This dissertation examines the uses, functions, and meaningfulness of traditional personal
names and naming practices in Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Indian) culture. The current study
indicates that Niitsitapi personal names appear to play a major role in capturing and
conveying various aspects of traditional Niitsitapi sociocultural knowledge. Niitsitapi
personal names thus appear to form an integral part of Niitsitapi oral tradition, and also seem
to play a powerful role in establishing and maintaining Niitsitapi conceptualisations of
individual, as well as social and cultural, identity. This dissertation supports the position that,
in addition to their nominative function, names contain and communicate sociocultural
meaning, based on their associations with a wide range of non-linguistic factors which form
part of the sociocultural environment within which they are used. The methodological
approach stresses the importance of studying personal names in cultural context and strongly
emphasises the use of indigenous knowledge as a means of explaining personal naming
phenomena from a native cultural perspective. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M. A. (Sociolinguistics)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/2675 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Lombard, Carol Gaye |
| Contributors | Barnes, L. A., Head, Heavy R. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 1 online resource (118 leaves) |
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