that the number of syllables in languages like Vietnamese, which has 52,007 different possible syllables (Shosted, 2006: pp 37-38). Onsets with two consonants, for example, can only occur in Spanish if the second consonant is either /ɾ/ or /l/. The admissible clusters, moreover, are limited to /pɾ/ (e.g., preso ['pɾe·so] “prisoner”), /tɾ/ (e.g., trozo ['tɾo·so] “piece”), /kɾ/ (e.g., crudo ['kɾu·ðo] “raw”), /fɾ/ (e.g., frío ['fɾi·o] “cold”), /bɾ/ (e.g., bruja ['bɾu·xa] “witch”), /dɾ/ (e.g., drama ['dɾa·ma] “drama”), /ɡɾ/ (e.g., grito ['ɡɾi·to] “scream”), /pl/ (e.g., pluma ['plu·ma] “feather”), /tl/ (e.g., atlas ['a·tlas] “atlas”), /kl/ (e.g., clavo ['kla·βo] “nail”), /fl/ (e.g., flecha ['fle·tʃa] “arrow”), /bl/ (e.g., blando ['blan·do] “soft”) and /ɡl/ (e.g., globo ['ɡlo·βo] “balloon”). Two-consonant codas, similarly, are also severely restricted to cases in which the last consonant is /s/. The admissible combinations are /bs/ (e.g., abstemio [aβs·'te·mjo] “teetotaler”), /ds/ (e.g., adscripto [aðs·'kɾip·to] 7

There are also some extremely rare cases of syllables with 6 phonemes, that occur in words augmented by a prefix. One example of this is the first syllable of the word preinscribir [pɾejns·kɾi·'βiɾ] “to enroll in advance”, whose structure is CCVGCC. In Spain, one can also find syllables with 6 phonemes in some second-person plural verb forms, such as the second syllable of ampliáis [am·'pljajs] “you enlarge”, whose structure is CCGVGC.

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“attached”), /ps/ (e.g., fórceps ['foɾ·seps] “pincers”), /ts/ (e.g., superávits [su·pe·'ɾa·βits] “surpluses”), /ks/ (e.g., externo [eks·'teɾ·no] “external”), /ɡs/ (e.g., blogs ['bloɣs] “blogs”), /fs/ (e.g., chefs ['tʃefs] “cooks”), /ns/ (e.g., instinto [ins·'tin·to] “instinct”), /ɾs/ (e.g., perspectiva [peɾs·pek·'ti·βa] “perspective”) and /ls/ (e.g., solsticio [sols·'ti·sjo] “solstice”). There is also the case of the word istmo ['ist·mo] “isthmus”, whose first syllable has /st/ in coda. That combination was also found in some Latinisms that began with the prefix “post-” (e.g., postdata [post·'ða·ta] “postscript”). Those words, however, are now written and pronounced without “t” (e.g., posdata [poh·'ða·ta]), so the /st/ coda is practically inexistent in modern Spanish.8 Codas with only one consonant are also subject to some constraints. At the end of a word, for example, it is common to find the following five phonemes: /n/ (e.g., camión [ka·'mjon] “truck”), /s/ (e.g., atrás [a·'tɾas] “backwards”), /d/ (e.g., salud [sa·'luð] “health”), /ɾ/ (e.g., lugar [lu·'ɣaɾ] “place”) and /l/ (e.g., papel [pa·'pel] “paper”). Less likely, but nevertheless possible, are /b/ (e.g., club ['kluβ] “club”), /p/ (e.g., kétchup ['ke·tʃup] “ketchup”), /f/ (e.g., rosbif [roh·'βif] “roast beef”), /m/ (e.g., tótem ['to·tem] “totem”), /t/ (e.g., robot [ro·'βot] “robot”), /tʃ/ (e.g., sándwich ['saŋ·witʃ] “sandwich”), /ɡ/ (e.g., esmog [eh·'moɣ] “smog”), /k/ (e.g., coñac [ko·'ɲak] “brandy”) and /x/ (e.g., reloj [re·'lox] “clock”). The phoneme /ʃ/ is also used in Argentine Spanish for codas in some loanwords (e.g., garage [ɡa·'ɾaʃ] “parking lot”), but neither /r/ nor /ɲ/ can appear in coda. In onset positions, conversely, the 17 consonant phonemes are contrastive. The only restriction here is the already mentioned absence of /ɾ/ in word-initial positions (where it is neutralized by /r/). Spanish, moreover, has a clear preference for onsets instead of codas. Due to that, every sequence formed by a consonant between two full vowels (VCV) is syllabified as V·CV and never as VC·V, for example: amo “master” → paró “he/she stopped” → deshago “I undo” →

8

['a·mo] and not *['am·o] [pa·'ɾo] and not *[paɾ·'o] [de·'sa·ɣo] and not *[des·'aɣ·o]

The combination /st/, however, is usual in cases where /s/ is the last phoneme of a syllable and /t/ is the first phoneme of the following syllable (e.g., estado [eh·'ta·ðo] “state”, lastimar [lah·ti·'maɾ] “to hurt”, etc.).

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Finally, it can be observed that the five vowel phonemes (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ and /u/) can all play the role of nucleus in a Spanish syllable (e.g., mar ['maɾ] “sea”, red ['reð] “net”, fin ['fin] “end”, sol ['sol] “sun”, luz ['lus] “light”), and in that case they are pronounced as full vowels. All vowels except /a/ can also appear as glides when there are diphthongs or triphthongs. In those cases, the implied restrictions are basically the following: a.

When two or more vowels are in the same syllable, the most open one is pronounced as a full vowel, and the most closed ones as glides. The full vowel then acts as the nucleus of the syllable. For example, in the first syllable of peine ['pej·ne] “comb”, /e/ is the most open vowel, and is therefore pronounced as a full vowel [e]. On the contrary, /i/ is more closed than /e/, and is therefore pronounced as a glide [j]. b. Two adjacent vowels cannot be in the same syllable if the most closed one is stressed. For example, in the word día ['di·a] “day”, the vowel /i/, which is more closed than /a/, is stressed. It therefore happens that /i/ and /a/ must be in different syllables, so in this case there is not a diphthong but a hiatus. This rule is independent of the order of the vowels, since it also holds when the most open vowel (e.g., /a/) precedes the most closed vowel (e.g., /i/). So in a word such as caí [ka·'i] “I fell” there is also a hiatus, since /i/ is stressed, and therefore /a/ and /i/ must be in different syllables. c. If two vowels are equally open (for example, /e/ and /o/), and they are both in the same syllable, then the first one is pronounced as a glide and the second one is pronounced as a full vowel, and that one is the nucleus. For example, in the word leopardo [le̯ o·'paɾ·ðo] “leopard”, /e/ is generally pronounced as a glide [e̯ ] in Argentine Spanish, and /o/ is pronounced as a full vowel [o]. Similarly, in the word poesía [po̯e·'si·a] “poetry”, /o/ is generally pronounced as a glide [o̯] and /e/ is pronounced as a full vowel [e]. The same occurs with the sequence /iu/, which in diphthongs is always pronounced as [ju] and never as [iw] (e.g., ciudad [sju·'ðað] “city”, triunfo ['tɾjum·fo] “triumph”). d. The only exception to this last rule appears in a few cases for the diphthong /ui/. In that sequence, both vowels are closed, so /u/ should be pronounced as a glide [w] and /i/ should be pronounced as a full vowel [i]. That is indeed the case for most situations in Argentine Spanish (e.g., fui ['fwi] “I went”, cuidar [kwi·'ðaɾ] “to look after”, distribuir [dih·tɾi·'βwiɾ] “to distribute”), but not for the pronunciation

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of the adverb muy [muj] “very”, for which the diphthong /ui/ becomes [uj]. That pronunciation is also found in some forms of some verbs ended in -uir, such as huiremos [uj·'ɾe·mos] “we will flee”, destruirían [deh·tɾuj·'ɾi·an] “they would destroy”, etc.

Resyllabification The rules governing syllable structure in Spanish undergo some important changes if syllables are analyzed in the context of connected speech. When words are pronounced together in a phrase or clause, some phonemes may disappear, while others may shift from one word to another. Consider, for example, the following (relatively simple) sentence: Ellos sirvieron una ensalada de espinaca. /'e·ʃos siɾ·'bie·ɾon 'u·na en·sa·'la·da de es·pi·'na·ka/ “They served a spinach salad” As we can see, this sentence is made up of 6 (syntactic) words, that can be divided into 16 different syllables. The standard pronunciation of this utterance in Argentine Spanish, however, is the following: ['e·ʃo siɾ·'βje·ɾo 'nu·nae̯ n sa·'la·ða ðeh·pi·'na·ka] This pronunciation implies using only 14 syllables, which are grouped into 5 (phonological) words. Those words are all different from the original ones, and three of them ([siɾ'βjeɾo], ['nunae̯ n] and [ðehpi'naka]) are meaningless when analyzed in isolation. Moreover, the other two words have an actual meaning in Spanish, but that meaning is different from the original one: ['eʃo] (ello) means “it” instead of “they”, while [sa'laða] (salada) menas “salty” instead of “salad”. So someone who understands a bit of Spanish, but is not familiar with its resyllabification conventions, may think that this sentence is about ‘something that is salty’ instead of being about ‘people who served a salad’. For a native speaker of Spanish, conversely, ['eʃo siɾ'βjeɾo 'nunae̯ n sa'laða ðehpi'naka] undoubfully means “they served a spinach salad”, because all the changes in syllable structure that occur in the pronunciation of that sentence

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are completely predictable from a set of rules that govern resyllabification across word boundaries. Those rules are essentially the following: a.

When a word ends with a consonant, and the following word begins with the same consonant, one of those sounds can be omitted. So ellos sirvieron becomes ['eʃo siɾ'βjeɾon], which implies that two consecutive identical consonants merge into a single [s]. b. When a word ends with a consonant, and the following word begins with a vowel, the consonant can be absorbed by the first syllable of the second word. So sirvieron una becomes [siɾ'βjeɾo 'nuna], with the sound [n] (that belongs to the syntactic word sirvieron) pronounced as the onset of the first syllable of una (which is therefore transformed into ['nuna]). c. When a word ends with a vowel, and the following word begins with the same vowel, one of those sounds can be omitted. So de espinaca becomes [ðehpi'naka], which implies that two identical vowels merge into a single [e], and therefore the syllables /de/ and /es/ are pronounced as one syllable ([ðeh]). d. When a word ends with a vowel, and the following word begins with a different vowel, the last syllable of the first word can also merge with the first syllable of the second word. This allows una ensalada to become ['unae̯ n sa'laða], with the last syllable of the first word /na/ merging with the first syllable of the second word /en/. In this case, the most closed vowel (which is /e/) is pronounced as a glide [e̯ ], and the most open vowel (which is /a/) becomes the nucleus of the newly formed syllable ([nae̯ n]). Note that the first two resyllabification rules imply situations in which the total number of syllables remains the same (e.g., /'e·ʃos siɾ·'bie·ɾon 'u·na/ has the same number of syllables that ['e·ʃo siɾ·'βje·ɾo 'nu·na]). The other two rules, conversely, imply the occurrence of ‘syllable mergers’, since two syllables that are originally different in isolated speech become a single syllable in connected speech (e.g., /de/ + /es/ becomes [ðeh], while /na/ + /en/ becomes [nae̯ n]).9 Although syllable mergers can occur word-internally (see, for example, Hualde, 2020: pp 164-166), their most interesting characteristics show up 9

For a more complete explanation of this phenomenon, see Hualde (2005: pp 87-91).

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when they appear across word boundaries. In those cases, it is useful to establish which conditions induce the occurrence of a merger and which conditions disfavor (or block) such occurrence. One important determinant seems to be syllable stress, as the following examples show: Canto afuera /'kan·to a'fue·ɾa/ “I sing outside” → Canto algo /'kan·to 'al·ɡo/ “I sing something” →

['kan·to̯a 'fwe·ɾa] ['kan 'to̯al·ɣo] or ['kan·to 'al·ɣo] Cantó afuera /kan·'to a'fue·ɾa/ “He sang outside” → [kan·'to̯a 'fwe·ɾa] or [kan·'to a'fwe·ɾa] Cantó algo /kan·'to 'al·ɡo/ “He sang something” → [kan·'to 'al·ɣo] As we see, when the last syllable of the first word and the first syllable of the second word are both unstressed (e.g., canto afuera), then the syllable merger becomes almost obligatory (['kan·to̯a 'fwe·ɾa]). Conversely, when both syllables are stressed (e.g., cantó algo), merger is almost impossible, and syllables remain separated ([kan·'to 'al·ɣo]). When one syllable is stressed and the other one is unstressed (e.g., canto algo, cantó afuera), merger can occur or not, depending on the decision of the speaker (and probably, on the pragmatic meaning of the utterance that he or she is producing). Hualde (2020: pp 172) mentions a statistical study about the Spanish spoken by US Americans (Alba, 2006) which found that merger is more common if the last syllable of the first word is stressed and the first syllable of the second word is not (which in our case would be represented by cantó afuera) than in situations where the last syllable of the first word is unstressed and the first syllable of the second word is stressed (e.g., canto algo). This also seems to be plausible for River Plate Spanish (and for most varieties of Spanish, I believe). Syllable mergers across word boundaries are clearly a major source of phonological diphthongs in spoken Spanish. For example, in the Argentine Spanish phonetic transcription of the fable “The North Wind and the Sun” that appears in Coloma (2018: pp 248), there are 32 diphthongs, but only 19 of them are within the words that make up the text. The remaining 13 diphthongs are created by synalepha, i.e., they are the result of syllable mergers across word boundaries. Synalepha is also the most common source of triphthongs. Indeed, when one wants to mention examples of triphthongs in Spanish, one is restricted to a few words such as buey ['bwej] “ox” or hioides ['joj·ðes] “hyoid bone”. If

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we include instances of triphthongs derived from syllable mergers, however, the list becomes almost infinite: antigua usina [an·'ti·ɣwaw 'si·na] “old powerhouse”, continuó igual [kon·ti·'nwoj 'ɣwal] “it continued in the same way”, limpia y barre ['lim·pjaj 'βa·re] “he cleans and he sweeps”, pinos y eucaliptos ['pi·no sjew·ka·'lip·tos] “pines and eucalyptus”, etc. Besides, through the process of merging syllables, it is also possible to find instances of four and even five vowels coexisting in the same syllable (i.e., to create ‘quadriphthongs’ and ‘quintiphthongs’). Examples of these forms could be the following: Nadie airea /'na·die ai·'ɾe·a/ “Nobody ventilates” → ['na·ðje̯ aj·'ɾe·a] Actuó audazmente /ak·'tuo au·das·'men·te/ “He/she acted boldly” → [ak·'two̯aw ðah·'men·te] Volvió a Europa /bol·'bio a eu·'ɾo·pa/ “He/she returned to Europe” → [bol·'βjo̯ae̯ w·'ɾo·pa] As we can see, the first two examples (that produce syllables with four vowels) imply situations in which the first word ends in a rising diphthong ([je], [wo]) and the second word begins with a falling diphthong ([aj], [aw]). To get a syllable merger, we also need that at least one of the merging syllables is originally unstressed. In the first example, both of them are; in the second one, the last syllable of the first word is stressed but the first syllable of the second word is unstressed. Even more difficult is to obtain a single syllable with five vowels, as occurs in our third example. In that case there is a rising diphthong ([jo]) followed by an open vowel ([a]) plus a falling diphthong ([ew]). We also need that not more than one of the three merging syllables is originally stressed (in this case, it is the last syllable of the first word), and that neither the rising diphthong nor the falling diphthong include the vowel [a]. This allows the sequence of vowels to be like this: “closed-mid-open-mid-closed”, which is one of the extremely few five-vowel combinations that can coexist in a single syllable in Spanish.10

10

The sequence “closed-closed-open-mid-closed” is also possible, as is shown in another similar example: Fui a Europa /'fui a eu·'ɾo·pa / “I went to Europe”, that can be pronounced ['fwjae̯ w·'ɾo·pa].

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One last possibility of resyllabification, which does not involve syllable mergers, occurs when a word ends with a complex coda, and the following word begins with a vowel. That is a very rare situation in Spanish, basically because only a few words end in two-consonant codas. Nevertheless, it is an interesting case to mention, because a special phenomenon occurs: only the last consonant of the first word is absorbed by the second word, while the first consonant remains in coda. Examples of this are the following: vals austríaco /'bals aus·'tɾi·a·ko/ “Austrian waltz” → ['bal sawh·'tɾi·a·ko] tórax estrecho /'to·ɾaks es·'tɾe·tʃo/ “narrow chest” → ['to·ɾak seh·'tɾe·tʃo] bíceps izquierdo /'bi·seps is·'kieɾ·do/ “left biceps”→ ['bi·sep sih·'kjeɾ·ðo] Note that these resyllabifications mimic the way in which consonant combinations behave word-internally. Indeed, when we find clusters such as /ls/, /ks/ and /ps/ within a word and followed by a vowel, Spanish syllabification rules prescribe that the first consonant is in coda and the second one is the onset of the following syllable. Examples of this can be found in words such as balsa ['bal·sa] “raft”, acceso [ak·'se·so] “access” and asepsia [a·'sep·sja] “asepsis”.

Conclusion From all the descriptions and analyses performed in the previous sections, we can conclude that the phonology of Argentine Spanish presents the following aspects that are worth mentioning: a.

Argentine Spanish consonant inventory is basically the same than the one of most Latin American Spanish varieties, with the particularity of the inclusion of the assibilated postalveolar fricative phoneme /ʃ/, instead of the most common non-assibililated palatal phoneme /ʝ/. b. Its vowel inventory is also the standard one for Latin American (and also European) Spanish varieties, and their only relevant allophones are the glides [j], [w], [e̯ ] and [o̯]. c. A salient characteristic of the pronunciation of Argentine Spanish vowels, however, is the extensive use of [e̯ ] and [o̯] in situations where other Spanish varieties tend to use the full vowels [e] and [o].

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d. Like all other Spanish varieties, Argentine Spanish presents several phoneme contrast neutralizations. The most noticeable is probably the one that cancels the opposition between [ɲ] and [nj], which makes that words such as huraño “unsociable” and uranio “uranium” can be perceived as homophones. e. Concerning stress, the most striking particularity found in Argentine Spanish pronunciation is probably the pattern followed by verb forms that include enclitic pronouns. In those cases, it is common that Argentinians stress some of those pronouns, and this makes that words which in standard Spanish are preproparoxytone or proparoxitone are sometimes pronounced as if they were oxytone. f. The most important regional variation in the phonology of Argentine Spanish has to do with the pronunciation of the phoneme /r/, which is pronounced as an assibilated voiced alveolo-palatal fricative [ʑ] in the Northern regions of Argentina, and as a trill [r] in the rest of the country. g. Argentine Spanish is also noticeable for its extensive use of resyllabification rules when words are pronounced in a context of connected speech. The most important ones have to do with the possibility of creating new diphthongs and triphthongs when there is synalepha, and with the absorption of consonants that are in coda at the end of a word and are pronounced as if they were the onset of the first syllable of the next word.

Acknowlegments I thank Laura Colantoni and José Ignacio Hualde for their useful comments. All remaining errors are mine.

References Alba, Matthew (2006). Acounting for variability in the production of Spanish vowel sequences. In Sagarra, Nuria & Jacqueline Toribio, eds: Proceedings of the 9th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, pp 273–285. Arias Rodríguez, Iván (2016). Cálculo de frecuencias de aparición de fonemas y alófonos en español actual utilizando un transcriptor automático [Calculation of frequencies of

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appearance of phonemes and allophones in current Spanish using an automatic transcriptionist] Loquens 3(1), e029. Bongiovanni, Silvina (2021a). Acoustic investigation of anticipatory vowel nasalization in a Caribbean and a non-Caribbean dialect of Spanish. Linguistics Vanguard 7(1), 20200008. Bongiovanni, Silvina (2021b). An acoustical analysis of the merger of /ɲ/ and /nj/ in Buenos Aires Spanish. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 51(2), pp 177–201. Colantoni, Laura (2006). Micro and macro sound variation and change in Argentine Spanish. In Sagarra & Toribio, op. cit., pp 91–102. Colantoni, Laura & José Ignacio Hualde (2013). Variación fonológica en el español de la Argentina [Phonological variation in the Spanish of Argentina]. In Colantoni, Laura & Celeste Rodríguez Louro, eds: Perspectivas teóricas y experimentales sobre el español de la Argentina, pp 21–36. Madrid, Iberoamericana Vervuert. Colantoni, Laura & José Ignacio Hualde (2016). Conditions on front mid-vowel gliding in Spanish. In Nuñez-Cedeño, Rafael, ed: The Syllable and Stress, pp 3-27. Boston, Mouton de Gruyter. Colantoni, Laura & María Cristina Cuervo (2013). Clíticos acentuados [accented clitics]. In Colantoni & Rodríguez Louro, op. cit., pp 143-157. Colina, Sonia (2020). Phonotactic constraints on syllable structure. In Colina, Sonia & Fernando Martínez-Gil, eds: The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Phonology, pp 131144. Oxford, Routledge. Coloma, Germán (2017). La complejidad de los idiomas[The complexity of languages]. Oxford, Peter Lang. Coloma, Germán (2018). Argentine Spanish. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 48(2), pp 243–250. Dryer, Matthew & Martin Haspelmath (2013). The World Atlas of Language Structures. Leipzig, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Eberhard, David, Gary Simons & Charles Fennig (2021). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 24th edition. Dallas, SIL International. Fontanella, Beatriz (1987). El español bonaerense[Buenos Aires Spanish]. Buenos Aires, Hachette. Fontanella, Beatriz (2004). El español de la Patagonia [The Spanish of Patagonia]. In Fontanella, Beatriz, ed: El español de la Argentina y sus variedades regionales, pp 209-219. Bahía Blanca, Asociación Rivadavia. Gurlekian, Jorge, Laura Colantoni & Humberto Torres (2001). El alfabeto fonético SAMPA y el diseño de corpora fonéticamente balanceados [The SAMPA phonetic alphabet and phonetically balanced corpora design ]. Fonoaudiológica 47(3), pp 58– 69. Herrero, Alfredo & John Hajek (2020). Eastern Andalusian Spanish. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, available online. Hualde, José Ignacio (2005). The sounds of Spanish. New York, Cambridge University Press. Hualde, José Ignacio (2020). Syllable merger. In Colina & Martínez-Gil, op. cit., pp 162180.

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Kaisse, Ellen (2020). Glides and high vowels in Spanish. In Colina & Martínez-Gil, op. cit., pp 145-161. Martínez, Eugenio, Ana Fernández & Josefina Carrera (2003). Castilian Spanish. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33(2), pp 255–259. Monroy, Rafeel & Juan Hernández (2015). Murcian Spanish. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 45(2), pp 229–240. Penny, Ralph (2004). Variation and change in Spanish. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Real Academia Española (2011). Nueva gramática de la lengua española: fonética y fonología [New grammar of the Spanish language: phonetics and phonology]. Madrid, Espasa-Calpe. Real Academia Española (2012). Ortografía básica de la lengua española [Basic spelling of the Spanish language]. Madrid, Espasa-Calpe. Roca, Iggy (2020). Spanish verb and non-verb stress. In Colina & Martínez-Gil, op. cit., pp 181-221. Rohena-Madrazo, Marcos (2015). Diagnosing the completion of a sound change: phonetic and phonological evidence for /ʃ/ in Buenos Aires Spanish. Language Variation and Change 27(3), pp 287-317. Rojas, Elena (2004). El español en el noroeste [The Spanish in the Northwest],. In Fontanella op. cit., pp 161-187. Shosted, Ryan (2006). Correlating complexity: a typological approach. Linguistic Typology 10, pp 1-40. Torres-Tamarit, Francesc (2020). Phonemic contrast and neutralization. In Colina & Martínez-Gil, op. cit., pp 3-33.

Chapter 2

Duabͻ ‘Grievance Imprecation’ in Ghanaian Party Politics Kofi Agyekum1, and Catherine Ekua Mensah1,2,† 1Department

of Linguistics, University of Ghana, Ghana of Ghanaian Languages and Linguistics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana 2Department

Abstract This paper discusses duabͻ ‘grievance imprecation’ in Ghanaian party politics from the Akan sociocultural perspective. It considers duabͻ as an Akan verbal taboo and examines the factors that allow this verbal taboo to be broken or used openly in party politics. An empirical data for the study is from traditional prayer text videos which contain elements of duabͻ taken from YouTube. The paper analyses duabͻ within the framework of Language Ideology and Speech Act, which reveal a people’s beliefs and worldview about their language and culture that explains the justification as well as the rationale behind a people’s action. It is argued that people cannot disentangle themselves from their traditional religious beliefs and cultural perception, worldview and their social structures irrespective of where and when they find themselves. The spiritual forces of nature involved in imprecation are believed to be impartial and quick in their judgments. Duabͻ has become a ‘spiritual judge’ that Ghanaian politicians deem effective so much so that they resort to it for justice, revenge, peace, equity, harm, spite, self-defense, proof of innocence and a show of anger.

 †

Corresponding Author’s Email: [email protected]. Corresponding Author’s Email: [email protected] /[email protected].

In: Sociolinguistics Editor: Marcus K. Jakobsen ISBN: 979-8-88697-018-0 © 2022 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

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Keywords: duabͻ, grievance imprecation, party politics, language ideology

Introduction The Akan Language Akan is a Kwa language (Boadi, 2005; Osam, 2004; Sekyi-Baidoo, 2019). It is the language spoken by the Akan people of Ghana. The language is also spoken in the central and eastern parts of Cote d’Ivoire. Akan is used as a collective term for a cluster of thirteen dialects spoken by the Akan people of Ghana. According to the 2021 population and housing census, the Akan people make up 47.5% of Ghana’s population. Mfantse and Twi constitute the two broad dialects of Akan in Ghana and they are mutually intelligible. There are thirteen dialects of Akan which include Agona, Akuapem, Akwamu, Akyem, Asante, Assin, Bron, Buem, Denkyira, Fantse, Kwahu, Twifo, Wassa, (Agyekum, 2010, Wiafe-Akenteng, 2017). Some linguistic features of Akan are tone, vowel harmony, nasalization and serial verb constructions. The cultural centres of the language are considered to be the Asante, Ahafo, Bono, Bono East, Central, Eastern, Oti, Western and Western North Regions of Ghana (see Agyekum 2020). Thus, Akan speakers are densely populated in nine out of the sixteen regions of Ghana even though speakers of the language are scattered all over the country. The Twi and Mfantse dialects of Akan are officially recognized as a medium of instruction and a subject of study in schools. The dialects are also used as a medium of communication in religious activities, business transactions, local arbitration, politics and in the mass media, (Mensah, 2016). The language is full of proverbs, idioms and other literary features which express certain cultural ideas of the Akan people.

Background The Akan society has its own social control mechanisms. One of these mechanisms is taboo. There are a lot of taboos that are ingrained in the Akan language and culture. The etymology of ‘taboo’ can be traced to the Polynesian term ‘tabu’ which means forbidden. Putting it in a historical context, Osei (2006) states that, “taboo was a sacred term for a set of cultic or religious prohibitions instituted by traditional religious authorities as

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instruments for moral motivation, guidance, and objectivity for protecting the sanctity of their shrines and the wellbeing of their worshipping communities.” With this historical background, it is not surprising that taboos have religious connotation. However, the term has been extended to include the prohibition or a ban on certain socio-cultural and economic behaviors. Thus, when these prohibitions are violated, sanctions are applied. Taboos can be verbal and behavioral. Verbal taboo involves the prohibitions on words and expressions relating to certain phenomena in a particular society, while behavioral taboo involves the prohibitions on certain actions in a particular society. For instance, among the Akan, incest is a behavioral taboo while the raw mentioning of the human genitalia is a verbal taboo. Taboos, whether verbal or behavioral, act as checks and balances on the behavior of the Akan. Taboos also control and regulate the activities of the people who practise it for the well-being of the society. One of the most popular verbal taboos in the Akan society is duabͻ (mpaamba1), which is referred to as ‘grievance imprecation by invocation’. Agyekum (1999) refers to duabͻ as ‘grievance imprecation by invocation’ because for him, duabͻ comes about as a result of grievance. To a large extent, grieve comes with enmity and eventually leads to a curse. According to Agyekum (2010), duabͻ is “a type of religious verbal taboo which involves the employment of magical and supernatural powers to cause harm to one’s addressee.” Hammond (2019) supports this definition by stating that “it is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall a person or an entity.” The actors in imprecation are both physical bodies and spiritual beings. In most cases of imprecation, the physical bodies consult the spiritual beings to attack the addressees on their behalf. Even though duabͻ is a taboo, it is permitted in the Akan culture during certain formal settings. For example, we find elements of imprecation in traditional prayer text during naming ceremony, marriage ceremony, funeral celebration, arbitration and among others. The permission of imprecation in the above activities is justified by the belief that, it will scare and force anybody who has planned to do evil or to do anything that will have a negative effect to rescind their decision to do the right thing. The imprecation serves as a cultural way of ensuring justice and protection. Even though the practise of duabͻ has been

1

The Mfantse speakers of Akan refer to duabͻ as mpaamba. For them, it is a serious action whereby the one who performs the imprecation shouts (ͻpaa mu) to invoke certain calamities on the addressee.

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in existence for a long time, it is practised largely within a cultural setting. In most cases, the imprecator performs the actions without the knowledge of the addressee. Duabͻ is mostly practised by individuals as part of a traditional prayer in places such as shrines, riverside, rocky areas, homes and traditional courts. Akans believe that the deities reside in these places. Both men and women are involved in duabͻ practices. In recent times, it appears this traditional weapon is so common that it has become prevalent in formal party politics. Some politicians2 in Ghana openly resort to duabͻ for various reasons. What this paper seeks to do is to analyse some political imprecation texts to discover their themes, diction, tone/mood and other stylistic elements. More importantly, the paper tries to discover why imprecation has become a common practice among politicians in Ghana. In the rest of the paper, we shall look at the concept of imprecation duabͻ. We shall also discuss language ideology and Speech Acts as the theoretical frameworks for this study. We will then continue with the methodology and follow it up with findings, discussion and then conclusion.

The Concept of Duabͻ, ‘Grievance Imprecation’ Duabͻ is a communicative event during which an aggrieved person appeals to the supernatural to act on their behalf. Even though the practice itself is nonviolent, most of the time, it is believed that its end results is not pleasant since it can bring havoc and may lead to the death of the imprecatee and their descendants. For instance, we identified in the data that, even though it was one Shallot Osei that was being imprecated, the imprecator said he was going to use Shallot’s own children to thank the deities. This death also brings about reduction in population, hence, reduction in the labour force of the Akan people, (Agyekum, 1999; Tweneboah: 2014). It is the affliction of diseases on the imprecatee and loss of life which actually make duabͻ a taboo. Generally, Akans always want their numbers and imprecation brings about reduction in their numbers, which might eventually lead to their extinction. This is one of the reasons for which the Akans consider duabͻ a taboo. Again, the practice

2

By politicians, (for the purpose of this paper) we mean members of a political party who may or may not have an executive position. In this case, party executives, members of the grass root, foot soldiers and anybody who associate themselves or sympathize with a particular political party is a politician.

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is being tabooed so that it will restrict people from resorting to it indiscriminately.

Etymology of Duabͻ Duabͻ is a compound word which can be understood in terms of the constituent words dua and bͻ. Etymologically, it comes from the verb bͻ ‘hit’ and the noun dua ‘club, stick, tree, wood.’ Literally, duabͻ means to club or hit [somebody] with a tree, stick or wood. Tweneboah, (2014) gives an interestingly traditional interpretation to duabͻ. According to him, in the past, “the common and the worst mishap for someone was when a tree fell on them in the bush.” It means that, it was a tragedy for a deceased to have died out of this. Tweneboah continues that, it was common to hear people say that dua abu abͻ no ‘a tree has fallen on him.’ With time, the expression dua abu abͻ no has been corrupted to become duabͻ. Well, the sense we get from this is that, since death by a tree falling on somebody was a great tragedy and a disaster, people would normally pray that this calamity befalls their enemies. Agyekum (2010) also explains that, in the olden days, when there were no metal and iron weapons, the most common weapon for war and execution was the club thus their usage in duabͻ, ‘grievance imprecation.’ This interpretation means that, if anybody wanted to harm an enemy, that person could use a club to either wound or kill the enemy. Agyekum (2010:64) adds that, “duabͻ is a spiritual execution where the physical execution is encoded in the spiritual world.” In trying to figure out how this physical action came to have a spiritual connotation, we found out that it is a matter of religious belief. There is the strong belief that spoken words are powerful, Simango and Krüger (2016). Akans also believe that there are spirits everywhere-in rivers, trees, rocks, air, etc. These spirits are considered to be deities who act quickly when issues are brought before them. They are then called upon by people who practise duabͻ to intervene, so that, what they want to do will come into fruition. Duabͻ then becomes an action whereby a person wishes to kill or cause harm to another person, but recognizes that the human powers are limited and so appeals to spirits/deities to execute their plans for them since the spirits are considered to be more powerful. In this case, even though the imprecators perform a physical action, they have the belief that the deities can do it more, faster and best. This explains why the imprecators employ supernatural powers to act on their

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behalf. In this regard, duabͻ, can be referred to as curse rendered through a prayer. This prayer has been practised by the Akan since time immemorial. Yeboah (2011), commenting on biblical imprecatory prayer, states that “imprecatory prayer springs from the Old Testament curse theology that reflects the holiness of God and His faithfulness to His covenant promises.” He defines ‘biblical imprecation’ as “a pattern of divine judgment through curses upon those who violate God’s word as is evident in the Old Testament books3 (Gen 3:17), (Gen 4:11), (Gen 9:23) in the case of Adam and Eve, Cane and Noah cursing Canaan respectively.” Simango and Krüger (2016) add to this by explaining that, the characteristic feature of imprecatory psalms4 is a cry for divine vengeance, and an appeal to God to pour out his wrath on the psalmist’s enemies. This contribution also accounts for why in imprecation, deities are consulted to act on behalf of the imprecator. This practice has become a tool in Ghana’s party politics and research cannot take for granted why duabͻ has become common in the political sphere. When asked whether duabͻ works, it was revealed by the informants that it has dreadful consequences on the imprecatees. Duabͻ works depending on the cause and the source that engineered it. There is the belief that when a person is imprecated, the deities form a jury to decide on the action to take. If the imprecatee is guilty, the gods will punish him/her based on the pronouncement made by the imprecator. It is believed that if a person offends 3

(Gen 3:17) He told the man, "Because you have listened to what your wife said, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you. You'll eat from it through pain-filled labor for the rest of your life. (Gen 4:11) Now you’re more cursed than the ground, which has opened to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. (Gen 9:23) But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked. 4 (Psalm 109: 6-20) Set over him a wicked man; let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayer be regarded as sin. May his days be few; may another take his position. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children wander as beggars, seeking sustenance far from their ruined homes. May the creditor seize all he owns, and strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. May there be no one to extend kindness to him, and no one to favor his fatherless children. May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation. May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and the sin of his mother never be blotted out. May their sins always remain before the Lord, that He may cut off their memory from the earth. For he never thought to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and brokenhearted, even to their death. The cursing that he loved may it fall on him; the blessing in which he refused to delight may it be far from him. The cursing that he wore like a coat, may it soak into his body like water, and into his bones like oil. May it be like a robe wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him. May this be the LORD’s reward to my accusers, to those who speak evil against me.

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someone and realizes his or her fault and apologizes to the person he/she offended, the imprecation might not work on the imprecatee. This is because, the imprecator can plead with the deities on behalf of the imprecatee to revoke the curse. Among the Akan, an imprecation could be overturned. This could be done by the person who imprecated or a spiritualists/anybody who has the power to overturn the curse. The act of overturning duabͻ in Twi is termed duadane. Agyekum (2010) gives the structure of duabͻ as followed: Imprecator5 → MAND → Supernatural Being (NEMESIS) →Imprecatee Imprecator refers to the person who appeals to the deity. The mand refers to the powerful utterance which the imprecator makes to the deity. The utterance is reinforced by the compliance of the deity. The imprecatee refers to the person who the characteristic consequence is being directed to.

Theoretical Framework and Literature Review This section discusses the theories underpinning this study. It also discusses some literature related to the topic under study.

Language Ideology Language ideology (hence LI) is also referred to as linguistic ideology. According to Woolard and Cheiffelin (1994), it is a “set of beliefs about language articulated by users as a rationalization or justification of perceived language structure and use.” LI considers what people think and how they use language to express that thought. LI is supported by the view that speech is framed by social reaction as an integral part of the society. Language has a social-cognitive function which is common and unique to every member of a particular society. That is, each member of the society is aware of the implication of certain practices in the culture so they use language purposively in the sphere of human social activity that interest them. LI is therefore, seen as the force that shapes the understanding of verbal practices in a society. 5

The diagram is adopted from Agyekum 2010.

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In the theory of LI, to study language in use is to study what people do with language, what they believe and feel about language, and how both are part of larger structures of power and relationship. In this regard, language is not approached as an object or a set of practices only, but as a representation of a shared responsibility as well. Thus, it should be considered that language is part of all the forces that make up everyday life in the society. It includes the beliefs and attitudes that shape speakers’ relationships to their own and others’ languages, mediating between the social practice of language ethnopragmatics and the religious, socioeconomic and political structures within which it occurs. The LI theory was developed in the 1980s through to the 1990s (Woolard: 2020). It became dominant in the early 2010s as organizing frame for many who studied language in use. Researchers who studied the connection between language and power and the multifunctional nature of language in use, found that language does not just express ideas, but also forms relationships and moves people to action. LI captures the complex interplay between how language is viewed, used, and the hierarchies within which this use occurred and the ways in which cultural beliefs shape how meaning could be made. Ultimately, the theory addresses the question of power, belief, and language use hence its application in this politico-religious paper. LI addresses beliefs about language, feelings and conceptions about language that are socially organized in a systematically shared manner. Woolard and Cheiffelin (1994:72) describes the theory of LI as an intellectual bridge. This intellectual bridge relates the micro-culture of communicative action to political and economic considerations of power and social inequality that confronts macro-cultural constraints on language behavior. Micro-culture refers to the cultural group that are found within the macro-culture. Macro-culture refers to the dominant culture in a given community whereby its people share the same language, values, and traditions. A micro-culture, on the other hand, refers to a cultural group that exists within the dominant culture but has distinct values, customs, and linguistic practices. Blommaert (2005:171) is of the view that, it is important to study “the relationship between linguistic ideologies and other sociopolitical, or cultural ideologies—the question of how linguistic ideologies can and do become instruments of power as part of larger ideological complexes.” Cavanaugh (2019) contributing to the development of the theory of LI adds that the theory mediates “between the social practice of language and the socioeconomic and political structures within which it occurs.” In our view,

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LI helps to analyze and understand how power relations is revealed through everyday language use including duabͻ of the Akans.

The Speech Act Theory (SAT) Another theory that supports this study is the SAT which studies how words are used to present information and to carry out actions. The theory, as introduced by J. L. Austin (1975) and further developed by J. R. Searl (2005) considers the degree to which utterances are said to perform locutionary acts, illocutionary acts and perlocutionary acts to better understand human communication. The five illocutionary points given by Searle are: the assertive, commissive, directive, declaratory and expressive. Just as Austin pointed out, these points do not work in isolation however, the context of situation determines the speech act that is presented. Duabͻ fits the context of Speech Act because, as a speech activity, duabͻ has invocation, the part where the nemesis is invoked and the curse is made. There is also the part which shows the purpose of the imprecation and the last part which shows the consequencies that the imprecator wishes on the imprecatee (see Agyekum 1999:3). Duabͻ entails an expressive where the imprecator expresses the grievance that has engineered the curse. Directive speech act is also employed to request the deity (Nemesis) to unleash its wrath on the imprecatee.

Some Common Instances of Grievance Imprecation (Duabͻ) in Ghana and Related Literature A number of politically related cases of duabͻ have been recorded in Ghana. These can be found in media reports. A few of them have been included here. •

Excerpt one: On October 30, 2015, the Daily Graphic reported that, to settle the impasse in the election of who becomes the Presiding Member for the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), some supporters of one of the two candidates for the position, Nana Kofi Senya, resorted to the invocation of curses to compel members of the assembly to vote for their choice.

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•

•

•

Excerpt two: On 8th October, 2018, Graphic online reported that Osabarima Gyasi Boateng Aduako II, the chief of Akoase in the Birim North District of the Eastern Region of Ghana, has placed a ban on the uttering of curses in the community. He is said to have made this decision due to the rampant deaths in the community which comes about as a result of curses. Excerpt three: On June 09, 2020, Graphic online reported that, “The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. John Boadu, has directed constituency executives of the party to suspend all the people who invoked curses on the party leadership because of allegations that their preferred candidates had been disqualified from contesting the party's June 20 parliamentary primaries.” Apparently, the invocation of curse by some of the party members was one of the many protesting strategies that the members used. In reacting to this action, the NPP’s General Secretary described it as worrying. Excerpt four: On Wednesday, March 31, 2021, Mynewsghana.com reported that some angry NDC women invoked curses on Allotey Jacobs. The former Central Regional Chairman of the Party, Allotey Jacobs was accused of misconduct and non-commitment to the NDC party. The Cape Coast women organizer led the other women to perform duabͻ to expel him from the party.

Accounting for why imprecatory prayer has become so common in Africa and especially among African Christians, White (2012:4-5) lists a number of factors which include the African worldview, superstition, the language of libation, hermeneutical problem and current trend of prophetic ministry. For him, the African has an amazing worldview about spirits. Most Africans generally believe that anything physical is in constant relationship with the spiritual world, and that people completely depend on the spiritual powers and deities since the spiritual beings are more powerful. He adds that, “the language of the African traditional prayer (libation) naturally consists of imprecations”. Kilson (1978) also asserts that, the structure of traditional prayer text usually follows the sequence: invocation, message or explanation, supplication and a curse or imprecation. This understanding has naturally influenced the religious ideologies of the African christian. Once the African decides to pray, there should be parts of the prayer which bless and curse-thus, the presence of an imprecatory element. For example, in a typical traditional prayer, there is a part which must have something like …nyimpa bͻn a ͻmmpɛ

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hɛn yie no, onwu ewiaber ketekete ama yɛdze asaw bͻn aakͻ n’eyi ase, ‘any wicked person who does not wish us well should die a painful death so that we will rejoice over it’. This presupposes that, the African has the natural tendency to imprecate in some of their prayers. Due to the nature of the African traditional prayers, those who practise it do not see anything wrong with using imprecations to deal with their enemies. Providing a literary analysis of the imprecatory psalms to understand their “literary intricacies and theological significance”, Kim (2004) identified grieve, call/vow to praise, confession of innocence and complaints as some of the themes. With stylistic devices, he identified parallelism, repetition, end rhymes among others. His findings go to support the view that an imprecatory text is a prayer text and the structure of a prayer text is poetic in nature hence, the features of the prayer mimic the poetic structure. Expressing her views about the practice of curses in Ghana, Hammond (2019) asserts that, she finds curses as a practice that is gaining popularity in our lives these days. “It is not uncommon to find party activists invoking a curse on a party official.” She expressed astonishment about how despite the numerous institutions and laws available for people to seek redress, people still resort to duabͻ. She wonders if curses do not financially cost much or because of the immediate effect it appears to have and maybe because of low confidence that people have in the orthodox legal institutions. Tweneboah (2014) also found out among other things that, “The spiritual agencies involved in imprecation are known to be just and prompt in their responses.” He adds that duabͻ is “inherently a form of spiritual vigilantism, of people seeking vengeful supplication from the spiritual forces of nature in settling their grievances in society.” Spiritual vigilantism thus occurs when there is a grievance between an aggrieved person (imprecator) and his victim (the imprecatee). So, for us, this may be one of the reasons for which duabͻ has become a common practice among politicians. As reported by Asiedu-Addo (2020), on August 29, 2020, the Chief of Ankaful-Saltpond, Nana Kwame Ntsiful V, also called for the enactment of laws against the invocation of curses in the country. Apparently, he had observed that invocation of curses was gradually gaining ground in Ghana. Due to the negative effect of imprecation, he appealed to all well-meaning Ghanaians to condemn the practice and also make it unlawful. Thus, political party leaders and religious leaders should speak to their members to put a stop to it. All these concerns point to the fact that duabͻ. ‘imprecation’ is an issue of general concern which needs to be talked about.

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About the Two Major Political Parties in Ghana From the data, it appears duabͻ in Ghanaian politics is common among the two major political parties in Ghana, it is therefore important to talk about these political parties. The two major political parties in Ghana are the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC). According to Agyekum (2004), these are the two strongest political parties in the fourth republic of Ghana. The NPP was created from the United Party (UP) of the Busia-Dankwa tradition which together with the Convention Peoples’ Party, fought for Ghana’s independence in 1957. The NPP was formed in 1992. It contested the 1996 general elections and lost the presidential seat and many parliamentary seats to the NDC. NPP contested again in the 2000 general election and won the presidential seat. This time around, the NPP had the majority in parliament. It won 101 seats out of the 200 seats in parliament. With NPP’s win, J. A. Kuffour became Ghana’s president. The NPP ruled Ghana from 2000 to 2008 and handed over power to the NDC. The NPP took over the presidential seat again in 2016 and 2020 elections and it has been the governing party till now (2022). The NPP professes to be a capitalist party which believes in privatization, democracy and the rule of law however they always introduce some welfare systems and social interventions. It has red, white and blue as its colours and ‘development in freedom’ as its motto. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) developed from the Provincial National Defence Council (PNDC). The PNDC ruled Ghana during the military regime from 1981 to 1992 under the leadership of Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings. The PNDC overthrew PNP which ruled Ghana from 1979 to 1981. NDC was formed in 1992 and won both the 1992 and the 1996 elections with Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings as the president. The NDC won power again and ruled Ghana from 2008 to 2016 with Prof. J. E. Atta-Mills and John Dramani Mahama as the Presidents of Ghana respectively. The NDC professes to practise a social democracy which believes in the provision of social intervention, the practice of democracy and the rule of law. The NDC has an umbrella with the head of a dove at the tip as its symbol. The party colors are red, white, green, and black, and the party’s motto is ‘unity, stability, and development’. Thus, governance in Ghana has been alternating between the NPP and the NDC.

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Media, Political Discourse and Duabͻ in Ghana The type of imprecation we are discussing here can be termed as ‘mediatized political-imprecation’ because it involves politicians but it is made known to the public through the media. All the cases of imprecations we have cited were discussions that took place through media platforms. Research has shown that we cannot talk about modern politics by ignoring media discourse (Fairclough 1998, Agyekum 2004). The range of media discourse is very wide. Bell (1995:23) provides four ways by which the media is important to researchers who work with language and communication, and those who work within the broader field of media studies. These four ways are: first, media is a rich source of readily accessible data for research and teaching. Second, media usage influences and represents people's use of and attitudes towards language in a speech community. Third, media use can tell us a great deal about social meanings and stereotypes projected through language and communication. Fourth, the media reflect and influence the formation and expression of culture, politics and social life. Per this significance then, one can think of the relationship between media, language and politics along many lines which include power and understanding. These lines in their different ways, reveal to us the nature of the world. The media also provides insight into the sociocultural and political life of a society. The news that media discourses mostly focuses on, shapes the mindset of their audience about a particular society.

Methodology The study employed a qualitative research approach. Four YouTube videos of duabͻ were purposively used. The contents of the videos were transcribed, translated from Akan into English and analysed based on the research questions. We then used interviews to seek participants’ views on the prevalence of duabͻ in Ghanaian politics. Ten Akan speakers were interviewed on the subject matter. They were five females and five males who are between the ages of forty and seventy. These participants have had formal education up to at least secondary education. One of them doubles as ebusuapanyin6 a traditional leader and an academic at the University of Cape 6

The head of a clan.

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Coast. Two of the participants are chief’s spokespersons. All the participants are affiliated to one of the two major political parties in Ghana. We also used our native speaker knowledge to tease out the senses in the responses from the interview and the transcript.

Results and Discussion Themes in Duabͻ A theme refers to the dominant idea around which a literary piece revolves. A theme is actually what gives insight into human behavior, Agyekum (2013). The data analysed revealed the following themes. (a) maintenance of social power, (b) force of vengeance, (c) force of justice and (d) personal sentiments.

Duabͻ as a Strategy for Maintaining Social Power and Achieving Political Aims The data showed that, politicians resort to imprecation in order to maintain social power. The way someone speaks can be linked to what the person aims to achieve. It includes, making themselves powerful as against their opponents. By the speeches of the political imprecators, they try to exclude people from governing. The imprecation gives them some sort of spiritual backing and power. When they imprecate, it scares their opponents who might have thought of indulging in the very act that the imprecator might have spoken about. The imprecation causes fear in their opponents and most of the time, these opponents, for fear of the spiritual consequences that result from the imprecation, will not attempt to do anything to mar the election. Once their opponents relax, the imprecators get the opportunity to do ‘whatever they want’. The imprecation also serves as a minatory device or a warning to anybody who might have a role to play to avoid the smooth running of the election. The imprecators forewarn party supporters and election officials. Thus, political imprecation is an exclusive strategy to sideline others into the periphery. Let us see the excerpts below:

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Excerpt 1 Tekyiman South NDC Youth Curse EC and NPP on 30th June, 2020Techiman (Source: YouTube) Background: Techiman South NDC upon the commencement of a new voters’ register held a press conference to rain curses on the EC, NPP, security and even some of their own executives as a means to express their divergent views on issues arising. The press conference was led by some party executives and took place at the shrine of the powerful old deity called Boakyerewaa at Traa in Techiman Municipality, the Bono East Regional capital of Ghana. The YouTube captured one NDC activist whose name was given as Phobia with the Tanoso branch leading a traditional prayer with schnapps, eggs and a chicken… The prayer text: Obiara a ͻbɛtͻmpirinte baalͻt pepa biara Afiri baabi aba abɛsesa puulin sitehyin biara a Yɛato aba biara no, ͻyɛ n’adwene sɛ ͻreyɛ saa a, Agradaa, ɛnte nsi ne so. Antoa Nyamaanom nte nsi ne so, Apɛapɛ nte nsi ne so, Tekyiman Boakyerewaa nte nsi ne so ‘Anybody who will transfer an already thumbprinted ballot paper from one polling station to another, once the person decides to do that, thunder should strike them. Antoa Nyamaa should strike them. Apɛapɛ should strike them, Tekyiman Boakyerewaa should strike them........’

Excerpt 2 NDC Youth Rain Curses On Kennedy Agyapong over Accusations against Ato Forson - October 28, 2020 (Source: https://www.youtube. com/results?search_query=ndc+youth+cursed +kennedy+ agyapong+ for+false+accusation) Background: Some angry members of the NDC in the Ajumako Enyan Essiam Constituency in the Central Region invoked curses on the MP for Assin Central, Ken Agyapong for accusing their MP, Ato Forson of being behind the plot to kill the MP and also to cause chaos during the 2020 presidential and

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parliamentary elections. This comes after Mr. Agyapong was purported to have accused the MP for the constituency, Cassiel Ato Forson, of being involved in the alleged plot to assassinate the Gender Minister, Hon. Cynthia Morrison. The youth gathered at a river god in the district to invoke curses on the Assin Central MP for touting falsehood against their MP. The text: “….Radio station biara a ͻbɛtsena bɛka Ato Forson Noho asɛm a ͻnnyɛ nokwar no Hom mma n’afa ndwedwe… Beebiara a obegyina bosusu noho susu bͻn biara dɛ binom mbra mbɛyɛ basabasa wͻ Ajumako Enyan Essiam no Hom nye no ndzi….” ‘Any Radio station that he will sit to speak falsehood about Ato Forson, let him be paralysed. Wherever he will stand to conceive evil such as getting people to cause chaos in Ajumako Enyan Essiam deal with him ……’ These lines show the degree of calamity the imprecators want the deity to unleash on their target.

Duabͻ as a Force for Vengeance It was revealed that, imprecation is an appeal to divine vengeance. The imprecators use this means to call for revenge against their enemies. They know that the deities they invoke can avenge since vengeance belongs to these deities and they wield the power to repay. We see in the data an imprecator stating as follows: Excerpt 3 Obiara a wayɛ n’adwene sɛ ͻbɛfa kwan bͻne bi so awia mu ama akͻ afa baako no, Nana wo ne no nni.

‘Anybody who has decided to use any foul means to rig the election in favour of the other party, Nana, deal with them’. This excerpt presupposes that, the imprecators have the belief that the deities (Nana) have all the power to execute vengeance as well as to cause violence and calamities on their enemies. The appeals the imprecators make

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are based on their belief in the omnipotence nature of the deities. The imprecator goes ahead to say that

Excerpt 4 Nana yɛgye mo di Yɛnim sɛ mo nso so no, mobɛtumi ayɛ. Nana yɛgye wo di..... Yɛnim sɛ wobɛyɛ nanso woagye so ayɛ awie. Nana Boakyerewaa wo na woyɛ bosom panyin, Nana, wo na woyɛ bosom panyin, nti yɛrehwɛ wo... Nana, we believe in you. We believe that you can do it. We know that you can do it and you have already done it. Nana Boakyerewaa, you are the greatest among all the deities. Nana Boakyerewaa, you are the greatest among all the deities so we are looking up to you.

These imprecators confidently call down cries of vengeance, without any fear that the deities would reject their request. Even when the imprecators doubt that their requests may not be granted by the deities, they use the request speech act to persuade them to commit to their request. We see in the following excerpt that, the imprecator uses persuasion, inducement and manipulation to influence the deities to commit them to grant their request. Na sɛ wͻantumi anyɛ weinom nyinaa a, mɛka sɛ woyɛ bosom kuraseni, Sɛ obi wia aba no mu na sɛ agradaa antumi ante ansi ne so amma nipa no antete a, Agradaa wonyɛ papa, na wonni hͻ. Na sɛ nsuo muna na sɛ wobͻ mu a, yɛbɛsere wo. If you are not able to do all of these we will say that you are an uncivilised deity. If anybody rigs the election and thunder is not able to strike to tear the person apart, we will say that, you are not good and that, you don’t exist. If you strike when the clouds are heavy, we will laugh at you.

The text clearly reveals the belief the politicians have in the deities to grant them their request. The imprecators are aware that their enemies can pose danger to hinder them or can be a threat to their progress so they need to arm themselves by employing supernatural powers to harm or punish them. Through imprecations, aggrieved persons are able to react to their opponents

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by consulting divinities to take revenge upon their enemies. By so doing, the deities also exhibit their powers.

Duabͻ as a Force for Justice Politicians use duabͻ to plead for justice and vindication. They petition the deities against some perceived troublemakers and saboteurs who oppose them in their political aspirations and activities. They seek for divine judgment against their opponents. They call on these spiritual entities to intervene and punish the enemies who oppose their progress. In the data, we found that the electoral commission, the security agencies and the opposition parties are enemies to political parties. Ironically, the electoral commission, the security agencies and the political parties are the main actors in elections and yet the data shows that they find themselves to be enemies. The excerpt below summarizes the point above. ....EC, wͻn a wͻbͻ wͻn ti mu pͻ,wͻtete mmantwea mmantwea a wͻreregister, register no, Nana sɛ obiara abͻ ne ti mu pͻ sɛ ͻbɛgye sika anaa ͻnnye sika, Ͻbɛyɛ adwuma bͻne, ne apolisifoͻ ne asogyafoͻ nyinaa ne whole securities, Nana mede hyɛ wo nsa. Ꜫnna NDC executies, Nana Boakyerewaa, executies no nso a yɛkͻbͻ pͻ na wͻasan apue akyire Na wͻde information akͻma NPPfoͻ no Nana saa nkorͻfoͻ no nyinaa kyerɛ wͻn mmaako mmaako.. ....EC, those who have decided to register people illegally, Nana, if anybody has decided to take money or not and not to do his work well; the police and the millitary, all the security agencies, Nana, I commit them into your hands. NDC executives, Nana Boakyerewaa, those executives who send information to our opponent, the NPP. Nana, all these people, show them one by one....

Politicians believe that the result of duabͻ is prompt and just therefore, they fall on it for justice and comfort. Politicians believe that the deities are capable of granting their request so they feel at ease and wait with hope for the deities to take action.

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Duabͻ for Personal Sentiment Politicians fall on imprecations as self-promoting strategy. It takes a strong and bold person to practise duabͻ because it is tabooed. Sometimes, duabͻ even comes with stigma. Therefore, whoever practises it is seen to be very hardy. In the political sphere, it takes well dedicated party members to practise duabͻ. In as much as they do this to put their party in good standing, they also do that to project themselves as loyal party members. According to an interviewee, some politicians do that to gain recognition and prominence within their party. It opens ways for them to enjoy favors or goodies in the party should such opportunities arise. Those who lead the imprecations will mention their name or show their identity so that people within the party can readily spot them for positions that require such hardiness. By leading imprecations, they couch certain identities for themselves. In the excerpt below, we find the leader of one imprecating team saying…. Mese megyina hͻ na mereka, me Foobia, mese.... ‘I say I stand here to declare, it is me Foobia, I say....’

The speaker identifies himself as Foobia and takes a bold step to declare the imprecation on the opponent. This action connotes that he is fearless and powerful. By mentioning his name, the speaker reveals himself to the whole world that he is indeed powerful and brave and by declaring the imprecation, he proofs that he is fearless. Ordinarily, bold, fearless and loyal people are given the opportunity to lead. In this case, Foobia stands a better chance should there be any position in his party that requires people who are loyal, fearless and brave.

Tone/Mood During duabͻ, the speakers are seen to be angry, solemn, and serious. In all these, they still maintain a formal attitude towards the deities they are appealing to. They choose elevated words for their speech. The imprecators first invoke the deities and then put their petition before them and follow it up with the imprecatory element. In the text below, we see expressions such as

52

Kofi Agyekum and Catherine Ekua Mensah Otweduampͻn Kwame Nananom mo ne etumfoͻ a mobetumi ayɛ Nananom hom adaworoma Nana Boakyerewaa wo na woyɛ bosom panin Hom na hom nyim siantsir a ͻyɛɛ dɛm adze no ‘Dependable Kwame Nananom, you are the mighty ones who can do it By your grace Nana Boakyerewaa you are the greatest among all the deities You are the only ones who know why he did that’

The honorifics in the above text are used to convey honor, courtesy, and respect for the deities. This shows the belief the imprecators have in the deities. The imprecators believe that the deities have all the power and the might to grant them their request. For instance, the expressions; Otweduampͻn, ‘the dependable,’ Hom adaworoma, ‘By your Grace,’ Hom na hom nyim siantsir ‘You are the only ones who know the reason,’ are used to project the deities as omniscient and omnipotent and that, when the imprecators call upon them, their requests will be granted. Inasmuch as the tone is formal, the imprecators also exclaim to show all seriousness. We see expressions like; wo nsa nie o! ‘this is your drink!,’ hom mbɛgye ɛ! ‘come for it!.’ These expressions show the serious mood that the imprecators may be in at the time of the imprecation and the seriousness they attach to duabͻ.

Diction Closely linked to the tone/mood is the diction. The choice of words and the style of expression shows the mindset of the imprecators. Through the imprecators’ diction, it was revealed that politicians attribute the cause of their misfortunes to their opponents and other actors in the electoral process. The imprecators’ choice of words, makes the text more formal. Choosing more elevated words establishes the formality of the prayer text. The style of expression in the text also depicts persuasion and manipulation. Apart from the use of words to persuade, the imprecators also use material things to entice and persuade the deities to influence and to commit them to act on their behalf. They use items such as sheep, eggs, schnapps, chickens, etc. to show appreciation even before their request is granted. We see the use of words from the excerpts below.

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Sɛ ͻse ͻwͻ biribi wͻ no kurow mu a Hom [deities] nkyerɛ no dɛ ampa Hom so wͻ biribi wͻ ha… Na hom nhwɛ ma Kennedy ne tsir so Ͻnkͻ dɛ mbrɛ abowa yi nedze akͻ pɛpɛɛpɛr ‘If he claims to have something in his hometown, show him that truly you also have something here. See to it that Kennedy’s head also goes like that of this animal. Let us look at the following. Na sɛ wͻantumi anyɛ weinom nyinaa a, Yɛbɛka sɛ woyɛ bosom nkurasefoͻ, Sɛ obi wia aba mu Na sɛ agradaa antumi ante ansi ne so Amma nipa no antete a, Agradaa wonyɛ nam, wonni hͻ. Na sɛ nsuo muna na sɛ wobͻ mu a, Yɛbɛsere wo. ‘If you are not able to do all of these we will say that you are an uncivilised deity. If anybody rigs the election and thunder is not able to strike to tear the person apart, we will say that, you are not good and that, you don’t exist. If you strike when the clouds are heavy, we will laugh at you.’

These manipulative tools are used to spite the deities to compel them to act on their request. Abotchie (1995) notes that, comparison and stigmatization is abhorrent to the deities. Since the deities do not want to compromise their dignity, they will grant the request of the imprecators to maintain their dignity and also to show how powerful they are.

Literary Devices Imprecators employ literary devices to bring attention to the idea they want to put across. These devices help them to convey meaning in a relatable manner to achieve the desired effect. We identified devices such as personification, repetition, parallelism, simile, metaphors, vocatives, address forms, and

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exclamation. These were used to build intensity throughout the imprecatory text.

Personification Imprecators use personification to give human characteristics, such as emotions and behaviors to non-human and ideas for the audience to easily get connected with the issues that are being talked about. In the data, we find NPP nkonimdie ‘NPP’s victory’ and ..na sɛ nsuo muna na sɛ wobͻ mu a…‘if you strike when the clouds are heavy’ which are personified expressions. NPP as a political party has been given a human attribute, nkonimdie ‘victory.’ Nsuo ‘rain’ and thunder have also been given human attributes which are muna7 ‘to become cloudy’ and bͻ mu8 ‘to strike’ respectively. The use of the personification makes ‘NPP’ and ‘the thunder’ more vivid and lively. By the use of the personification, the speaker is able to grab the listeners’ attention and their emotional support and makes the speech prominent and remarkable. Personification thus boosts the listeners’ emotion and sensitivity and adds a deeper meaning to the text. For the speaker to say that NPP nkonimdie and ...na sɛ nsuo muna na sɛ wobͻ mu a… gives a vivid and gleam picture of what exactly he means. By this device, the speaker is able to describe NPP and thunder like living entities and makes their action and nature clearer.

Repetition and Parallelism According to Agyekum (2013:67), “repetition is one of the most fundamental characteristic features of oral literature.” This was evident in the data we collected. We found that the imprecators repeated their complaints, petition, particular people they wanted to imprecate, vow of praise and appreciation. Expressions such as wo dwan nie oo! ‘this is your sheep’ was repeated six times, aba yi a yɛreba abɛtoͻ yi ‘this upcoming election’ was also repeated eight times, Kennedy Agyapong was repeated seven times and hom mfa no nsesa ‘exchange him with it’ was repeated three times. The speakers repeated

7 8

Muna literally means to frown. Nsu muna is translated as when the clouds are heavy. Bͻ mu literally means to shout. In the above context it means ‘to strike’

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these expressions to show the importance they attach to their utterances and it helped them to stress and highlight the point.

Simile Simile was also identified in the data. The imprecators described their wish by making comparison. For instance, ne mogya nsiane sɛ aboa yi mogya yi, ‘his blood should drain like that of this animal,’ hom nhwɛ ma Kennedy ne tsir so ͻnkͻ dɛ mbrɛ abowa yi akͻ pɛpɛɛpɛr. ‘See to it that Kennedy’s head also goes like that of this animal’. In the first example, the speaker compares how he wants the imprecatee’s blood to drain as that of an animal that has been slaughtered. In the same way, the imprecator wants Kennedy’s head to be cut off like an animal. The imprecator might have compared the way they want their imprecatee's’ blood and head to that of an animal because, usually, animals do not have much value like human beings. By comparing the human blood and the human head to that of the animal, devalues the people who are being imprecated. The simile, therefore, adds a greater significance to the text and provides the audience an opportunity to consider how human beings can be compared to animal. By the simile, the individual is tempted to think and to ask questions such as: is it that the human life is not precious? Or that during imprecation, human life is left at the mercy of the deity to do anything to it just like anybody can do to an animal?

Address Forms and Vocatives We found out that most of the deities were addressed by their names which is a clear use of vocative case. Deities mentioned include Nana Boakyerewaa, Nsuo Tano, Sonsi, Prͻprͻ. There were expressions like; Nana, wo nsa nie! ‘Nana, this is your drink’ Nana Boakyerewaa, wo nsa nie! ‘Nana Boakyerewaa, this is your drink’ Nana Tekyiman South, wo nsa nie ‘Nana Tekyiman, this is your drink.’ The imprecators use vocatives to address the deities directly and also to emphasize their utterance. Through vocatives, the identities of the deities are revealed. For example, by saying Nana Tekyiman South or Nana Boakyerewaa, the speaker points to the exact deity he is referring to. The imprecator could have just said Nana but that would have

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been more general so saying Nana Boakyerewaa makes it more specific and gives more details about the kind of deity he is referring to. Again, in addressing the deities, the imprecators used the address term Nana. Nana is a gender-neutral title which represents the highest office in the Akan society. Because it is the highest title in the Akan society, it is given to grandparents, elders, chiefs and kings, ancestors, deities and sometimes benefactors. These people and deities are deemed to have eminent status in the society so they cannot be recalled without any honorific titles. Prefixing the names with Nana signifies their status in the society. It shows that the deities have the power to grant what the imprecators are asking for. The use of Nana is a sign of reverence to the deities. Speakers employ these address forms to bring to attention the level of ability of the deities they are dealing with and also use this opportunity to put across their propositions and requests. These devices help them to convey meaning in a relatable manner to achieve the desired effect. Our findings confirm Tweneboah’s (2014) claim that, duabͻ “inherently is a form of spiritual vigilantism, of people seeking vengeful supplication from the spiritual forces of nature in settling their grievances in society.” Through duabͻ, we see the power relations that exist between human beings and deities. Human beings see themselves as weak, and the deities as mighty. This comes about as a result of social functioning and power relations. People cannot disentangle themselves from their traditional religious beliefs and cultural perception, worldview and their social structures from modern institutions. The social formative power that the deities have over human and vice versa, and how they impact each other through persuasion, formal or a more solemn ways, are revealed.

Conclusion The overarching goal for this study was to analyse some duabͻ texts to identify the motivation for its practice among politicians in Ghana. It revealed that politicians resort to duabͻ for justice, revenge, power, equity, self-sentiment, for warning and cautioning, the maintenance of social power, for retaliation and demand for equity. The imprecators do it using a formal tone with strategies such as persuasion and gratitude. Imprecators use other literary and stylistic devices to bring attention to their actions, foreground them and to convey meaning.

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Looking at how rampant duabͻ has become in politics, we think that, in politics, duabͻ is not necessarily a moral issue but a means by which politicians express their divergent views and that is why imprecators may not care about the end results when they imprecate. It is not out of place that people will resort to duabͻ in politics because the theory of language ideologies that underpins this study makes it possible for one to understand that beliefs are part of how systems of power are organized. The relationship between language and power is clearly revealed in this study. Language ideologies occur not only as mental constructs and in verbalizations but also in embodied practices and dispositions and in material phenomena such as visual representations and actions.

References Abotchie, C. (1995). Social control in traditional Southern Eweland of Ghana: Relevance for modern crime prevention. Accra: Ghana Universities Press. Agyekum, K. (2013). Introduction to literature (3rd edition). Accra: Adwinsa Publications (Gh) Ltd. Agyekum, K. (2010). Akan verbal taboos in the context of the ethnography of communication. Accra: Ghana Universities Press. Agyekum, K. (1999). The pragmatics of duabo ‘grievance imprecation’ taboo among the Akan. Pragmatics: International pragmatics Association. 3 .357- 382. Agyekum, K. (2004). Ntam ‘Reminiscential Oath’ Taboo in Akan. Language in Society. 33(3): 317-342 Cambridge University Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/ stable/4169351. Asiedu-Addo, S. (2020). Enact laws against invocation of curses —Ankaful-Saltpond Chief. Daily Graphic Online. Retrieved from https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/ general-news/enact-laws-against-invocation-of-curses-ankaful-saltpond-chief.html on 14th July, 2021. Austin, J. L. (1975). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bell, A. (1995). Language and the media. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics., 15, 2341. Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse: A critical introduction. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 17(1):146-152. Boadi, L. A. (2005). The Akan noun phrase: Its structure and meaning. Cantoments. Accra: Black Mask LTD. Cavanaugh, J. R. (2019). Language ideology revisited. Retrieved from https://items. ssrc.org/sociolinguistic-frontiers/language-ideology-revisited/ on 28th June, 2021

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Darfah Frimpong, E. (2020). Suspend curse invoking members – NPP. Retrieved from https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/asiedu-nketia-calls-for-shutdown-ofparliament-over-covid-19-cases.html on 14th July, 2021 Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman. Ghana Statistical Service. (2021). Population and housing census: National analytical report. Accra. Hammond, D. (2019). Curses: Are they effective? Daily Graphic Online. Retrieved from https://www.graphic.com.gh/homepage.html?view=article&id=127715:curses-arethey-effective&catid=51 on 14th July, 2021. Kilson, M. (1978). The structure of Ga prayer. Journal of religion in Africa. 9 (3),173-188. Kim, J. (2004). A Literary and theological study of imprecatory Psalms 35 and 137 as a defense for their integrity. PhD dissertation. Bob Jones Seminary and Graduate School of Religion. Mensah, C. E. (2016). A morpho-semantic analysis of Mfantse neologisms in some radio stations in the Central Region. M. Phil. Thesis. University of Cape Coast. Osam, K. E. (2004). The Trondheim lectures: An introduction to the structure of Akan, its verbal and multi-verbal system. Legon: Department of linguistics. Osei, J. (2006). The value of African taboos for biodiversity and sustainable development. Journal of sustainable development in Africa. 8. 42-61. Searle, J. R. (2005). Expression and meaning: Studies in the theory of speech acts. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Sekyi-Baidoo, Y. (2019). Akan personal names. Ghana: University of Ghana Printing Press. Simango, D. and Krüger, P. (2016). An overview of the study of imprecatory psalms reformed and evangelical approaches to the interpretation of imprecatory psalms. Old Testament Essays 29(3):581-600. Tweneboah, S. (2014). The culture of duabɔ (imprecation), legal dysfunction and the challenge of human rights development in Ghana. Retrieved from https://www. academia.edu/19686272/The_Culture_of_Duab%C9%94_Imprecation_Legal_Dysfu nction_and_the_Challenge_of_Human_Rights_Development_in_Ghana White, P. (2012). Causes for the upsurge of imprecatory prayer in contemporary African Christian churches. Retrieved from https://www.biblicaltheology.com/Research/ WhiteP03.pdf on 16th July, 2021. Wiafe-Akenteng, N. A. (2017). Modern usage of Akan on radio and TV [Sɛ dea wɔde Akan kasa di dwuma enɛ mmerɛ yi wɔ radio ne TV so]. PHD Thesis: University of Ghana. Woolard, K. A. and Cheiffelin, B. B. (1994). Language ideology. Annual Review of Anthropology. 23:55-82. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev. an.23.100194.000415 Woolard, K. A. (2020). Language ideology. The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology. James Stanlaw (ed). John Wiley and Sons, Inc: University of California-San Diego, USA doi: 10.1002/9781118786093.iela0217. Yeboah, B. (2011). Themes of the Old Testament, exegetical analysis of selected Psalms towards a theological development of the theme of Imprecatory Prayers, (Lecture for Master of Arts in the study of Religion).

Chapter 3

The Mechanism of Tourist Signage Kazuyoshi Takeuchi * Department of English Communication, Jissen Women’s Junior College, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract In tourism, people who provide tourist information are categorized as being on the supply side, and tourists who receive such information are regarded as being on the demand side. The supply side consists of locals and outside entrepreneurs who both conduct business with tourists at tourist sites. The tourist phenomenon, generated by demand and supply sides, has an effective structure of “get-rich-quick schemes” which can bring profits through the acquisition of foreign currencies with minimum investment, unlike international trade businesses which rely on long-term manufacturing and sales activities based on necessary upfront investment. The supply side consequently provides tourist information to encourage potential tourists to travel to their disseminations. In so doing, the dissemination of tourist information must be carefully planned to match the various needs of tourists both culturally or linguistically. The author introduces several touristic inconsistencies commonly observed in the field of signage, through which the supply side provides information to promote their tourist destinations, and then extracts the possible causes of the inconsistencies, which are attributed to annual budgets, official naming, and cultural mismatches, based on transliteration or interpretation. The causes of these inconsistencies lie in the gap between a self-centered attitude of the supply side and an optimal solution for providing tourist information.

Keywords: touristic inconsistencies, signage, transliteration, interpretation *

Corresponding Author’s Email: [email protected].

In: Sociolinguistics Editor: Marcus K. Jakobsen ISBN: 979-8-88697-018-0 © 2022 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

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Introduction Spoken or written, language is the most impactful tool in human communication. It has been profoundly involved in our daily life since the beginning of human history. Although humans are one species, language varies and its variations, amounting to thousands, are spoken throughout the world today. When visiting tourist destinations, for example, tourists enjoy viewing the scenic beauty of natural landscapes. Local areas are marked by their linguistic names or remembered by their stories which are translated into a variety of local languages. Even the works of human art with their intrinsic values are translated into various languages. It is not an easy task to share the same information through the functions of language between providers (speakers) and receivers (listeners) of such information. In tourist destinations where locals (on the supply side) and tourists (on the demand side) encounter each other, it is typical that locals provide tourist information and tourists receive it. At these intersections, cases of touristic inconveniences can be observed in the dissemination of information. This is partly because locals provide tourist information in a limited number of languages, including globally accepted ones, while tourists are not capable of comprehending the provided languages. Although it is understood that tourists need assistance to obtain access to the meanings of the messages they receive, it is not a realistic expectation that locals should prepare, even via digital media, all the languages spoken throughout the world. The United Nations has employed six languages as official languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, alphabetically. Functioning as common tools of communication among the languages of United Nations member states, these official languages provide opportunities to discuss world issues at the same table. Official languages fundamentally share the same nature in uniting people from different language backgrounds. However, it only works when people understand such official languages. If people do not understand them, they may become alienated from groups that use official languages. The same case can be observed in tourist information. Figure 1 shows a tourist sign placed at a corner of a tomb in Egypt. Here on the sign, Arabic and English are employed to announce a message that smoking is prohibited. If a tourist does not understand the local language of Arabic, the message may not function well enough to stop the tourist from smoking unless English is provided as the “global language”, along with the assistance of the little pictogram illustrated on it. The same situation may

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happen in Figure 2. It is also a tourist sign posted in a Japanese temple area in Japan to avoid accidents caused by fire. If a tourist is not capable of reading the message vertically written in Japanese and horizontally written in English, the chances that the wooden temple would burn down have increased.

Source: Photo by the author, Jan 2003. Figure 1. No Smoking, Egypt.

Source: Photo by the author, Aug 1998. Figure 2. No Smoking, Japan.

The study of tourism was initiated in the late 19th century by statistical analyses of tourists in Europe. It has been spotlighted since researchers noticed that tourism attracts foreign currencies, which is rather an inconceivable effect, to be appropriated for the reconstruction of the devastated European countries destroyed in World War 1. Tourism is a social phenomenon which has been generated by tourists or people who travel and return home safely by transportation after the Industrial Revolution in Europe. In such environments, tourist information is based on languages between the points of destination and tourists. Using an interdisciplinary opportunity to share the ideas of touristic analyses in the field of sociolinguistics, the purpose of this chapter is to introduce sociolinguistic issues, as shown above, in the study of tourist

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information and then to demonstrate the author’s theories and model in managing the quality control of tourist signage.

Tourist Signage Receiving Channels According to the Oxford English Dictionary (1933), the word “tour” is derived from the Greek word “τόρνος” which means a tool for describing a circle, a turner’s wheel, or a circle. Just like drawing a circle, tourists leave home and finally return to their original starting point. During the Industrial Revolution, a locomotive with a steam engine enabled large groups of people to move at the same time far from their residence and return home safely. Before the revolution, there were no such tours at all but rather dangerous travels. In ancient times travelers would have to face the risk of dying of diseases or being killed by bandits in the middle of their travels. Consequently, the concept of modern tourism was established after the revolution, based on social developments. It does not include people who have chosen a nomadic life, migrating from place to place. In the study of tourism, a daily life zone in which people have settled down is called “ordinary” and a tourist destination zone is referred to as “non-ordinary”.

Demand side

Supply side Attractions Promotion Information

Source: Gunn with Var (2002). Tourism Planning. Figure 3. The Tourism functioning system.

Transportation Services

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Gunn (2002) considers tourism as a social system and the balance between demand side (tourists) and supply side (destination) contributes to the advancement of such tourism systems. The destination, consisting of five components, indicated in Figure 3 below, contains an aspect of ordinariness to the residents, welcoming tourists, and the other aspect of non-ordinariness for tourists during their travels. Along with a component of promotion, tourist information has basically three functions indicated in Table 1 below. Dann (1996) demonstrates that the language of tourism attempts to attract people and convert them from potential clients into actual ones. He divides tourist information into three categories – pre, on, and post, based on before, during, and after the travel, accordingly, as indicated in Table 2. Information gained after the tour ends does not only involve the reflections of the tour but also creates a possible entrance to the next tour. When people in their residences of ordinary zones receive information about a destination located in a non-ordinary zone, such information is referred to as “off-site” (not on the destination site). Table 1. Functions of tourist information Promotive Function Supportive Function Educational Function

To attract people to travel to a destination To provide necessary information to tourists To transfer knowledge of tourist attractions

Table 2. Dann’s categorization Pre-Trip Media Information gained before the tour starts On-Trip Media Information gained during the tour Post-Trip Media Information gained after the tour ends Source: Dann (1996). The Language of Tourism: A Sociolinguistic Perspective

When tourists receive information about a destination they may visit, it is called “on-site” (on the destination site). By using the concepts of the five human faculties of sense, Takeuchi (2018) categorizes tourist information into two ways, indicated in Table 3. He asserts that on a destination site, tourists can utilize their receiving channels through five human senses – seeing (vision), hearing (audition), smelling (olfaction), tasting (gustation), and touching (tactition), while vision and audition are the only channels for people staying at home or during their travel to the destinations, because they cannot

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smell, taste, or touch any entity that exists on the destination site. They can simply recognize the entity through social media. Table 3. Receiving channels of tourist information Zones

Channels Social Media Vision books, advertisements, websites Audition word of mouth, radio Vision & Audition TV, YouTube, education Vision handouts, signboards, dactylology Audition audio guides, soundscapes On-site information Vision & Audition tour guides, interpreters Destination Olfaction fragrance samples, smellscapes Non-ordinary zone Gustation wine tasting, food samples Tactition braille, deafblind manual alphabet Source: Takeuchi (2018). A Sociolinguistic Look at Tourist Information. Off-site information Habitat Ordinary zone

Indoor and Outdoor Signage The study of tourism defines what people visit or plan to visit as a “tourist attraction”, which can be divided into two categories – “indoors” and “outdoors”. A typical example of indoor facilities is a museum which displays exhibits inside a building. Most natural heritage sites, on the other hand, exist in an outdoor environment. As a standpoint of tourist information, the ideas of both indoor and outdoor signage share the same mechanism but there are slight differences between them. Serrell (1996) categorizes labels placed at museum exhibits in indoor facilities into several roles based on two fundamental functions, which are interpretive and noninterpretive labels, as indicated in Table 4. Based on the same fundamental functions, Takeuchi (1996) introduces a simpler type of categorization, as shown in Table 5. He employs five components, including interpretation, orientation, identification, prohibition, and instruction. As indicated by a black point marked in the cell of knowledge, interpretation signage has the function of conveying knowledge of tourist attractions. As for the category of noninterpretation, four kinds of signage are introduced. A signage of orientation serves the function of showing routes to navigate tourists to the right destination, while a signage of identification literally means indicating locations just like a nametag to show who or what it is. A signage of

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Table 4. Indoor labels Interpretive Labels

Title Labels Introductory Labels Orientation Labels Section Labels Group Labels Captions

To identify the name of the exhibition, indicating the theme of the exhibition To set up the organization tone of the exhibition

To inform visitors of the rationale behind a subgrouping objects, paintings, or animals To play an important role in specific labels for specific objects NonIdentification Labels To contain minimal, short details, such as name, interpretive maker, date, material, or number Labels Donor Information To acknowledge funders, usually provided last and in the smaller type Credit Panels To recognize the contribution and efforts of all the people who worked on the exhibition Wayfinding Signs To help visitors find their way around the museum Orientation Signs and gives orientation Prohibitive Signs To tell visitors not to touch the art or feed the animals Source: Serrell (1996). Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach.

Table 5. Outdoor sinages Signage Location Route Guidance Attention Interpretation Orientation ● Identification ● Noninterpretation Prohibition ● Instruction ● Source: Takeuchi (2006). Proposed Conditions for Improving the Current State of the On-site Label for Foreign Tourists.

Konwledge ●

prohibition serves the role of drawing tourists’ attention of possible dangers ahead. Finally, a signage of instruction is designed to provide tourists with necessary guidance. Figures from 4 to 13 demonstrate actual cases of signage provided to tourists. Figure 4 presents an outdoor signage of “interpretation”, photographed at a tourist site, located in the UK. Except in Wales, where English and Welsh are equally written and provided together, this is a typical case in the UK where English is the sole language utilized for signage. It is presumably because English is considered not only as a local language but also as a global one. The picture shown in Figure 5 was taken at a local museum in the Philippines and is a case of indoor “interpretation” signage, written in English. There are more than a hundred languages spoken

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throughout the Philippines, and most of them belong to Austronesian languages family groups. It is natural for people of the Philippines to set up signage in the two official languages, English and Tagalog.

Source: Photo by the author, Mar 2013. Figure 4. Interpretation, UK.

Source: Photo by the author, July 2014. Figure 5. Interpretation, Philippines.

Source: Photo by the author, May 2010. Figure 6. Orientation, Turkey.

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Figure 6, found on an airport floor in Turkey, indicates a case of “orientation” signage in the category of non-interpretation. And Figure 7 – a bird’s-eye view image of “orientation” signage, was set up on top of a mountain in Korea, that introduces a wide range of the area.

Source: Photo by the author, Dec 2002. Figure 7. Orientation, Korea.

Figures 8 and 9 are cases of “identification” signage, both of which indicate exact locations. The former one is placed at an entrance of an outdoor spa located in Iceland and the latter is constructed at a gate of a village community in Canada.

Source: Photo by the author, Jan 2013. Figure 8. Identification, Iceland.

Source: Photo by the author, Sep 1997. Figure 9. Identification, Canada.

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And Figure 10 indicates a case of “prohibition” signage, photographed on a driveway near military facilities, UK, which draws attention to a tank crossing and sudden gunfire. Figure 11 is an example of “prohibition” signage, set up in a parking lot, located in Denmark, which presumably asks visitors not to jump into the water.

Source: Photo by the author, Aug 2002. Figure 10. Prohibition, UK.

Source: Photo by the author, Oct 2012. Figure 11. Prohibition, Denmark.

Source: Photo by the author, Sep 2012. Figure 12. Instruction, UK.

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Source: Photo by the author, Oct 2017. Figure 13. Instruction, Finland.

Figure 12, placed at a gate of a seaside open-air theater located in the UK, shows a case of “instruction” signage which informs tourists of admission prices. And Figure 13 is an electric bulletin board typically observed at an airport, which provides flight information. The figure was photographed in Finland.

Transliteration Plural Naming Figures 14 and 15, both traffic signs, are cases of orientation signage, showing directions. Here, both signs print different English names on them, but the Chinese characters are the same. In English, Figure 14 shows that there is a site of “Toroiseki Relics” only one kilometer ahead, while Figure 15 indicates “The Toro Ruins”. It is not easy for people with no knowledge of Chinese characters to recognize that the signs introduce the same tourist site.

Source: Photo by the author, Aug 2006. Figure 14. Orientation, Japan.

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Source: Photo by the author, Aug 2006. Figure 15. Orientation, Japan.

Japanese is the only official language in Japan. Although there is one official name in Japanese for each entity, names in English, for example, may happen to differ, due to a government budgeting system of annual appropriations. Those signs may have been manufactured in different fiscal years by different translators, which may be ascribed to a complicated process of transliteration. Table 6. Types of transliteration Thorough Transliteration Additional Combination Incorporated Combination Thorough Translation

A local name is transliterated into a target language with no translation in it. A part of translation is added after a local name is transliterated. It presents a hybrid name consisting of both transliteration and translation. A local name is fully translated into a target language with no local script in it.

As indicated in Table 6, the author asserts that transliteration should be divided into four types. The examples below typifies “Thorough Transliteration” indicated in Table 6. The transliteration can provide locals the chance to understand the name of the tourist destination when asking the directions by simply pronouncing the script. The demerit of such usage is that it may be difficult for foreign tourists to recognize what it is if they do not understand the local language. e.g., 登呂遺跡 (Japanese Script) ➾ Toroiseki (Latin Script) 종묘 (Korean Script) ➾ Jongmyo (Latin Script)

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Next is a case of “Additional Combination”. In both cases below, a full name in local script is left as it is and an English translation is added after the local name to indicate the kind of attraction. e.g.,

登呂遺跡 (Japanese Script) ➾ Toroiseki Relics (Latin Script + Translation) 범어사 (Korean Script) ➾ Beomeosa Temple (Latin Script + Translation)

Apart from the above-mentioned “Additional Combination”, a case of “Incorporated Combination” below contains a piece of translation in its local name to turn it into a hybrid name. The first two characters “登呂” above indicate a name of place and the latter half of “遺跡” means relics or ruins. “Incorporated combination” utilizes a part of a name such as “Toro” and translates the other “遺跡” into English as a global language. And the word “Oświęcimiu” is a name of a Polish place and three words “Państwowe Muzeum w” are translated into English to form a new hybrid name. There are variations of transliteration, which may consequently cause misunderstandings as seen in Figures 14 and 15. e.g.,

登呂遺跡 (Japanese Script) ➾ Toro Ruins (Incomplete Latin Script + Translation) Państwowe Muzeum w Oświęcimiu (Polish Script) ➾ State Museum in Oświęcim (Translation + Polish Script)

There is a fourth type of transliteration, which is “Thorough Translation” with no local script in a name. The followings are such cases. e.g.,

金閣寺 (Japanese Script) ➾ Golden Pavilion (English Translation) 종묘 (Korean Script) ➾ Royal Ancestral Shrine (English Translation) 万里长城 (Mandarin Script) ➾ Great Wall (English Translation) 河 or 黄河 (Mandarin Script)

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➾ Yellow River (English Translation) Państwowe Muzeum w Oświęcimiu (Polish Script) ➾ Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp (German Name + English Translation) The first character “金” indicates gold and the second “閣” means a palace where noble people live or a building for an observatory, and the last “寺” means a temple or sacred place for Buddhists similar to a church for Christians. The advantage of translation can emphasize a first impression to tourists if they can understand the translation, while the disadvantage is that it provides less of a chance to let locals show the way to the tourists destination.

Dual Standard It is logical to consider that language was first spoken and then received, which required a process of recording that was told with words in a written form. As to written forms for recordkeeping, they are divided into several different patterns, depending on what language is employed. When two ethnic groups with different written forms, for example, encounter each other and attempt to translate the language of the other ethnic group, it could lead to complicated issues. It is not a rare case that either group’s language has no method to express some phonemes of the other group’s language. Some hundred years ago after the Common Era, Japan adopted characters from China, but both languages have built up their intrinsic structures so that even the same characters have different meanings and pronunciations. Taking the capital city of China, for instance, both Chinese and Japanese people share the same written form as “北京”. It was once written as “Peking” in Chinese postal Romanization because of mail delivery, and such trace remains as “Peking University” – one of the top-ranked universities in China. Nowadays, the capital city is written as “Beijing” since China employs the Wade-Giles method. A similar incident, as indicated in Figure 16, can be observed in a prefectural district of Japan. It is a controversial case about a choice from two ways of transliteration between a prefectural government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The controversial issue is due to the different standpoints of the local and national governments. The local government, writing its name as

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“Gunma”, legally follows the official system in Latin script, being effective under a Japanese legal process since 1937, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, writing “Gumma” with a double “m”, employs the Hepburn Romanization system based on English scripts, initiated in 1886 by an American missionary named James Curtis Hepburn.

Source: A site from the homepage of Gunma Prefecture (https://www.pref.gunma.jp/).

Figure 16. Letter of Gunma Prefectural Government.

Table 7. Transliteration of Japanese phonemes Japanese phonemes た ち つ て と Portugal script by the Society of Jesus ta chi tҫu te to Dutch script by Maeno ta ti toe te to French script by Mermet-Cachon ta tki, tchi tsou, tsoo, ts te to, tō French script by Pierre Mounicou ta tchi, chi tseu té, te to English script by Hepburn ta chi tsu te to Latin script (Standard, ISO 3602) ta ti tu te to Source: Brendan (2010). Romanization of Japanese used by two French missionaries residing in Japan at the end of the Edo period.

The issue stems from a long history of transliteration since the first missionary, Francisco de Xavier, dispatched by Portugal, landed in Japan in 1549. Japanese phonemes have been transliterated by a variety of people including Japanese scholars and those missionaries from different countries. It seems as if there have been quite many battles in writing systems between

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Chinese ideograms and European phonograms. Table 7 illustrates such historical backgrounds.

Interpretation Selected Vocabulary Figure 17 is an instruction sign, providing guidance about admission fees to enter a Buddhist temple located in Japan. According to the information, the admission fee for “elementary & junior high school students” is 100 JPY, as of August 2010. It means that it is free of charge if a tourist is under the school age. Now, here is a simple question. Does schooling start at the same age in the world? Of course not! Children ranging in age from five to seven generally start to go to elementary school, depending on the countries they live in. With such age variations, a five-year-old elementary child would have to pay 100 JPY, while a six-year-old before elementary school would not have to pay such a fee, according to the information indicated in Figure 17. The idea of the sign seems to lie on the assumption that all the countries in the world share the same education system. Translation which simply replaces an initial language with a target language may cause misleading messages.

Source: Photo by the author, Aug 2010.

Figure 17. Instruction sign, Japan. Takeuchi (2011) analyzes the legibility of English texts translated from the original Japanese texts by categorizing the vocabulary of the texts into four groups and counting the texts of each group. Figure 18 shows an interpretation

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sign of a Japanese temple, introducing vertically written Japanese texts on the right and horizontally written English texts on the left. Takeuchi selected ten more similar signs of such wooden signboards at a temple or shrine, located in three cities of Japan – Kyoto, Nara, and Kamakura, and counts the number of English words on each sign. When he counted them, he categorized those words into four kinds of groups. One is a group of the basic vocabulary learned in junior high school (the first three years of high school in Japan) at the time of the research. The second is a group of the basic vocabulary learned in senior high school (the latter three years of high school), which deals with more difficult vocabulary. And the third group in the cell of “Japanese” comprises names of historical sites or personages, which needs historical backgrounds to thoroughly understand the texts. And the last group “Others” consists of professional or esoteric words that even native English speakers could hardly understand. The result of analysis is listed in a chart in Table 8 below.

Source: Photo by the author, Aug 1998.

Figure 18. Instruction sign, Japan. Out of the total of 1,658 words on eleven signs placed at temples and shrines, the total of 998 words indicates the words to be learned in Junior High School, in which English is mandatory. Those 998 words covering 60.2% of the whole texts are the easiest words of all, and if tourists are only capable of understanding those words or less, the remainder of the words, which amounts to almost 40%, could be beyond the designated comprehension of the tourists. If tourists, who have insufficient knowledge of English, for instance, are provided a global language in a visiting destination, the process of translation may come to naught.

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Table 8. Lexical comparison of interpretation signs Temple or Shrine Ryoan-ji Kinkaku-ji Ginkaku-ji Heian Jingu Nishi Hongan-ji Kiyomizu-dera Todai-ji

Kasuga-Taisha

Kotoku-in Hase-dara Total

Total

Junior Hi

Senior Hi

Japanese

Others

98 (100%) 98 (100%) 317 (100%) 166 (100%) 220 (100%) 117 (100%) 118 (100%) 110 (100%) 206 (100%) 142 (100%) 66 (100%) 1,658 (100%)

51 (52.0%) 63 (64.3%) 191 (60.3%) 102 (61.4%) 121 (55.0%) 72 (61.5%) 75 (63.6%) 74 (67.3%) 120 (58.3%) 91 (64.1%) 38 (57.6%) 998 (60.2%)

17 (17.3%) 14 (14.3%) 39 (12.3%) 14 (8.4%) 24 (10.9%) 10 (8.5%) 9 (7.6%) 5 (4.5%) 18 (8.7%) 15 (10.6%) 6 (9.1%) 171 (10.3%)

8 (8.2%) 6 (6.1%) 27 (8.5%) 16 (9.6%) 31 (14.1%) 9 (7.7%) 4 (3.4%) 4 (3.6%) 23 (11.2%) 6 (4.2%) 5 (7.6%) 139 (8.4%)

22 (22.4%) 15 (15.3%) 60 (18.9%) 34 (20.5%) 44 (20.0%) 26 (22.2%) 30 (25.4%) 27 (24.5%) 45 (21.8%) 30 (21.1%) 17 (25.8%) 350 (21.1%)

Source: Takeuchi (2006). Proposed Conditions for Improving the Current State of the On-site Label for Foreign Tourists. Hyphenated words are counted as one.

Fact versus Entertainment Text 1 in the box below is an actual text of an interpretation sign placed, as of August 1998, at an entrance to a Japanese temple. It can be a good text for tourists with special interest, whose main purpose is to enjoy special targets of their own, such as Japanese Buddhism learning, English gardening, or whale watching. Text 1 contains information to provide tourists with as much knowledge about Buddhism in Japan as possible. According to his principles, even carefully written texts of interpretation signs may not gain much attention from tourists. Impressive topics or familiar subjects may have the potential to

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be welcomed by tourists during their minute-long stays at s. Text 2 in the following box is a modified sample of interpretation, which the author wrote in 2003 for an experimental purpose. Text 1. Actual Interpretation Text This temple, which belongs to a Buddhist sect, was founded by a great priest in 778 A.D, and enshrines an image of Kannon (God of Mercy) Bosatsu (Bodhi-Sattva) in the main sanctuary. This Buddhist god of mercy and benevolence has been the object of the ardent faith of Japanese people of all classes through the age. The present structures rebuilt in the 17th century (1633) consist of Romon (two storied gate), Sanjunoto (three storied pagoda), Shoro (belfry), and some others. The scenery in this temple is so excellent that people come to view at the seasons of cherry blossoms in spring and maple leaves in autumn. The text is modified from the original to protect anonymity.

Tilden (1957) introduces six principles of interpretation as follows: 1. Any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile. 2. Information, as such, is not Interpretation. Interpretation is revelation based upon information. But they are entirely different things. However, all interpretation includes information. 3. Interpretation is an art, which combines many arts, whether the materials presented are scientific, historical, or architectural. Any art is in some degree teachable. 4. The chief aim of Interpretation is not instruction, but provocation. 5. Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part and must address itself to the whole man rather than any phase. 6. Interpretation addressed to children (say up to the age of twelve) should not be a dilution of the presentation to adults but should follow a fundamentally different approach. To be at its best it will require a separate program.

Text 2. Modified Text This temple was made in 778 – some 1,200 years ago. There are old temple buildings of different types in an area of 130,000 square meters. You can make far more than 10 football fields in this temple ground. The main building of the temple is on top of the hill. There is an old stage used for traditional Japanese dance in the main building, and from the stage you can enjoy a beautiful view of the area. The view changes in four seasons – spring, summer, autumn, and winter. When Japanese people pay a lot of money to buy something with a high price, they often say, “I will jump out from the “ ” Because you need courage when both paying a lot of money and jumping out from the stage. The stage is very high from the ground. The specific name is left anonymous, shown as a blank in the double quotation marks.

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With the above-mentioned two kinds of texts, the author conducted an experimental survey between July and September 2003. Survey forms were mailed to selected 19 acquaintances (key persons), who were asked to choose at least ten of their friends (respondents) and ask them to send the forms back to the key persons. The number of responses to the survey was 136 out of 190, including key persons and respondents. Table 9 is a list of the first languages of the 136 respondents. Table 9. First languages of the 136 respondents Indo-European French Creole Spanish German Polish Slovenian Icelandic Portuguese Danish Afrikaans Total

No 12 2 1 5 14 1 6 15 1 1 58

Non-Indo-European Chinese Korean Japanese Mongolian Thai Tagalog Arabic Zulu

No 29 14 5 10 8 8 3 1

Total

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The author evaluates both the aforementioned Text 1 (actual interpretation text) and Text 2 (modified text) with two concepts – legibility and symbolism, as shown in Table 10 below. Legibility indicates accessibility to texts at first glance so the action of stopping and staying for a while to read the contents of the texts further can be expected. Symbolism emphasizes affirmative impressions or images created at first sight and such impressive images may be archived hopefully for a long period of time. The key persons and respondents were asked to evaluate the two texts by choosing one of five levels, such as 0-20%, 21-40%, 41-60%, 61-80%, and 81-100% about the legibility and symbolism of the two texts. The result of the survey is shown in Table 11 below. According to Table 11, Indo-European language speakers (IE) did not mark the first two lower levels of legibility rate while non-IndoEuropean language speakers (NIE) started to mark them from the second lower level. This indicates that the IE group can understand the texts more than the NIE group does. Although the survey was experimentally conducted with no rigorous approach, it may indicate a possible assumption of the relationship between vocabulary and legibility.

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Table 10. Legibility and Symbolism Legibility Specialized in tourists’ specific needs Generalized for pleasure seekers

Actual Text Modified Text

Symbolism Impressed by special interest tourists Impressed by average pleasure seekers

Table 11. Evaluation Result of Legibility Respondents (Indo-European) Legibility Actual Modified Rate Text Text

Respondents (Non-Indo-European) Legibility Actual Modified Rate Text Text

00 - 20%

Nil

Nil

00～20%

21 - 40%

Nil

Nil

21～40%

Nil

Nil

3 1 (9.1%) (3.1%) 8 4 (24.2%) (12.5%) 10 6 (30.3%) (18.8%) 12 21 (36.4%) (65.6%) 33 32 Current State of the On-site Label

1 1 41～60% (3.1%) (3.1%) 5 3 61 - 80% 61～80% (15.6%) (9.4%) 26 28 81～100% 81 - 100% (81.3%) (87.5%) Total 32 32 Total Source: Takeuchi (2006). Proposed Conditions for Improving the for Foreign Tourists. The uneven number of the total above comes from the result including non-responses of the respondents. 41 - 60%

Negligence of Translation An orientation sign shown in Figure 19 introduces five directions with each pictogram. The sign is provided at a local monorail station, located in Japan. Each pictogram is accompanied with a Japanese term and its translation in English except for the third pictogram from the top. “Bus Stop” on the top, “Taxi” on the second, “Toilet” on the fourth, and “Telephone” on the bottom are all understandable, but no translation is given with the third pictogram, which indicates a wheelchair. And surprisingly enough, a Japanese term “乗 降場”, which means a curbside or platform, probably for wheelchair users, is written in the middle of the space as if persons in charge had no intention to put an English translation there to begin with. They might have had no budget

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to employ a professional translator or there had been nobody around who could have voluntarily translated it.

Figure 18.2006 Orientation sign, Japan Source: Photo by the author, Oct Photo by the author, Oct 2006

Figure 19. Orientation sign, Japan.

Manufacturing Model Initial Setting The legal concept of product liability is to protect consumers from suffering losses when purchasing defective products, which can be distinguished by three types – manufacturing defects, design defects, and marketing defects. Manufacturing defects occur in the process of manufacturing, based on a poor quality of materials or shoddy skills. Design defects are derived from design flaws that may cause inherent danger, while marketing defects may arise when products are used in an unexpected environment, regardless of how well the product is manufactured and designed for its intended purpose. The defects also involve inconsistencies of navigation charts or instructions to introduce how the product should be used safely. If there is a flaw in such information and the flaw results in a cause of loss, it can be a case of product liability. The idea can be applied to tourist information, considering tourist attractions as products and tourist signs as instructions of the products. As discussed earlier, there are quite a few cases of tourist inconsistencies that may block necessary information for tourists. To avoid such flaws, the initial setting is essential.

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Structural Reform • First, the top management must recognize the significance of information thoroughly. It is crucial to gain a sufficient budget based on the top management’s agreement. If not, nothing changes. • Second, a project team or task force under the top management’s direct control must be launched, in cooperation with different sections or positions, regardless of organizational forms such as in private or government sectors. Strategy • First, to whom? The characteristics of the target tourists, such as age, generation, language, religion, or nationality are to be deliberately segmented as an effective marketing strategy. • Second, for what? The purpose of setting signage is selected from three functions – promotion, support, or education. And when support is selected, one of four types – orientation, identification, prohibition, or instruction is appropriated to signage. • Third, by what? Social media such as supply-side-based push (commercial, advertisement, etc.) or demand-side-friendly pull (website, SNS, etc.) are to be carefully chosen. • Fourth, how long? The length of providing information is determined, regularly, periodically, or permanently. Budgeting Based on the strategy mentioned above, an overall vision of the budget range is planned. However, the most important part of budgeting is whether the above-mentioned structural reform is completed, because gaining an adequate amount of budget totally depends on the full support of the top management. With an appropriate amount of budget, a multiple choice of the receiving channels based on the five human senses can be realized. Then an idea of seamless navigation from airport to destination can be possible. Unified Official Naming No matter which method of transliteration or interpretation is applied, there should be one official name for each entity to avoid inconsistencies. To create such an environment, the fixed official name must be announced through social media as soon as possible.

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Manufacturing Process Takeuchi (2003) illustrates a manufacturing process model of signage as shown in Figure 20. The model comprises three components – provider, producer, and translator. And each component has its own processes.

Source: Modified from Takeuchi (2003). An Approach to On-site Interpretation Labels.

Figure 20. Manufacturing process model of signage. Table 12. Manufacturing processes Provider

Administration Process Employees Scriptwriting Process

Producer Producing Process TransLating Process Translator Proofreading Process Personal Acquaintances

To administrate the quality control of signage To have no knowledge of translation process To create initial scripts or text drafts, based on the facts To finalize the making of signage To interpret and translate the final scripts into other languages To proofread and rewrite translations by native speakers To have nothing to do with signage manufacturing

The provider concentrates on the administrating process in assistance with employees. The producer takes charge of the scriptwriting process and the producing process. And the translator is responsible for the transLating process and the proofreading process, as indicated in Table 12 below. A graycolored box with a black cross indicates cases where a transLating process should not be carried out. Due to a situation in which the appropriate amount of budget cannot be obtained or the assumption that such a budget cannot be

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applied, employees have no choice but to search for possible ways to prepare signage translated into a target language. One such option could be the abovementioned case that employees themselves or their friends translate the signage text. There is a phrase that goes “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing” or “Zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse”. The employees’ idea could bring about touristic inconsistencies as previously argued in this chapter.

Conclusion Tourism cannot exist without tourists. Touristic phenomenon is generated by tourists. Tourists leave their ordinary places of residence to experience the authenticity of tourist attractions in non-ordinary zones during their short stay and return to their original starting points. Such authenticity is originated from a genuine moment observed by a first witness. Every entity has its story which was first witnessed by people at that time. When such a story and the first witnesses are long gone, the story remains uncertain. Even if some witnesses left a reliable source of proof and it later can be supported by science, trust is still the only key to support it, because people lie, or mistakes happen. Tourists, consciously or unconsciously, seek out not genuine experiences but authentic ones. Boorstin (1961) would regard these as pseudo-events and MacCannell (1999) would refer to them as staged authenticity. As time passes, every entity does not remain, neither does its story and the first witnesses who are the only source of proof. If an idea of the longer the better is employed, digital archiving is one of the best options. It would enable the supply side to preserve a moment of truth or share a first-witness experience in the digitalized archive of pictures or videos. Takeuchi (2019) demonstrates several thought experiments, in which the fundamental questions are spotlighted to be discussed, as follows. Question 1 When a person travels from an ordinary to a non-ordinary zone, the person is considered a tourist. When a person stays at home (ordinary) and enjoys appreciating the vivid video images, projected on the digital screen, of a famous tourist attraction located in a foreign country (nonordinary), is the person accepted as a tourist?

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Along with the above-mentioned argument, Takeuchi casts another issue to be discussed, as shown below. Question 2 When a vision of a tourist attraction is reflected by light on the retinas of a person’s eyes, which of the followings can be admitted as a tourist – a person who actually travels to the destination and enjoys watching the target attraction on site or a person who stays at home and enjoys watching the target attraction on the monitor screen? If a new concept of a “mental visit” which requires no physical travel is equally accepted as a classical concept of a “physical visit” which requires actual travel, here comes a dawn of revolution in the study of tourism. Language once was thought as a target to be acquired to get necessary information through the vibrations of air. Simply by carrying a highperformance smart phone in one’s pocket or sewing a tiny memory tip in a shirt, linguistic messages can be instantly exchanged between people throughout the world with the light speed of electrical processing and the infinite capacity of huge memory system. No matter how radically society will change, the situations between the demand side and the supply side will remain the same and so does tourist information unless humans totally change the language system as a communication method. Information including tourist signage cannot be dispatched without providers who deal with the administrating process, producers who take charge of the scriptwriting and producing processes, and translators who are responsible for the translating and proofreading processes.

References Boorstin, D. J. (1992). The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, 1st Vintage Books Edn. New York: Vintage Books, pp. 9-12. (Original work published 1961). Brendan, L. R. (2010). 幕末期に来日した二人の仏人宣教師の日本語ローマ 字表記について [Romanization of Japanese used by two French missionaries residing in Japan at the end of the Edo period], Tokyo Gakugei University Repository, p.107. (Written in Japanese). Dann, G. M. S. (1996). The Language of Tourism: A Sociolinguistic Perspective, Wallingford, Oxon: CAB International, pp.140-169.

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Gunn, C. A. with Var, T. (2002). Tourism Planning, 4th Edn. New York: Routledge, p.34. MacCannell, D. (1999). The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 91-107. Murray, James A. H. et al. (Ed.)(1933) The Oxford English Dictionary, Volumes XI (T-U), Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.189. Serrell, B. (1996). Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach. Walnut Creek, California: Altamira Press, pp.21-36. Takeuchi, K. (2003). 展示解説に関する考察 [An Approach to On-site Interpretation Labels], Exhibition Studies, 35, Japan Society for Exhibition Studies, p.11. (Written in Japanese). Takeuchi, K. (2006). 外国人観光者に対する説示のあり方に関する研究 [Proposed Conditions for Improving the Current State of the On-site Label for Foreign Tourists], 実践女子学園学術・教育研究叢書, 11, pp.69, 86 and 134. (Written in Japanese). Takeuchi, K. (2018). A Sociolinguistic Look at Tourist Information, International Conference on Trends and Traits in Technology and Tourism Developing Countries (Full Paper Proceeding), World Academic Industry Research Collaboration Organization, Bali, Indonesia, p.3. ISSN: 2345-9808, Accessed March 15, 2022. URL (chrome-extension:// efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/ viewer.html?pdfurl= https%3A%2F%2Fwairco.org%2FIJCCIT%2FAugust2018Paper4.pdf&clen=56176 &chunk=true). Tilden, Freeman (1957). Interpreting Our Heritage, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, p.9.

Biographical Sketch Takeuchi, Kazuyoshi Affiliation: Department of English Communication, Jissen Women’s Junior College, Tokyo Education: • 1999 Master’s Degree in Tourism, Rikkyo University, Niiza •

2004 PhD in Tourism, Rikkyo University, Niiza

Business Address: 1-1-49 Higashi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8538 Japan Research and Professional Experiences: • Professor, Jissen Women’s Junior College since 2007

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Professional Appointments: • Dean, Jissen Women’s Junior College, Tokyo (Biennially elected by ballot in college for the second time) • Trustee, Governing Board of Jissen Women’s Educational Institute, Tokyo (Assigned biennially under the position of deanship) Honors: • National Guide Interpreter, English (Lisenced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan) Publications from the Last 3 Years: • Takeuchi, K. (2019). 観光情報論の構築 (Establishing the Study of Tourist Information), Journal of Jissen English Communication, 49, pp.627. (Written in Japanese). • Takeuchi, K. (2019). A Scientic Argument for Tourism Research (Full Paper Proceeding), EAISR International Academic Conferences Proceedings, pp.1-18, Accessed March 15, 2022. URL (file:///C:/Users/ Kaz/Downloads/1909. 03041.pdf).

Chapter 4

The Idea of a Golden Throne in Ancient Iranian Tradition H. Vertiienko* Department of Eurasian Steppe, A. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

Abstract In the Achaemenid period the idea of throne (gāθu-) in the Otherworld was probably first written on a monument of Xerxes at Persepolis (XPf, §4.32–33). The motive of the male god Vahu Manah sitting on the “throne made of gold” (gātuuō zaranaiiō.kərətō) in the Otherworld is preserved in the Avestan Vīdēvdād 19.31 (refrain Aogəmadaēcā §12). Yasht 15 is an example of another god, Vayu, who has many gold attributes (a throne is not mentioned) (Yt 15.57), but his worshippers prayed to him “on a golden throne” (zaranaēne paiti gātuuō) (Yt 15.2 and the following refrains). Middle Persian texts say that not only gods but also the souls of the righteous have golden thrones in the afterlife (Ardā Wīrāz-nāmag 9; 11, 15). The same idea may already be represented in Vīdēvdād 19.32, but the translation is debatable. In Iranian Zoroastrian sources there are no images or descriptions of female deities on a golden throne. By contrast, in the beliefs of nomadic Iranian-speaking peoples and their descendants a female deity is associated with a golden throne. The goddess of the Otherworld in the Ossetian Nart epic was seated on the “golden chair” (сыгъзæрин къела). Scythian iconography contains the image of a goddess with a mirror who is depicted as sitting on a specific throne type that is represented on a number of gold attachments to clothes. The presence of decorative silver and gold elements of thrones *

Corresponding Author’s Email: [email protected].

In: Sociolinguistics Editor: Marcus K. Jakobsen ISBN: 979-8-88697-018-0 © 2022 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

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H. Vertiienko both in the early Scythian burial complexes and in the later Sarmatian ones indicates that the throne was connected with funerary rites. Images of the goddess’s throne in the material culture of Iranian-speaking nomads (relief from the “Senior” Tryokhbratny barrow, Pazyryk carpet, crypt of Anfesterios, etc.) have a red (=gold) color. These features attest to the motif of a golden Otherworld throne of the archaic goddess, reminiscences of which survived in the image of the Zoroastrian psychopompus goddess Daēnā whose throne was “rented” by Vahu Manah.

Keywords: ancient iran, scythians, sarmatians, iconography, ossetian nart epic, gold, throne, otherworld

The Achaemenid period attests to the idea of an afterlife throne both in visual sources and in narratives. One such representation seems to have been the throne platform in the architecture of the royal tombs (Jamzadeh 1991, 102) (Figure1). The images of the royal palace in the tomb reliefs could depict the king’s residence in the Otherworld (Schmidt 1970, 81; Jamzadeh 1991, 103). An indication that he goes to the Otherworld throne after his death is supplied in the Persepolis inscription of Xerxes (XPf, §4.32–33): aϑāmaiy : pitā : Dārayavauš : gāthavā : ašiyava “After (my) father Darius went to his throne”. The phrase gāthavā ašiyava is a euphemism that replaced the word “died” (Kuhrt 2010, 244, fn. 6; Stolper 2015, 4)1, but it is not clear whether it refers to the throne of the king or that of Ahuramazda. In Old Persian the word gāθu- is used to designate the “place/throne”. Fr. de Blois specifically investigated the word’s etymology, and his research remains the only study focusing on this lexeme (Hintze 2017, 58). Briefly put, de Blois (1995, 62) came to the conclusion that originally gāθu- could mean “walkway” or “(raised) standing-place”. But under the influence of the Akkadian GIŠ.GU.ZA (kussû) “throne, chair”, as well as possibly the preAchaemenid Elamite kat- “throne”, it changed semantics and acquired the meaning of “throne” (de Blois 1995, 61–64). It can be assumed that in the preAchaemenid period the Iranian lexicon did not have a specific word for 1

Cf. Schmeja 1982, 185–188 (“Als mein Vater Dareios in die (ihm) gebührende Stätte eingegengen”); Jamzadeh 1991: 103 (“went to the throne (of Ahuramazda)”); Kuhrt 2010: 244 (“When my father Darius went to his (allotted) place”); Stolper 2015, 4 (“(after my father Darius) went to his place”).

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“throne”. Therefore, based on consonance with the Akkadian and Elamite equivalents2, the word gāθu- acquired this meaning in addition to its primary meaning “place”3. The etymology of this word goes back to the Indo-European root *gwā- “to go” and, accordingly, to Indo-Iranian *gā- “to go, step, tread” (Mayrhofer 1992–1996, I, 483–484; Pokorny 1959, 463; Rastorgueva and Edelman 2007, 267). In the Avestan sources the word gātu- (a derivative from Old Persian gāθu-)4 is used to designate “place/throne”. According to Chr. Bartholomae (1904, 517–519) it has meaning “place” and “place for lying, sitting; bed; armchair; throne”. Later, this meaning was preserved in the Middle Persian gāh, Sogdian γ’δwk(’) and Mannihean γ'δwq (Rastorgueva and Edelman 2007, 269–271). At the same time, in the Pahlavi Zoroastrian tradition, the word gāhūg was derived from gāh, which meant “couch of the dead, bier” (Pahl. Vīdēvdād 8.10) (MacKenzie 1971, 34; Tafazzoli 1988, 104; Boyce 2000, 254). In Middle Persian, in addition to gāh, the lexeme taxt is also used (MacKenzie 1971, 83), retaining its meaning in New Persian taxt “throne” (Rubinchik 1970, I, 357)5. The motif of a/the god sitting on the “throne made of gold” in the Otherworld is preserved in Avestan Vīdēvdād 19.31–32 (Vīdēvdād 19.31a6 = Aogəmadaēcā § 12). This source describes the moment when the soul of the righteous deceased enters the Iranian “Paradise”―the House of Song (garō nmānəm)7, where the soul meets Vohu Manah (“Good Thought”) on a “throne made of gold” (gātuuō zaranaiiō.kərətō): (31) usəhištat̰ svohu manō haca gātuuō zaranaiiō.kərətō frauuaōcat̰ vohumanō kaδa nō iδa aš ̣āum agatō āϑiiejaŋhatat̰ ϑhaca aŋhōt̰ aiϑiiajaŋvhəm ahūm ā

2

The Achaemenid iconography of the throne also exhibits a remarkable degree of Assyrian and Akkadian influence (see Hultgård 1993, 1–4; Root 2021, 133–138). For thrones in ancient Near East see Kyrieleis 1969; Metzger 1985. 3 In ancient Near Eastern languages, one can find additional cases where the concepts of “throne” and “place” are expressed by one and the same lexeme, for example in Egyptian, where the word ś.t means “throne” and “place”, and it is also significant that it can acquire an eschatological context (Tarasenko 2021, 236–237). 4 For the alternation -tu-/-θu- here see Mayrhofer 1973, 99-100; Bogolyubov 1989, 89; de Blois 1995, 61. 5 Cf. Taxt-e Jamšid “Persepolis” lit. “Throne of Jamshid”. 6 In cases where words are repeated in refrains, the letter breaks are used for lines after https://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/iran/airan/avesta/avest.htm. 7 See Bartholomae 1904, 512–513; cf. Jackson 2016, 178 (“House of Praise”).

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Figure 1. Façade of the tomb of Artaxerxes I at Naqš-i Rustam (after Schmidt 1970, pl. 48). (32) xšnūtō aš ̣aōnąm uruuąnō pāraiieiṇti aōui ahurahe mazdå aōui aməš ̣anąm spəṇtanąm aōui gātuuō zaraniiō.kərətō aōui garō nmānəm maēϑanəm ahurahe mazdå maēϑanəm aməš ̣anąm spəṇtanąm maēϑanəm ańiiaēš ̣ąm aš ̣aunąm “(31) Vohu Manah rises from (his) throne made of gold. Vohu Manah proclaims: ‘When did you, righteous man, come here to us, from the dangerous existence to the safe one?’ (32) The welcomed soul of the righteous ones goes to Ahura Mazda, to the Life-giving Immortals, to (his?) throne made of gold, to Garonmana―the abode of Ahura Mazda, the abode of the Life-giving Immortals, the abode of the other righteous ones” (after manuscript ms. 4161 (Tehran University), Cantera and Mazdāpour 2015, 225r).

Another case where the “golden throne” is mentioned could be found in Yasht 15.2e (refrains: 7c, 11c, 15e, 19e, 23e, 27e, 31f, 35d, 39d), where the

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worship that Ahura Mazda accords to Vayu, the deity of death and the patron of warriors, is described: […] Yō daδuuå ahurō mazdå airiiene vaējahe vaŋhuiiå dāitaiiaiiå zaranaēne paiti gātuuō zaranaēne paiti fraspāiti zaranaēne paiti upastərəne […] “[…] “Ahura Mazda […] worshipped him in the Aryan territory of the good Daitya (river), on a golden throne, on a golden carpet, on a golden rug […]” (after manuscript E1, fol. 364r; Kotwal, Hintze 2008, 42; translation after Malandra 1983, 98). As we see from this text, communion with such a god requires the corresponding golden attributes, which perhaps mark the Ideal World, and then Ahura Mazda and subsequent heroes worship Vayu in the golden ambience (see also Wikander 1941, 26– 28; de Jong 1997, 154–155). The presence of a solid golden entourage, in particular the “golden throne”, is determined by the otherworldly nature of this god, who is endowed with golden attributes more than other deities (see Vertiienko 2019). According to Yasht 17.9, the thrones of the righteous people are not made entirely of gold, but only have gilded elements: gātauua […] hukərəta barəziš.hauuaṇtō zaraniiapaxšta.pāδāŋhō “thrones [...] well made, with pillows, with gilded legs” (translation after Skjærvø 2005–2007, 204). A link between the Avestan and Middle Persian sources may be Aogəmadaēcā §17, where it is said that the soul of the righteous man in the afterlife “either such as silver adorned, or such as gold (adorned) with any colour whatsoever”8 (yaϑa vā ərəzatō.paiϑi yaϑa vā zaraniiō.paiϑi yaϑa vā kācit̰ gaonanąm) (JamAspasa 1982, 27, 58, 170). However, the Pahlavi and Sanskrit commentaries on this passage explain that the soul of the deceased receives not only golden garments but also a golden throne (vastag zarrēn pēsīt taxt i zarren) (JamAspasa 1982, 58). This clarification has led me to revise the common translation of Vīdēvdād 19.32, which in my opinion refers to the movement of the righteous man toward his own golden throne in the Otherworld (“The welcomed soul of the righteous ones goes to Ahura Mazda, to the Life-giving Immortals, to (his) throne made of gold, to Garonmana […]”), rather than to the thrones of celestial deities (Table 1). The problem of 8

This passage can be correlated with the motif, known from Classical sources, of the supposed prohibition for Persians to dress in gold and silver and supply the corpse with them (de Joung 1997, 220). This topos of Classical literature is quite debatable, although some scholars think that such a priestly prohibition was a reality for Persians, since they were addicted to earthly riches (Moorey 1985, 857; de Joung 1997, 220). Perhaps it points to the idea of a posthumous reward to righteous men with metals that they had been forced to renounce during their lifetime.

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the meaning of the throne and its grammatical number in this passage was raised by A. Hultgård (1993, 7)9. In his analysis, he came to the conclusion that it can have two different translations, but he preferred the one where the soul of the deceased moves to some special thrones or throne10. He was not able to give an answer to the question to whom this throne belongs. To my mind, the movement of the soul of the righteous deceased is toward his individual afterlife throne and is a reflection of ideas about personal piety, which was first developed precisely in Zoroastrianism (the religion of the Axial Age, according to Karl Jaspers). Table 1. Vīdēvdād 19.31–32 (different published translations) (31) Up rises Vohu-manô from his golden seat; Vohu-manô exclaims: “How hast thou come to us, thou holy one, from that decaying world into this undecaying one?”’ (32) ‘Gladly pass the souls of the righteous to the golden seat of Ahura Mazda, to the golden seat of the Amesha-Spentas, to the Garô-nmânem, the abode of Ahura Mazda, the abode of the Amesha-Spentas, the abode of all the other holy beings (Darmesteter 1880, 213–214). (31) Vohu Manah stieg auf vom goldenen Thron. Vohu manah sprach: “Wann bist Du hierher gekommen, Du frommer, aus der vergänglichen Welt zur unvergänglichen?” (32) Und er führt zufrieden die Seelen zu Ahura Mazdāh zu den Ameša Spentas au dem goldenen Thron… (Wikander 1941, 26–27). (31) Up rose Good Thought from (his) golden throne. Good Thought pronounced: When did you come hither to us, O Orderly one, from the perilous existence to the existence without peril? (32) Thus welcomed the souls of the Orderly ones go forth to the golden thrones of Ahura Mazdâ, of the Life-giving Immortals, to the House of Song, the abode of Ahura Mazdâ, the abode of the Life-giving Immortals, the abode of the other Orderly ones (Skjærvø 2005–2007, 149). (31) Vohu Manah se lèvera de son trône d’or, Vohu Manah parlera: “Comment donc, ô ašavan es-tu venu ici, Du monde des dangers vers le monde sans danger?” (32) Satisfaites, les âmes des ašavans s’en vont vers les trônes d’or d’Ahura Mazdâ, des Amǝša Spǝnta, vers le Garō Nmāna, la demeure d’Ahura Mazdâ, le demeure des Amǝša Spǝnta, le demeure des autres ašavans (Lecoq 2016, 1032). “L’âme vient ensuite chez Ahura Mazdah et les Amesha Spenta et il est de nouveau fait mention d’un trône (ou: des trônes) d’or, mais le texte n’est pas très clair sur ce point. On peut l’interpréter de façon différente. Ou bien, les âmes vont vers les trônes d’Ahura Mazdah et des Amesha Spenta, ou bien, selon une seconde alternative, elles vont chez Ahura Mazdah, chez les Amesha Spenta, vers les trônes (ou le trône) sans qu’on précise à qui est le trône. Il me semble que la seconde alternative est la meilleure” (Hultgård 1993, 7). 10 See also Hultgård 1993, 7, n. 21. 9

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As in Avestan sources, so in the Middle Persian texts the souls of righteous men join the golden environment in the Otherworld. They sit on golden thrones, have clothes adorned with gold and silver, and ride in golden chariots. An example of these ideas is Ardā Wīrāz-nāmag (9.3; 11.1 (Jamaspji Asa 1872, 158, 159–160; Kargar 2009, 110, 112); 15.9 (“I also saw many golden thrones with fine carpets […]”) (Jamaspji Asa 1872, 40, 164))11. Whereas the Avestan sources mention only male divine characters sitting on golden thrones and meeting the souls of deceased, in the Nart epic of the Ossetians a female deity meets the deceased while seated on a golden chair12. Her description came from the legend “How Soslan the Nart visited the Land of the Dead while alive”. This archaic goddess is described as “one woman” who meets the hero in the Land of the Dead, and she can probably be recognized as the Goddess of the Otherworld: Уосæ сузгъæринæ къелабæл бадтæй, сузгъæринæ цетенæ æ рази, уæдта алли хуæруйнаги дзæбєхæй æ раз идзагæй лæудтæй (Khamitsayeva and Byazyrov 1989–1990, I, 207) “The woman was sitting on a golden chair, a golden wicker basket [was next to her], and there were a lot of different tempting viands in front of her” (translation after Khamitsayeva and Byazyrov 1989–1990, II, 158). The word къела used for the “chair” in this text has the meanings “bench, chair, stool” (Abayev 1958–1989, I, 631–632), and it is characterized with the compound сузгъæрин (with metathesis з and г), where сигъ “red” is a decorative epithet and зæрин means “golden” (Abayev 1958–1989, IV, 393). This motif can be found in visual form from the same period on the relief of the western wall of Alanian crypt no. 1 on the Krivaya river in Prikuban (10th–12th centuries AD) (Kuznetsov 1961, 106–117; Yatsenko 1995, 189, Figure 1, 2), where an image of the goddess and her (golden?) chair is present (Figure 2).

11 12

See Hultgård 1993, 10ff. The attitude of Iranians towards women in a sacred sphere was not always been positive. According to Pahlavi literature Spandarmad, the daughter-wife of Ahura Mazda, was sometimes described as queen of heaven, while the Evil Spirit Ahreman was also accompanied by his evil queen consort Jeh-dēw, who was responsible for sin and the evil nature of women (de Jong 1995, 34).

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Figure 2. The image of a chair in the relief from Alanian crypt no. 1 on the Krivaya river in Prikuban, 10th–12th centuries AD (after Kuznetsov 1961, 68, Figure 54).

Figure 3. The image of a Sarmato-Alanian goddess on a golden (?) throne in the crypt of Anfesterios, Panticapaeum, 1st century AD (after Zatseskaya 2011, 240, Figure 130).

The eschatological motif of this crypt is similar to the Sarmato-Alanian plot on the painting in the Bosporan crypt of Anfesterios (1st century AD) (Yatsenko 1995, 189–191), where one can see a goddess sitting on a throne waiting for a rider who is moving toward her from the right (Figure 3). The color of the throne and clothes of the goddess in the painting is red. Given the semantics of the Ossetian word сигъзæрин, we can assume that the clothes and throne of the goddess are shown here as golden. Eschatological in essence is the relief from the “Senior” Tryokhbratny barrow in Eastern Crimea (4th– early 3rd century BC), where the columns and pediment of the goddess (which

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create an image of a throne) are also painted in red (Figure 4). This last image has analogies in the Bosporan “crypt of Sorakos” in Panticapaeum (Figure 5). In the same context, the image of a goddess on the throne on the rhyton from Merdzhany (3rd–2nd centuries BC) should be mentioned. The throne of the goddess in the decoration of the carpet from the 5th Pazyryk barrow (Altai, 4th century BC) was also woven with red threads (Figure 6).

Figure 4. The image of goddess on the relief from the “Senior” Tryokhbratny barrow, Eastern Crimea, 4th–early 3rd century BC (after Vertiienko 2018, 4, Figure 3).

Figure 5. The image of goddess on a golden (?) throne in the “crypt of Sorakos” Panticapaeum, 1st century AD (after Vertiienko 2018, 5, Figure 5).

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Figure 6. The image of goddess on a throne on the carpet from the 5th Pazyryk barrow, Altai, 4th century BC (after Zatseskaya 2011, 241, ill. 133).

Figure 7. Image of a Scythian goddess with a mirror sitting on a throne/chair on a gold plaque from Kul-Oba barrow, Eastern Crimea, 4th century BC, 35 mm × 37 mm (after Vertiienko 2021, 265, Figure 5).

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Figure 8. Image of a Scythian goddess with a mirror sitting on a throne/chair on a gold Sakhnivka plate, 4th century BC (after Vertiienko 2021, 261, Figure 3).

In my opinion, the Ossetian goddess on the “golden chair” recalls not only a Sarmato-Alanian deity but also a much earlier Scythian deity. In the art of the Scythians the image of a “goddess with a mirror” could be compared with this motif. On a number of pieces of jewellery of the 4th century BC this goddess is depicted sitting on a specific throne/chair: a group of golden plaques show a goddess with a mirror and the “young” Scythian with a rhyton in front of her (Figure 7); the same motif is found in the central scene of the Sakhnivka golden plate (Figure 8). The presence of decorative elements of thrones in the early Scythian burial complexes (such as Kelermes, etc.) and in some later Sarmatian ones (Khokhlach barrow)13 indicates that this motif was connected with eschatological ideas and that were used in funeral rituals. The image of a Scythian goddess with a mirror has a distinct eschatological meaning. She could be described as a Scythian anonymous Goddess of the Otherworld who meets the souls of the deceased and equips them for the afterlife (Widengren 1961, 808; Vertiienko 2015; 2021). In this function her role could be compared with the Iranian goddess Daēnā (Vertiienko 2014; 2015, 130–134). In Zoroastrian beliefs, she plays the role of a psychopompus―a guide to the afterlife (Yasht 22 (Hadōxt Nask II), 7– 18, cf. Vīdēvdād 19.27–30). The goddess meets the soul near the Chinvat Bridge (Avestan cinuuatō pərətu-), and she reflects the actions of a person during his or her lifetime. She is seen by the righteous as a beautiful maiden and by sinners as an ugly old woman. Of course, only the righteous get the opportunity to cross the Bridge and enter the heavenly Paradise. Sinners go down to Hell. In the image of Daēnā as the “Virgin of the Bridge”, first of all, 13

See Bessonova 1990, 33; Kisel 2003, 61–66, 130–131; Zatseskaya 2011, 235–236; Boltryk and Fialko 2019, 557–584.

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the motif of reflection, which is functionally inherent in the mirror, attracts attention. In addition, Daēnā is closely connected with the concept of vision and the ability to see and to be seen, with which she endows the soul of the deceased in the afterlife (Vevaina 2010, 135)14. The facts just outlined give grounds for comparing her with the Scythian goddess with a mirror who is seated on a throne15. Perhaps this archaic image split into two in Zoroastrianism. The goddess Daēnā (the personification of the mirror) stands up to meet the soul of the deceased in front of the Chinvat Bridge to Paradise, while immediately before entering it the soul is met by a male deity sitting on a golden throne―Vohu Manah16. In any case, we can suggest that the concept of the afterlife (golden?) throne existed in Scythian beliefs and was connected with a female deity. Thus, this goddess can be attributed to the stratum of preZoroastrian ideas of Iranian peoples. To sum up, in Iran the idea of a throne located in the Otherworld is first attested in the Achaemenid period (XPf, §4.32–33). According to Fr. de Blois, the Old Persian gāθu- “place” acquired the meaning “throne” under the influence of Akkadian and Elamite equivalents. The Avestan sources include ideas about a golden throne (gātuuō zaranaiiō.kərətō “throne made of gold”) that was located in the celestial Paradise―Garonmana. According to Vīdēvdād 19.31, the deity Vohu Manah (the Zoroastrian abstract personification of “Good Thought”) sits on this throne. The god of death and the patron of warriors Vayu is also connected with the motif of golden throne (Yasht 15). This god was associated with gold more than other deities in the Avestan tradition. Middle Persian sources indicate that the golden surroundings, and in particular the golden throne in the afterlife, also possess the souls of righteous people (Ardā Wīrāz-nāmag 9.3; 11.1; 15.9). Perhaps the description of the movement of the righteous soul to his or her personal golden throne is also described by Vīdēvdād 19.32. In this case, we can speak here about a reflection of ideas of personal piety.

According to J. Kellens (2000. 106): “This soul is not only defined by its name as ability to see, but also has an intimate and multilateral relationship that is active, passive, and causative, with the act of seeing, which is expressed by the verb cit ‘to notice’. The daēnā is seen, sees, and causes to see” (cf. Vevaina 2010, 135, fn. 85). 15 I find confirmation of this assumption in Ossetian folklore, where in front of the Bridge to the Otherworld there is a “mirror of the dead” (мæрдты айдæн). Passing over this Bridge the righteous soul who looked into the mirror goes to the Paradise, whereas the mirror casts sinners off the Bridge and down to hell (Gazdanova 2003, 63). 16 Cf. Hultgård 1993, 7–9; de Jong 1997, 154–155; Shenkar 2015, 11–12, 163–165, etc. 14

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Unlike the Zoroastrian Iranians, for whom the throne is characteristic only of male deities, among the nomadic Iranian-speaking tribes the golden throne of the Otherworld was associated with a female deity. This motif is represented in the pictorial traditions of the Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans. It is also known in Ossetian epics and folklore. In my opinion, the tradition of the nomadic Iranian-speaking peoples preserves a more archaic, pre-Zoroastrian image of the goddess of the Otherworld who meets the deceased while she is seated on the throne. In Iran, as a result of the reform of Zarathushtra, this scenario was transformed, and the golden throne of the Otherworld passed to a male deity. However, the idea of the goddess of the Afterworld did not disappear without trace and was preserved in the image of Daēnā, who has some features similar to the Scythian goddess with a mirror and who plays the role of a psychopompus in the Zoroastrian tradition.

Acknowledgment I’m deeply thankful to Prof. John Baines (Oxford) for his help with revising my English.

References Abayev, V. I. (1958–1989). Istoriko-etimologicheskiy slovar’ osetinskogo yazyka [Historical and etymological dictionary of the Ossetian language], T. 1-4. Moscow: Izd-vo AN SSSR. (In Russian). Bartholomae, Chr. (1904). Altiranisches Wörterbuch [Old Iranian Dictionary]. Strassburg: Karl. J. Truebner. Bessonova, S. S. (1990). Skifskiye pogrebal’nyye kompleksy kak istochnik dlya rekonstruktsii ideologicheskikh predstavleniy [Scythian burial complexes as a source for the reconstruction of ideological ideas]. In Zubar’, V. M. and Bessonova, S. S. (eds), Obryady i verovaniya drevnego naseleniya Ukrainy. Kiev: Naukva dumka, 1740. (In Russian). Bogolyubov, M. N. (1989). Iranskiye nazvaniya utrenney zvezdy [Iranian names for the morning star] Voprosy yazykoznaniya, No. 4, 88-91. (In Russian). Boltryk, Yu. V. and Fialko, O. Ye. (2019). Elementy inter’yeru z pokhoval’nykh sporud Skifiyi [ Elements of the interior of the consecrated sporuds of Scythia]. In Szmyt, M., Ignaczak, M., Makarowicz, P. (eds). Vir bimaris. From Kujawy Cardle to Black Sea Steppes. Studies on the Prehistory of the Baltic-Pontic Between-the-seas. In Recognition of Professor Aleksander Kosko. Poznan, 557-584. (In Ukrainian).

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on the history of forms of ancient oriental and Greek furniture for seating and lounging in the pre-Hellenistic period]. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co. Lecoq, P. (2016). Les livres de l’Avesta. Les textes sacrés des Zoroastriens [The Books of the Avesta. The sacred texts of the Zoroastrians] Paris: Éditions du Cerf. MacKenzie, D. N. (1971). A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. London, New York & Toronto: Oxford University Press. Malandra, W. W. (1983). An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion. Readings from the Avesta and Achaemenid Inscriptions. Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press. Mayrhofer, M. (1973). Medismen in der 1967 gefundenen Xerxes-Inschrift? [Medismen in the Xerxes inscription found in 1967?]. Linguistica, No. 13, 97-101. Mayrhofer, M. (1992-1996). Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen [Etymological Dictionary of Old Indo-Aryan], Bd. I-II. Heidelberg: Universitätverlag C. Winter. Metzger, M. (1985). Königsthron und Gottesthron. Thronformen und Throndarstellungen in Ägypten und im Vorderen Orient im dritten und zweiten Jahrtausend vor Christus und deren Bedeutung für das Verständnis von Aussagen über den Thron [Royal Throne and God's Throne. Throne forms and depictions of thrones in Egypt and the Near East in the third and second millennium BC and their importance for understanding statements about the throne]. im Alten Testament, Alter Orient und Altes Testament, Bd. 15. Kevelaer and Neukirchen-Vluyn: Butzon und Bercker & Neukirchener Verlag. Moorey, P. R. S. (1985). Metalwork and Glyptic. In Gerchevitch, I. (ed.), Cambridge History of Iran, Volume II: The Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge: Cmbridge University Press, 856-869. Pokorny, J. (1959). Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] . Bern & München: A. Francke. Rastorguyeva, B. C. and Edel’man, D. I. (2007). Etimologicheskiy slovar’ iranskikh yazykov, Vol. 3: f-h. Moscow: Izdatel’skaya firma “Vostochnaya literature” RAN. (In Russian). Root, M. C. 2021. The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art. Essays on the creation of an iconography of Empire, 2nd ed., Acta Iranica, Vol. 19, Leuven, Paris & Bristol, CT: Peeters. Shenkar, M. (2015). Intangible Spirits and Graven Images: The Iconography of Deities in the Pre-Islamic Iranian World. Leiden: Brill. Schmeja, H. (1982). Ging ein zum Throne der Götter [Entered the throne of the gods] . Monumentum Georg Morgenstierne II, Acta Iranica, Vol. 22. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 185188. Schmidt, E. F. (1970). Persepolis III: The Royal Tombs and other Monuments, Oriental Institute Publications, Vol. 70. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Skjærvø, P. O. (2005–2007). Introduction to Zoroastrianism. Harvard: Harvard University. URL: https://m-hosseini.ir/zar/articles-1/30-1.pdf (accessed 3 February 2022). Stolper, M. W. (2015). From the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project, 4: ‘His Own Death’ in Bisotun and Persepolis. Arta, 002, 1-27.

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Tafazzoli, A. (1988). The King’s Seat in the Fire-temple. In Sundermann, W. and Vahman, F. (eds), A Green Leaf. Papers in Honour of J. P. Asmussen, Acta Iranica, Vol, 28. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 101-106. Tarasenko, M. (2021). Some Remarks to the Semantics of Image of Deity on the Coffin of Sepi III (Cairo CG 28083). In Vives-Ferrándiz Sánchez, L. (ed.), Eternal Sadness: Representations of Death in Visual Culture from Antiquity to the Present Time, Eikón Imago, Vol. 10 (Monographic Issue). Madrid: Ediciones Complutense, 229-239. Vertiienko, A. (2014). Obraz Daeny v obshcheiranskoy retrospektive. [The image of Daena in a pan-Iranian retrospective]. In Ladoga v kontekste istorii i arkheologii Severnoy Evrazii. Sbornik statey pamyati Dmitriya A. Machinskogo. Saint Petersburg: NestorIstoriya, 39-51. (In Russian). Vertiienko, H. (2015). Ikonohrafiya skifs’koyi eskhatolohiyi [ Iconography of Scythian eschatology]. Kyiv: Instytut skhodoznavstva im. A. Yu. Kryms’koho NAN Ukrayiny, Vydavets’ Oleh Filyuk. (In Ukrainian). Vertiienko, H. (2018). The Temporal Pattern on the Funerary Relief from the “Senior” Trekhbratnyi Barrow. In Fahd Mohammed Taleb Saeed Alolaqi (ed.), Exploring Art and Literature: Interpretations, Perspectives and Influences. New York: Nova Publishers, 1–16. Vertiienko, H. (2019). ‘Zoloto” v Yashtakh: do semantyky obrazu Vayu ["Gold" in Yashty: to the semantics of the image of Vayu]. Shìdnij svìt, No. 2, 63-80. (In Ukrainian). Vertiienko, H. (2021). The Saknivka Plate: Scythian Iconography in the Imaging of Eschatological Concepts. In Vives-Ferrándiz Sánchez, L. (ed.). Eternal Sadness: Representations of Death in Visual Culture from Antiquity to the Present Time, Eikón Imago, No. 10 (Monographic Issue), 259-270. Vevaina, Y. S.-D. (2010). “Enumerating the Dēn”: Textual Taxonomies, Cosmological Deixis, and Numerological Speculations in Zoroastrianism. History of Religions, Vol. 50, no. 2. 111-143. Widengren, G. (1961). Eschatology, Iran. In Encyclopedia of World Art, Vol. 4, New York, Toronto & London: McGraw-Hill, 808-811. Wikander, S. (1941). Vayu: Texte und Untersuchungen zur indo-iranischen Religionsgeschichte [Vayu: Texts and Studies in Indo-Iranian Religious History]. Uppsala: A. B. Lundequist. Yatsenko, S. A. (1995). O sarmato-alanskom syuzhete rospisi v pantikapeyskom “sklepe Anfesteriya” [About the Sarmatian-Alanian plot of the painting in the Panticapaeum “Crypt of Anthesterius”]. Vestnik drevney istorii, No. 3, 188-194. (In Russian). Zatseskaya, I. P. (2011). Sokrovishcha kurgana Khokhlach. Novocherkasskiy klad (Treasures of the Khokhlach burial mound. Novocherkassk treasure). SaintPetersburg: Izdatel’stvo Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha. (In Russian).

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Biographical Sketch Hanna Vertiienko https://www.oriental-studies.org.ua/en/vertiienko-hanna/ Affiliation: Senior Fellow at the А. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Department of Eurasian Steppe. Education: • Academic degrees: Candidate of Historical Sciences (PhD) (2010). •

15/11/2006–30/04/2009 – А.Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (World History, PostGraduate Course)

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01/09/2003–30/06/2006 – National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Master of Arts in History (Archaeology and Ancient History of Ukraine))

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01/09/1998–30/06/2003 – T.G. Shevchenko Chernigiv State pedagogical University (Specialist in History. Language and Literature (English))

Business Address: 4 Mykhailo Hrushevsky Street, Kyiv – 01001, Ukraine Research and Professional Experience: Research topics: • Study of spiritual and material culture of the Iranophone nomads of the Eurasian steppe (works of toreutics, anthropomorphic images, mythological and eschatological representations, war cults, funeral rituals, pantheon); • Research and translation of the Young Avestan texts. Professional Appointments: orcid.org/0000-0002-2104-0058 Scopus ID 56528410300 Researcher ID AAG-8730-2021

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Publications from the Last 3 Years: Вертиенко, А. В. (2021). “‘Серебро’ в текстах Авесты” [“Siver” in the texts of Avesta]. Вестник древней истории, №. 1 (81), 52–61. Вертієнко, Г. В. (2021). “Коштовні метали у світоглядній системі давніх іраномовних народів за текстами Авести” [Precious Metals in the Worldview System of Ancient Iranian-Speaking Peoples on the Texts of Avesta]. Археологія, №. 1, 29–37. Vertiienko, H. (2021). “The Saknivka Plate: Scythian Iconography in the Imaging of Eschatological Concepts”. In L. Vives-Ferrándiz Sánchez (ed.), Eternal Sadness: Representations of Death in Visual Culture from Antiquity to the Present Time, Eikón Imago, Vol. 10 (Monographic Issue). Madrid, 259–270. Вертиенко, А. В. (2020), “Золото в погребениях кочевников раннего железного века: к пересмотру концепций” [Gold in the tombs of the Early Iron Age nomads: to revision of coneptions]. In С. А. Яценко, Е. В. Куприянова (ред.), Вещь в контексте погребального обряда. Материалы международной научной конференции. Москва, 115– 125. Вертиенко, А. В. (2020). “К значению имен и функций мифических рыб в ‘Авесте’” [Understanding the Names and Functions of Mythical Fishes in the Avesta]. Вопросы ономастики, Т. 17 (2), 166–185. Вертієнко, Г. В. (2019). “‘Золото’ в Яштах: до семантики образу Вайу” [‘Gold’ in Yashts: Towards the Semantics of the Vaya Image], Східний світ, № 2, 63–80. Вертієнко, Г. В. (2019). “‘Східна Афродіта’ на виробах з території Скіфії (до витоків іконографії” [“Oriental Aphrodite” on products from the territory of Scythia (to the origins of iconography], Археологія і давня історія України, Вип. 33 (4), 340–347.

Chapter 5

The Semantics of the Expression m-ḫt mni=f in the Book of the Dead Spell 17 Mykola Tarasenko*, DSc Department of Near and Middle East, A. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

Abstract The article considers the semantics of the expression m-ḫt mni=f – “after he moored,” which is used in the title of Spell 17 in the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. The verb mni can be literally translated as “to moor” and “to arrive at the port,” “to moor a ship/boat.” In a metaphorical sense, this verb replaced the word “to die,” although the consonant verb in the literal sense of “to die” is also known. According to some Egyptologists, mni as “to moor” and mni as “to die” are two different words that were just consonants. The article will show that this is one and the same verb, which, depending on the context, had either the direct meaning “to moor” or the metaphorical meaning “to die.” At the same time, the metaphorical meaning endowed this lexeme with a special semantic meaning that would be reconstructed on the basis of the Egyptian ideas of the nature of death.

keywords: book of the dead, spell 17, rubric, ancient Egyptian beliefs of the afterlife, semantics, expression “to moor” / “to die”

*

Corresponding Author’s Email: [email protected].

In: Sociolinguistics Editor: Marcus K. Jakobsen ISBN: 979-8-88697-018-0 © 2022 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

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The Spell 17 of the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead has a long title rubric (Lapp 2006, 2–8):

Hat-a-m sTs.w sxA.w pr.t hAj.t m Xrt-nTr Ax m imn.t nfr.t wnn m Smc n Wcir Htp m Sb.w n Wnn-nfr prt m hrw iri.t xpr.w m xpr.w nb mry(y)=f Hab snt Hms m sH pr m bA anx in N. m-xt mni=f iw.w Ax.w n ir r st tp tA “Formulae for elevation and transfiguration, for going out and descending in the god’s land1, being transfigured in the beautiful west, for going out by day taking any form he desires to take, playing the board-game senet, sitting in the pavilion, going out as a living ba-soul by N. after he moors. This is effective for the one who does it on earth” (translation based on Quirke 2013, 55). One expression used in the title rubric deserves a special explanation: mḫt mni=f “after he moors.” In Table 1 below, the variants of its spelling in a

1

I.e., Necropolis.

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so-called Theban Redaction of the Book of the Dead from the New Kingdom (1550–1070 BC) are given (after Lapp 2006, 8–9): Table 1. Spellings of m-ḫt mni=f in the Book of the Dead Spell 17 title rubric during the New Kingdom pNb-sni pLondon BM EA 9900 pNxt pLondon BM EA 10471 pJaH-mc pParis Louvre E. 11085 pImn-Htp Cairo CG 40002 linen Tuthmose III Cairo CG 40001 tomb of Imn-m-Hat TT82 pJwiA pCairo CG 51189 pImn-m-ipt V1 pHw-nfr pLondon BM EA 9901 pPA-qrr pLeiden T2 p£Arj pLondon BM EA 9949 pAnj pLondon BM EA 10470 pDublin TCD MS 1661

The common spelling of the verb mni is with the different forms of determinatives, such as or etc. (Hannig 1995, 336)2. A number of variants were also shown in Table 1. The verb is literally translated as having two meanings (Wb., II, 73–74 (“landen” / “sterben”)). The literal meaning is “to moor,” “to come to the port,” “to moor a ship/boat,” while in a figurative, metaphorical sense, this verb replaced the verb “to die” as a euphemism (Wb., II, 73–74; Faulkner 1999, 107; Hannig 1995, 336).

2

Cf. Coptic moonE, moNI.

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According to R. Faulkner (apparently, he proceeds from the contextual differences of determinatives), mni as “to land” and mni as “to die” are two different words that were consonants (Faulkner 1999, 107–108). But I cannot agree with this, and I believe that we are still facing one and the same verb, which, depending on the context, had either the direct meaning “to moor” or the metaphorical meaning “to die.” According to R. Hannig there are seven meanings of mni with “landen, andocken, anpflokken” as the first one and “sterben” as euphemistic, while another four are derivatives (Hannig 1995, 336–337). This “ambiguity” of the verb introduced some ambiguity in the translations. Thus, translators of literary texts sometimes use “to die” in the appropriate context without any reservations. An example is “The Tale of 3 in line B 310: (iw=i Xr) Sinuhe” in the translation of the word 4 Hcw.tw nt xr-ncwt r iw hrw n mni=f pw (Maspero 1908, 25, 42) “... rewarded by the King, until the day of my death” (Erman 1966, 29)5. On the contrary, when translating the same verb, many researchers of religious texts are more careful6, giving, in particular, for this sentence of the Spell 17 of the Book of the Dead the translation “to moor” with the notion that death is meant metaphorically (Rößler-Köhler 1979, 212; Hornung 1979, 59; Allen 1960, 87; Allen 1974, 27; Quirke 2013, 55). M. Lichtheim when translating the so-called “Harper’s Songs” of the New Kingdom7, both a literary and a religious text, in three cases of the using of verb mni translates it as “to die” only once (Nefer-hotep III (TT 50), line 1 (Lichtheim 1961,198 (“that day of death”); pl. I)), and in two other cases she gives a direct translation as “to land” (Hefer-hotep I (TT 50), line 9 (Lichtheim 1961, 195 (“Till that day has come of landing at the land that loves silence”), pl. VII); Khai-inheret (TT 359), line 16 (201 (“Until that day comes in which there is landing”)).

3

Var.: , (Maspero 1908, 25). Var. ii in Ostracon London BM EA 5629 (Maspero 1908, 42). 5 But cf. Lichtheim 1976, 233 (“I was in the favor of the king, until the day of landing came” with note that “the day of landing came” means “the day of death” (235, fn. 26)); Foster 2001 148 (“And I enjoyed the sunshine of his royal favor until my day of mooring dawned”)); Simpson 2003, 66 (“So I remained in the favor of the king until the day of mooring came”). 6 Cf. Assmann 2005, 73, 80, 125, 202, 304, 305, 379, 382. 7 Cf. Zandee 1960, 53. 4

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It is well known that the Egyptians avoided direct mentions of the word “death” in the funeral literature8 and tried to replace it with more neutral metaphors like “to moor.” At the same time, the use of the verb mni as a substitute word, in my opinion, is by no means accidental. The role played by water transport in the religion of the Egyptians is well known and studied (especially in the context of the journey of solar god Re)9. But in our case, it is definitely referring to a “one way” one-time travel. In connection with such a “one-time” water journey of the deceased, there is a group of representations that one can find on the tomb reliefs starting from the Old Kingdom. These are scenes of the so-called “journey to the West” – ferrying the mummy and sarcophagus by boat from the eastern bank of the Nile to the western one, where the necropolis was traditionally located (Jones 1995, 18–19) (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The scenes of “travel to the West.” A: the tomb of Neb-ka-an-hor, Saqqara, 5th Dynasty (after Kees 1956, Abb. 2a); B: the tomb of Snefru-an-ashet, Dahshur, 6th Dynasty (after Kees 1956, Abb. 2b).

Conceptually close to this composition are the scenes that appear on the reliefs of the tombs of the Middle and New Kingdoms – the so-called Cases of “dissection” of the “dangerous” hieroglyphic signs of animals, birds, snakes, etc., should be put as a parallel to this phenomenon so that they (more precisely, the forces embodied in them) could not harm the owner of the tomb (Lacau 1914; Wilkinson 1994, 163, fig. 113; Brier 1981, 33). 9 See Sethe 1928; Schäfer 1928; 1935; Jones 1995, 12–18. 8

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“pilgrimage scenes” (Jones 1995, 18–19). They depict the transportation of the mummy of the deceased to one of the cult centers of Osiris – Abydos in Upper Egypt or Busiris in Lower Egypt (Wilkinson 1994, 74; Jones 1995, 18) (Figure 2). This event did not necessarily take place in reality and the real funeral took place in a nearby necropolis, and in the “resting place of the Great God” it was enough to leave a simple cenotaph or stela, which is perfectly illustrated by archaeological material10. Nevertheless, in the scenes of the “pilgrimage” one sees, in my opinion, not only an indication of the growing popularity of the cult of Osiris, but also the further development of the idea of a posthumous ferry on a boat across the river (“journey to the West”) as crossing the border of the world of the living and the world of the dead, in other words, life and death. This idea is taking shape in Spell 99 of the Book of the Dead (Lippiello 2004; Quirke 2013, 218–223).

Figure 2. The “pilgrimage scene” (lower register): Theban tomb of Pairi, TT 139 (Sheikh Abd el-Qurna), 18th Dynasty (after Kees 1956, Abb. 1).

In the consciousness of an archaic man, aquatic representations played an important role in the posthumous fate since water symbolized the primordial substance of the universe, merging in which a person returned to a state of precreation, and gave hope for rebirth and resurrection in the Other world (Eliade 1958, 188–215; 1961, 151–159). As M. Eliade writes: “water symbolizes the whole of potentiality; it is fons et origo, the source of all possible existence ... water symbolizes the primal substance from which all forms come and to which they will return either by their own regression. … Immersion in water symbolizes a return to the pre-formal, a total regeneration, a new birth, for

10

See Richards 2003; O’Connor 2009; Cahail 2014; Regulski 2019.

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immersion means a dissolution of forms, a reintegration into the formlessness of pre-existence; and emerging from the water is a repetition of the act of creation in which form was first expressed. Every contact with water implies regeneration: first, because dissolution is succeeded by a “new birth,” and then because immersion fertilizes, increases the potential of life and of creation. In initiation rituals, water confers a “new birth,” in magic rituals it heals, and in funeral rites it assures rebirth after death” (Eliade 1958, 188–189). That is why the deity of the primordial Ocean of Chaos, Nun played in Egyptian religion not a negative, but exclusively positive role. Actually, the very word imnt.t “West,” where the Egyptian went after his death, initially, apparently, had a purely topographical meaning as an indication of the location of the necropolis. However, by the Middle Kingdom it loses its content and becomes the name of the Afterworld, the kingdom of Osiris as such, in the general sense of this concept (Wb., I, 86 (8–9); Bolshakov 1997, 27–28). However, the idea that the West can only be reached by crossing the river remained in the worldview of the Egyptians, which is clearly demonstrated by the metaphor of death I am considering―m-ḫt mni=f “after he moors.” Close to this understanding of the meaning of the verb mni “to moor” was J. Zandee, as noted in his brief remark (1960, 25), but he limited himself to the guess that under the metaphor may be hidden an indication of the “literal” postmortem water travel of the deceased. The water voyage across the river as a necessary and inevitable condition for the transition from the world of the living to the world of the dead, crossing to the shore of the land, from where there is no return, is also indicated by the funerary texts of the Middle and New Kingdoms, in particular, in Spell 335 of the Coffin Texts (CT IV, 308b-c) and Spell 17 of the Book of the Dead using the same verb mni: ink wDA tp tA xr Ra mni=i nfr xr Wcir “I am the one who is well on earth before Ra, and my mooring is good before Osiris” (Lapp 2006, 238–241 (pNebseny pLondon BM EA 9900, col. 72–73), translation after Quirke 2013, 61, cf. Rößler-Köhler 1979, 227). The same expression is written on the shrines of Tutankhamun (Piankoff 1962, 65, pl. 21). One can find many examples of similar aquatic ideas in other cultures. Among them are ancient Greeks, Persians (Zoroastrians), Germans, Japanese, Celts, Indians; the idea of a boat crossing a water barrier, as the path of the deceased into otherness, is widespread among Indian tribes (Dayaks, Hurons, Iroquois), Papuans of New Guinea, Pala Islands, New Caledonia, Samoa,

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Eskimos, etc.11 The list of such ethnographic parallels, if desired, can be significantly expanded. It is also remarkable that Osiris, the god of the dead, in the religious ideas of the Egyptians was steadily identified with the water element12, and in particular, with the Nile (Griffith 1980, 154–155). It seems to me that the connection between Osiris and water indicates not so much the function of God as the focus of the “productive forces of nature,” “fertility,” etc., but the idea of posthumous resurrection embodied in the cycle of Osirian myth. Resurrection is closely related to the functions of water. In the sacred dimension, water symbolizes death (“immersion is the equivalent, at the human level, of death” (Eliade 1958, 194)) and, at the same time, new birth to life: “breaking up all forms, doing away with all the past, water possesses this power of purifying, of regenerating, of giving new birth; for what is immersed in it “dies,” and, rising again from the water, is like a child without any sin or any past” (Ibid.). Overcoming a water barrier after death, in a metaphorical sense, the deceased plunges into and dissolves in the precocious, formless state of the universe (Nun), but at the same time he is purified, “washes away” earthly sins, leaves them in the past and, ultimately, is reborn (i.e., “is created,” “is born” again), like Osiris, which explains the connection between God and aquatic ideas. This idea is indicated by the following lines of Spell 17 of the Book of the Dead: sHr=i Dwt irt=i ptr rf sw wab.tw=i pw hrw mcw.t m sS.wj wr.wy aA.wy ntj m @nn-ncwt “I remove the evils attached to me. What is that? It means that I am purified on the day of birth in the two great and mighty pools which are in Henennesut (Heracleopolis)” (Lapp 2006, 72–77 (pNebseny, pLondon BM EA 9900, col. 20–21), translation after Quirke 2013, 56). The fact that the ancient Egyptians put the meaning of “endowing (new) life” in the purification ritual of ablution is indicated by the iconography of these scenes: the jets of water that the gods poured onto the king from Hs-jars are depicted as anx-signs of “life”

, and often the Hs-jars

themselves

in the hands of the deities are stylized as anx-signs (Gardiner 1950, pl. I; 4–5 (Nos. 5–7, 13, 26); Wilkinson 1994, 160, fig. 110; 168, fig. 124) (Figure 3). The accompanying inscriptions sometimes directly indicate a new birth (rejuvenation) as a result of this sacred rite: “I purify thee with life and 11 12

See Clemen 1920; van Gennep 1960, 146–165. God bears the epithet mw rnp.w “fresh/rejuvenated water (of the inundation)” already in the Pyramid Texts (Spell 357, Pyr. § 589a and Spell 423, Pyr. § 767) (Allen 2015. 106, 257).

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dominion, that thou mayst grow young like thy father Re” (inscription below the purification (ablution) scene in the Karnak temple from the time of Sethos I (13 Sl)) (Gardiner 1950, 7). Let me also recall that the very concept of “purity” (including the sacred sense) was closely related to ablution as indicated by the symbol of the determinative to the word “purity” (var.

) wab (Gardiner 1957, 458 (D60), 442 (A6)).

Figure 3. The purification scene of Sethos I (after Gardiner 1950, pl. 1).

To sum up, I can further specify the meaning of the expression m-ḫt mni=f “after he moors.” It is well known that the ancient Egyptians did not perceive death as a one-time occurrence, but viewed it as a chain of transformations that could be divided into three phases (for details, see Assmann 1989; 2005). The first phase covers the time between actual death and burial. The future afterlife of a person in this period is entirely dependent on people who provided the funeral ritual – mummification, liturgy, sacrifice, the ritual of

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“Opening of the mouth and eyes,” and the burial itself. Egyptian sources have not preserved information about what happened to the numerous spiritual substances of a person at that time (“kA-double,” “bA-soul,” “shadow,” “rnname” etc.). Most likely, at this time, the person was in a state of nonexistence or sleep (i.e., dissolving in the waters of the Primeval Chaos) and, most likely, did not feel anything. Completing the “earthly phase of death” rituals of “Opening of the mouth and eyes” and burial were supposed to bring the deceased back to life, but in a different dimension. From the moment the last priest left the burial chamber, the deceased made a transition to another world (“dimension”), the kingdom of Osiris―the second phase began― resurrection, mastering the ability to move and breathe, and then travel along the paths of the Duat to the place of the Judgment of Osiris―A Hall of Two Truths. The third and final phase is the Judgment of Osiris when, upon being successful, the deceased went to the Egyptian paradise―Fields Hotep and became a full-fledged inhabitant of the Afterworld. In my opinion the expression m-ḫt mni=f “after he moors” characterizes the transitional moment between the first and second phases of death. This maybe seen as a metaphor to mean not just “died,” but rather carry the semantic load “after he died (crossed the river of death, was buried and reached the kingdom of Osiris).” It is noteworthy that even the sleigh intended for land transportation of the coffin had the shape of a barque (see Figure 2 (upper register)). In this case, the wish of the deceased to “safely moor before Osiris” becomes clearer―it is not about “safe” death as such, but about how to pass “safely,” due to the observance of all necessary rituals, the “phase of nonexistence” and get the opportunity resurrect in Afterworld.

Acknowledgment I’m deeply thankful to Glenn James (Manchester) for his kind help with revising my English.

References Allen, J. (2015). The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, 2nd Edition. Atlanta, Georgia: SBL Press.

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Allen, T. G. (1974). The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day. Ideas of the Ancient Egyptians concerning the Hereafter as expressed in their own Terms, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 37, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Allen, T. G. (1960). The Egyptian Book of the Dead Documents in the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications 82. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Assmann, J. (1989). Death and Initiation in the Funerary Religion of Ancient Egypt. In: W. K. Simpson (ed.), Religion and Philosophy of Ancient Egypt, Yale Egyptological Studies 3, New Haven: Yale University Press, 135-159. Assmann, J. (2005). Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt; translated from the German by D. Lorton, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. Bolshakov, A. O. (1997). Man and his Double in Egyptian Ideology of the Old Kingdom, Ägypten und Altes Testament 37, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. Brier, B. (1981). Ancient Egyptian Magic, New York: Quill. Cahail, C. M. (2014). In the Shadow of Osiris: Non-Royal Mortuary Landscapes at South Abydos during the Late Middle and New Kingdoms, PhD Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania. Clemen, C. (1920). Das Leben nach dem Tode im Glauben der Menschheit [Life after death in the beliefs of mankind], Aus Natur und Geisteswelt 544, Leipzig and Berlin: Teubner. Eliade, M. (1958). Patterns in Comparative Religion; translated by R. Sheed, London and New York: Sheed & Ward. Eliade, M. (1961). Images and Symbols. Studies in Religious Symbolism, Translated by Ph. Mairet, London: Harvill Press. Erman, A. (1966). The Ancient Egyptians. A Source Book of their Writings, New York: Harper & Row. Faulkner, R. O. (1999). A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford and London: Butler & Tanner Ltd. Foster, J. L. (2001). Ancient Egyptian Literature. An Anthology, Austin: University of Texas Press. Gardiner, A. H. (1950). The Baptism of Pharao. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 36, 3-12. Gardiner, A. H. (1957). Egyptian Grammar. Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, 3rd Edition, London and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Griffiths, J. G. (1980). The Origins of Osiris and his Cult: Studies in the History of Religions, Leiden: E. J. Brill. Hannig, R. (1995). Die Sprache der Pharaonen. Großes Handwörterbuch ÄgyptischeDeutsch [The language of the pharaohs. Large hand dictionary Egyptian-German],

Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern. Hornung, E. (1979). Das Totenbuch der Ägypter [The Egyptian Book of the Dead], Zürich and München: Artemis Verlag. Jones, D. (1995). Boats: Egyptian Bookshelf, London: British Museum Press. Kees, H. (1956). Totenglauben und Jenseitsvorstellungen der alten Ägypter. Grundlangen und Entwicklung bis zum Ende des Mitterleren Reiches [Belief in the dead and the

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afterlife of the ancient Egyptians. Fundamentals and development up to the end of the Middle Kingdom], Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Lacau, P. (1914). Suppression et modifications de signes dans les textes funéraires [Deletion and modifications of signs in funerary texts]. Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, Bd. 51, 1-64. Lapp, G. (2006). Totenbuch Spruch 17 [The Book of the Dead Spell 17], Totenbuchtexte. Synoptische Textausgabe nach Quellen des Neuen Reiches 1, Basel: Orientverlag. Lichteim, M. (1961). The Songs of the Harpers. Journal of the Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 20, 178-212. Lichtheim, M. (1976). Ancient Egyptian Literature. The Book of Readings, Vol. 1. Old and Middle Kingdoms, Berekley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press. Lippiello, L. E. (2004). Symbolic Perceptions of New Kingdom Watercraft: Building Boats from Gods, MA Thesesis. The Florida State University. Maspero, G. (1908), Mémoires de Sinouhit [Memoirs of Sinouhit], Bibliothèque d’Étude 1, Le Caire: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale. O’Connor, D. (2009). Abydos. Egypt’s First Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris, London: Thames & Hudson. Piankoff, A. (1962). The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, New York and Evanston: Harper Torchbooks. Quirke, St. (2013), Going Out in Daylight, prt m hrw, the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. Translation, Sources, Meanings, GHP Egyptology 20, London: Golden House Publications. Regulski, I. (ed.) (2019), Abydos: The Sacred Land at the Western Horizon, British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan 8, Leuven, Paris and Bristol, CT: Peeters. Richards, J. (2003). Society and Death in Ancient Egypt Mortuary Landscapes of the Middle Kingdom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rößler-Köhler, U. (1979). Kapitel 17 des ägyptischen Totenbuches.Untersuchungen zur Textgeschichte und Funktionen eines Textes der altägyptischen Totenliteratur [Chapter 17 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Investigations into the history of the text and the functions of a text in the ancient Egyptian literature of the dead], Göttinger Orientforschung R. IV, Bd. 10, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. Schäfer, H. (1928). Ägyptische und Heutige Kunst und Weltgebaude der alten Ägypter [Egyptian and Contemporary Art and World Buildings of the Ancient Egyptians] . – Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter & Co. Schäfer, H. (1935). Altägyptischer Bilder der auf- und untergehended Sonne [Ancient Egyptian images of the rising and setting sun]. Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, Bd. 71, 15-38. Sethe, K. (1928). Altägyptische Vorstellungen vom Lauf der Sonne [Ancient Egyptian beliefs about the course of the sun] . Sitzungsberichte der Preußischen Akademie der Wißenschaften, Bd. 21-22, 259-284. Simpson, W. K. (2003). The Literature of Ancient Egypt an Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry, New Haven & London: Yale University Press.

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van Gennep, A. (1960). The Rites of Passage; translated by M. B. Vizedom and G. L. Caffee, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Wb. – Erman, A. and Grapow, H. (1955), Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache], Dictionary of the Egyptian language Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, Bd. I–V. Wilkinson, R. H. (1994). Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art, London: Thames & Hadson. Zandee, J. (1960). Death as an Enemy according to Ancient Egyptian Conception, Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Biographical Sketch Mykola Tarasenko https://www.oriental-studies.org.ua/en/tarasenko-mykola/ Affiliation: Leading Researcher at the А. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Department of Near and Middle East. Education: • Doctor of Historical Sciences (DSc) (2013); Senior Fellow (2009); Candidate of Historical Sciences (PhD) (2004). • 15/11/1999 – 30/04/2002 – А. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (World History, Post-Graduate Course). • 01/09/1994 – 30/06/1999 – Kyiv Institute “Slavic University” (Bacalvre (1998), Specialist in History (1999)). Business Address: 4 Mykhailo Hrushevsky Street, Kyiv – 01001, Ukraine. Research and Professional Experience: • 2019 – till present time. Ukrainian-Lithuanian Research Project “Ukrainian Mummy Project” (Department of Anatomy, Histology and Anthropology of the Vilnius University and A. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) (coordinator and head of the Ukrainian research team). • 2018–2019 – Ukrainian-Romanian Research Project “Ancient Eastern artefacts and other Oriental items in public and private collections of

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•

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Romania and Ukraine (19th – first half of the 20th c.)” (N. Iorga Institute of History of the Romanian Academy and A. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) (coordinator and head of the Ukrainian research team). 2016 – Ukrainian-Romanian Research Project “17th Century Historical Sources Concerning Moldavia and Ukraine: Research on Paul of Aleppo’s Travels of Macarius III, Patriarch of Antioch” (Institute for South-East European Studies of the Romanian Academy and A. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) (consultant in history). 2014 – till present time – International Project “The Gate of the Priests. Bab el-Gasus Project: Funeral pragmatics of the ancient Egyptian (religious) elite in the Third Intermediate Period” (University of Coimbra, Portugal) (cooperation in publication of the 21st Dynasty artefacts from Bab el-Gasus Cachet from the museums of Eastern Europe). 01/07/2007– 30/09/2007 – International Research Project “BonnTotenbuchprojekt” (Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste, Bonn) (cooperation during the DAAD Three Months Fellowship Grant).

Professional Appointments: • orcid.org/0000-0001-6779-2258 • Researcher ID: AAM-6799-2020 • Scopus Author ID: 57216581758 Honors: • 2018 – Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Three Months Fellowship Grant (“Research Stays for University Academics and Scientists”) for research in the Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften, Ägyptologisches Seminar. • 2014 – Fellowship Grant of the “Stiftungsfonds für Postgraduates der Ägyptologie” (former “Hans-Goedicke-Stiftung”) (Institut für Ägyptologie, Universität Wien, Austria). • 2007 – Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). Three Months Fellowship Grant (“Forschungsaufenthalte /

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Studienaufenthalte ausländischer Wissenschaftler”) for research in the “Bonn Totenbuch-Projekt” (Institut für Kunstgeschichte und Archäologie der Universität Bonn, Abteilung Ägyptologie, Arbeitsstelle Totenbuch-Projekt). Publications from the Last 3 Years: 1) Tarasenko, M. (2021). “Some Remarks to the Semantics of Image of Deity on the Coffin of Sepi III (Cairo CG 28083).” In L. Vives-Ferrándiz (ed.), Sánchez Eternal Sadness: Representations of Death in Visual Culture from Antiquity to the Present Time (Eikón Imago, Vol. 10 (Monographic Issue)), Madrid, 229–239. 2) Tarasenko, M. (2021). “The Lot VI of Bab el-Gasus in the light of the new archive documents.” In R. Sousa, A. Amenta, & K. M. Cooney (eds), Bab el-Gasus in Context. Rediscovering the Tomb of the Priests of Amun (Egitto Antico 4), Roma & Bristol: L'Erma di Bretschneider, 263–278. 3) Tarasenko, M. (2020). “The vignettes of Chapter 17 from the Book of the Dead as found in the Papyrus of Nakht (London BM EA 10471): at the beginning of the Ramesside Iconographic Tradition,” Journal of the Hellenic Institute of Egyptology, Vol. 3, 131–146. 4) Tarasenko, M. (2020). “Gliedervergottung Texts & Theogonic Ideas in Ancient Egypt.” In: A. Maravelia & N. Guilhou (eds), Environment and Religion in Ancient and Coptic Egypt: Sensing the Cosmos through the Eyes of the Divine, Archaeopress Egyptology, 30, Oxford, 431–442. 5) Tarasenko, M. (2019). “Mummy-cover fragment Ar–227 in the Lviv Museum of History of Religion.” In H. Strudwick and J. Dawson (eds), Ancient Egyptian Coffins: Past – Present – Future, Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow, 215. 6) Tarasenko, M. (2019). “The Book of the Dead fragments in the Collection of the Institute of Manuscripts of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (F. VIII, no. 565/15).” In M. Mosher, Jr. (ed.), The Book of the Dead, Saite through Ptolemaic Periods. Essays on Books of the Dead and Related Topics, SPBD Studies, Prescott (Arizona), 541–555.

Index

A access, 29, 60 address form(s), 53, 55, 56 address forms and vocatives, 55 Africa, 42, 58 african christian(s), 42 african traditional prayer, 42 agencies, 43, 50 Akan, vii, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 45, 56, 57, 58 ancient egyptian beliefs of the afterlife, 105 ancient Iran, v, 87, 100, 101, 104 arbitration, 34, 35 Argentina, vii, 1, 2, 5, 11, 19, 21, 31 articulation, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 15, 19 aspiration, 4 assertive, 41 attitudes, 40, 45 attraction, 64, 71, 84 Austria, 118

B behavioral taboo, 35 behaviors, 35, 54 biblical imprecation, 38 bilingualism, vii Bolivia, 21 Book of the Dead, v, vii, ix, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 111, 112, 115, 116, 119 budget, 79, 81, 83 Busia-Dankwa tradition, 44

C Cairo, 102, 107, 119

candidates, 41, 42 Caribbean, 4, 31 Chicago, 101, 115, 117 Chile, 19 Christians, 42 clusters, 22, 29 coercion, 12 cognitive function, 39 coherence, 12 Colombia, 21 commissive, 41 communication, 34, 60 communicative event, 36 communities, 35 community, 40, 42, 45 Congress, 44 consciousness, 110 consulting, 50 convention peoples’ party,, 44 cooperation, 118 cultural beliefs, 40 cultural ideologies, 40 culture, vii, ix, 33, 34, 35, 39, 40, 45, 58, 88, 103

D declaratory, 41 deities, ix, 36, 37, 38, 42, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 87, 91, 98, 99, 101, 112 deity, ix, 39, 41, 47, 48, 49, 53, 55, 87, 91, 93, 97, 98, 99, 102, 111, 119 demand side, viii, 59, 60, 63, 84 derivatives, 108 destination, 61, 62, 63, 64, 70, 72, 75, 81, 84

122 diction, 36, 52 dissemination, viii, 59, 60 divine vengeance, 38, 48 duabͻ, v, vii, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 50, 51, 52, 56, 57

E Ecuador, 21 Egypt, 60, 110, 115, 116, 119 election, 41, 44, 46, 48, 49, 53, 54 electoral commission, 50 entity, 13, 35, 64, 70, 81, 83 expression, 105 expressive, 41 extracts, viii, 59

F first witness, 83 folklore, 98, 99 foreign currencies, viii, 59, 61 formal education, 45 fragments, 119 funeral celebration, 35

G gender differences, vii general election, 44 Georgia, 114 GHP, 116 global language, 60, 71, 75 God, 10, 38, 110, 112 gold, viii, 72, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93, 96, 97, 98, 102, 104 Greeks, 111 grievance imprecation, v, vii, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 41, 57 guidance, 35, 65, 74 Guinea, 111

Index heritage, 64, 85 historical background, 35, 74, 75 history, vii, 60, 118 honorific(s), 52 horizontally written, 61, 75 House, 89, 92, 116 human, 35, 37, 39, 41, 46, 54, 55, 56, 58, 60, 112 human behavior, 46 human right, 58

I iconography, ix, 87, 88, 89, 101, 102, 104, 112 identification, 64, 65, 67, 81 identity, 51 ideology, 36, 39, 57, 58 illocutionary act(s), 41 imprecate, 43, 46, 54, 57 imprecator, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 46, 48, 49, 55 imprecatory prayer, 38, 42, 58 imprecatory prayer(s), 38, 42, 58 inconsistencies, vii, viii, 59, 80, 81 independence, 44 Indonesia, 85 inducement and manipulation, 49 information, vii, viii, 41, 50, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 69, 74, 76, 77, 80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 114 initial setting, 80 intellectual bridge, 40 interpretation, viii, 37, 58, 59, 64, 65, 66, 67, 74, 76, 77, 78, 81, 82, 85 intrinsic value, 60 invocation, 35, 41, 42, 43, 57 Iran, 88, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102

J Japan, 59, 61, 85, 86

H Hepburn, 73

Index L Label(s), 64, 65, 76, 79, 82, 85 language ideology, vii, 33, 34, 36, 39, 57, 58 languages, 1, 8, 22, 40, 60, 89 Latin, 4, 6, 70, 71, 73, 100 Latin America, 4, 6 laws, 43, 57 legibility, 74, 78, 79 linguistics, 58 literary device(s), 53 LTD, 57 lying, 89

M macro-culture, 40 MAND → supernatural being (nemesis) →imprecatee, 39 manipulation, 49, 52 manipulative tool(s), 53 marriage ceremony, 35 media, 34, 41, 45, 57, 60, 63, 64, 81 media discourse, 45 mediatized political-imprecation, 45 mental visit, 84 message, 42, 60 messages, 60 metaphor, 111, 114 metaphor(s), 53, 109 methodology, 36 Middle East, 105, 117 minatory device, 46 Minneapolis, 101 missionaries, 73, 84 Moldavia, 118 morphology, 2 Moscow, 99, 100, 101

N naming, viii, 35, 59, 69, 81 naming ceremony, 35 narratives, 88

123 NAS, 87, 105 National Academy of Sciences, 103, 117, 118 national democratic congress (NDC), 42, 44, 47, 50 new patriotic party (NPP), 42, 44, 47, 50, 54, 58 Nile, 109, 112 non-ordinary, 62, 63, 64, 83 nucleus, 6, 12, 13, 17, 24, 26

O official language, 60, 66, 70 off-site, 63, 64 omniscient and omnipotent, 52 on-site, 63, 64, 65, 76, 79, 82, 85 opposition parties, 50 ordinary, 62, 63, 64, 83 orientation, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 70, 79, 80, 81 orthography, 14, 17, 18 ossetian nart epic, 88 otherness, 111 otherworld, viii, 87, 88, 89, 91, 93, 97, 98, 99 outdoor, 64, 65, 67

P Paraguay, 19, 21 parallel, 109 parallelism, 43, 53 party politics, v, vii, 33, 34, 36, 38 perform locutionary acts, 41 perlocutionary act(s), 41 permission, 35 personal sentiment, 46, 51 personification, 53, 54, 98 persuasion, 49, 52, 56 persuasion,, 49, 56 Peru, 21 phoneme, vii, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

124 phoneme(s), vii, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 31, 72, 73 phonemes, vii, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 phonology, v, vii, 1, 2, 15, 31, 32 physical visit, 84 pictogram, 60, 79 plaque, 96 platform, 88 political parties, 44, 46, 50 political party, 36, 43, 54 politics, vii, 33, 34, 36, 38, 44, 45, 57, 58 polling, 47 population, 2, 5, 15, 34, 36 Portugal, 73, 118 power relations, 41, 56 prayer, vii, 33, 35, 38, 42, 43, 47, 52, 58 president, 44 producer, 82 prohibition, 35, 64, 65, 68, 81, 91 pronunciation, vii, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25 propositions and requests, 56 purification, 112, 113 purity, 113

Q query, 47

R radio, 58 reading, 61 reality, 12, 91, 110 receiving channel, 62, 63, 64, 81 recognition, 51 relief, ix, 88, 93, 94, 95 religion, 58, 92, 109, 111 religious beliefs, viii, 33, 56 religious ideologies, 42 repetition, 43, 53, 54, 111 repetition and parallelism, 54

Index request, 41, 49, 50, 52, 53 resyllabification, vii, 1, 2, 25, 26, 29 retaliation, 56 revolution, 61, 62, 84 Romania, 118 romanization, 72, 73, 84 rubric, 105, 106, 107 rule of law, 44 rules, vii, 1, 2, 9, 10, 17, 19, 25, 26, 29

S Samoa, 111 sanctions, 35 Sarmatians, 99 school, 34, 58, 74, 75 script, 70, 71, 72, 73 Scythian(s), ix, 87, 96, 97, 99, 102, 104 secondary education, 45 security, 47, 50 Semantic(s), v, ix, 17, 58, 88, 94, 102, 104, 105, 114, 119 semantics, ix, 88, 94, 105 sense, ix, 2, 37, 63, 105, 107, 111, 112, 113 shrine, 35, 36, 47, 71, 75, 76, 111, 116 sign, 9, 56, 60 sign(s), 9, 56, 60, 65, 69, 70, 74, 75, 76, 79, 80, 109, 112, 116 signage, v, vii, viii, 59, 62, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 81, 82, 83, 84 signs, 109, 112 silver, ix, 87, 91, 93 simile, 53, 55 site, 63, 65, 69, 73, 84, 85 social control, 34 social formative power, 56 social life, 45 social structure, viii, 33, 56 society, 34, 35, 39, 40, 43, 45, 56 sociolinguistic, 10, 57, 61, 63, 64, 85 South America, 2 Spain, 5, 20, 22 Spanish, v, vii, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21,

Index 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 60, 78 speech, vii, 1, 2, 10, 11, 14, 16, 25, 26, 39, 41, 45, 49, 51, 54, 58 speech act theory, 41 speech act(s), vii, 33, 36, 41, 49, 58 Spell 17, v, vii, ix, 105, 106, 107, 108, 111, 112, 116 spelling, 106, 107 spiritual vigilantism, 43, 56 stereotypes, 45 stigma, 51 stigmatization, 53 stress, vii, 1, 2, 16, 17, 18, 19, 27, 32, 55 structure, vii, viii, 1, 2, 21, 22, 25, 31, 39, 42, 43, 57, 58, 59 style, 52 Sudan, 116 supernatural, 35, 36, 37, 49 superstition, 42 supply side, viii, 59, 60, 63, 83, 84 symbolism, 78, 79, 115

T taboo, vii, 33, 34, 35, 36, 57 target, 48, 70, 74, 81, 83, 84 temple, 61, 71, 72, 74, 75, 76, 77, 102, 113 territory, 19, 91, 104 text, vii, 27, 33, 35, 42, 43, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 54, 55, 76, 77, 78, 79, 82, 83, 91, 93, 100, 108, 116 throne, v, vii, viii, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101 tin, 3, 23 tone/mood, 36, 51, 52 tourism, viii, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 83, 84, 85, 86 touristic inconsistencies, viii, 59, 83 traditional interpretation, 37 traditions, 40, 99, 100

125 transcription, 27 translation, viii, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75, 79, 82, 87, 91, 93, 103, 106, 108, 111, 112, 116 translator, 80, 82 transliteration, viii, 59, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 81 transport, 10, 11, 109 transportation, 61, 110, 114 troublemakers and saboteurs, 50

U Ukraine, 87, 103, 105, 117, 118, 119 United Nations, 60 united party (UP), 44 Uruguay, 2 USA, 58

V variation, 1, 10, 21, 31, 32 variations, vii, 1, 2, 60 varieties, 2, 4, 5, 6, 27 vengeance, 46, 48, 49 verbal taboo, vii, 33, 35, 57 vertically written, 61, 75 vision, 63, 64, 81, 84, 98 vocative(s), 53, 55 vote, 13, 41 voters, 47

W word, ix, 4, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 37, 38, 62, 64, 71, 88, 89, 93, 94, 105, 108, 109, 111, 113

Y Yale University, 115, 116