Mouths, tongues, and ears

Abstract This paper investigates words for ‘language’ and their possible source concepts in 130 African languages. Radden (2001) noted that words for ‘language’ almost always draw on more basic meanings and proposed a metonymic chain from (i) speech organs to (ii) speaking as activity to (iii) speech as “object” to (iv) language. Our sample provides additional evidence for these semantic pathways, showing that ‘tongue’ and ‘mouth’ are important source concepts for ‘language’ across Africa, as well as concepts relating to speech. After summarizing the survey results, we consider the novel extension ‘ear’ to ‘language’ in Datooga. While frequently attested metonymic processes point to widespread conceptualizations of language as embodied, we nonetheless find cultural variation in which aspects of speech behavior provide conceptual material for words for ‘language’.