Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda

Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23

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Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda

Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 9, Issue 6)

Received: 22 June 2021 Accepted: 13 July 2021 Published: 25 November 2021

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Abstract

Proper names, also linguistically called toponyms and anthroponyms, embed extensive sociolinguistic, cultural and historical aspects in the life of any nation. Thus, they have caught the researcher’s attention because of the cultural and historical heritage they preserve in the context of language contact. From one place to another, and one specific period to another, anthroponyms and toponyms offer a wide range of research because of the scientific curiosity researchers have as to know why the name of person or place exists, where it comes from, who named it, and when it was named so. In other words, the research is carried within spatial and temporal scope. Anthroponymy is the study of proper names of human beings, both individual and collective, while toponymy is the study of proper names of places. This paper aims at showing how place and person names embed cultural and historical features necessary to understand, explain, and preserve a people’s culture and history for a given period of time. The method used to research on this topic is descriptive and it is based on the materials observed from various sources such as street names, hoardings, individual names, just to name a few. Therefore, this study focuses on specific topologies and periods, i.e. names denoting locations where the Rwandan territory has extended in the precolonial, colonial, postcolonial periods, and post genocide period.

Published in	International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 9, Issue 6)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23
Page(s)	344-352
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Onomastics, Toponyms, Antroponyms

References

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[2]	Carew, R. (1969) [1953]. Halliday, F. E. (ed.). The Survey of Cornwall. London: Andrew Melrose.
[3]	Comrie, B. (1990). The Major Languages of South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. London: Routledge.
[4]	De Blois, F. K. (1970). “The Augment in Bantu Languages”. Africana Linguistica 4: 85- 165. Brussels: Tervuren.
[5]	Dubois, J. (1973). Dictionnaire de Linguistique. Paris: Librairie Larousse.
[6]	Field, F. (2020). Linguistic Borrowing in Bilingual Contexts. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
[7]	Guthrie, M. (1975). Comparative Bantu, vol 3. London: Gregg Press.
[8]	Kimenyi, A. (2009). Kinyarwanda. California State University at Sacramento [o] Retrieved 19 November 2020 from www.kimenyi.com/Kinyarwanda.php.
[9]	McCummen, S. (2008). Rwandans Say Adieu to Français: Leaders Promote English as the Language of Learning, Governance and Trade, Washington Post Foreign Service, Tuesday, October 28, 2008. Retrieved on 5 June 2021 from https://www.excelafrica.com/2011/02/03/rwandans-say-adieu-to-francais/.
[10]	Mills, G. E., & Gay, L. R. (2016) Education research: Competencies for analysis and applications. London, England: Pearson Education.
[11]	Nichol, F. D. (ed) (1978). The SDA Biblke Commentary Volume 1, Genesis to Deuteronomy. Maryland: Review and Herald Publishing.
[12]	Nurse, D. & Phillipson, G. (2003). The Languages of Bantu. London: Routledge.
[13]	Pateau, A. M. and W. B. Barrie. (1998). Les faux amis en anglais. Paris: Le Livre de Poche.
[14]	Shimamungu, E. (1993). “Ordre des mots dans la phrase simple et mécanisme de predication en Kinyarwanda”. Linguistique Africaine 10: 65-85. Paris: GERLA.
[15]	Thomason, S. G. 2001. Language Contact: An Introduction. Washington, D. C.: Georgetown University Press. Retrieved on 15 May 2021 http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/LgCont-LgDeath (Thomason).pdf.

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Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema. (2021). Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 9(6), 344-352. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23

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Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema. Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2021, 9(6), 344-352. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23

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Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema. Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda. Int J Lit Arts. 2021;9(6):344-352. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23

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@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23,
  author = {Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema},
  title = {Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {9},
  number = {6},
  pages = {344-352},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20210906.23},
  abstract = {Proper names, also linguistically called toponyms and anthroponyms, embed extensive sociolinguistic, cultural and historical aspects in the life of any nation. Thus, they have caught the researcher’s attention because of the cultural and historical heritage they preserve in the context of language contact. From one place to another, and one specific period to another, anthroponyms and toponyms offer a wide range of research because of the scientific curiosity researchers have as to know why the name of person or place exists, where it comes from, who named it, and when it was named so. In other words, the research is carried within spatial and temporal scope. Anthroponymy is the study of proper names of human beings, both individual and collective, while toponymy is the study of proper names of places. This paper aims at showing how place and person names embed cultural and historical features necessary to understand, explain, and preserve a people’s culture and history for a given period of time. The method used to research on this topic is descriptive and it is based on the materials observed from various sources such as street names, hoardings, individual names, just to name a few. Therefore, this study focuses on specific topologies and periods, i.e. names denoting locations where the Rwandan territory has extended in the precolonial, colonial, postcolonial periods, and post genocide period.},
 year = {2021}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda
AU  - Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema
Y1  - 2021/11/25
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23
T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
SP  - 344
EP  - 352
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2331-057X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23
AB  - Proper names, also linguistically called toponyms and anthroponyms, embed extensive sociolinguistic, cultural and historical aspects in the life of any nation. Thus, they have caught the researcher’s attention because of the cultural and historical heritage they preserve in the context of language contact. From one place to another, and one specific period to another, anthroponyms and toponyms offer a wide range of research because of the scientific curiosity researchers have as to know why the name of person or place exists, where it comes from, who named it, and when it was named so. In other words, the research is carried within spatial and temporal scope. Anthroponymy is the study of proper names of human beings, both individual and collective, while toponymy is the study of proper names of places. This paper aims at showing how place and person names embed cultural and historical features necessary to understand, explain, and preserve a people’s culture and history for a given period of time. The method used to research on this topic is descriptive and it is based on the materials observed from various sources such as street names, hoardings, individual names, just to name a few. Therefore, this study focuses on specific topologies and periods, i.e. names denoting locations where the Rwandan territory has extended in the precolonial, colonial, postcolonial periods, and post genocide period.
VL  - 9
IS  - 6
ER  -

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Author Information

Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema

Department of African Languages, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

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APA Style

Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema. (2021). Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 9(6), 344-352. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23

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ACS Style

Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema. Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2021, 9(6), 344-352. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23

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AMA Style

Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema. Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda. Int J Lit Arts. 2021;9(6):344-352. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23

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@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23,
  author = {Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema},
  title = {Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {9},
  number = {6},
  pages = {344-352},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20210906.23},
  abstract = {Proper names, also linguistically called toponyms and anthroponyms, embed extensive sociolinguistic, cultural and historical aspects in the life of any nation. Thus, they have caught the researcher’s attention because of the cultural and historical heritage they preserve in the context of language contact. From one place to another, and one specific period to another, anthroponyms and toponyms offer a wide range of research because of the scientific curiosity researchers have as to know why the name of person or place exists, where it comes from, who named it, and when it was named so. In other words, the research is carried within spatial and temporal scope. Anthroponymy is the study of proper names of human beings, both individual and collective, while toponymy is the study of proper names of places. This paper aims at showing how place and person names embed cultural and historical features necessary to understand, explain, and preserve a people’s culture and history for a given period of time. The method used to research on this topic is descriptive and it is based on the materials observed from various sources such as street names, hoardings, individual names, just to name a few. Therefore, this study focuses on specific topologies and periods, i.e. names denoting locations where the Rwandan territory has extended in the precolonial, colonial, postcolonial periods, and post genocide period.},
 year = {2021}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Cultural and Historical Preservation Through Onomastic Materials: A Case of Toponyms and Anthroponyms in Kinyarwanda
AU  - Jacques Lwaboshi Kayigema
Y1  - 2021/11/25
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23
T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
SP  - 344
EP  - 352
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2331-057X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20210906.23
AB  - Proper names, also linguistically called toponyms and anthroponyms, embed extensive sociolinguistic, cultural and historical aspects in the life of any nation. Thus, they have caught the researcher’s attention because of the cultural and historical heritage they preserve in the context of language contact. From one place to another, and one specific period to another, anthroponyms and toponyms offer a wide range of research because of the scientific curiosity researchers have as to know why the name of person or place exists, where it comes from, who named it, and when it was named so. In other words, the research is carried within spatial and temporal scope. Anthroponymy is the study of proper names of human beings, both individual and collective, while toponymy is the study of proper names of places. This paper aims at showing how place and person names embed cultural and historical features necessary to understand, explain, and preserve a people’s culture and history for a given period of time. The method used to research on this topic is descriptive and it is based on the materials observed from various sources such as street names, hoardings, individual names, just to name a few. Therefore, this study focuses on specific topologies and periods, i.e. names denoting locations where the Rwandan territory has extended in the precolonial, colonial, postcolonial periods, and post genocide period.
VL  - 9
IS  - 6
ER  -

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