Names of the days in the seven-day week in Bantu languages of Tanzania

Abstract

Studies about the names of the days of the week in Eastern African societies have previously focused on a single ethnic group. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the names across Bantu¹ languages of Tanzania in order to set apart the traditional names of days from the contemporary one. Findings revealed that African societies reckoned days of the traditional week in relation to working days, resting days, and days to worship the deity. Names of the weekends still affirm this claim. But due to language contact, many borrowed names of the days of the week occurred, which makes it difficult to project the number of days in a traditional week.