A Sociolinguistic Description of Gíing’áwêakshòoda: A Register of Respect Among Barbaig Speakers in Tanzania

This study of gíing’áwêakshòoda, a register of respect used by Barbaig married women in Tanzania to show respect towards their in-laws, adopts an anthropological linguistic perspective that places the register within its cultural context. Linguistic strategies for creating avoidance vocabulary have been described with respect to cases in Australia, Ethiopia and South Africa. However, not much attention
has been paid in the literature to the cultural context of such registers of respect. This study presents speakers’ definitions of gíing’áwêakshòoda and shows that it is an important form of social interaction between the members of the Barbaig community, used to build relations of respect among Barbaig speakers.