A Study On Bamanankan Terms Of Address

The central aim of this study is to investigate the Bamanankan terms of address from the perspective of variationist and interactionist sociolinguistics in order to help shed light on the rules of address, and the socio-cultural and psychological factors that govern or determine the choice of terms of address in Bamanankan speakers’social encounters or speech communities.Through our investigation and field work, we processed the data and we have grouped the Bamanankan terms of address into 23 categories:(1) Personal Pronouns, (2) First Names & Nicknames +/- Qualifier, (3) Surname & Nicknames +/- Qualifier, (4) Full Names, (5) Age Marker +/- First/Surname/Nickname, (6) Age +/- Gender-Related Terms, (7) Appellatives & Terms of Solidarity/Intimacy, (8) Kinship/Family-Related Terms, (9) Joking Relationship Terms, (10) Tecknonyms, (11) Ethnicity+/-Gender-Related Terms, (12) Social Layer +/- Gender-Related terms, (13) Religion-Related Terms, (14), Inherited Names, (15) Birth-Related Terms, (16) Bare Gender Terms +/- Qualifer, (17) Marital Status-Related Terms, (18) Financial Status-Related terms, (19) Formality and Politeness-Related Terms, (20) Occupational +/- Gender-Related Terms, (21) Descriptive-Related Terms of Address, (22) Abuse-Related Terms and (23) Zero Terms of Address.The analysis shows that, despites the variation in the use of each of the above categories, Bamanankan terms of address are, to some extent, determined by the interactants’social status, the socio-cultural and psychological factor, as well as the settings. Moreover, we have compared the Bamanankan and English systems of address and found that both languages have some differences and similarities. Specifically, the major differences are:(1) There is a great variability and flexibility in the norms of address of Bamanankan, whereas the English ones tend to be more invariable i.e. they tend to be more predictable; (2) The Bamanankan terms of address tend to be more informative, especially the kinship terms of address which are definite, while the English patterns tend to be less informative; (3) Socio-cultural factors such as sex, gender, kinship, ethnicity, etc. are granted much value in Bamanankan terms of address as opposed to the English pattern; (4) The joking relationship practices (sinankuya, modenya, filanya, nimogoya, kanimtya) in Bamanankan-speaking communities have a huge influence on the Bamanankan terms of address while such practices do not, in principle, exist in English; and (5) The general titles of address Mr., Mrs. and Miss do not exist in Bamanankan as opposed to English. And the major similarities go as follows: (1) Power and solidarity can affect the terms of address participants use in speech events in both languages (Bamanankan and English); (2) Based on Bamanankan and English systems of address, in dyads of unequal power, the superior is inclined to address his/her interlocutor by the latter’s FN, and will receive a T+LN; and (3) In both Bamanankan and English systems of address, in dyads of equal status, the participants can mutually exchange the same terms of address such as FN, T+LN, etc.