Vol. 34 No. 1 (2025): Nordic Journal of African Studies
General articles

A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Cloth Names in Ewe

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Pascal Kpodo
University of Education, Winneba
Bio
Cynthia Selase Aku Mallet
University of Education, Winneba
Bio

Published 2025-03-31

Keywords

  • Ewe language,
  • cloth names,
  • Ewe names,
  • naming practices,
  • onomastics

Copyright (c) 2025 Pascal Kpodo, Cynthia Selase Aku Mallet

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Cloth Names in Ewe. (2025). Nordic Journal of African Studies, 34(1), 41–67. https://doi.org/10.53228/f1ckh764

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to explore the sociolinguistic significance of cloth names among the Ewe people. Additionally, the study investigates whether the use of cloth names as communicative modes is still a vital linguistic form in this group. The study utilized a sequential mixed-methods design. Initial data were collected through interviews with twelve purposively sampled female participants: four cloth sellers, four elderly women, and four young women. The native speaker intuitions of the researchers were also used in the initial data set. A second set of data was collected through a fieldworker-administered survey. In this survey, 129 women from the Anlo community and 164 women from the Eʋedome community responded to questions aimed at establishing the vitality and distribution of cloth name language using the Apparent Time Hypothesis. The study effectively sheds light on how cloth names serve not only as functional referential labels but also as carriers of profound social, cultural, and communicative significance. The study finds that although cloth names are relatively more popular among the Eʋedome people, their communicative use is more vibrant among the Anlo people. The paper concludes that the communicative use of cloth names is still vital among the Ewe, at least to some extent.

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