Cover not available
Part of
The Linguistics of Temperature
Edited by Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm
[Typological Studies in Language 107] 2015
► pp. 187–212

Temperature terms in selected African languages

A pilot study

This paper is a preliminary study of temperature terms in fourteen African languages: Bambara, Baoulé, Ewe, Fe’fe’, Hausa, Igbo, Kalenjin, Kilba, Luo, Luyia, Moba, Ngwo, Swahili and Yoruba. The language material was gathered in interviews using a questionnaire according to the model set up by Koptjevskaja-Tamm (2007). The respective languages have between two and seven different temperature terms, of which two or three might be regarded as basic temperature terms. Concerning the combinability of temperature terms with different items, the fourteen languages are grouped in six categories. These findings are compared with earlier theories on the structure of temperature systems proposed by Frans Plank (2003) and Urmas Sutrop (1998, 1999).

Published online: 11 February 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.107.07fir
References
Appleby, L.L
1961 A First Luyia Grammar with Exercises. Nairobi: The East African Literature Bureau.Google Scholar
Bailleul, Père Charles
2000 Dictionnaire Bambara-Francais. Bamako: Donniya.Google Scholar
Bargery, George Percy
1993 A Hausa English Dictionary and English Hausa Vocabulary With Some Notes on the Hausa People and their Language by D. Westermann and supplement by A. N. Skinner. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press.Google Scholar
Collège Libermann
Dictionnaire des mots & expressions Fe'fe' avec leur traduction francaise, fascicule 1: A-G . Douala.
Donohew, Grace
1962 A First Course in Luyia Grammar. Nairobi: The East African Literature Bureau.Google Scholar
Ebermann, Erwin
1986 Kleines Wörterbuch der Bambara-Sprache. Deutsch - Bambara / Bambara – Deutsch [Beiträge zur Afrikanistik 29]. Wien: Veröffentlichungen der Institute für Afrikanistik und Ägyptologie der Universität Wien.Google Scholar
Echeruo, Michael J.C
1998 Igbo-English Dictionary: A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Igbo Language with an English-Igbo Index. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ethnologue. Languages of the World
[URL]
Fakinlede, Kayode J
2003 Yoruba-English, English-Yoruba Modern Practical Dictionary. New York NY: Hippocrene Books.Google Scholar
Firsching, Henrike
2009 Temperature terms in African languages. A paper presented at WOCAL 6 (6th World Congress of African Linguistics) at the University of Cologne, 17 August.
Johnson, Frederick
1971 A Standard Swahili-English Dictionary. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Kirkeby, Willy A
2002 English Swahili Dictionary, 2nd edn. Skedsmokorset: Kirkeby.Google Scholar
Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria
2007 Guidelines for collecting linguistic expressions for temperature concepts, Version 1. [URL]
Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria & Rakhilina, Ekaterina V
2006 "Some like it hot": On the semantics of temperature adjectives in Russian and Swedish. STUF (Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung) 59(2): 253-269. Special issue The Lexicon: Typological and Contrastive Perspectives, Giannoula Giannoulopoulou & Torsten Leuschner (eds).Google Scholar
Mu'azu, Mohammed Aminu
1995 The Morphology of Kilba Nominals. Maiduguri: University of Maiduguri.Google Scholar
Ng'elechei
1979 Kalenjin - English, English - Kalenjin Dictionary. Nairobi: Transafrica.Google Scholar
Plank, Frans
2003 Temperature talk: The basics. Paper presented at the Workshop on Lexical Typology at the ALT conference in Cagliari, September.
Reinhard, Pierre
2009 Parlons Moba. Langue du Nord-Togo. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Rongier, Jaques
1995 Dictionnaire Francais- Éwé suivi d'un Index Éwé-Francais. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
St. Joseph's Society
1962 Dholuo Grammar With Some Useful Phrases and Vocabulary of Common Words. By a member of St. Joseph's Society, Mill Hill, London NW. Kisumu: Nyanza Printing Works.Google Scholar
Stafford, Roy Lawrence
1967 An Elementary Luo Grammar With Vocabularies. Nairobi: OUP.Google Scholar
Stühring, Henrike
2009 Temperaturtermini in Afrikanischen Sprachen. Magister dissertation, University of Bayreuth.
Sutrop, Urmas
1998 Basic temperature terms and subjective temperature scale. Lexicology 4: 60–104.Google Scholar
1999 Temperature terms in the Baltic Area. In Estonian: Typological Studies III [Publications of the Department of Estonian of the University of Tartu 11], Mati Erelt (ed.), 185-203. Tartu: University of Tartu.Google Scholar
Toweett, Taaitta
1979 English, Swahili, Kalenjin: Nouns Pocket Dictionary. Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau.Google Scholar
Tucker, Archibald Norman
1994 A Grammar of Kenya Luo (Dholuo), Vol. 2. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Westermann, Diedrich
1973 Evefiala or Ewe-English Dictionary. Gbesela Yeye or English-Ewe-Dictionary. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen).Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Tramutoli, Rosanna
2020. A cultural linguistic analysis of Swahili body metaphors. International Journal of Language and Culture 7:2 ► pp. 257 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 11 march 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.