Chapter published in:
Consensus and Dissent: Negotiating Emotion in the Public Space
Edited by Anne Storch
[Culture and Language Use 19] 2017
► pp. 141–164

Emotion and society

Experiences from Cherang’any (Kalenjin)

| University of Cologne
Cherang’any, a Southern Nilotic language of Kenya, displays an interesting inventory of emotion expressions, which are found in special syntactic experiencer constructions and in the use of body parts and their metaphorical extensions. Furthermore perception verbs, the manifold extents and verbs of ‘fearing’, ideophones, and culture specific words are used to express emotions. The Cherang’any themselves claim that showing emotions associated with pain or sadness is highly discouraged in their society.Insofar, emotions in Cherang’any are discussed in the cultural perspective as a taboo, concerning how emotions are performed in traditional ceremonies, and how emotions can be recognized through whistling.
Keywords: Kenya, Cherang’any, taboo, whistling, experiencer constructions, ideophones, emotion control, public display of emotion
Published online: 10 March 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.19.08mie
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Mietzner, Angelika
2019. Secrecy, sacredness and unveiling of the Kalenjin cultural initiation rites. International Journal of Language and Culture 6:1 ► pp. 63 ff. Crossref logo

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