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Incantation in Hausa culture: an example of syntactic reduplication

100%
Yakasai H. M.
Studies in African Languages and Cultures
|
2010
|
issue 44
67-82
FR
L’article porte sur la reduplication dans la langue haoussa, suivant une approche pragmatique. Il y est question de la reduplication de mots et de phrases dans les formules incantatoires magiques. Du point de vue linguistique, ce genre de reduplication est considéré comme un procédé syntactique. Or, les énoncés à caractère magique, dans lesquels on a souvent recours à la reduplication, ont un pouvoir performatif et doivent augmenter l'effectivité des procédés visant p.ex. à se protéger contre les moustiques, à rendre quelqu'un invisible, ou à faciliter l'accouchement. La répétition des mots et des phrases a généralement pour but d'augmenter l’effectivité de l’action ou la rendre immédiate, mais elle peut simplement exprimer l’impatience. L’article contient des exemples d’incantations en haoussa et en poular, accompagnés d'indications sur les fonctions pragmatiques des reduplications.
2

Soimuvaljendid: saatmine olematusse

88%
Babič S., Voolaid P.
Mäetagused
|
2019
|
vol. 74
191-208
EN
This study comparatively analyses swearing material in the Slovenian and Estonian languages in order to show the lexical and structural similarities/differences between swearing and incantations present in the material and to argue that swearing is not only a way to give voice to taboos, but is similar to incantations. The basic premise underlying the analysis is the existence of the “go to X” formula found both in the material and in the two genres analysed. Place X is the place of origin, non-existence or chaos to which the unwanted is sent. There are more than 50 different variants of the formula “go to X” that we can detect in both Estonian and Slovenian languages; in addition, we consider the phrases which carry the idea to fend off someone or send them somewhere, but they are in a different formulation. The adverbial slot in the phrase ‘go to X’ may be filled by a variety of expressions, all of which have had different connotations throughout time, although they are connected with chaos, in which nothing living exists, or the place of origin to send the evil back to from where it came (spells are also expelled by counting back, but it does not reveal in swearwords). In swearing we can specify three major groups of mentioned places to which one expels another person: 1) places linked with religion and the supernatural; 2) sexual and reproductive organs as a place of extinction; 3) places signified by non-taboo expressions that connote taboo words. The analysis of Slovenian and Estonian swearing expressions with the formula “go to X” showed not only that this material has preserved some pagan gods and concepts of sacred places (Svarun, Perun, concept of forest, swamp mountains, etc.), which are not alive in religious contexts anymore, but also the concepts of places in which a human does not live, and places of chaos and emptiness, which can also be linked with incantations. These swearing formulas are similar to incantations, i.e., words and rituals to expel the evil, including curses. Incantations send the curse into emptiness or back to its origin. Similarly, swearwords with the formula “go to X” send another person into his or her origin (inherent in the physical conception), or into chaos, which is the conceptually fitting hell or devil’s place. At the same time, it reveals a different concept of human origin and existence: when religion and god were on a pedestal and higher forces gave life to the human being, the worst violation was mentioning god and devil in swearing. When someone was sent to hell, he or she vanished into chaos and destruction. By accepting that a human being originates in a human body as a result of sexual intercourse, and by accepting the world of intimacy as an important part of human existence, swearing gained lexis from the field of reproductive and intimate organs and sexual intercourse. Sending the person back into mother’s uterus or even further, into the penis (which would be pre-conception period, pre-existence), can show us the sender’s aim to negate the existence of that person. In both cases utterances with the formula “go to X” deal with the person’s origin, birth, and existence, trying to negate him or her or to fend them off, as if the “persecuted person” were the evil, a curse which has been brought upon someone and needs to be expelled; we exorcise the person, trying to negate him or her. With his or her death, all the headaches and illnesses originating from them would vanish; our life would become nicer and calmer. With these swearwords a person can be expelled either to the place where no (religious/Christian) soul exists, like hell, or into their point of origin, with the idea that if they had not been born, if they returned to cunt or dick, wherever they came from, life would gain colours again (Nežmah 1997: 131). Therefore, these places – either places of non-existence or places of origin – have the function of places of dissolution. Both concepts of these places send one into nothingness, non-existence, where nothing living exists. What becomes obvious is the fact that in both concepts – religious or physical – places of dissolution are directly connected with the concept of our existence and socialisation. Swearwords with the formula “go to X” try to negate our existence either way.
3
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Svadbeni kod u basmama

88%
Vukmanović A.
Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne
|
2012
|
issue 3
EN
Incantations use the wedding code in order to fulfill the magical function which faces a cure or a protection, demanded by certain people. Thus the wedding code applied to the incantation turns out to be different from the wedding song itself. The phenomena of anti-speech (insults directed to the bride or to the wedding guests) and of inverse reality of the sacred moment  in  the  incantations  become  the  powerful  means  against  diseases  and  evil  spirits. While  modulating  the  wedding  ritual  objects  (wedding  shirt,  wreath,  veil,  flag),  or  ritual actions (giving gifts, repulsing the wedding guests, taking the bride away from her parents’ house), these objects and acts gain a secondary,  magical function that makes diseases and evil  spirits  drive  away.  The  wedding  songs  and  the  incantations  share  the  same  model  of space in which forest and water introduce themselves as the strong boundaries between two worlds:  of  the  living  and  of  the  dead.  While in  the first  case  the  boundaries  are  porous, allowing an interpenetration of both the worlds, inthe second one they remain closed off. The above mentioned genres also share some motifs –of a fast growing girl, hospitality (as well  as  of  an  uninvited  guest)  and  magical  counting.  Furthermore,  the  article  proves  that various  functions  determine  essentially  different  meanings  of  motifs,  ritual  actions  and eventually characters which appear in these folklore genres. 
4

Loomade ja inimeste suhteid tähistavad loitsud – adresseerimine, eufemismid, düsfemismid

75%
Kõiva M.
Mäetagused
|
2022
|
vol. 83
219-252
EN
The use of euphemisms is a characteristic of everyday language use today. However, substitute names and euphemisms were widely used in incantations, where euphemisms were tightly interwoven with taboos. In incantations euphemisms are used in various situations: healing the sick, coping with animals and natural phenomena, creating social relationships; coping with core rituals of human life (primarily birth and death); retaliating for theft, murder, and infidelity; promoting one’s work. Euphemisms represent an important pole in the use of verbal magic, and they are different from references to dysphemisms, that is, using vituperation, cursing, profanity or hexing to cut off contact or to achieve one’s goal. This article discusses general principles for the use of euphemisms and examines which euphemisms are used in which functions, using examples of certain belief rituals and values (fishing), symbolic animals (the wolf and the raven) and cockroaches. The results demonstrate that there is no direct appeal in 11% of texts concerned with wolf words, in 10.9% of texts about ravens, and 58% of texts about cockroaches; and euphemisms are used in 66% of texts concerned with the wolf, in 19,5% of texts about the raven, and 32,2% of texts about cockroaches, whereas dysphemisms are used in 32% of texts about the raven and in 3% of texts about cockroaches.
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