HLONIPHA—THE WOMEN'S LANGUAGE OF AVOIDANCE AMONG THE XHOSA

Abstract

In order to meaningfully illustrate some of the mechanics relating to the use of hlonipha among the Xhosa women of the family groups selected, the structure of one particular Xhosa family is described in some depth, i.e. Nokhonza, who is married to Bonisile, the son of Nina and Dike. Examples of the avoidance patterns of Nokhonza's great grandfather-in-law Saki, her grandfather-in-law, Ntlokwana, as well as her father- and mother-in-law are given. Thereafter the categorisation of avoidance rules which occur regularly in the core vocabulary are discussed. These categories include: