Cover not available
Part of
Anthropological Linguistics: Perspectives from Africa
Edited by Andrea Hollington, Alice Mitchell and Nico Nassenstein
[Culture and Language Use 23] 2024
► pp. 331–366

Chapter 13
“Show your feelings!”

On the expression of emotions in Rabai (Midzichenda)

| Goethe University Frankfurt
| Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

This contribution analyzes the encoding of emotions in Chiraphai (Rabai), a Midzichenda language from the Kenyan coast. In the focus, especially, are matters of a rather discrete display of one’s feelings vs. open invitations to “show what you feel”, discussing core emotions in the language and also including concepts of feeling shame (kona haya) or witnessing shameful behavior. Herein, the authors specifically investigate body part metaphors that play a role in the expression of emotional language; they include an analysis of color terms that incorporate a specific emotional connotation. Finally, grammatical means of encoding emotions are taken into consideration in this first anthropological linguistic analysis of the language.

Keywords: emotion, Rabai, body part metaphors, color terms, shame
Article outline
  • 1.Introducing Rabai language and culture
  • 2.Research on language and emotion: Some approaches and directions
  • 3.Emotions in Rabai: Expressive colors, meaningful body parts, and evaluative grammar
    • 3.1Core emotions: A brief look at central concepts
      • 3.1.1Nyemi: happiness/joy
      • 3.1.2Henzo: love
      • 3.1.3Huzuni: sadness/anger
      • 3.1.4Woga: fear
      • 3.1.5Haya: shame
      • 3.1.6Chidzitso: envy / Wivu: jealousy
    • 3.2Color terms and emotions: “Speaking” clothes and “screaming” colors?
    • 3.3Emotion and the body: Metaphors and figurative language use
    • 3.4Emotional encodings in grammar: Evaluative morphology
  • 4.Outlook: Further anthropological linguistic research in Midzichenda languages
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 1 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.23.13see
References
Ameka, F.
(2002) Cultural scripting of body parts for emotions. On ‘jealousy’ and related emotions in Ewe. Pragmatics and Cognition, 10(1–2), 21–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ameka, F., & Amha, A.
(2022) Research on language and culture in Africa. In S. Völkel & N. Nassenstein (Eds.), Approaches to language and culture (pp. 393–383). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berlin, B., & Kay, P.
(1969) Basic color terms: Their universality and evolution. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Besnier, N.
(1990) Language and affect. The Annual Review of Anthropology, 19, 419–451. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brenzinger, M., & Kraska-Szlenk, I.
(Eds.) (2014) The body in language. Comparative studies of linguistic embodiment. Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burdelski, M.
(2020) Emotion and affect in language socialization. In S. E. Pritzker, J. Fenigsen, & J. M. Wilce (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of language and emotion (pp. 28–48). Routledge.Google Scholar
Coly, J. J.
(2017) Emotion, gazes and gestures in Wolof. In A. Storch (Ed.), Consensus and dissent. Negotiating emotion in the public space (pp. 105–122). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Damasio, A.
(1999) The feeling of what happens. Body, emotion and the making of consciousness. Vintage.Google Scholar
Dimmendaal, G. J.
(1983) The Turkana language. Foris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015) The leopard’s spots. Essays on language, cognition and culture. Brill.Google Scholar
(2022a) Emerging languages and the creation of new communicative styles. In S. Völkel & N. Nassenstein (Eds.), Approaches to language and culture (pp. 77–100). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2022b) Nurturing language. Anthropological linguistics in an African context. De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Enfield, N. J., & Sidnell, J.
(2022) Language and culture in Mainland Southeast Asia. In S. Völkel & N. Nassenstein (Eds.), Approaches to language and culture (pp. 471–497). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fabian, J.
(1983) Time and the other. How anthropology makes its object. Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Gibson, H., Guerois, R., & Marten, L.
(2017) Patterns and developments in the marking of diminutives in Bantu. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 26(4), 344–383.Google Scholar
Grandi, N., & Körtvélyessy, L.
(Eds.) (2015) Edinburgh handbook of evaluative morphology. Edinburgh University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hardin, C. L.
(2013) Berlin and Kay theory. In Encyclopedia of color science and technology, Online version. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jonauskaite, D., Abu-Akel, A., Dael, N., Oberfeld, D., Abdel-Khalek et al.
(2020) Universal patterns in color-emotion associations are further shaped by linguistic and geographic proximity. Psychological Science, 31(10). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krapf, J. L. & Rebmann, J.
(1887) A Nika-English Vocabulary. Sparshott.Google Scholar
Kibet, S., & Nyamweru, C.
(2008) Cultural and biological heritage at risk; the case of the Rabai Kaya forests in Coastal Kenya. Journal of Human Ecology, 4, 287–295. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Körtvélyessy, L.
(2015) Evaluative morphology from a cross-linguistic perspective. Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z.
(2010) Metaphor and emotion: Language, culture, and body in human feeling. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Krapf, J. L.
(1850) Outline of the elements of the Kisuaheli language with special reference to the Kinika dialect. Fues.Google Scholar
(1858) Reisen in Ostafrika, ausgeführt in den Jahren 1837–1855. Stroh.Google Scholar
Kraska-Szlenk, I.
(Ed.) (2019) Embodiment in cross-linguistic studies. The ‘head’. Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lutz, C. A., & Abu-Lughod, L.
(1990) Language and the politics of emotion. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maho, J. F.
(2009) NUGL Online: The online version of the New Updated Guthrie List, a referential classification of the Bantu languages. Retrieved on 22 September 2022 from [URL]
Mbwika, J. M.
(2018) The phonological adaptation processes of Rabai loanwords from English and Kiswahli [sic] (Unpublished MA dissertation). University of Nairobi.
McIntosh, J.
(2005) Liminal meanings: Sexually charged Giriama funerary ritual and unsettled participant frameworks. Language & Communication, 25, 39–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mietzner, A.
(2017) Emotion and society: Experiences from Cherang’any (Kalenjin). In A. Storch (Ed.), Consensus and dissent: Negotiating emotion in the public space (pp. 141–163). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
to appear). Changing the perspective. Reciprocity, envy and the narrative about it in a Digo community in Tiwi, Kenya.
Mitchell, A.
(2021) Signs of care: Communicating sympathy in African contexts. Panel organized at IPrA 2021.
Mwalonya, J., Nicolle, A., Nicolle, S., & Zimu, J.
(2004) Mgombato. Digo-English-Swahili dictionary. BTL (in cooperation with Digo Language and Literacy Project).Google Scholar
Nassenstein, N.
(2022) Swahili proverbs from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Köppe.Google Scholar
Nicolle, S.
(2013) A grammar of Digo. A Bantu language of Kenya and Tanzania. SIL.Google Scholar
(2015) Digo narrative discourse. SIL.Google Scholar
Nurse, D. & Hinnebusch, T.
(1993) Swahili and Sabaki. A linguistic history. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Nwoye, O. G.
(1992) Linguistic politeness and socio-cultural variations of the notion of face. Journal of Pragmatics, 18, 309–328. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Palmer, G. B., & Occhi, D. J.
(1999) Languages of sentiment, cultural constructions of emotional substrates. John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parkin, D.
(1991) Sacred void: Spatial images of work and ritual among the Giriama of Kenya. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pasch, H.
(2017) Labeling, describing and indicating emotions. In A. Storch (Ed.), Consensus and dissent. Negotiating emotion in the public space (pp. 165–191). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ponsonnet, M.
(2014) The language of emotions. The case of Dalabon (Australia). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2016) Emotion nouns in Australian languages: A case study and preliminary survey. In P. K. Austin, H. Koch, & J. Simpson (Eds.), Language, land & song. Studies in honour of Luise Hercus (pp. 228–243). EL Publishing.Google Scholar
(2022) Emotional language: A brief history of recent research. In S. Völkel & N. Nassenstein (Eds.), Approaches to language and culture (pp. 307–335). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ponsonnet, M., & Laginha, K.-J.
(2020) The role of the body in descriptions of emotions. Pragmatics & Cognition, 27(1), 20–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pritzker, S. E., Fenigsen, J., & Wilce, J. M.
(2020) The Routledge handbook of language and emotion. Routledge.Google Scholar
Roulon-Doko, P.
(2019) Lexicalization patterns in color naming in Gbaya, a Ubanguian language of CAR. In I. Raffaelli, D. Katunar & B. Kerovec (Eds.), Lexicalization patterns in colour naming: A cross-linguistic perspective (pp. 133–152). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Senft, G.
(2017) “Control your emotions! If teasing provokes you, you have lost your face…”: The Trobriand Islanders’ control of their public display of emotions. In A. Storch (Ed.), Consensus and dissent. Negotiating emotion in the public space (pp. 59–79). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sharifian, F., Dirven, R., Ning Yu, & Niemeier, S.
(Eds.) (2008) Culture, body, and language. Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages. De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spear, T. T.
(1978) The Kaya complex: A history of the Mijikenda peoples of the Kenya coast to 1900. Kenya Literature Bureau.Google Scholar
Storch, A.
(Ed.) (2017a) Consensus and dissent. Negotiating emotion in the public space. John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2017b) Introduction. In A. Storch (Ed.), (pp. 1–8). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, W. E.
(1891) Giryama vocabulary and collections. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.Google Scholar
Tramutoli, R.
(2020) Encoding emotions in Swahili. Köppe.Google Scholar
Udvardy, M.
(2014) Loss of purity? Kenyan ethnic politics and the reality of Giriama fantasies of coastal culture. In R. Gearhart & L. Giles (Eds.), Contesting identities. The Mijikenda and their neighbors in Kenyan coastal society (pp. 73–98). Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Utriainen, T.
(2020) Learning healing relationality: Dynamics of religion and emotion. In S. E. Pritzker, J. Fenigsen, & J. M. Wilce (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of language and emotion (pp. 395–410). Routledge.Google Scholar
Wang, F., & Pereira Jr., A.
(2016) Neuromodulation, emotional feelings and affective disorders. Mens Sana Monographs, 14, 5–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Welsch, N., & Liebmann, C. C.
(2012) Farben: Natur, Technik, Kunst. Springer.Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A.
(1999) Emotions across languages and cultures: Diversity and universals. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2003) Cross-cultural pragmatics. The semantics of human interaction (2nd ed.). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilce, J. M.
(2009) Language and emotions. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(2014) Current emotion research in linguistic anthropology. Emotion Review, 6(1), 77–85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yahya-Othman, S.
(1994) Covering one’s social back: Politeness among the Swahili. Text 14(1), 141–161.Google Scholar
Zhengdao, Ye
(2020) The semantics of emotion: From theory to empirical analysis. In S. E. Pritzker, J. Fenigsen, & J. M. Wilce (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of language and emotion (pp. 132–153). Routledge.Google Scholar