tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post7492938698253876819..comments2024-03-28T07:58:41.643-04:00Comments on pancocojams: Zimbabwean Newspaper's Article About Shona Language & English Language Naming Customs Azizi Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-13829289653521570902016-08-20T22:02:51.450-04:002016-08-20T22:02:51.450-04:00I'm glad that I happened upon this article abo...I'm glad that I happened upon this article about Zimbabwean (Shona) personal names. I found it very interesting reading, & it made me wonder about the differences in the naming customs in Zimbabwe and in the USA.<br /><br />For example, it seems to me that we (Americans) rarely use adjectives as personal names- although adjectives are often used as nicknames. And our personal names don't usually tell stories or reference events, although there are exceptions to those points. But those exceptions are usually considered "unique" - and that's the most positive description that is given to names like "Early" (an African American woman I know who is in her late 60s who got her name because she born prematurely), and "Love" - an African American woman I know in her 40s whose maiden name happened to be "Lee" (although "Love" is a noun and not an adjective). <br /><br />In the United States adjectives are usually used as nicknames and not first or middle names. And sometimes they are used facetiously like naming a bald man "Fuzzy" or a tall man "Shorty". And a lot of times a person's nickname is much better known than his or her given (birth) first name or a first name that he or she chose or was given later on in life -such as the first name that I now go by.<br /><br />And speaking of my African name ("Azizi"), it was interesting to note that the author of that article on Zimbabwean names didn't mention any importance given to how the name sounds or "looks". I think that African Americans who choose or are given African names (or Arabic names or KiSwahili names that are forms of Arabic names such as my name "Azizi") are very interested in the way those names sound and look (spelling). I think that we usually conform to American preferences for names that are no more than three syllables. Although we have learned to pronounce the vowels in such names using "Spanish" pronunciations (such as the letter "a" pronounced "ah" and the letter "i" pronounced "e")", we usually pronounce those African (and Arabic) names with the emphasis on the first syllable for two syllable names and the second syllable for three syllable names -even if that's not the way those names are pronounced in the languages they come from. Furthermore, we (African Americans and other Americans) don't usually like unfamiliar consonant clusters- for example the beginning consonants in the names "Nyarai", "Nyadzisai", "Ngwaru" and "Ngwarai". Part of the problem is we don't know how to pronounce those letters. And I think another part of the problem is we have been (informally) socialized to consider those consonant clusters as the opposite of aesthetically pleasing.<br /><br />I believe that African Americans do consider the "sh" and "ch" sound to be aesthetically pleasing. And -particularly among contemporary (late 1960s on) afrocentric African Americans - the "a" (ah) ending sound is very very common among the "African" names that are given to females.<br /><br />For that reason-although it wasn't included as a name in this article about Zimbabwean names - I think the Shona name that is most likely to be a hit with afrocentric African Americans is the name "Shona". <br /><br />An African American woman in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who passed away some years ago was given that name. She was a wonderful traditional African dancer-although I believe that her style of dancing was influenced more from certain traditional Senegalese dance forms and Congolese dance forms. RIP Shona Sharif. Thanks for the memories.<br /><br />And thanks again to the author of this article and its commenters on that page.Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.com