Language flux : the decline in the use of taboos regarding pregnancy the birth among vhaVenda from a critical
Muhwasane, Mutshinyani Mercy
The purpose of this study was to investigate how language used in the past was lost
with regard to pregnant women, as well as the rituals meant to be followed when a
woman is pregnant until child-birth. This study compared the language use of
modern times and of the past with regard to taboos during pregnancy and birth. The
components that the researcher investigated embrace how a pregnant woman
should handle herself, taboos that must be followed by pregnant women and the
infants, fortification and procedures which follow when the ceremony of the baby is
done and language development from pregnancy and child birth. In this study, the
researcher applied the Critical Language Awareness (CLA), Ethnography of
Communication and Ethnopragmatics models to best explain the Vhavenḓa cultural
practices and discourse in relation to child-aligned language with regards to
pregnancy, child-birth and anything associated with a newborn child.
Regarding research design, the researcher chose qualitative-ethnography research
design because it is more exploratory as it deals with human beings and the
environment in which they live. A qualitative research method was utilised in this
study. The population was Vhavenḓa elderly women who are knowledgeable about
taboos pertaining to pregnancy and childbirth. In this study, purposive and snowball
sampling techniques were appropriate since the researcher used her judgement to and snowball sampling were used to sample information from people who have
knowledge of the Tshivenḓa language and culture to establish if there is a difference
between the language used today and that used in the past. On the subject of data
collection tools, the researcher collected qualitative primary data with the aid of
interviews and interviews from the social groups including youth, elders, nurses and
doctors from various natural research settings in the Vhembe District. Ultimately,
the researcher identified various themes and concepts which emanated from the
data collection process in line with analytical comparison methods, namely, method
of agreement and method of difference.
From the research, it was discovered that the Tshivenḓa culture is being
undermined and the Western culture is being preferred in modern times. These
changes came about when Western and Christian ways of doing things were
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followed and African customs were abandoned. Furthermore, this research
uncovered that the Tshivenḓa language is being lost while looking at the period from
pregnancy until the birth of a child into the world. Most importantly, this research
brought forth the knowledge of language used in pregnancy that has been lost;
including medicines that are no longer used for purposes of curing during pregnancy, child-birth and the raising of a newborn.
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